Materials and Chemicals

Fluidized beds and other fluid-particle technologies are widely used in the materials and chemical processing industries. Barracuda Virtual Reactor has become the industry standard tool for increasing the reliability and performance of fluid-particle systems, while minimizing the related carbon footprint, emissions, and energy consumption.

Sample application areas in materials and chemicals include:

• Cement manufacture: calciners, preheaters, cyclones, etc.
• Polysilicon production: direct chlorination, hydrochlorination, silane deposition, etc.
• Titanium chlorinators and oxidizers
• Ore roasters
• Melamine production
• Iron making (e.g. Finex process)

Such processes typically involve multiple particle species, chemical reactions, high temperatures, strong thermal gradients, particle segregation effects, and limited data availability from operational units.  Virtual Reactor simulation is typically used for:

• Determining root cause of underperformance
• Virtual testing of proposed changes to design, configuration or operating conditions
• Identifying optimization opportunities
• Minimizing energy requirements
• Exploring use and effect of alternative fuels
• Reducing carbon footprint and emissions
• Enabling rapid technology development, scale-up, commercialization, and IP protection