The effect of parameters on the performance of a Fluidized bed reactor and Gasifier

Abstract

The effect of different system parameters (viz. static bed height, fluidization velocity, reaction time etc.) on reaction kinetics which affects the conversion or yield of product in a fluidized bed reactor has been studied. The graphical abstract of the reactor has been drawn.
The MAT LAB coding has been developed based on the data of the reactor system. With the help of this coding, the effect of variation of time, bed height and flow rate on conversion and rate constant has been observed.
The behaviour of the cold-model fluidized bed gasifier unit has been studied by considering the different system parameters (viz. Hs, dp, ρs). Experiments were carried out using a Perspex column of 15cm and 30 cm inside diameter for the dense and free board section respectively. Column height is selected as 195cm. Attempts have been made to develop correlations for the Equivalence Ratio and Euler’s number by varying different system parameters on the basis of dimensionless analysis. The Equivalence Ratio and Euler’s
number were also calculated through the MAT LAB programming. The calculated values of
the Equivalence Ratio and Euler’s number obtained through the dimensionless analysis and MAT LAB programming have been compared with the experimentally measured values for
which the percentage of deviations are found to be well within the allowable limits indicating a very good approximation. Comparison of calculated values of Equivalence ratio and Euler’s number with the experimentally observed values of the same gives the standard deviations to be 1.89% and 10.8% respectively. Chi-square (ξ2) test gives 0.0002 and 18685.04 for Equivalence Ratio and Euler’s number respectively indicating the correlation fit to be satisfactory. Thus it can be concluded that these developed correlations can be applied over a wide range of parameters for the industrial uses and for the pilot plant unit with a suitable scale-up factor. The carbon conversion efficiency of the hot-model fluidized bed gasifier unit is found out to be 81.7% using saw dust as the biomass material.