On the scaling-up of a two-stage air blown entrained flow coal gasifier

A two-stage air blown entrained flow gasifier is being developed in Japan for the IGCC process. However, its scale-up up faces significant difficulties because of ash/slag deposition problems. The ash/slag deposition in the gasifier depends on both the ash properties and entrainment produced by the swirling gas flow. Therefore, the flow hydrodynamics are critical issues for the control of the ash behavior. In this paper, a comprehensive simulation model is used to examine the effects of the gasifier geometry and jet configuration on the flow hydrodynamics in order to control the ash deposition on the gasifier walls. A swirl number for the multi-stage injection swirling gas flow is defined and proved to be the most important hydrodynamic scaling law for the entrained flow gasifier.