Numerical study on the performance of an adapted radiant syngas cooler with water spray for entrained‐flow gasifier

Abstract

AbstractAn adapted radiant syngas cooler (RSC) with water spray for entrained‐flow gasifier has been technically reformed to achieve higher reliability and availability of coal‐gasification‐based system. The multiphase flow, heat transfer and mass transfer processes in this adapted RSC have been studied by a developed 3D computational fluid dynamics model. A Eulerian–Lagrangian method is adopted to describe the flow behavior of the syngas, slag/ash particle and water droplets. The surface temperature of water wall Ta is calculated using heat flux balance equations by compiling user‐defined functions. The predicted values agree well with the measured ones obtained from a practical gasification plant. In the inner cylinder, syngas temperature contours are similar to circulars dispersed from center to the division walls and have a high gradient near water walls, especially close to the division walls. The gradient of Ta from center to division walls is similar to that of gas temperature. This adapted RSC with water spray has a better flexibility, while the flow rate of water spray can be adjusted for different operating conditions of gasifier. © 2016 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.