CFD simulation on the gasification of asphalt water slurry in an entrained flow gasifier

Abstract

Gasification technology is suggested to utilize asphalt particles, which are produced in the heavy oil deep separation process of using coupled low temperature separation of solvent and post extraction residue. In this work, the asphalt particles were first slurried with water and then gasified to produce synthesis gas. The gasification process of asphalt water slurry in an entrained flow gasifier was simulated using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model based on an Eulerian-Lagrangian method. The trajectories and residence time of asphalt particles, and the reaction rates, gas species distribution, temperature field and carbon conversion in the entrained flow gasifier were obtained. The predicted results indicated that the asphalt water slurry was a good feedstock for gasification. Moreover, the effects of particle size, oxygen equivalence ratio, and mass content of asphalt particles on the gasification performance of asphalt water slurry were investigated. These results are helpful for industrial application of asphalt water slurry gasification technology. © 2014 China University of Petroleum (Beijing) and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.