Title

Analyzing the fluidization of a mixture of gas-sand-biomass using cfd techniques

Conference Dates

May 22-27, 2016

Abstract

Fluidization taking into account the presence of the material to be gasified is a differential addressed in this study. Accordingly the solid phase was composed of a binary mixture of sand and biomass. This paper deals with the numerical simulation of a gasifier bubbling fluidized bed using CFD for the system composed of gas - biomass – sand. In order to determine the best fluidization conditions, a factorial design 23 was carried out varying the biomass particle density and diameter and the biomass percentage in the solid phase. To perform the simulations, ANSYS CFX 15.0 was used, adopting an Eulerian approach coupled to the Kinetic Theory of Granular Flow. The k- ε turbulence model was adopted. Seventeen simulations were performed setting the gas superficial velocity to 0.38 m s-1. Based on the results of the factorial design, it was possible to qualitatively identify the tests to which the system reached a bubbling fluidization (1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12 and 14). The variable with the highest significance in the model equation was the diameter of the biomass particle. Volumetric fraction profiles of gas, sand and biomass were obtained to the 17 factorial design conditions as well as a model that predicts the bed expansion. The assay that reached greater bed height (0.50 m), staying on bubbling regime, was the one with 15% biomass particles with 375 m diameter and 85% sand, indicating those are good conditions for fluidization.

Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract.

Additional Files
Ricardo de Andrade Medronho - 4.pdf (242 kB)

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS