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Biomass gasification in a double-tapered bubbling fluidized bed reactor using preheated air

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Abstract

Production of clean energy from biomass through thermochemical conversion techniques has gained substantial momentum over the last decades. The biomass gasification is a noteworthy thermochemical conversion technique due to its varied advantages like feed material flexibility and ease of operation. Here in this work, the effects of applying air preheating for the gasification of biomass (dry wood) under varied particle size (100, 300 and 800 µm) and its outcome are simulated using ANSYS FLUENT 14.0. Two-fluid model is used for the simulation study with distinct phases—air (Phase-1) and wood (Phase-2). The boundary conditions are applied, and the simulation results obtained are matched with available studies. The inlet velocity of the gasifying medium is varied from 0-3m/s analogous to the bubbling fluidized bed velocity range. The gasification temperature ranges are 973, 1073 and 1173 K. The simulations are conducted with and without preheated air in a double-tapered bubbling fluidized bed reactor having taper angle of 5°.The fluid velocity and taper angle play an essential role in controlling the solid particle suspension rate inside the reactor chamber. However, the air preheating maintains the overall reactor temperature that enhances the solid–gas conversion rate.

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Abbreviations

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

DTBFBR:

Double tapered bubbling fluidized bed reactor

PCFB:

Pressurised circulating fluidized bed

g:

Acceleration due to gravity (ms-2)

Hg :

Specific enthalpy of gas (kJ/kg)

\(\nabla\) :

Gradient operator

T:

Mean temperature (K)

\(\mathop k\nolimits_{i}\) :

Turbulent kinetic energy (m2s-2) of species i

\(\mathop {\vec{v}}\nolimits_{S}\) :

Solid fluctuation velocity (m/s)

\(\mathop {\vec{v}}\nolimits_{g}\) :

Gas fluctuation velocity (m/s)

S:

Source term for heat released

g:

Gas phase

S:

Solid phase

εo:

Fixed bed voidage (-)

ρ sus :

Suspension density (kgm-3)

ρ s :

Solid density (kgm-3)

ρ g :

Gas density (kgm-3)

\(\mathop {\rm P}\nolimits_{g}\) :

Gas phase pressure

\(\mathop {\rm P}\nolimits_{s}\) :

Solid phase pressure

\(\overline{\overline{{\mathop \tau \nolimits_{g} }}}\) :

Gas phase stress tensor

\(\overline{\overline{{\mathop \tau \nolimits_{s} }}}\) :

Solid phase stress tensor

dp :

Particle diameter

\(\varepsilon\) :

Volume fraction

C:

Carbon

O2 :

Oxygen

H:

Hydrogen

CH4 :

Methane

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

CO:

Carbon monoxide

H2O:

Water

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Mizoram, Mizoram, 796012, India

    Gokul Gopan, Lalhmingsanga Hauchhum & Satyajit Pattanayak

  2. Centre for Energy, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam, 781039, India

    Pankaj Kalita

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  1. Gokul Gopan
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  2. Lalhmingsanga Hauchhum
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Correspondence to Gokul Gopan.

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Gopan, G., Hauchhum, L., Kalita, P. et al. Biomass gasification in a double-tapered bubbling fluidized bed reactor using preheated air. Int J Energy Environ Eng 13, 643–656 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40095-021-00451-8

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