No abstract

No abstract

A new scaling approach for a gas–liquid distributor is proposed and experimentally validated on a commercial bubble cap geometry. The geometric similarity was achieved by matching distributor fractional opening and ratios of various critical dimensions. The dynamic similarity was attained by matching three dimensionless groups (gas–liquid density ratio, liquid Reynolds number, and gas Froude number) and bubble coalescence behavior. Two geometrically similar distributors with one and three smaller bubble caps were experimentally compared through resulting bubble size distributions to test the scaling laws. A reasonably good agreement was found at various pressures, suggesting that the scaling approach could also work at industrially relevant conditions. New models for bubble size distribution and drag coefficient were developed to explicitly account for the effect of the gas–liquid distributor and thus improve the fluid dynamics modeling of commercial ebullated bed hydroprocessors.

A new multiphase fluid dynamics model for a commercial ebullated bed hydroprocessor was developed. The impact of the gas–liquid distribution system is now explicitly included through new submodels for bubble size distribution and drag coefficients. The size distribution submodel is coupled with the existing gas–liquid separation submodel to better predict recycled gas and liquid flow rates. Either the mass of the catalyst inventory or recycle pump curve can be specified as inputs to converge the model; the former is not always well known during operation in which case the latter can be used after making a few assumptions. A sensitivity analysis was performed to study the impact of fresh treat gas velocity, catalyst mass, phase properties, and reactor internals on recycled gas and liquid flow rates, bubble size distribution, and bed liquid holdup. A 0.2 mm shift in bubble size distribution toward larger sizes was found to significantly increase bed liquid holdup, suggesting that distributor modification/redesign could help improve the capacity of the hydroprocessor.