Experimental Validation of CFD Simulations of a Lab-Scale Fluidized-Bed Reactor with and Without Side-Gas Injection

Fluidized-bed reactors are widely used in the biofuel industry for combustion, pyrolysis, and gasification processes. In this work, a lab-scale fluidized-bed reactor without and with side-gas injection and filled with 500-600 mu m glass beads is simulated using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code Fluent 6.3, and the results are compared to experimental data obtained using pressure measurements and 3D X-ray computed tomography. An initial grid-dependence CFD study is carried out using 2D simulations, and it is shown that a 4-mm grid resolution is sufficient to capture the time- and spatial-averaged local gas holdup in the lab-scale reactor. Full 3D simulations are then compared with the experimental data on 2D vertical slices through the fluidized bed. Both the experiments and CFD simulations without side-gas injection show that in the cross section of the fluidized bed there are two large off-center symmetric regions in which the gas holdup is larger than in the center of the fluidized bed. The 3D simulations using the Syamlal-O'Brien and Gidaspow drag models predict well the local gas holdup variation throughout the entire fluidized bed when compared to the experimental data. In comparison, simulations with the Wen-Yu drag model generally over predict the local gas holdup. The agreement between experiments and simulations with side-gas injection is generally good, where the side-gas injection simulates the immediate volatilization of biomass. However, the effect of the side-gas injection extends further into the fluidized bed in the experiments as compared to the simulations. Overall the simulations under predict the gas dispersion rate above the side-gas injector. (C) 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChEJ, 56: 1434-1446, 2010