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Numerical Simulation of Thermal and Mass Behaviors During Pyrolysis Homogeneous Reaction Within a Screw Reactor

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Abstract

In this study, a three-dimensional numerical analysis has been presented to simulate pyrolysis process involving transfer phenomena within a tubular reactor equipped with a rotating screw. A specific computational fluid dynamics code based on the finite volume method is developed in order to solve the general governing equations of momentum, energy and species concentration coupled with the thermochemical reaction of pyrolysis. The developed model aims to simulate the interaction between the kinetics of pyrolysis and transfer phenomena. Besides, the influence of various dimensionless numbers which are axial Reynolds number (Rea), mass Damköhler number (Dam), thermal Damköhler number (Dath), dimensionless activation energy (E*) and preheat parameter (τ) on the temperature and species concentration fields has been studied. It was found that the decrease in the axial Reynolds number, the thermal Damköhler number and the activation energy enhances the rate of conversion of the cellulose. However, the results of the numerical simulation have shown that the increase in the mass Damköhler number and the inlet temperature improves the cellulose conversion rate.

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Abbreviations

A :

Pre-exponential factor (s−1)

\({C}_{\mathrm{B}}\) :

Bio-oil product concentration (kmol m−3)

C p :

Specific heat capacity (kJ K−1 kg−1)

\({C}_{\mathrm{B}}^{*}=\frac{{C}_{\mathrm{B}}}{{C}_{{\mathrm{R}}_{\mathrm{in}}}}\) :

Dimensionless product concentration

\({C}_{\mathrm{R}}\) :

Reactant concentration (kmol m−3)

\({C}_{\mathrm{R}}^{*}=\frac{{C}_{\mathrm{R}}}{{C}_{{\mathrm{R}}_{\mathrm{in}}}}\) :

Dimensionless reactant concentration

\({C}_{{\mathrm{R}}_{\mathrm{in}}}\) :

Inlet reactant concentration (kmol m−3)

D m :

Mass diffusivity (m2 s−1)

D :

Diameter of the screw reactor (m)

d :

Agitator diameter (m)

d r :

Rotor shaft diameter (m)

E :

Activation energy (kJ kmol−1)

H :

Height of the tubular reactor (m)

\({K}_{0}\) :

Reaction rate constant at Tin (s−1)

N :

Rotational speed (s−1)

P :

Pressure (Pa)

\({P}^{*}=\frac{P}{\rho {(2\pi NR)}^{2}}\) :

Dimensionless pressure

R gas :

Ideal gas constant ((kJ kmol−1 K−1)

R :

Screw reactor radius (m)

R rot :

Rotor shaft radius (m)

t :

Time (s)

t* = 2πNt :

Dimensionless time

T in :

Inlet temperature of the fluid (K)

T w :

Wall temperature (K)

T :

Temperature of the fluid (K)

\({T}^{*}=\frac{T-{T}_{\mathrm{in}}}{{T}_{\mathrm{w}}-{T}_{\mathrm{in}}}\) :

Dimensionless temperature

W m :

Mean axial velocity (m s−1)

r :

Radial coordinate (m)

\({r}^{*}=\frac{r}{R}\) :

Dimensionless radial coordinate

z :

Axial coordinate (m)

\({z}^{*}=\frac{z}{R}\) :

Dimensionless axial coordinate

θ :

Angular coordinate

U, V, W :

Velocity components (m s−1)

U*, V*, W*:

Dimensionless velocity components

ρ :

Fluid density (kg m−3)

λ :

Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

μ :

Dynamic viscosity (Pa s)

ƞ :

Apparent viscosity

\(\dot{\gamma }\) :

Dimensionless shear rate

\({\Delta H}_{\mathrm{r}}\) :

Heat of reaction (kJ kmol−1

\({\mathrm{Da}}_{\mathrm{m}}=\frac{{\mathrm{K}}_{0}L}{{\mathrm{W}}_{\mathrm{m}}}\) :

Mass Damköhler number

\({\mathrm{Da}}_{\mathrm{th}}=\frac{{\Delta \mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{r}}{\mathrm{C}}_{{\mathrm{R}}_{\mathrm{in}}}}{\uprho {\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{p}}({\mathrm{T}}_{\mathrm{w}}-{\mathrm{T}}_{\mathrm{in}})}\) :

Thermal Damköhler number

\({E}^{*}=\frac{E}{{R}_{\mathrm{gas}}{T}_{\mathrm{w}}}\) :

Dimensionless activation energy

\(\mathrm{Fr}=\frac{{\left(2\pi N\right)}^{2}R}{g}\) :

Froude number

\(\mathrm{Od}=\frac{{\tau }_{y}D}{\mu {V}_{a}}\) :

Oldroyd number

\(\mathrm{Pr}=\frac{\mu {C}_{\mathrm{p}}}{\lambda }\) :

Prandtl number

\({\mathrm{Re}}_{\mathrm{a}}=\frac{\rho (D-{d}_{\mathrm{r}}){W}_{\mathrm{m}}}{\mu }\) :

Axial Reynolds number

\({\mathrm{Re}}_{\mathrm{r}}=\frac{\rho {\mathrm{ND}}^{2}}{\mu }\) :

Rotational Reynolds number

\(\mathrm{Sc}=\frac{\mu }{\rho {D}_{\mathrm{m}}}\) :

Schmidt number

\({\mathrm{Pe}}_{\mathrm{m}}={\mathrm{Re}}_{\mathrm{r}}\cdot\mathrm{Sc}\) :

Mass Peclet number

\({\mathrm{Pe}}_{\mathrm{th}}={\mathrm{Re}}_{\mathrm{r}}\cdot\mathrm{Pr}\) :

Thermal Peclet number

\(\tau =\frac{{T}_{\mathrm{inlet}}}{{T}_{\mathrm{w}}-{T}_{\mathrm{inlet}}}\) :

Preheat parameter

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Transfer Phenomena (CFDTP), Mechanical Engineering Department, National Engineering School of Sfax (ENIS), University of Sfax, Soukra Road Km 3.5, Bp 1173, 3038, Sfax, Tunisia

    Amal Masmoudi, Moez Hammami & Mounir Baccar

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  1. Amal Masmoudi
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Masmoudi, A., Hammami, M. & Baccar, M. Numerical Simulation of Thermal and Mass Behaviors During Pyrolysis Homogeneous Reaction Within a Screw Reactor. Arab J Sci Eng 46, 12549–12572 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-020-05295-8

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