Numerical simulation of fluidization: Driven by challenges

In the century-long development of fluidization technology, simulation methods have evolved in response to scientific and engineering demands, which in turn have produced advances in technology. Faced with the pro-found global challenges of climate change and sustainable development, fluidization has found new applications in carbon capture and utilization, non-energy uses of fossil fuels, production of functional materials, and the continuous production of drugs and fine chemicals. Revolutionary research and development tools, such as digital virtual reactors and even factories, are highly desirable for the effective and efficient conceptualization, scaling-up, and optimization of the processes and equipment in these sophisticated applications, and require unprecedented advances in the accuracy and speed of simulations. After a short review of the existing simulation methods for fluidization, this article focuses on how such advances could be achieved through the organic integration of multiscale modeling, scalable algorithms, and supercomputing.