CFD design and simulation of ethylene dichloride (EDC) thermal cracking reactor

At high temperature, ethylene dichloride decomposes into vinyl chloride monomer and HCl by a complex reaction mechanism. Due to chemical reaction type and heat transfer mechanism, design and simulation of cracking reactors are complicated. This process is very important from either chemical reaction or transport phenomena’s point of view. In this study, 2D simulation of cracking reactor is performed with FLUENT software. Simulation results were compared with the experimental data. Then, we investigate the simulation results and effect of various parameters on the process. Results show that with process progress and temperature increase during reactor length, conversion and coke formation amount are increased. At the end of the process, conversion is 52.69 that has good agreement with industrial data. Addition of promoter to the process fluid and fluid behavior in different coil outlet temperatures was studied; finally, the effects of these factors are described in detail.