Estudio paramétrico y simulación de dinámica de fluidos computacionales (CFD) para el reactor de lecho empaquetado del Laboratorio de Termodinámica de la Facultad de Ingeniería Química y Agroindustria de la Escuela Politécnica Nacional

Abstract

The aim of this work is the parametric study and the simulation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of the packed bed reactor of the Thermodynamics Laboratory of the Chemical Engineering and Agroindustry Faculty of the EPN. For this, the simulation and experimental part of a chemical process was carried out, the extraction of hydrocarbons from ethanol was chosen. First, the one-dimensional, adiabatic mathematical model of the reactor was designed in a stationary and dynamic state. From the model, a CFD simulation was performed using the FlexPDE software. Based on the simulation, the parameters for the experimental part were determined. The parameters selected for the project were temperature and space velocity. Through a series of experiments, where several temperatures and space speeds are used, favorable results were obtained for obtaining gasoline at a temperature of 370 ° C and a space velocity of 0.5 and 1.0 s-1. Gasoline obtained with a space velocity of 1.0 s-1 presented a yield of 7.66%, while gasoline obtained with a space velocity of 0.5 s-1 is 25.26%. Obtaining the highest yields, greater than 10%, with a space velocity of 0.5 s-1. In addition, chemical tests were conducted on gasolines obtained experimentally to compare them with the standards of a commercial gasoline, obtaining gasolines that meet the parameters of the INEN 935 standard. The simulation was favorable because its results differ from the experimental results by less than 25%.