An Eulerian Approach to Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of a Chemical-Looping Combustion Reactor With Chemical Reactions

Abstract

Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is a next-generation combustion technology that shows great promise in addressing the need for high-efficiency low-cost carbon capture from fossil fueled power plants. Although there have been a number of experimental studies on CLC in recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been limited in the literature. In this paper, simulation of a CLC reactor is conducted using the Eulerian approach in the commercial CFD solver ansys fluent based on a laboratory-scale experiment with a dual fluidized bed CLC reactor. The solid phase consists of a Fe-based oxygen carrier while the gaseous fuel used is syngas. The salient features of the fluidization behavior in the air reactor and fuel reactor beds representing a riser and a bubbling bed, respectively, as well as the down-comer, are accurately captured in the simulation. This work is among the few CFD simulations of a complete circulating dual fluidized bed system for CLC in 3D in the literature. It highlights the importance of 3D simulation of CLC systems and the need for more accurate empirical reaction rate data for future CLC simulations.

Unsteady three-dimensional theoretical model and numerical simulation of a 120-kW chemical looping combustion pilot plant

“…In these works, results were compared with experimental measurements of the gas pressure drop; however, the reactions were not taken into account. Banerjee and Agarwal (2015) performed two dimensional (2D) and 3D numerical simulations of a small scale 300 W reactive CLC unit (Abad et al (2007)), and a comparison of their results iden tified the ability of 3D modeling to improve predictions. Compar isons with experiments were conducted by assessing the species mass fractions at the FR outlet.…”

Validation and Comparison of Discrete Element Model and Two-Fluid Model for Dense Gas-Solid Flow Simulation in a Fluidized Bed

“…Numerical simulation has now become one of the most cost-effective ways to conduct in-depth studies of multiphase fl ow patterns in fl uidized beds (Banerjee and Agarwal, 2016;Bellan et al, 2018). The key in the accurate numerical simulation is the correct modeling of movement of the solid phase in the fl uid/gas including the collisions among the particles and the interaction between the multiple phases.…”

Experimental study and transient CFD/DEM simulation in a fluidized bed based on different drag models

“…This model costs less computer facility and computational timeconsuming, it mainly used in high mass loading situations and reaction occasions which focus on the energy exchange during reaction processes, such as the simulation of chemicallooping pilot plant 5 and the simulation of chemical-looping combustion reactor with chemical reactions. 6 The second approach is the Euler-Lagrange method, which regards the uid phase as a continuum and the solid particles as the discrete phase. Then the continuity equation for the uid phase and the Newtonian equations for the discrete phase are solved using the force-balance method to obtain the discrete phase trajectories.…”