The Effect of Impurities on Γ-Alumina Chlorination in a Fluidized Bed Reactor: a CPFD Study

EasyChair Preprint 6683, version 2

Abstract

Alumina is one of the most widely used pure chemicals on the market today, with annual production totaling millions of tons of highly pure alumina. A large portion of this output is used to make aluminum, but a growing amount is used in ceramics, refractories, catalysts, and other various products. In nature and different thermal conditions, alumina is found in different phases. These phases can be transformed into each other in different temperatures. Among these, γ-alumina is used in the chlorination process in the aluminum production industry because of the higher reaction rates. α-Alumina has outstanding mechanical properties and superb thermal properties at high temperatures; polycrystalline α-alumina is used as a structural ceramic. As a result, this type has much lower reaction rates in the chlorination process. Previously, the chlorination of pure γ-alumina has been considered in the CPFD simulations. Extending previous researches, the present study investigates the effect of seven percent α-Alumina impurity on the overall chlorination reaction conversion, bed hydrodynamics, and composition of the outflow of the reactor using Barracuda®.

Keyphrases: Barracuda, CPFD simulation, fluidized bed reactor (FBR), α-Alumina chlorination, γ-alumina chlorination

@booklet{EasyChair:6683,
  author    = {Zahir Barahmand and Chameera Jayarathna and Chandana Ratnayake},
  title     = {The Effect of Impurities on Γ-Alumina Chlorination in a Fluidized Bed Reactor: a CPFD Study},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 6683},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2021}}