The discrete phase modelling governing the dynamics of biomass particles inside a fast pyrolysis reactor

Abstract

The influences of several important biomass pyrolysis process parameters such as the biomass feedstock type, flow pressure, biomass feeding rate and biomass particle size play an important role to ensure an efficient pyrolysis process. Unfortunately, the determination of these parameters can be cumbersome and often requires the method of trial and error. As a result, our work discusses the idea of the application of discrete phase modelling (DPM) in the fast pyrolysis process so that the optimum value of these essential parameters can be determined numerically. The numerical test demonstrated in this paper involving the fast pyrolysis of wood indicates that the application of DPM in the simulation is feasible for obtaining the initial prediction of the optimum process parameters.