An experimental study of a volatiles distributor for solid fuels chemical-looping combustion process

Journal article, 2021

A novel concept called volatiles distributor (VD), with the purpose to achieve an even distribution of volatiles over the cross-section of a fluidized-bed and better contact between volatiles and bed materials, has been investigated. The concept could be useful for chemical- looping combustion, as well as other solid fuel conversion processes in fluidized-beds. An experimental study of the VD in a circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) cold-flow model was conducted under different fluidization velocities and flows of simulated volatiles. In the reference case without VD, a local plume of volatiles is formed and the maldistribution becomes more pronounced at higher fluidization velocity in the range from 1 m/s to 4 m/s. Conversely, higher fluidization velocity gives a more even volatiles distribution in the presence of VD. The relative standard deviation of volatiles horizontal distribution decreases from 131% in absence of VD to 22% in presence of VD at the fluidization velocity of 4 m/s. There is no significant effect of volatiles flow rate on VD performance at a fluidization velocity 1 m/s. As the fluidization velocity and volatiles flow rate increase, the bed level inside VD is lowered and the volatiles inside the VD become less diluted, because less air from the main fluidization passes through the VD.