COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS SIMULATION OF MOVING-BED NANOCATALYTIC CRACKING PROCESS FOR THE LIGHTENING OF HEAVY CRUDE OIL

Lightening of heavy crude oil was studied theoretically using moving-bed nanocatalytic cracking process in this study. Based on the reaction me( ha n sms and the formulation of heavy crude oil, the five-lumped model was considered. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique was used to solve the model equations. In this reactor, the nanocatalyst bed moves at a constant velocity (0.007 m/s) in co-current configuration with feed flow way (heavy crude oil). The feed-reactive component gets involved in the reaction after penetrating through the nanocatalyst. Heavy crude oil was considered as five components. The heavier components are directly converted to the lightest components. From CFD simulation results, it was found that an increase in the velocity of heavy oil feeding reduces the velocity of heavy components' conversion into lighter ones. Moreover, increasing the velocity of the moving bed leads to increase the efficiency (conversion) of the process since it causes a contact between the feed and the fresh nanocatalyst, and also reduces the coke on the nanocatalyst. 99% conversion rate based on 0.1125 mol/m(3) initial concentration and 5 cm/s feed velocity was obtained in the lightening of heavy crude oil using moving-bed nanocatalytic cracking.