Understanding and analyzing heterogeneous reactions in packed bed
reactors is important in many applications. Here we present a
computational model to investigate the impact of surface texturing on
enzyme immobilizing scaffolds in a packed bed environment. It was
hypothesized that the implementation of surface texturing would increase
the overall reactive surface area of the bed and thus improve reactor
efficiency. The model utilizes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to
solve the transport, multi-component flow, and reaction kinetic
equations. A stochastic algorithm for random packing of sphere-like
particles was also implemented to mimic the random packing that exists
in a typical packed bed. This model analyzes the many coupled forms of
transport and reaction kinetics that exist in a packed bed reactor with
the goal of improved resolution and understanding of the system. The
impact of form drag as it relates to scaffold geometry on outlet product
concentration is included.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.