Detailed engineering of a particle-heated lab-scale reactor for the decomposition of sulphuric acid

Abstract

This study includes the detailed engineering and further development and optimization of a particle-heated test bench designed for the evaporation and catalytic decomposition of 1.9 kg/h sulphuric acid. At the beginning of the thesis, a new electrical particle heater is designed and calculations are carried out for heating 10 kg/h bauxite particles up to 900 °C using thermodynamic fundamentals. Then it is followed by a DEM simulation to check the flow behaviour of the particles within the heating system and finally the FEM analysis is performed in ANSYS© to verify the mechanical strength of the particle heater structure. A new compensator concept for the thermal linear expansion of the reactor tubes is also developed and converted into a CAD model in Autodesk© Inventor. To validate the CAD model, a 3D printed plastic model was tested in lab with bauxite particles. The reactor tubes are optimized from a thermal, material and constructive point of view. Finally, all requirements for a measurement and control system of the test bench are initially defined and then transferred to a graphical user interface in LabVIEW®. As a result of the performed work, it is found that all the components of the test bench are accurately designed, defined and ready for installation.