Determining the mass-related reaction effectiveness factor of large, nonspherical fuel particles for bridging between intrinsic and apparent combustion kinetics

Abstract

The utilization of challenging solid fuels in the energy industry is urged by environmental requirements. The combustion kinetics of these fuel particles differs markedly from that of pulverized coal, mainly because of their larger sizes, irregular (nonspherical) shapes, and versatile internal pore structures. Although the intrinsic reaction kinetic measurements on very small amounts of finely ground samples of these particles are mostly available, a bridge toward their apparent reaction modeling is not evident. In this study, a method is introduced to build this bridge, the goodness of which was proved on the example of an industrially relevant biofuel. To do this, the results of a macroscopic combustion measurement with real samples in a well-modelable environment have to be used, and for considering some not negligible effects, 3D CFD modeling of the experimental environment is also to be applied. The outcome is the mass-related reaction effectiveness factor as a function of the rate of conversion. This variable can be considered as the active fraction of the entire particle mass on its periphery, and it can be used as the crucial element in modeling the combustion process of the same particle under other circumstances by including the actual boundary conditions. Another advantage of this method is its covering inherently the entire combustion process (water and volatile release, and char combustion) and also its applicability for reactors utilizing bigger particles like fluidized bed combustors.