Modeling of Carbochlorination of Zircon in Fluidized Bed Reactor

Abstract

The chlorination of zircon is an integral part of the overall process for the production of zirconium. A two-phase hydrodynamic-type model was used to simulate the fluidized bed zircon carbochlorination reactor. In the plug-plug (P-P) model, the flow of gas in both dense and bubble phases was considered as a plug flow compared with the plug-mixed (P-M) model in which the flow in dense phase was assumed to be mixed. The zircon conversion obtained by model was compared with experimental measurements for model validation. The results of the P-M model indicated a stronger correlation with experimental data. Using the validated model, the effects of the zircon inlet size distribution, reactor temperature, inlet gas concentration, chlorine conversion velocity, and converted zircon were investigated. The results demonstrated that higher reactor temperature, smaller zircon size, and higher inlet gas velocity and concentration enhanced the chlorination rate.