Experimental and Numerical Study of Cold Gas-Solid Flow Regimes in a Fluidized Bed Gasifier

The objective of this work is to analyze the dynamics and regimes of cold gas-solid flow in a biomass gasifier that is built at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and to identify its corresponding ranges of operating conditions. The value of the minimum fluidization velocity U_mf ≈ 8 cm/s has been found experimentally in a series of measurements of a pressure drop in the fluidized bed filled with Gledart type-B silica sand for the range of superficial gas velocities between 0 and 40 cm/s. To complement the experimental results, a set of three-dimensional numerical simulations of the isothermal gas-solid flow based on Eulerian-Eulerian approach has been performed. The analysis of the fluidization characteristics such as axial void fraction distributions has allowed us to evaluate the dependence of the bed expansion ratios from the flow superficial velocity. Good agreement between experimental and numerical results for the considered operating conditions of the gasifier has been observed.