Simulations of biomass pyrolysis using glued-sphere CFD-DEM with 3-D intra-particle models

Lu, Liqiang; Gao, Xi; Shahnam, Mehrdad; Rogers, William A.

doi:10.1016/j.cej.2021.129564

Title: Simulations of biomass pyrolysis using glued-sphere CFD-DEM with 3-D intra-particle models

Journal Article · Wed Mar 31 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Chemical Engineering Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2021.129564· OSTI ID:1842505

Lu, Liqiang ^[1]; Gao, Xi ^[1]; Shahnam, Mehrdad ^[2]; Rogers, William A. ^[2]

National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); Leidos, Inc., Morgantown, VA (United States)
National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States)

The shape of biomass particles influences intra-particle heat transfer, particle-particle collisions, interphase momentum, heat transfer, and pyrolysis yield. In this research, the effects of these multi-scale phenomena are captured using a glued-sphere computational fluid dynamic discrete element method (CFD-DEM) with 3-D intra-particle models. The glued-spheres resolved the shapes of particles and intra-particle temperature and species distributions. The implementation was validated using the pyrolysis data of a spherical particle and a cylindrical particle. Then, the influences of biomass shapes and sizes on pyrolysis were investigated. The results revealed the significant influence of surface areas and mass distributions on interphase heat transfer and chemical reactions. The intra-particle heat transfer is neglectable for a Biot number smaller than 0.41. Finally, the pyrolysis of irregularly shaped biomass particles in a fixed bed, fluidized bed, and spouted bed was simulated. Analysis of conversion distributions showed the largest deviations in the fixed bed and the slowest conversion rate in the spouted bed. A good balance between uniform and fast conversion is achieved in the fluidized bed. The multi-scale method proposed in this research provides a tool for the evaluation of large irregular-shaped biomass particle pyrolysis in different types of reactors.

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Research Organization:: National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89243318CFE000003

OSTI ID:: 1842505

Journal Information:: Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 419, Issue NA; ISSN 1385-8947

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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