An engineering model for coal devolatilization. Quarterly report, September 15, 1989-December 15, 1989

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5114178· OSTI ID:5114178

Hickerson, J. ^[1]

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1. Department of Energy, Pittsburgh, PA (USA). Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center

This research program aims for an engineering model for the evolution of volatile products from coal during pulverized coal combustion. The performance specifications include: (1) compatibility with the computational constraints of large-scale combustor simulators; (2) reliable predictions of the yields of noncondensible gases, tar, char, and unreacted coal for arbitrary thermal histories and ambient conditions; (3) predictions of the tar molecular weight distribution and aromaticity throughout the technological operating domain; and (4) a mathematical framework for the influence of coal type. The program is organized into four tasks. The objective of Task 1 is an engineering model to account for the influence of ambient pressure on the yields and tar molecular weight distributions, including an evaluation against reported devolatilization studies. While the engineering model does not explicitly account for variations in coal type, the theory developed in Task 2 aims for a theoretical framework to handle them. It describes the complete distributions of molecular fragments from a depolymerizing macromolecular network, the reintegration of nonvolatile fragments into a char lattice, and the simultaneous evolution of volatiles by flash distillation. In Task 3, the engineering model is supplemented with descriptions of the chemistry, heat and mass transport in the vicinity of individual coal particles, to model the initial stages of the combustion of entrained coal particles. Task 4 emphasizes heuristic treatments of coal type effects developed from the full depolymerization scheme (Task 2), and their evaluation against data. 14 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (USA). High Temperature Gasdynamics Lab.
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
• DOE Contract Number: FG22-88PC88900
• OSTI ID: 5114178
• Report Number(s): DOE/PC/88900-7; ON: DE90006794
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
014000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Combustion
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COAL
COAL RANK
COMBUSTION PRODUCTS
CORRELATIONS
DEVOLATILIZATION
DOCUMENT TYPES
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GASES
MATERIALS
MOLECULAR WEIGHT
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PRESSURE EFFECTS
PROGRESS REPORT
PULVERIZED FUELS
TAR
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
YIELDS