Modeling of fluidized bed reactor for ethylene polymerization: effect of parameters on the single-pass ethylene conversion

Abstract Background In this study, we present the developments in modeling gas-phase catalyzed olefin polymerization fluidized bed reactors (FBR) using chromium catalyst technique. The model is based on the two-phase theory of gas-solid fluidization: bubble phase and emulsion phase. The model has proved to be the suitable model in many of past studies. In the proposed model, the bed is divided into several sequential sections. The effect of important reactor parameters such as superficial gas velocity, catalyst injection rate, catalyst particle growth, and minimum fluidization velocity on the dynamic behavior of the FBR has been discussed. The conversion of product in a fluidized bed reactor is investigated and compared with the actual data from the plant site. Results A good agreement has been observed between the model predictions and the actual plant data. It has been shown that about 0.28% difference between the calculated and actual conversions has been achieved. Conclusions The study showed that the computational model was capable of predicting the hydrodynamic behavior of gas-solid fluidized bed flows with reasonable accuracy.