Case Study: Aditya Birla Science and Technology Company reduces reactor solids loss by up to 70% with ANSYS CFX

Aditya Birla Science and Technology Company - Customer Case Study

Aditya Birla Science and Technology Company faced significant solids carryover in its Stable Bleaching Powder (SBP) reactor—about 60 kg per batch—and needed to reduce those losses without major plant modifications. Because the process is a closed loop and onsite measurements were difficult, the company worked with ANSYS using ANSYS CFX to run CFD simulations to understand gas-flow patterns and identify process parameters that could be changed to minimize solids entrainment.

ANSYS modeled the aerated solids bed (porous zone) with a frozen-rotor approach and k-ε turbulence modeling to pinpoint gas channeling and high-velocity regions; simulations showed nozzle diameter and injection locations as key levers. Using ANSYS, increasing nozzle diameter 2.5× lowered the outlet-velocity-to-terminal-velocity ratio to 0.57 and produced 92% more uniform flow, and adding two injection locations reduced the ratio to 0.47 (with some loss of uniformity); overall ANSYS CFD predicted up to a 70% reduction in solids lost, enabling optimization without physical testing, reduced downtime, and improved process sustainability and reactor lifetime.

Aditya Birla Science and Technology Company

Basavaraj Kamanakeri

Scientist – Process Engineering Division