There has been growing interest in estimating the flow rate and composition of fuel gases produced from gasification of coal and other... Show moreThere has been growing interest in estimating the flow rate and composition of fuel gases produced from gasification of coal and other carbonaceous solid fuels. In general, coal gasification processes are complex, and because of the high costs associated with the experimental investigations, modeling and simulation tools are needed to assist with the design, analysis, and optimization of these complex processes. Most of the efforts in the development of gasifier models have focused on two different approaches; equilibrium modeling and kinetic modeling. The chemical equilibrium approach assumes the gasification reactions have sufficiently fast kinetics and reach global chemical reaction equilibria, which leads to over-prediction of the extent of the gasification reactions [1, 2, 3]. On the other hand, the kinetic based models require detailed knowledge of hydrodynamic and reaction kinetics of the heterogeneous and homogeneous chemical reactions [4, 5]. Because of the dependence of the product gas (composition and flow rate) on a broad ranges of certain key operating variables such as gasifier design, configuration, and coal type the gasification model needs to take into account the effect of those parameters based on available experimental data. In this study, a versatile and user-friendly gasifier simulation model was developed which incorporates a MS Excel interface aiming to provide a guide to gasification process analysis, evaluation and improvement. The model uses a set of empirical “default” correlations, for the reaction conversions that were obtained from xi regression analysis of the available experimental data to predict the syngas composition, flow rate, and performance of the gasifier based on the operating conditions specified by the user. The results of the parametric studies performed for assessment of the effect of operating conditions are discussed and presented. M.S. in Chemical Engineering, May 2013 Show less
