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Coupling particle scale model and SuperDEM‐CFD for multiscale simulation of biomass pyrolysis in a packed bed pyrolyzer
Author(s) -
Gao Xi,
Yu Jia,
Lu Liqiang,
Rogers William A.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.17139
Subject(s) - pyrolysis , particle (ecology) , computational fluid dynamics , packed bed , biomass (ecology) , particle size , coupling (piping) , discrete element method , mechanics , scale (ratio) , materials science , cfd dem , heat transfer , chemistry , physics , composite material , chromatography , organic chemistry , geology , oceanography , quantum mechanics
An efficient biomass pyrolysis process requires a comprehensive understanding of the chemical and physical phenomena that occur at multi‐length and time scales. In this study, a multiscale computational approach was developed and validated for biomass pyrolysis in a packed‐bed reactor by integrating pyrolysis kinetics, a particle scale model, and Superquadric Discrete Element Method‐Computational Fluid Dynamics (SuperDEM‐CFD) in open‐source code MFiX. A one‐dimensional particle–scale model that discretizes the characteristic length of biomass particle into layers was developed to predict the intraparticle phenomena inside a single particle. The 1D model was validated by comparing it with a single biomass particle pyrolysis experiment. A recently developed SuperDEM‐CFD model was employed to simulate the non‐spherical particle–particle contact and fluid‐particle interaction. The coupled model was applied to simulate the pyrolysis of cubic biomass particles in a packed bed and validated by comparing with experimental data. Simulation with and without particle–scale model was compared, and the effect of the gas–solid heat transfer models was also investigated.