Equilibrium and kinetic modeling of char reduction reactions in a downdraft biomass gasifier: A comparison

The thermodynamic and kinetic modeling of char reduction reactions in a downdraft (biomass) gasifier has been presented. Mass and energy balance are coupled with equilibrium relations or kinetic rate parameters (using varying char reactivity factor) in order to predict status of un-converted char in addition to gas composition, calorific value, conversion efficiency, exit gas temperature, endothermic heat absorption rate and gasifier power output. Both modeling predictions are compared against experimental data for their validity. The influence of char bed length and reaction temperature in reduction zone has been examined. CO and H₂ component, calorific value of product gas and the endothermic heat absorption rate in reduction zone are found to be sensitive with reaction temperature, while char bed length is less sensitive to equilibrium predictions. For present case, all char conversion takes place at critical reaction temperature of 932 K for equilibrium, while for kinetic modeling critical reaction temperature and critical char bed length of 950 K and ～25 cm have been identified, comparing the predictions. The critical reaction temperatures and critical char bed length also depend on inlet components composition and initial temperature supplied to the reduction reaction zone model.     

Experimental investigations on a 20 kWe, solid biomass gasification system

When the objective is to generate motive or electric power via I.C. engine, the overall pressure drop through the suction gasification system in addition to gas quality has become a sensitive issue. This work, therefore, presents an experimental study on a suction gasifier (downdraft) arrangement operating on kiker wood or Acacia nilotica (L). Studies were conducted to investigate the influence of fluid flow rate on pressure drop through the gasifier system for ambient isothermal airflow and ignited mode, pumping power, and air-fuel ratio, gas composition and gasification efficiency. Results of pressure drop, temperature profile, gas composition or calorific value are found to be sensitive with fluid flow rate. Ignited gasifier gives much higher pressure drop when compared against newly charged gasifier bed with isothermal ambient airflow. Higher reaction temperatures in gasifier tends to enhance gasifier performance, while, overall pressure drop and thus pumping power through the system increases. Both ash accumulated gasifier bed and sand bed filters with tar laden quartz particles also show much higher pressure drops.     

Gasification of hazelnut shells in a downdraft gasifier

The potential offered by biomass to reduce greenhouse gas production is now being more widely recognised. The energy in biomass may be realised either by direct combustion use, or by upgrading into more valuable and useable products such as gas, fuel oil and higher value products for utilisation in the chemical industry or for clean power generation. Up till now, gasification work has concentrated on woody biomass but recently sources of other biomass with large energy production potential have been identified, namely hazelnut shells. Therefore, a pilot scale downdraft gasifier is used to investigate gasification potential of hazelnut shells. A full mass balance is reported including the tar production rate as well as the composition of the produced gas as a function of feed rate. Additionally, the effect of feed rate on the CV/composition of the product gas and the associated variations of gasifier zone temperatures are determined with temperatures recorded throughout the main zones of the gasifier and also at the gasifier outlet and gas cleaning zones. Pressure drops are also measured across the gasifier and gas cleaning system because the produced gas may be used in conjunction with a power production engine when it is important to have low pressure drop in the system. The quality of the product gas is found to be dependent on the smooth flow of the fuel and the uniformity of the pyrolysis, and so the difficulties, encountered during the experiments are detailed. The optimum operation of the gasifier is found to be between 1.44 and 1.47 N m³/kg of air fuel ratios at the values of 4.06 and 4.48 kg/h of wet feed rate which produces the producer gas with a good GCV of about 5 MJ/m³ at a volumetric flow of 8–9 N m³/h product gas. It was concluded that hazelnut shells could be easily gasified in a downdraft gasifier to produce good quality gas with minimum polluting by-products. It is suggested that, in view of ease of operation, small-scale gasifiers can make an important contribution to the economy of rural areas where the residues of nuts are abundant. It is also suggested that gasification of shell waste products is a clean alternative to fossil fuels and the product gas can be directly used in internal gas combustion engines, thus warranting further investment/encouragement by authorities to exploit this valuable resource.     

Sintered porous heat sink for cooling of high-powered microprocessors for server applications

This paper experimentally investigates the sintered porous heat sink for the cooling of the high-powered compact microprocessors for server applications. Heat sink cold plate consisted of rectangular channel with sintered porous copper insert of 40% porosity and 1.44 × 10^?11 m² permeability. Forced convection heat transfer and pressure drop through the porous structure were studied at Re ? 408 with water as the coolant medium. In the study, heat fluxes of up to 2.9 MW/m² were successfully removed at the source with the coolant pressure drop of 34 kPa across the porous sample while maintaining the heater junction temperature below the permissible limit of 100 ± 5 °C for chipsets. The minimum value of 0.48 °C/W for cold plate thermal resistance (R_cp) was achieved at maximum flow rate of 4.2 cm³/s in the experiment. For the designed heat sink, different components of the cold plate thermal resistance (R_cp) from the thermal footprint of source to the coolant were identified and it was found that contact resistance at the interface of source and cold plate makes up 44% of R_cp and proved to be the main component. Convection resistance from heated channel wall with porous insert to coolant accounts for 37% of the R_cp. With forced convection of water at Re = 408 through porous copper media, maximum values of 20 kW/m² K for heat transfer coefficient and 126 for Nusselt number were recorded. The measured effective thermal conductivity of the water saturated porous copper was as high as 32 W/m K that supported the superior heat augmentation characteristics of the copper–water based sintered porous heat sink. The present investigation helps to classify the sintered porous heat sink as a potential thermal management device for high-end microprocessors.     

Numerical evaluation of a heat exchanger with inline tubes of different size for reduced fouling rates

This paper describes the numerical evaluation of a novel cross flow tube bundle heat exchanger that combines tubes of different diameter in an inline arrangement for the purpose of reducing gas side particulate fouling rates while preserving acceptable levels of heat transfer and pressure drop performance. Three arrangements are compared: a common inline tube bundle heat exchanger with cylinders of equal diameter and two other arrangements that consist of alternately placed cylinders with a diameter ratio of d/D = 0.5, at two different transverse spacings. Numerical calculations are performed in order to study heat transfer, pressure drop and fouling rates from flue gases with suspended ash particles. The alternating tube sizes achieve a suppression of the vortex shedding mechanism that has previously been shown to enhance downstream particle deposition. Results show that, compared to the standard arrangement, the tube bundle with unequal cylinders placed at the largest transverse spacing achieves a significant (～30%) reduction in particle deposition rate without sacrificing acceptable values of heat transfer per unit volume and low pressure drop.     

The effect of porous media particle size on forced convection from a circular cylinder without assuming local thermal equilibrium between phases

A detail numerical analysis of the effect of particle diameter of a packed bed of spherical particles on forced convection about an embedded circular cylinder is presented. This parametric study focusses on the two-phase energy (LTNE—local thermal non-equilibrium) model, which does not assume local thermal equilibrium (LTE) between the solid medium and the fluid. The investigation is performed for a cylinder-to-particle diameter ratio D_cy/d_p = 10–100, at a wide ranges of Reynolds number Re_D = 1–250 and solid-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio k_r = 0.01–1000. A comparison of predictions from the LTNE and LTE energy models is also made. This paper quantifies the influence of the key non-dimensional parameters on the heat transfer rate. It is also shown that although the presence of the porous materials around the heated cylinder enhances the overall heat transfer and increases the pressure drop in the bed compared to an empty channel, using a porous medium with large particle diameters increases considerably this enhancement in heat transfer and decreases significantly the unfavorable pressure drop.     

Low pressure evaporative cooling of micron-sized droplets of solutions and its novel applications

For free molecular regime the mathematical model of low pressure evaporative cooling of binary droplets in gas flow is developed. The model includes five ordinary differential equations and takes into account effects such as the release of the latent heat of condensation of both components and the release of the latent heat of dissolution. Simulations were made for weak aqueous solutions of ammonia. It was discovered that compositions of gas flow and the aqueous solution affect the rate of evaporative cooling of droplets. The ratio of mass flow of solution and gas flow is also an important parameter. The cooling rate of such binary droplets can reach the value of about 2 × 10⁵ K/s.As first applications we consider the air cooler based on evaporative cooling of droplets. For pressure of 20–80 Torr in aerosol reactor, it is shown that in the cooler with length of about 1 m temperature of air flow may drop to about 10–15 °C.The second application is the formation of nanoparticle in evaporating multicomponent droplet with two volatile components. Simulation was made for aqueous solution of ammonia which is widely used by experimentalists and engineers now. Effects of the number of precursors in droplet and supersaturation in droplet on the final size of nanoparticles were investigated.     

Parametric study of recuperative VOC oxidation reactor with porous media

Numerical study of volatile organic compounds (VOC) oxidation reactor consisting of two coaxial tubes, filled with inert porous media is performed. Influence of incoming gas flux, adiabatic temperature of gas combustion, reaction rate constant, diameter of porous body particles, reactor size and heat losses on maximal temperature of reactor, recuperation efficiency, combustion front position is investigated. It is shown that maximum temperature and recuperation efficiency of reactor has extremum in the field of incoming gas flow rate and porous body particle size parameters (for simulated configuration of reactor maximum corresponds to U_G ∼ 2 m/s and d₀ ∼ 6 mm). Numerical simulation shows non-monotonous character of maximal temperature and recuperation efficiency dependence from side heat losses of reactor. The obtained results can be used for construction optimization of practical VOC oxidation reactors.     

Condensation heat transfer and pressure drop of HFC-134a in a helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger

The two-phase heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of pure HFC-134a condensing inside a smooth helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger are experimentally investigated. The test section is a 5.786 m long helically coiled double tube with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and cooling water flowing in the annulus. The inner tube is made from smooth copper tubing of 9.52 mm outer diameter and 8.3 mm inner diameter. The outer tube is made from smooth copper tubing of 23.2 mm outer diameter and 21.2 mm inner diameter. The heat exchanger is fabricated by bending a straight copper double-concentric tube into a helical coil of six turns. The diameter of coil is 305 mm. The pitch of coil is 35 mm. The test runs are done at average saturation condensing temperatures ranging between 40 and 50 °C. The mass fluxes are between 400 and 800 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ and the heat fluxes are between 5 and 10 kW m⁻². The pressure drop across the test section is directly measured by a differential pressure transducer. The quality of the refrigerant in the test section is calculated using the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The average heat transfer coefficient of the refrigerant is determined by applying an energy balance based on the energy rejected from the test section. The effects of heat flux, mass flux and, condensation temperature on the heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop are also discussed. It is found that the percentage increase of the average heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop of the helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger, compared with that of the straight tube-in-tube heat exchanger, are in the range of 33–53% and 29–46%, respectively. New correlations for the condensation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are proposed for practical applications.     

Fate of heavy metals during fixed bed downdraft gasification of willow wood harvested from contaminated sites

The combination of energy production from biomass with phytoremediation opens perspectives for bringing land with moderate metal contamination into safe and beneficial use. Small scale fixed bed downdraft gasifier installations (150 kWe–1 MWe) can be employed for on-site conversion of biomass to electricity and heat. To assess the fate of heavy metals, batch gasification operations were run in a small scale fixed bed downdraft gasifier (100 kW thermal power). The gasification of 1 kg of wood resulted in the production of 40 g of ashes, 1.2 kWh of electricity and 9 MJ of heat. Per kg dry mass of willow wood, 31 g bottom ashes, 7 g cyclone ashes, 2 g filter ashes, and 18 g DM of gasifier bed ashes were produced. Cd, Zn and Pb were enriched by a factor 7–100 in the fly ashes compared to the bottom ashes. Low mass recoveries (30–40%) were found for Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb. This was mainly attributed to measurement uncertainties. 60% and more of recovered Cd, Pb and Zn were present in the finer filter and cyclone ashes, while Cr, Cu and Ni were mainly found in the bottom ashes and to a lesser extent the bed ashes. The scrubber placed after the hot cyclone has an essential role in intercepting the more volatile heavy metals before combustion of the gas. The bottom ashes constituted the largest fraction and ideally should be recycled if limits for metal contents are met. Only Cd and Zn exceeded Flemish threshold values for use of this fraction as a fertilizer, albeit by a small margin. This leaves perspectives for future research to optimise process parameters towards the production of bottom ashes that can be recycled.     

Thermo-economic analysis for the optimal conceptual design of biomass gasification energy conversion systems

This study addresses the thermo-economic assessment of a mid-scale (20 MW_th,wood) wood gasification, gas cleaning and energy conversion process, with particular attention given to electricity generation costs and tar control. Product distributions were estimated with a parametric stoichiometric equilibrium model calibrated using atmospheric air gasification data. A multi-objective optimisation problem was defined for a superstructure of alternative energy flow diagrams for each processing step. The trade-off between total investment costs and the exergy efficiency of electricity production was obtained, and analysed to identify operating conditions that minimise tar formation to prevent equipment fouling. The use of air, oxygen or steam fluidised bed gasifiers, closed coupled to an internal combustion engine combined cycle (ICE-CC) requiring cold gas cleaning, or gas turbine combined cycle (GT-CC) requiring hot gas cleaning have been considered. The operating conditions that maximise ICE-CC efficiency with cold gas cleaning (low pressure and high temperatures) also favour minimal tar formation. For GT-CC tar concentrations are higher, but this should not be of concern provided that hot gas cleaning can effectively prevent tar condensation. The trade-off appears to be optimal for steam gasification, with minimal specific costs of 2.1 €/W_e for GT-CC, and 2.7 €/W_e for ICE-CC. However, further calibration of the reaction model is still needed to properly assess product formation for other oxidants than air, and to properly take account of the impact of pressure on product distributions. For air gasification, the minimal specific cost of GT-CC is 2.5 €/W_e, and that of ICE-CC 3.1 €/W_e.     

Carbonaceous deposits in direct utilization hydrocarbon SOFC anode

Carbonaceous deposits formed in Cu-based SOFC anode compartment by exposing porous YSZ anodes to n-butane at elevated temperatures were studied using a combination of V–I curves, impedance spectroscopy, SEM, and TPO measurements. While short-term exposure of a porous YSZ matrix to n-butane at 973 K resulted in the deposition of electronically conducting carbonaceous film and therefore to enhance the fuel cell performance, the power density decays quickly in n-butane at temperature 1073 K or higher for long-term operation. SEM results indicate that the carbonaceous deposits arising from gas phase reaction have different morphology, and a dense layer composed of poly-aromatic rings has been formed on the porous anode surface. The dense layer could block the penetration of fuels to the anode and ions transfer to the three-phase boundaries where electrochemical reactions occur, resulting in the drop of the power density. TPO measurements revealed that the amount of carbonaceous deposits increased and the type of deposits changed with exposure time to n-butane. The stability of deposits increased with extending the exposure time according to the increased oxidation temperature. Steam can remove the carbonaceous deposits from the porous YSZ anode, but the reaction temperature was severely elevated compared to that of oxygen. The carbonaceous deposits can also be removed at 973 K by steam but the deposition of carbon will be controlled by the speed of removal and formation from the gas phase reaction.     

Condensation heat transfer and pressure drop of R134a in annular helicoidal pipe at different orientations

Experimental investigations were conducted to determine the condensation heat transfer and pressure drop of refrigerant R134a in annular helicoidal pipe at three inclination angles. The experiments were performed with the Reynolds number of R134a ranging from 60 to 200, and that of cooling water from 3600 to 22 000; temperatures of R134a at 30 °C and 35 °C, and cooling water at 16 °C, 20 °C and 24 °C. The experimental results indicated that the refrigerant Nusselt number was larger at lower refrigerant saturation temperature, and would increase with the increase of mass flow rates of refrigerant and cooling water. It was found that the refrigerant heat transfer coefficient of annular helicoidal pipe could be two times larger than that of equivalent plain straight pipe when the refrigerant Reynolds number was larger than 140. Comparison with identical helicoidal pipe with opposite flow channel arrangement revealed that the refrigerant heat transfer rate was larger when the refrigerant was flowing in the annular section at the cooling water Reynolds number larger than 4000, but the pressure drop was always larger in this flow channel arrangement.     

Mist film cooling simulation at gas turbine operating conditions

Air film cooling has been successfully used to cool gas turbine hot sections for the last half century. A promising technology is proposed to enhance air film cooling with water mist injection. Numerical simulations have shown that injecting a small amount of water droplets into the cooling air improves film-cooling performance significantly. However, previous studies were conducted at conditions of low Reynolds number, temperature, and pressure to allow comparisons with experimental data. As a continuous effort to develop a realistic mist film cooling scheme, this paper focuses on simulating mist film cooling under typical gas turbine operating conditions of high temperature and pressure. The mainstream flow is at 15 atm with a temperature of 1561 K. Both 2D and 3D cases are considered with different hole geometries on a flat surface, including a 2D slot, a simple round hole, a compound-angle hole, and fan-shaped holes. The results show that 10–20% mist (based on the coolant mass flow rate) achieves 5–10% cooling enhancement and provides an additional 30–68 K adiabatic wall temperature reduction. Uniform droplets of 5–20 μm are used. The droplet trajectories indicate the droplets tend to move away from the wall, which results in a lower cooling enhancement than under low pressure and temperature conditions. The commercial software Fluent is adopted in this study, and the standard k–ε model with enhanced wall treatment is adopted as the turbulence model.     

Experimental analysis of flow and heat transfer in a miniature porous heat sink for high heat flux application

A novel miniature porous heat sink system was presented for dissipating high heat fluxes of electronic device, and its operational principle and characteristics were analyzed. The flow and heat transfer of miniature porous heat sink was experimentally investigated at high heat fluxes. It was observed that the heat load of up to 280 W (heat flux of 140 W/cm²) was removed by the heat sink with the coolant pressure drop of about 34 kPa across the heat sink system and the heater junction temperature of 62.9 °C at the coolant flow rate of 6.2 cm³/s. Nu number of heat sink increased with the increase of Re number, and maximum value of 323 for Nu was achieved at highest Re of 518. The overall heat transfer coefficient of heat sink increased with the increase of coolant flow rate and heat load, and the maximal heat transfer coefficient was 36.8 kW(m² °C)^?1 in the experiment. The minimum value of 0.16 °C/W for the whole thermal resistance of heat sink was achieved at flow rate of 6.2 cm³/s, and increasing coolant flow rate and heat fluxes could lead to the decrease in thermal resistance. The micro heat sink has good performance for electronics cooling at high heat fluxes, and it can improve the reliability and lifetime of electronic device.     

Combustion characteristics of a 4-stroke CI engine operated on Honge oil,Neem and Rice Bran oils when directly injected and dual fuelled with producer gas induction

Energy is an essential requirement for economic and social development of any country. Sky rocketing of petroleum fuel costs in present day has led to growing interest in alternative fuels like vegetable oils, alcoholic fuels, CNG, LPG, Producer gas, biogas in order to provide a suitable substitute to diesel for a compression ignition (CI) engine. The vegetable oils present a very promising alternative fuel to diesel oil since they are renewable, biodegradable and clean burning fuel having similar properties as that of diesel. They offer almost same power output with slightly lower thermal efficiency due to their lower energy content compared to diesel. Utilization of producer gas in CI engine on dual fuel mode provides an effective approach towards conservation of diesel fuel. Gasification involves conversion of solid biomass into combustible gases which completes combustion in a CI engines. Hence the producer gas can act as promising alternative fuel and it has high octane number (100–105) and calorific value (5–6 MJ/Nm³). Because of its simpler structure with low carbon content results in substantial reduction of exhaust emission. Downdraft moving bed gasifier coupled with compression ignition engine are a good choice for moderate quantities of available mass up to 500 kW of electrical power. Hence bio-derived gas and vegetable liquids appear more attractive in view of their friendly environmental nature. Experiments have been conducted on a single cylinder, four-stroke, direct injection, water-cooled CI engine operated in single fuel mode using Honge, Neem and Rice Bran oils. In dual fuel mode combinations of Producer gas and three oils were used at different injection timings and injection pressures.Dual fuel mode of operation resulted in poor performance at all the loads when compared with single fuel mode at all injection timings tested. However, the brake thermal efficiency is improved marginally when the injection timing was advanced. Decreased smoke, NO_x emissions and increased CO emissions were observed for dual fuel mode for all the fuel combinations compared to single fuel operation.     

Modelling of biomass gasifier and microturbine for the olive oil industry

The olive oil industry generates several solid wastes. Among these residues are olive tree leaves, prunings, and dried olive pomace (orujillo) from the extraction process. These renewable energy sources can be used for heat and power production. The aim of this paper consists of modelling and simulation of a small‐scale combined heat and power (CHP) plant (fuelled with olive industry wastes) incorporating a downdraft gasifier, gas cleaning and cooling subsystem, and a microturbine as the power generation unit. The gasifier was modelled with thermodynamic equilibrium calculations (fixed bed type, stratified and with an open top). This gasifier operates at atmospheric pressure with a reaction temperature about 800°C. Simulation results (biomass consumption, gasification efficiency, rated gas flow, calorific value, gas composition, etc.) are compared with a real gasification technology. The product gas obtained has a low heating value (4.8–5.0 MJ Nm^?3) and the CHP system provides 30 kW_e and 60 kW_th. High system overall CHP efficiencies around 50% are achievable with such a system. The proposed system has been modelled using Cycle‐Tempo software^®. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emission characteristics and axial flame temperature distribution of producer gas fired premixed burner

This paper presents the emission characteristics and axial flame temperature distribution of producer gas fired premixed burner. The producer gas fired premixed burner of 150 kW capacity was tested on open core throat less down draft gasifier system in the present study. A stable and uniform flame was observed with this burner. An instrumented test set up was developed to evaluate the performance of the burner. The conventional bluff body having blockage ratio of 0.65 was used for flame stabilization. With respect to maximum flame temperature, minimum pressure drop and minimum emissions, a swirl angle of 60° seems to be optimal. The experimental results also showed that the NO_x emissions are inversely proportional to swirl angle and CO emissions are independent of swirl angle. The minimum emission levels of CO and NO_x are observed to be 0.167% and 384 ppm respectively at the swirl angle of 45–60°. The experimental results showed that the maximum axial flame temperature distribution was achieved at A/F ratio of 1.0. The adiabatic flame temperature of 1653 °C was calculated theoretically at A/F ratio of 1.0. Experimental results are in tune with theoretical results. It was also concluded that the CO and UHC emissions decreases with increasing A/F ratio while NO_x emissions decreases on either side of A/F ratio of 1.0.     

Field-testing of SPRERI's open core gasifier for thermal application

One unit of Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute (SPRERI's) 1.25 GJ h⁻¹ capacity open core down draft gasifier burner system, suitable for thermal application was installed at M/s Dinesh Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd., Nandesari, for steam generation. Producer gas burner was used in dual fuel mode (60% LDO (light diesel oil)+40% producer gas). Gasifier consumed 78–80 kg h⁻¹ of wood, and replaced 40% (20 l h⁻¹) LDO. The system was tested for a cumulative period of 600 h using sawmill woody waste as feedstock in test runs of 15–18 h. Financial analysis of the gasifier system showed that user could save about Rs. 221.8 per hour by using dual fuel (60% LDO+40% producer gas) for steam generation. Economic analysis of the system tested in the field indicated the viability of the gasifier-based operation.     

Evaporation heat transfer and pressure drop of HFC-134a in a helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger

The two-phase heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of HFC-134a during evaporation inside a smooth helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger are experimentally investigated. The test section is a 5.786-m long helically coiled tube with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and heating water flowing in the annulus. The inner tube is made from copper tubing of 9.52 mm outer diameter and 7.2 mm inner diameter. The heat exchanger is fabricated by bending a straight copper tube into a spiral coil. The diameter of coil is 305 mm. The test run are done at average saturated evaporating temperatures ranging between 10 and 20 °C. The mass fluxes are between 400 and 800 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ and the heat fluxes are between 5 and 10 kW m⁻². The inlet quality of the refrigerant in the test section is calculated using the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The pressure drop across the test section is directly measured by a differential pressure transducer. The effects of heat flux, mass flux and, evaporation temperature on the heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop are also discussed. The results from the present experiment are compared with those obtained from the straight tube reported in the literature. New correlations for the convection heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are proposed for practical applications.