SIMULATION OF HORIZONTAL BIOMASS GASIFICATION REACTOR IN DIFFERENT TURBULENCE MODEL

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of horizontal biomass gasification reactor has been carried out. The gas-solid interaction, thermal-flow behavior, thermo-chemical analysis and biomass gasification process inside a horizontal biomass gasifier were analyzed using the commercial CFD solver ANSYS CFX software. The influence of gasification air velocity, species mass fractions of biomass, turbulence eddy dissipation and eddy viscosity are examined for horizontal biomass gasifier. All phases are described using an Eulerian approach to study the exchange of mass, energy and momentum. The analysis includes two cases, in first case the flow process is analyzed without biomass and reaction modeling. It is found that superficial gas and mass fraction of biomass has influences the outlet gas velocity. In this research theoretical approach using mathematical model was used to simulate the effects of the parameters such as inlet air velocity that influences the process of gasification. Pyrolysis zone of gasifier is mathematically examined through a coupled of chemical equations such as chemical kinetics, mass transfer and heat transfer. Mathematical models have certain advantages as compared to experimental method of any system. ANSYS CFD can produce a large number of data points with less experimental data. An ANSYS CFX model can develop accurate geometry of the gasifier reactor as compare to other software. The main purpose of the numerical mathematical models involve understanding and quantifying the thermo-chemical processes during biomass gasification and investigate the influence of the main input parameter such as inlet air velocity, temperature, producer gas.

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