Inhibition of temperature runaway phenomenon in the Sabatier process
using bed dilution structure: LBM-DEM simulation
Abstract
The Sabatier process is promising for carbon dioxide utilization and
energy storage. However, the serious problem that limits more
comprehensive industrial applications is catalyst deactivation due to
the temperature runaway phenomenon. The inert particle dilution
approach, including the mixing dilution method and layered dilution
method is applied to solve this problem. Based on the lattice kinetic
scheme-lattice Boltzmann method (LKS-LBM), the effects of three
parameters in bed dilution structure reconstructed by the discrete
element method (DEM) on temperature distribution and carbon conversion
rate were discussed, so as to investigate the relationship between
packing structure and temperature distribution. Furthermore, numerical
results indicated that an optimal bed dilution structure, which not only
can control the peak temperature below the critical temperature to avoid
coking and sintering of catalyst, but also can improve the carbon
conversion rate by almost 18% compared with the structure without
dilution under the same circumstance.