Numerical Simulation of a Delayed Coking Reactor

Delayed coking is the preferred choice of refiners for bottom of the barrel upgrading since it processes almost every type of residua. Inside a delayed coking reactor a feed of hydrocarbon residua is thermally decomposed into distillable products and coke. A numerical simulation of a delayed coking reactor at pilot plant scale was performed, a three phase system is proposed with two fluid phases (Vacuum residua and distillable product) and one solid phase (Coke). The kinetic parameters that model the reaction were obtained in a TGA. Continuity, momentum and energy balances were proposed to simulate the dynamics of the delayed coking process; these equations were discretized by the finite volume method. Coupling of the velocities and pressure was performed by a SIMPLE algorithm based on a pressure correction equation from a global mass balance. The simulator was programmed in C++ code, the result is a CFD unsteady simulation where products are formed and coke is accumulated through time.