SIMULATION OF ROTARY REACTOR

Abstract

Rotary reactor is employed by industries to carry out a wide variety of material processing. A steady state one dimensional mathematical model was developed to predict mass transfer and heat transfer from freeboard gas to the bed or wall of the rotary reactor. The purpose of the model is a better understanding of calcination of limestone and activation of charcoal. The heat transfer equations incorporated direct gas to surface exchange, reflection of the gas radiation by the wall and reactor wall to solid exchange. A simplified mathematical model consisting of five ODEs, algebraic equations and set of boundary conditions has been proposed. The model was simulated by RKF method using MATLAB (Version 7.01). The solution predicts solid, freeboard gas and wall axial temperature profile as well as mass variations in the solid and freeboard gas due to reaction and solid drying. The resulting profile is then compared with the experimental data available in the literature. Burn off and production has been defined to measure the performance of the reactor. Sensitivity analysis results permits us to identify the operating variables that can be optimized.