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OP-II-9MULTIPHASE SIMULATION OF A SLURRY BUBBLE COLUMNREACTORDonna Post Guillen 1 , Tami Grimmett 1 , Anastasia M. Gribik 1 and Steven P. Antal 21 Idaho National Laboratory Idaho Falls, Idaho, 83415 USA, Donna.Guillen@inl.gov2 Interphase Dynamics, Glenville, NY 12302 USA, antals@rpi.eduThe Hybrid Energy Systems Testing (HYTEST) Laboratory is being established atthe Idaho National Laboratory to develop and test hybrid energy systems with theprincipal objective to safeguard U.S. Energy Security by reducing dependence onforeign petroleum. A central component of the HYTEST is the slurry bubble columnreactor (SBCR) in which the gas-to-liquid reactions will be performed to synthesizetransportation fuels using the Fischer Tropsch (FT) process. SBCRs are cylindricalvessels in which gaseous reactants (for example, synthesis gas or syngas) is spargedinto a slurry of liquid reaction products and finely dispersed catalyst particles. Thecatalyst particles are suspended in the slurry by the rising gas bubbles and serve topromote the chemical reaction that converts syngas to a spectrum of longer chainhydrocarbon products, which can be upgraded to gasoline, diesel or jet fuel.These SBCRs operate in the churn-turbulent flow regime which is characterizedby complex hydrodynamics, coupled with reacting flow chemistry and heat transfer,that effect reactor performance. The purpose of this work is to develop acomputational multiphase fluid dynamic (CMFD) model to aid in understanding thephysico-chemical processes occurring in the SBCR. Our team is developing a robustmethodology to couple reaction kinetics and mass transfer into a four-field model(consisting of the bulk liquid, small bubbles, large bubbles and solid catalystparticles) that includes twelve species: (1) CO reactant, (2) H 2 reactant, (3)hydrocarbon product, and (4) H 2 O product in small bubbles, large bubbles, and thebulk fluid. Properties of the hydrocarbon product were specified by vapor liquidequilibrium calculations. The absorption and kinetic models, specifically changes inspecies concentrations, have been incorporated into the mass continuity equation.The reaction rate is determined based on the macrokinetic model for a cobalt catalystdeveloped by Yates and Satterfield [1]. The model includes heat generation due tothe exothermic chemical reaction, as well as heat removal from a constanttemperature heat exchanger. Results of the CMFD simulations (similar to thoseshown in Figure 1) will be presented.114