An Insight into the CO<inf>2</inf> Adsorption and Temperature Evolution of a Zeolite Bed in a Fluidized Bed Reactor Using a Two-Fluid Modeling Approach

The present study discusses the development of a three-dimensional two-fluid model to investigate the hydrodynamics and the CO2 capture process using porous solid sorbents in a fluidized bed. A benchmark case of CO2 adsorption on zeolite 13X was simulated to validate the developed model. The numerical result of the volume-averaged transient variation in the adsorbent bed temperature compared well with the experimental values reported in the literature. The particle temperature profiles revealed an increasing trend during the initial stages of adsorption, an equilibrium phase, and a cooling phase once the zeolite bed was saturated. The particle bed showed slugging flow behavior at different instances during the flow transition. A sensitivity analysis of the particle-specific heat capacity, heat transfer coefficient, and mass transfer coefficient on the particle temperature and CO2 adsorption capacity was conducted. The CO2 breakthrough curves were most sensitive to the mass transfer coefficient among all of the parameters mentioned above.