Numerical and experimental study on granular flow and heat transfer characteristics of directly-irradiated fluidized bed reactor for solar gasification

Solar gasification is one of the promising techniques to convert the carbonaceous materials to clean chemical fuels, which offers the advantages of being transportable as well as storable for extended period of time. In this study, thermal performance of a recently developed 5 kWth fluidized bed reactor for solar gasification has been investigated and reported. Discrete element method (DEM) has been used for modeling the granular flow, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method has been used for modeling the multiphase flow. To validate the developed model, experiments were preformed and compared with modeling results. Discrete ordinate radiation model has been used to solve the radiative transfer equation. The thermal performance of the reactor and particulate flow behavior have been predicted and the effect of particle size, particle size distribution and gas flow rate are analyzed. The results indicate that the performance of the bed increases when fluidizing the annulus region particles as the high porosity increases the diffusion rate of radiation throughout the bed.