Model-Based Optimization of Industrial Gas-Solid Reactors

• Main Author: Venkataramana Runkana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hosokawa Powder Technology Foundation 2015-02-01
• Series: KONA Powder and Particle Journal
• Subjects: multiphase reactors; modeling; optimization; soft-sensors; iron and steel; pelletization
• Online Access: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/kona/32/0/32_2015025/_html/-char/en

Heterogeneous non-catalytic gas-solid reactors are commonly used in the production of chemicals, metals and metal oxides, for example, rotary drum reactor for producing quick lime; blast furnace, a moving bed reactor for producing iron, etc. Industrial processes involve multicomponent mixtures of solids as most of the naturally occurring materials such as minerals are multicomponent in nature. Generally the raw materials are heterogeneous and their physical and chemical characteristics vary from one source to another. The solid particles are also usually moist, the moisture content varying from season to season. The physico-chemical phenomena that take place in these reactors include flow of gases through porous media, heat transfer between the gases, solids, equipment and the environment, evaporation and condensation of moisture, reactions between gases and solids and within a single phase, melting and solidification depending on the temperatures inside the reactor, etc. The flow of particles is also of great importance especially in rotary drum and moving bed reactors. General features of the mathematical models for non-catalytic reactors are described along with models for the phenomena mentioned above. Case studies from the iron and steel industry on model-based optimization of production of direct reduced iron in a rotary kiln and induration of wet iron ore pellets on a moving packed bed reactor are discussed here.