Investigation to optimize nitrogen purge for the sodium chlorate electrolysis process through numerical modeling

ERCO Worldwide是一家化学品生产和供应公司，已有100多年的历史，在加拿大各地设有办事处。ERCO的主要业务领域之一是氯酸钠制造。在氯酸钠制造过程中，氢气作为副产物在电解槽中与氧气一起沿着生成，氧气是不期望的副产物。 氢气中氧气的存在产生可燃混合物，并且是相当大的工艺风险。安全性是ERCO的最高优先级：目前，采用由氮气组成的惰性气体吹扫来降低生产系统的可燃性，从而控制工艺风险。然而，在预测当前氮气吹扫系统的有效性方面仍然存在不确定性。因此，ERCO希望探索优化氮气吹扫效果的机会。本研究将调查反应器/吹扫几何形状和氮气吹扫有效性之间的关系。主要重点将是从几何角度优化吹扫系统，并将涉及计算流体动力学（CFD）数值模拟。这项研究的结果将提供洞察如何从设备设计的角度进一步降低工艺风险。Dr. L. Pakzad，P.Eng.，是流体力学、流体动力学、多相流、流变学、CFD建模和非牛顿流体方面的专家。她的工作不断使用建模技术来模拟复杂的流动系统，并研究操作参数和系统几何形状对各种过程有效性的影响。她在多相流和流体动力学方面的专业知识和实践经验是该项目成功的关键，并将使建模软件成为一种具有成本效益的方法。由于对反应器系统吹扫过程的任何改进都构成了对工程安全系统的改进，因此，通过将这些发现应用于涉及氮气吹扫的类似过程，加拿大工业和在加拿大运营的ERCO等公司将直接受益于这项研究。这将提高各种应用程序的性能并降低风险。

ERCO Worldwide is a chemical producer and supply company that has been in business for over 100 years, with offices located throughout Canada. One of the major areas of ERCO's business is sodium chlorate manufacturing. During the sodium chlorate manufacturing process, Hydrogen gas is generated as a by-product in the electrolyser along with oxygen gas, an undesired by-product. The presence of oxygen in the hydrogen gas creates a flammable mixture and is a considerable process risk. Safety is the highest priority of ERCO: currently, an inert gas purge consisting of nitrogen is employed to reduce the flammability of the production system thereby controlling process risk. However, there is still uncertainty involved in predicting the effectiveness of the current nitrogen purge system. ERCO would therefore like to explore the opportunity of optimising the effectiveness the nitrogen purge. This research will investigate the relationship between the reactor/purge geometry and the effectiveness of the nitrogen purge. The main focus will be optimization of the purge system from a geometrical point-of-view and will involve computational fluid dynamic (CFD) numerical simulation. The result of this research will provide insight in to how process risk may be further mitigated, from an equipment design perspective. Dr. L. Pakzad, P.Eng., is an expert in fluid mechanics, fluid dynamics, multiphase flow, rheology, CFD modeling, and non-Newtonian fluids. Her work continuously uses modeling technology to simulate complex flow systems and to study the effects of operation parameters and system geometry on the effectiveness of various processes. Her expertise and hands-on experience with multiphase flow and fluid dynamics are key to the success of this project and will enable to use of modeling software as a cost-effective approach. Since any improvements to the purge process for the reactor system constitutes an improvement in an engineered safety system, Canadian industry and companies such as ERCO operating in Canada will directly benefit from this research through the potential application of these findings to similar processes involving nitrogen purges. This will result in improved performance and risk reduction for a variety of applications.