CFD Simulation of Pressure Drop of Hydrogen Gas Flow in a Packed Bed

Abstract

The understanding of pressure drop prediction through packed beds of adsorbent is vital as pressure drop determines the operating cost and cost of energy consumption. In this study computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was performed using ANSYS Fluent 14.0 CFD package to study the effects of different parameters such as particle size, bed porosity, fluid velocity and packing height on pressure drop. This study employed a single phase flow in a porous media of packed bed with hydrogen gas and activated charcoal as the fluid and adsorbent respectively. The CFD results were validated against theoretical data obtained from Ergun’s pressure drop equation. CFD results show good agreement when compared with the theoretical data.