Study on heat transfer of process intensification in moving bed reactor based on the discrete element method

Abstract

Blast furnace slag is a typical main by-product of iron making and possesses a large amount of sensible heat from the blast furnace, which accounts for nearly 30 % of the total energy consumption of the steel industry. The waste heat recovery is of great significance for energy savings and emissions reduction for the iron and steel industry. The moving bed reactor is the most effective dry waste heat recovery device, and plays a key heat recovery role in industries across the world. Further, achieving higher recovery rates with the moving bed reactor is persistently being pursued. In this study, the flow pattern of the granulated slag and heat transfer were numerically simulated by the discrete element method. The effects of initial granulated slag temperature, number of heat exchange tubes, and tube arrangement in flow and heat transfer are analyzed in detail. The results clearly demonstrate that heat transfer process is intensified as the initial temperature of the slag decreases and the number of heat exchange tube increases. Moreover, when the heat exchange tubes are staggered, the intensified heat transfer effect is more effective.