Investigation of the Flow Behavioral Dynamics of Ammonia Component Gases in a Microreactor via Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Approach

Ammonia (NH3) synthesis has been among the most favorable production process in the industry, especially for its application as synthetic urea. As the current conventional system of synthesizing NH3 poses some disadvantages in terms of its operating conditions and production cost, yet producing low conversion and product yield; this project offers a new technique to enhance NH3 synthesis through channeling the reactants in a microreactor consisting of supported catalyst at ambient operating condition. Prior to the process of constructing the rigs for experimental work to investigate NH3 production in the said condition, a computer simulation via the utilization of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach will be conducted. This is to examine the flow behavior of the reactant gases in a microfluidic environment, particularly their mixing characteristics, which would assist in optimizing the localization of the catalyst for the reaction to take place. The results of the simulation will lead to the design of the overall microreactor itself, which will be used in the experimental approach of the NH3 synthesis in the next step of the project. CFD is preferred as parametric studies in determining optimal design could be varied without the need to construct the real rig, which thus could reduce cost, time and material wastage.