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Model Development and Simulation Procedures

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Mir Hasib Ul Latif
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38 views

Model Development and Simulation Procedures

Uploaded by

Mir Hasib Ul Latif
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Model development and simulation procedures

The study shall employ a model, CHEM_Gas developed by Gagliano et al., 2018 using
ChemCAD software. This model has been tested and validated, by comparing the model
simulations with experimental data, concerning gasification processes, where different biomasses
(chemical composition and moisture content) and operative conditions (equivalent ratio and
temperature) have been implemented.

The figure depicts the main elements used for the mathematical simulation of the gasification
process through the software. Two input streams are necessary, the fueled MSW and the air
supplied to the gasifier (Fig.6). Since the MSW is an unavailable component in the ChemCAD
database, it will be added into the model as a pseudo-component that is defined by its ultimate
and proximate analysis. The air supplied to the gasifier “a” will then be calculated according the
equation:

Where h, n, and o are the number of atoms of hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, derived from the
biomass chemical formula (e.g., CHhOoNn). This will be obtained from the ultimate analysis
performed on the MSW. ER is the equivalent ratio used in the gasification process.

Thereby the equation above will allow to calculate, in function of the used ER, a sub-
stoichiometric quantity of air with respect to the one necessary for the complete combustion of
one mole of MSW The two input streams, MSW and air, will be perfectly mixed, before the inlet
in the gasifier reactor, through the “mixer” block of ChemCAD.

The gasification process will be modeled in ChemCAD using the equilibrium reactor, R-Gibbs,
although the perfect equilibrium conditions may not really be achieved. However, this
approximation can be considered acceptable due to the long residence time of the vapors and
gases in the gasifier. The use of the R-Gibbs reactor will impose the minimization of the Gibbs
free energy for each of the chemical equilibrium reactions selected to describe the gasification
process:

(ΔG0 is the Gibbs free energy of the considered chemical equilibrium reaction, k is the
equilibrium constant of such reaction, R is the universal constant of the ideal gases, and T is the
absolute temperature, at which the gasification occurs, imposed in the R-Gibbs reactor).

The chemical reactions used to simulate the gasification process are the methanation reaction and
the water-gas shift reactions shown respectively below:

In the R-Gibbs reactor, the following conditions will be set;

• Input temperature of the mixed air and MSW equal to 25°C.

• Operating pressure 1 atm.

• Gasification at isothermal conditions.

• The gas in output (syngas) will be assumes an ideal gas; the law of Raoult will be set in the
reactor.

• The syngas whose composition is only of H2, CO, CO2, CH4, H2O, and N2 (inert).

The R-Gibbs reactor will need the definition of the moles of water “w” that takes part in the
gasification process (i.e., moles of water contained in the biomass) and the tar and char yields, as
inputs from the proximate analysis performed on the MSW. The moles of water will be
calculated as a function of the biomass initial moisture content (MC) and of the molecular weight
of the MSW (PMmsw) and of the water (PMH2O) (Gautam, 2010).
Particularly, temperatures close to 1000°C will be used to provoke the tar vapor cracking,
allowing to produce a syngas with a very low tar content (4%–5% mass percentage on dry
biomass) (Bru et al., 2007) regardless of the oxidation air supplied to the reactor. Many
gasification studies have showed very low char and tar yields and a gas yield of almost 85wt.%
of the feedstock (Gungor, 2011).

Figure 1. Flow chart of the model CHEM_Gas (Gagliano et al., 2018)


.

Finally, tar will be simulated as C 6H6, while the char simulated as graphite (Tinaut et al., 2008).
Both tar and char will be set as inert components, in the R-Gibbs reactor. In the R-Gibbs reactor,
the option “temperature approach” shall be set, to represent the difference between the chemical
equilibrium temperature and the real reactor temperature, for both the water-gas shift and the
methanation reactions. This option allows to improve the model’s simulations (Gungor, 2011).
The possibility to set an equilibrium temperature different from the one of the gasification
reactor will permit to move the reaction equilibrium versus the reagents or the products
modifying the composition of the gas at the outlet of the R-Gibbs reactor.
The CHEM_Gas model to be used will be calibrated choosing appropriate values of the
temperature approach for each of the chemical reactions introduced in the model and for the
specific simulated gasification process.

The expected outputs of the model CHEM_Gas are the chemical composition of the syngas and
its LHV, which is calculated by:

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