97/02778 Simulation of coal gasification in a fluidized bed

Abstract

In this analysis of coal gasification, a fundamental approach is used where a set of multiphase (Eulerian) fluid dynamic equations, obtained either by a suitable averaging technique (Anderson and Jackson, 1976; Drew, 1971) or the formulations of continuum mechanics (Drew, 1983), is used to describe the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy for three interpenetrating phases. The particles, like the fluidizing gas, are described as interpenetrating continua. Different particle types are treated as distinct phases; in this study, the feed coal and the bed char are represented as separate phases in order to account for their different histories. Constitutive laws account for the exchange of momentum between phases (``drag``) and interphase energy transfer. The stresses within the granular phases are determined by a formulation based on the kinetic theory, characterized by a ``granular temperature``. A computer code, based on this multiphase hydrodynamic model, has been developed at the Morgantown Energy Technology Center for the detailed simulation of gas and particle dynamics in heavily loaded coal conversion processes (Syamlal, Rogers, O`Brien, 1994; Syamlal, 1995). The hydrodynamic simulation showed the reactor operated in a jetting/bubbling mode. A gas jet penetrated a considerable distance into the bed, and then detached as ``bubbles`` which rose to the top of the column. The reaction scheme indicated that the feed coal did not begin to devolatilize until it had traversed this region, because of the time required to heat up. Thus, volatiles were not released in the jetting region of the bed, but higher in the bed. The oxygen fed with the coal, however, reacted immediately with the recirculating hot char. The net effect of the char reaction scheme was to created. CO, which burned in the region where.the jet detached, creating a, fairly stable ``flame``. The tar reaction scheme indicated that none of the tar escaped the bed.