Numerical investigation on cold flow dynamics of supercritical water fluidized bed reactor with inclined distributor: Design and scale up--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Wu, Y., Zhang, H., An, X., & Chen, Z. (2022). Numerical investigation on cold flow dynamics of supercritical water fluidized bed reactor with inclined distributor: Design and scale up. Particuology, 67, 90-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2021.09.012

Numerical investigation on cold flow dynamics of supercritical water fluidized bed reactor with inclined distributor: Design and scale up

Yinghui Wu, Hao Zhang ^*, Xizhong An ^*, Zhiye Chen

Key Laboratory for Ecological Metallurgy of Multimetallic Mineral of Ministry of Education, School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China

10.1016/j.partic.2021.09.012

Volume 67, August 2022, Pages 90-102

Received 23 July 2021, Revised 6 September 2021, Accepted 30 September 2021, Available online 21 October 2021, Version of Record 29 November 2021.

E-mail: zhangh@mail.neu.edu.cn; anxz@mail.neu.edu.cn

Highlights

• Feasibility of using inclined distributor is examined in SCWFBR.

• An optimal inclined distributor structure is determined.

• Correlation for u_mf in optimal SCWFBR is established.

• A set of feasible rules for scaling up optimal SCWFBR is determined.

Abstract

Supercritical water fluidized bed reactor (SCWFBR) is a novel concept for the gasification of coal and biomass to produce hydrogen. In this work, to enhance the mixing in the axial direction, an inclined distributor is introduced to optimize the flow dynamics in SCWFBR with partitioned fluid supply. Through numerical simulations based on the two fluid model (TFM), the effects of the inclined distributor structure and operating parameters on the solid distribution and the residence time are evaluated with the optimal values determined. Numerical results show that, area ratio = 2:1, SCW velocity ratio = 3:1, flow ratio = 3.36:1 and inclination angle = 20° are the optimal design in this paper. A predictive correlation of the minimum fluidization velocity for the improved SCWFBR is also proposed based on the numerical data. The average error between the correlation and numerical simulation results is approximately 1.4% which strongly demonstrates its capability. Finally, based on the optimal design, the lab-scale reactor is further scaled up and the studies about two scale-up rules are carried out. Only the cold flow is simulated in this study without considering chemical reaction which would be involved in future work.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Numerical simulation; Flow dynamics; Supercritical water fluidized bed reactor; Inclined distributor; Scale-up

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