CFD Modelling of the Microreactor for the Ammonia Synthesis

This project is related to the microreaction technology under the microengineering field. The development of microreactors has been researched worldwide due to their better performance over conventional reactors. Mixing is one of the key components in chemical process especially in microreactors. With good mixing, a better control on the quality of the final product and its properties are ascertained to comply with the specification of the product. However, poor mixing will result in a non-homogenous distribution of the product that certainly lacks consistency with the specification desired. The study of mixing behaviour in microreactors is crucial due to the laminar behavioural of the flow in microchannels. Together with the advancement in technology, the study of mixing can be done through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. With CFD simulations, the design for the optimum mixing in a microreactor can be made based on a trial-and-error method. Through simulation, the best location of the catalyst placement can be predicted according to the mixing behaviour in the microreactor. This project involves the investigation of the effect of the micromixer geometric design and the inflow configuration for the micromixer on the mixing performance using CFD.