Numerical and experimental analysis for simulating fuel reactor in chemical looping combustor system

Abstract

Abstract The greenhouse problem has a significant effect on our communities such as, health and climate. Carbon dioxide is one of the main gases that cause global warming. Therefore, CO2 capture techniques have been the focus of attention these days. The chemical looping combustion technique adopted the air reactor and fuel reactor to recycle heat energy. This study presents a numerical and experimental investigation on a fuel reactor in chemical looping combustor (CLC) system. The present numerical model is introduced by the kinetic theory of granular flow and coupled with gas–solid flow with chemical reactions to simulate the combustion of solids in the CLC. The k–ε turbulent model was used to model the gas phase and the particle phase. The developed model simplify the prediction of flow patterns, particle velocities, gas velocities, and composition profiles of gas products and the distribution of heterogeneous reaction rates under the same operating conditions. The predicted and experimental results were compared according to the basis of determination coefficient (R 2). In addition the results showed that there is a good agreement between the predicted and experimental data. The value of (R 2) for CO, CO2 and CH4 was 0.959, 0.925 and 0.969 respectively. This shows that the present model is a promising simulation for solid particle combustion and gives the power direction for the design and optimization of the CLC systems.

Keywords

• Chemical looping combustion
• Mathematical modeling
• Fluidized bed
• Coal
• Kinetic model