Experimental study on the operating characteristics of an inner preheating transpiring wall reactor for supercritical water oxidation: Temperature profiles and product properties

Abstract

A new process to generate multiple thermal fluids by supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) was proposed to enhance oil recovery. An inner preheating transpiring wall reactor for SCWO was designed and tested to avoid plugging in the preheating section. Hot water (400–600°C) was used as auxiliary heat source to preheat the feed to the reaction temperature. The effect of different operating parameters on the performance of the inner preheating transpiring wall reactor was investigated, and the optimized operating parameters were determined based on temperature profiles and product properties. The reaction temperature is close to 900°C at an auxiliary heat source flow of 2.79kg/h, and the auxiliary heat source flow is determined at 6–14kg/h to avoid the overheating of the reactor. The useful reaction time is used to quantitatively describe the feed degradation efficiency. The outlet concentration of total organic carbon (TOCout) and CO in the effluent gradually decreases with increasing useful reaction time. The useful reaction time needed for complete oxidation of the feed is 10.5s for the reactor.