As the need for both sustainable energy production and waste minimization increases, the gasification of biomass becomes an increasingly important process. What would otherwise be considered waste can now be used as fuel, and the benefits of volume reduction through gasification are seen in the increased lifespan of landfills. Fluidized-bed gasification is a particularly robust technology, and allows for the conversion of most types of waste biomass. Within a fluidized-bed gasifier, thermal medium (sand) is heated to operating temperature (around 1350°F) and begins to fluidize due to the rapid expansion of air entering the bottom of the reactor. This fluidization allows for excellent heat transfer and contact between gases and solids, and prevents localized "hot spots" within the gasifier, thereby reducing the occurrence of ash agglomeration within the gasifier. Solids enter the middle of the gasifier and are rapidly dried and devolatilized, and the products of this step are subsequently oxidized and then reduced in the remainder of the gasifier. A syngas composed mainly of N2, H2O, CO2, CO, CH4, and H2 exits the top of the gasifier. A computer model was developed to predict the syngas composition and flow rate, as well as ash composition and mass flow rate from a fluidized-bed gasifier. A review of the literature was performed to determine the most appropriate modeling approach. A chemical kinetic model was chosen, and developed in MATLAB using the Newton-Raphson method to solve sets of 18 simultaneous equations. These equations account for mass and energy balances throughout the gasifier. The chemical kinetic rate expressions for these reactions were sourced from the literature, and some values modified to better fit the predicted gas composition to literature data.

<p>The use of renewable energy systems is ever-growing in today's electricity grid to reduce the carbon footprint on the environment. However, a problem with wind and solar renewable energy systems is availability. Wind and solar energy production are entirely dependent on the weather, whereas global electricity demands have no such limitation. A cost-effective solution to the energy availability problem is to incorporate energy storage systems. The Economic Long-Duration Electricity Storage by Using Low-Cost Thermal Energy Storage and High-Efficiency Power Cycle (ENDURING) system developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a potential  energy storage system. In the ENDURING system, particles are heated via renewable energy or off-peak grid electricity and stored in large silos. When the electricity needs to be regenerated, the hot particles are passed to a Pressurized Fluidized Bed Heat Exchanger (PFB-HX), which heats air, and the hot pressurized air flows to a turbine and generator to produce electricity. The focus of this dissertation is on two components within the ENDURING system: the particle heater and the PFB-HX.</p> <p>First, the heat transfer within the particle heater is investigated numerically via Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) coupled with Discrete Element Modeling (DEM). Although heat transfer to traditional molecular fluids such as liquids and gases are well characterized, the heat transfer to flowing particles is less understood. The heater surface angle, particle-particle and particle-wall friction coefficients, and contact resistance are parametrically varied to discover their individual effects on the heat transfer process. A separate set of simulations is conducted to compare against an experimental particle heater built at NREL. In addition to elucidating the heat transfer performance, the simulations also reveal oscillatory flow patterns. It is discovered that such turbulent behavior is related to the geometry of the heater elements.<br> </p> <p>Second, a laboratory-scale experimental setup of the PFB-HX is built. The temperature, pressure drop, and minimum fluidization velocity are used to characterize the heat transfer and assess the capabilities of the PFB-HX. High-temperature fluidized bed experiments with an initial temperature gradient are performed. The bed becomes fluidized, but temperature gradients remain, and the bed is not fully mixed. At sufficient superficial velocity, the bed temperature becomes uniform. CFD-DEM coupled simulations are performed to investigate the temperature distributions more precisely. Initial bed temperature differences of 100, 300, and 500K are simulated with varying superficial velocities to create a regime map. The purpose of the regime map is to determine when the fluidized bed temperature becomes fully mixed for different initial conditions and gas velocities. The overall goal of this work is to understand the heat transfer processes of the flowing particles in both the particle heater and the PFB-HX to aid in the design of the ENDURING system.</p>

PhD. (Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology), Vaal University of Technology. / The use of solar photocatalysis for the treatment of aromatic chemicals like phenol in wastewater has attracted significant attention due to the low cost of sunlight. However, sunlight is unreliable since its intensity fluctuates during the day. This drawback can be addressed by supplementing sunlight with artificial UV lamps when the solar intensity reduces. In this work, such a hybrid solar/UV lamp reactor, internally illuminated by the UV lamp and externally by sunlight, was designed. Phenol was used as the model pollutant and the nanophase Aeroxide P25 TiO2 was employed as the photocatalyst and fluidized by compressed air. The catalyst and bubble distribution in the reactor was analysed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) while the Monte Carlo (MC) method was used to model the light distribution and reaction kinetics. Finally, a lamp controller was designed to specify the required UV lamp output as a function of the solar intensity. The CFD simulation using ANSYS CFX 17 showed that a fairly homogeneous distribution of the catalyst was achieved in the reactor. Consequently, accurate simulations of the light distribution could be achieved without considering the hydrodynamics. The MC models revealed that bubbles did not significantly influence light absorption at the optimum catalyst loading. This showed that air was a good medium for fluidization as it could provide good mixing and oxygen electron acceptor without negatively affecting light absorption. The forward scattering behaviour of the P25 TiO2 and the increase in light attenuation with catalyst loading was confirmed in this work. The optimum catalyst loading in the different reactor configurations was 0.15 g/L (tubular solar), 0.2 g/L (annular solar), 0.4 g/L (annular UV lamp), and 0.4 g/L (hybrid light). This resulted in experimental reaction rates of 0.337 mgL-1min-1 (tubular solar), 0.584 mgL-1min-1 (annular UV lamp), and 0.93 mgL-1min-1 (hybrid light). An analysis of the local volumetric rate of energy absorption (LVREA) and reaction rate profiles along the radial coordinate showed a non-uniformity which worsened with an increase in catalyst loading. The reaction order with respect to the volumetric rate of energy absorption (VREA) indicated that solar illumination resulted in a higher electron-hole recombination as compared to UV illumination. This, combined with the higher intensity of the UV lamp, resulted in a higher reaction rate under UV light as compared to sunlight, demonstrating that the UV lamp could be used to supplement sunlight. For a typical sunny day, a lamp controller was designed that could adjust the UV lamp output as a function of the solar intensity to maintain the reaction rate at a reference level while ensuring less energy consumption than an ON/OFF lamp controller. This work demonstrated the feasibility of hybrid solar/UV lamp photocatalysis reactor which could maintain the advantages of solar photocatalysis while mitigating its drawbacks.

One of the most sustainable pathways of sewage sludge treatment in recent years has been thermal conversion. The benefits of thermal treatment of sewage sludge are the recovery of energy or valuable chemical products, the destruction of harmful organic compounds, the separation of heavy metals from the P-rich coarse ash fraction, and the decreased and sanitized ash volume. The ashes created by these thermal conversion processes of sewage sludge are often rich in P that is mostly present in minerals with low plant-availability such as apatite. Due to the enrichment of P in the created ashes, a variety of post-processing steps have been developed to recover P from sewage sludge ashes. One proven way for the sus-tainable recovery of P from such ashes is thermal post-processing with alkaline salts, e.g., Na2SO4 or K2CO3, which was able to transform less plant-available phosphates in the sewage sludge into more plant-available alkali-bearing phos-phates. Based on these results, one could facilitate creating these phosphates with enhanced plant-availability by providing the chemical potential to form them already during the thermal conversion process of sewage sludge.   This thesis aims to increase the current knowledge about the ash transformation processes of P and to suggest suitable process parameters for the alteration of the phosphate speciation in sewage sludge ashes by co-conversion with alkaline-rich agricultural residues. More specifically, the possibility of incorporating K derived from agricultural residues in phosphate structures derived from sewage sludge was evaluated with respect to the influence of the process temperature, the conver-sion atmosphere, and the fuel mixture. The studied parameters were chosen to generate knowledge relevant for fluidized bed gasification processes, with a spe-cial focus on dual fluidized bed (DFB) gasification systems. The applicability of feldspar bed materials in fluidized bed gasification systems was investigated to enable the substitution of the commonly used olivine, which often contains heavy metals (potentially contaminating recovered ashes), and quartz, which is very reactive towards fuel-derived K and potentially leads to bed material fragmentation and bed agglomeration (Paper I &amp; II). Subsequently, the thermodynamic potential for the alteration of the P-species in sewage sludge ash during co-combustion and co-gasification processes with agricultural residues was investigated (Paper III). Thereafter, an experimental evaluation of the ash transformation chemistry in thermal conversion processes of sewage sludge with different types of alkali-rich agricultural residues in temperatures relevant for flu-idized bed technology was conducted (Paper IV &amp; V). The methodology employed was chosen with respect to the state of technology of the specific investigated process. Paper I &amp; II applied SEM, EDS, XRD, and thermodynamic equilibrium modeling for bed material samples derived from an industrial indirect gasifier. Paper III applied thermodynamic equilibrium calcula-tions to theoretically evaluate ash compositions resulting from co-conversion of sewage sludge and agricultural residues. Paper IV &amp; V employed SEM, EDS, ICP-AES/MS, XRD, and thermochemical modeling on ash samples derived from single pellet lab-scale experiments. The results obtained by analysis of bed material from indirect wood gasification showed the difference in interaction mechanism for K-feldspar and Na-feldspar, most notably the enhanced disintegration of Na-feldspar by K originating from the fuel (Paper I &amp; II). Thermodynamic models employed for fuel mixtures of sewage sludge and agricultural residues showed the thermodynamic preference for the formation of the desired alkali-bearing phosphates (Paper III). Experi-ments conducted with these fuel mixtures (Paper IV &amp; V) supported the theo-retical findings, and the influence of temperature and process conditions could be obtained. However, practical investigations also showed that attainment of the desired ash composition is subject to significant restrictions. Derived from the elaborated results and discussions, it was possible to assess the critical process and fuel parameters for the development of up-scaled gasification processes focusing on the conversion of sewage sludge with the aim of creating improved phosphate formation in the ash. The selection of a suitable bed material in fluidized bed conversion and the transformation mechanisms defining the ash chemistry were found to be of vital importance for future applications. The pur-suit of the predefined aims in reference to P-recovery from sewage sludge has led to a multitude of suggestions for suitable process parameters that must be ad-dressed in future bench- and pilot-scale experimental runs.

This project is primarily focused on improving the storage stability of bio-oils or pyrolysis oils by varying feedstock, reactor, and storage conditions. Pyrolysis oil is a complex medley of oxygenated chemicals (aliphatic and aromatic) that are well known to undergo unstable polymeric reactions (auto-catalyzed) if suitable additives are not utilized. These reactions can be severely detrimental to the long-term storage stability of pyrolysis oils. Hence, a detailed investigation was conducted in four phases namely: 1) pyrolysis oil production 2) additive prescreening 3) concentration optimization and 4) stability testing. During the first phase a lab-scale semi-continuous auger reactor is utilized to produce 16 pyrolysis oils. The reactor variables include pyrolysis temperature and vapor residence time. The feed stocks include pine wood, pine bark, oak wood, and oak bark. During the second phase a range of chemical additives (26) are prescreened to obtain three best performing additives. Anisole, glycerol, and methanol are consequently utilized to perform concentration optimization studies during the third phase. Viscosity, water content, and pH of pyrolysis oils are timely measured to assess the accelerated storage stability of pyrolysis oils during the phases 2-3. During the fourth phase, pyrolysis oils produced from three different reactor systems (lab-scale auger, large-scale auger, and entrained flow) were tested for their storage stability. Viscosity, water content, pH, density, and acid value are timely measured to assess the ambient and accelerated storage stability of pyrolysis oils during phase 4. Extrinsic variables such as light and filtration are utilized during the experimental testing of phase 4. The rheological data (Newtonian/non-Newtonian) enhanced the understanding of pyrolysis oil storage stability both qualitatively and quantitatively. The stability performance of a chemical additive is very much dependent on the concentration and its organic functional group. Consequently, alcohols fared above all the other functional groups in stabilizing the pyrolysis oils. Glycerol is observed to have special blending and homogenizing properties compared to all other additives. Feedstock seems to be the single most important factor affecting storage stability of pyrolysis oils. Consequently, pine wood resulted in the most stable pyrolysis oil whereas pine bark resulted in the least stable pyrolysis oil.

Les simulations numériques des équations d’Euler deux-fluides réalisé sur des maillages grossiers éliminent les structures fins d’écoulement gaz-solide dans les lits fluidisés. Pour précisément estimer l’hydrodynamique globale de lit, il faut proposer une modélisation qui prend en compte les effets de structure non-résolue. Dans ce but, les maillages sont raffinés pour obtenir le résultat de simulation pleinement résolue ce que les grandeurs statistiques ne modifient plus avec un autre raffinement pour le lit fluidisé périodique dilué gaz-particules sur une géométrie 3D cartésienne et ce résultat est utilisé pour tests "a priori". Les résultats de tests "a priori" montrent que l’équation filtrée de la quantité de mouvement est effectuée mais il faut prendre en compte le flux de la fraction volumique de solide de sous-maille en raison de l’interaction locale de la vitesse du gaz et la fraction volumique de solide pour la force traniée. Nous proposons les modèles fonctionnels et structurels pour le flux de la fraction volumique de solide de sous-maille. En plus, les modèles fermetures du tenseur de sous-maille de la phase dispersée sont similaires aux modèles classiquement utilisés en écoulement turbulent monophasique. Tous les modèles sont validés par test "a priori" et "a posteriori" / Eulerian two fluid approach is generally used to simulate gas-solid flows in industrial circulating fluidized beds. Because of limitation of computational resources, simulations of large vessels are usually performed by using too coarse grid. Coarse grid simulations can not resolve fine flow scales which can play an important role in the dynamic behaviour of the beds. In particular, cancelling out the particle segregation effect of small scales leads to an inadequate modelling of the mean interfacial momentum transfer between phases and particulate shear stresses by secondary effect. Then, an appropriate modelling ac counting for influences of unresolved structures has to be proposed for coarse-grid simu-lations. For this purpose, computational grids are refined to get mesh-independent result where statistical quantities do not change with further mesh refinement for a 3-D peri-odic circulating fluidized bed. The 3-D periodic circulating fluidized is a simple academic configuration where gas-solid flow conducted with A-type particles is periodically driven along the opposite direction of the gravity. The particulate momentum and agitation equations are filtered by the volume averaging and the importance of additional terms due to the averaging procedure are investigated by budget analyses using the mesh independent result. Results show that the filtered momentum equation of phases can be computed on coarse grid simulations but sub-grid drift velocity due to the sub-grid correlation between the local fluid veloc- ity and the local particle volume fraction and particulate sub-grid shear stresses must be taken into account. In this study, we propose functional and structural models for sub- grid drift velocity, written in terms of the difference between the gas velocity-solid volume fraction correlation and the multiplication of the filtered gas velocity with the filtered solid volume fraction. Particulate sub-grid shear stresses are closed by models proposed for single turbulent flows. Models’ predictabilities are investigated by a priori tests and they are validated by coarse-grid simulations of 3-D periodic circulating, dense fluidized beds and experimental data of industrial scale circulating fluidized bed in manner of a posteriori tests

No presente trabalho desenvolve-se um estudo de modelagem matemática e simulação numérica do escoamento bifásico gás-sólido na coluna ascendente de um leito fluidizado circulante. Utiliza-se o modelo euleriano de duas fases separadas considerando dois procedimentos diferentes para a modelagem do tensor das tensões da fase sólida: modelo tradicional e a teoria cinética dos escoamentos granulares (TCEG). As simulações numéricas são conduzidas com a utilização do código MFIX que é um software livre e disponível na rede (Internet). Os resultados da simulação numérica são avaliados por meio da análise da influência dos seguintes parâmetros: malha computacional, correlações para o computo do tensor das tensões da fase sólida e esquemas de discretização dos termos advectivos. Também se desenvolve estudo de caracterização de estruturas coerentes - \"clusters\". De forma complementar foram realizadas duas análises teóricas compreendendo: uma análise da influência das diversas correlações utilizadas na TCEG para o computo da viscosidade dinâmica do sólido; e uma análise enfocando o emprego de diversos esquemas de discretização para os termos advectivos presentes nas equações de conservação (Foup, Muscl, Van Leer, Minmod e Superbee). De todos os estudos e resultados apresentados no trabalho conclui-se que os escoamentos gás-sólido em leitos fluidizados circulantes são muito complexos, sendo necessário a realização de futuras pesquisas para uma melhor compreensão dos fenômenos físicos inerentes a esses escoamentos. / In the present work is described a mathematical model and numerical study simulation of the gas-solid flow in the riser of a circulating fluidized bed. It is used the two fluids eulerian model considering two different procedures for the solid phase stress tensor modeling: the traditional model and the kinetic theory of granular flows (KTGF). The numerical simulation results are evaluated through the influence analysis of the following parameters: computational mesh, correlations for computing the solid phase stress tensor and the discretization of the advective terms. It is also presented a study concerning the characterization coherent structures - \"clusters\". Complementing the above studies were accomplished two theoretical analyses comprehending: an influence analysis of several correlations used in the KTGF for computing the dynamic viscosity of the solid phase; and an analysis concerning several discretization schemes for the advective terms present in the conservative equations. Considering the developed studies and the obtained results it is concluded that the gas-solid flows in circulating fluidized beds are very complex, being necessary future research works for a better comprehension of the inherent physical phenomena to these flows.

No presente trabalho desenvolve-se um estudo de modelagem matemática e simulação numérica do escoamento bifásico gás-sólido na coluna ascendente de um leito fluidizado circulante. Utiliza-se o modelo euleriano de duas fases separadas considerando dois procedimentos diferentes para a modelagem do tensor das tensões da fase sólida: modelo tradicional e a teoria cinética dos escoamentos granulares (TCEG). As simulações numéricas são conduzidas com a utilização do código MFIX que é um software livre e disponível na rede (Internet). Os resultados da simulação numérica são avaliados por meio da análise da influência dos seguintes parâmetros: malha computacional, correlações para o computo do tensor das tensões da fase sólida e esquemas de discretização dos termos advectivos. Também se desenvolve estudo de caracterização de estruturas coerentes - \"clusters\". De forma complementar foram realizadas duas análises teóricas compreendendo: uma análise da influência das diversas correlações utilizadas na TCEG para o computo da viscosidade dinâmica do sólido; e uma análise enfocando o emprego de diversos esquemas de discretização para os termos advectivos presentes nas equações de conservação (Foup, Muscl, Van Leer, Minmod e Superbee). De todos os estudos e resultados apresentados no trabalho conclui-se que os escoamentos gás-sólido em leitos fluidizados circulantes são muito complexos, sendo necessário a realização de futuras pesquisas para uma melhor compreensão dos fenômenos físicos inerentes a esses escoamentos. / In the present work is described a mathematical model and numerical study simulation of the gas-solid flow in the riser of a circulating fluidized bed. It is used the two fluids eulerian model considering two different procedures for the solid phase stress tensor modeling: the traditional model and the kinetic theory of granular flows (KTGF). The numerical simulation results are evaluated through the influence analysis of the following parameters: computational mesh, correlations for computing the solid phase stress tensor and the discretization of the advective terms. It is also presented a study concerning the characterization coherent structures - \"clusters\". Complementing the above studies were accomplished two theoretical analyses comprehending: an influence analysis of several correlations used in the KTGF for computing the dynamic viscosity of the solid phase; and an analysis concerning several discretization schemes for the advective terms present in the conservative equations. Considering the developed studies and the obtained results it is concluded that the gas-solid flows in circulating fluidized beds are very complex, being necessary future research works for a better comprehension of the inherent physical phenomena to these flows.

Autoclaved sand aerated concrete is a modern building material with high thermal insulation properties. Only sand is used as the primary silicate component of aerated concrete in the Czech Republic. For the more favourable economic and ecological properties of aerated concrete, the use of secondary raw materials is used in this work. The secondary raw materials examined included fluidized bed and fly ash, slag and glass recycled. The aerated concrete composite with secondary admixtures was developed under hydrothermal conditions of a laboratory autoclave for 7 and 12 hours at 190°C. From the secondary raw materials tested, a 10% glass recycler additive yielded the highest strength. Other additives that have a positive effect on mechanical properties include SAKO and Oslavany. From the results of the work it is evident that the use of secondary raw materials increases the strength, improves the rheology of the mixture and supports the formation of tobermorite.

The topic of this work is the monitoring of the effect of zinc on the hydration process in Portland mixed cement (specifically with the addition of finely ground granulated blast-furnace slag, high temperature fly ash and fluidized bed combustion filter ash). How much zinc and at what time it remains in the pore solution during hydration. Activation energy of a mixture of cement with zinc in the form of soluble salts (Zn(NO3)2.6H2O and ZnCl2) and insoluble oxide (ZnO) by isothermal calorimetry was also investigated. The XRF method has shown composition during hydration. The zinc retardation effect was investigated by isothermal calorimetry and activation energy was calculated using this method. The XRF and ICP-OES methods were used to measure the zinc content of the pore solution. And the amount of portlandite was monitored by the DTA and XRF method.