Fluidised Bed

Fluidised bed

The objectives of the current proposal are to investigate numerically into the phenomena of drying of sewage sludge and biomass on a vibrating grate and subsequent gasification in a fluidised bed. Contrary to entirely based continuous phase approaches, the current methodology relies on the Extended Discrete Element Method (XDEM) that resolves the particles as a discrete phase coupled via heat, mass and momentum transfer to the gas phase, and thus, represents an advanced and innovative simulation technology. Consequently the state of each particle during thermal conversion in conjunction with the surrounding gaseous phase is predicted, that furnishes detailed results for both the conversion history of individual particles and the gas phase. The proposed approach will be validated with measurements from the Valortech project to a large extent and if necessary with additional data from literature. Hence, predictions obtained by numerical simulation complement excellently experiments and contribute to a deeper understanding of the underlying physics of the processes involved. These findings feed back into the Valortech project, for which drying and gasification processes form the core part to valorise a fuel derived from sewage sludge and biomass. Analysis of predictions of both the drying vibrating grate and the fluidised bed lead to an improved design and operating conditions, and thus, strongly support the Valortech project.

• Partners: M. Demouling, SoilConcept
• Contact: Prof.-Dr.-Ing. B. Peters