3D numerical study on syngas production in a structured packed bed with connected pellets

Abstract Fuel-rich partial combustion in porous media is numerically studied at the pore scale with 3D staggered arrangement of connected pellets. The chemistry is treated with detailed chemical mechanism and the solid-to-solid radiation is taken into account. The numerical results are validated against experimental results and indicates that 3D pore scale numerical modeling gives reasonable syngas components. Considerable heat recirculation in the preheating zone is predicted by 3D pore-scale model. Root mean squares (RMS) is used to quantitatively estimate the local spatial variations of the velocity and gas temperature. It is shown that the distribution of RMS of gas temperature along flow direction is basically wave-like shape and the spatial variation of gas velocity reaches 78% of the average velocity.