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h i g h l i g h t s
We provide the rst ever computational insights to the physics of LaaObi coal in Nigeria.
Realistic objectives are geared towards coal power generation.
Further establishes the understanding of LaaObi coal.
Oxy-combustion technology signicantly yields lower emissions.
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 18 July 2014
Received in revised form 1 September 2014
Accepted 19 September 2014
Available online 6 October 2014
Keywords:
Combustion
Fluidized-bed
CFD
Energy
Nigeria
a b s t r a c t
Coal still remains the most plentiful and dominant fossil fuel. Coal is an inhomogeneous organic fuel
formed mainly from decomposed plant matter consisting of aromatic and hydroaromatic structures
joined by short aliphatic chains whereby aromaticity increases with coalication rank. The use of coal,
particularly for electricity generation, is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. In this research
study, computational uid dynamics (CFD) is applied to simulate aircoal and oxy-coal ow, combustion,
and emission characteristics in a uidized-bed combustion chamber. This work investigates LaaObi
coal, which is found in the Middle Benue Trough (MBT) of Nigeria. As far as the authors are aware, this
research presentation represents the rst CFD-based assessment and analysis for any Nigerian coal. Realistic primary objectives of uidized-bed combustion research in Nigeria would be the following: (1)
establishing an understanding of the physics and emission characteristics of various fuels (coal, waste,
etc.) in the country with a view to future scale-up; and (2) developing and establishing measures to curb
pollutant emissions in such future power plants for electricity generation. The pertinent combustion
parameters of this research were validated with existing experimental data; good agreement was
achieved. This work furthers the understanding of the LaaObi coal combustion mechanism and its
potential utilization as fuel for future coal-power plants for electricity generation in Nigeria.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Today, coal is utilized in large tonnages for the generation of
electricity in power plants. Latest estimates indicate that 41% of
electric power generation depends on coal [1]. With continued global climate change concerns, efforts continue worldwide to achieve
cleaner and more efcient coal combustion for energy production.
Such future energy systems can be expected to have signicantly
lower environmental impacts due to the use of clean-coal
technologies.
179
upow [3]. There are generally two types of uidized-bed combustor: bubbling or circulating.
The notable advantages of uidized-bed combustors include uniform temperature distribution, a large solidgas exchange area,
high heat-transfer coefcients, fuel exibility (various possible
sizes and moisture contents, etc.), stable combustion at low
temperatures, and generally no moving parts. The notable
disadvantages include additional required equipment for solid separation or gas purication, erosion of the inside of the combustor,
agglomeration (that can lead to de-uidization), and difculties
operating at partial load [2,3]. That notwithstanding uidized-bed
combustion is often regarded as a clean-coal technology due to its
high combustion efciency and reduced environmental impact.
Coal was discovered in Nigeria in 1909 and mining activities
began in 1915 at Ogbete in Enugu, Southeastern Nigeria [4]. In
Nigeria, coal was perhaps the rst energy resource to be exploited
for rail transport and electricity generation. In present day Nigeria,
however, coal remains the smallest contributor to the overall fuel
mix [5] and ranks low in worldwide coal production. Nigerian coal
is presently mostly utilized for cement production; in foundries,
brick factories, and bakeries; and as a domestic cooking fuel. With
a projected increase in global energy demand to between 12 and
15 GW by 2025, coal is expected to play a prominent role in several
proposed power generating facilities [6]. Indeed, and more recently,
Nigeria signed a US$3.7b agreement with a Chinese consortium for
coal mining and power plant construction with the future goal of
generating up to 30% of Nigerian electricity from coal [7].
With proven coal reserves estimated to be about 2.5 billion tonnes (of which 250 million tonnes are lignitic and the remainder are
mainly subbituminous [4,8]), Nigerian coals are principally low
rank with caloric values comparing favorably with universal gures of the same rank [8]. They have also been reported to have
good potential for gasication and liquefaction and have ne combustion characteristics [8]. They burn with long ames, which are
desirable even though they require large combustion spaces [9].
Gasication studies of LaaObi coal in a shallow bed were performed in the work of [10]. The structural characterization of six
Nigerian coals by laser spectroscopic techniques (X-ray diffraction
and Raman and FTIR spectroscopy) was presented in Ref. [11]
showing that a linear relationship exists between coal structural
parameters and their elemental carbon and volatile matter
content. In a more recent work on new coal nds in Nigeria, the
authors in Ref. [12] presented compositional studies and technological applications. Flash pyrolysis of Nigerian Asaba lignite in a
uidized-bed reactor was performed in the work of [13] to investigate the yield of volatile matter, tar, and C1C4 hydrocarbons
showing that they increased with temperature for which the temperature range was 390790 C. There are also other ongoing bubbling uidized-bed combustor designs for future experimental
studies as presented in the work of [14]. Research works from
these studies on some Nigerian coals show that they have low levels of toxic metals such as Cr, Pb, Cu, and Zn as compared to some
foreign coals thus making Nigerian coals relatively more environmentally friendly than some foreign coals.
In this study, LaaObi coal is under CFD investigation, a bituminous coal for which experimental studies were carried out by
Popoola and Asere [15]. As far as the authors are aware, this work
represents the rst CFD-based assessment and analysis for any
Nigerian coal under airfuel and oxy-fuel combustion, making it
a very worthwhile undertaking to yield more insights on the physics of Nigerian coals. It is envisaged that the study will provide
more perspectives on the coal with the aim of utilizing it to generate electricity.
Nigeria has notable coal deposits found at Ogboyoga, Okaba,
Enugu, Ezimo, Orukpa and LaaObi. LaaObi coal is characterized by low moisture content, volatile matter, high carbon content,
and believed to be TuronianConiacian in age. The coal has a caloric value that ranges between 20,000 and 35,600 kJ/kg1, suggesting optimal suitability for combustion. The coal deposits of
LaaObi are geologically the oldest so far discovered in Nigeria
and found in the MBT. It is perhaps the only coal in Nigeria with
good coking properties. A cokable coal is that which softens, fuse,
and re-solidies when heated to form carbon-rich material called
coke. The coal is also laden with high ash and sulphur contents relative to the other coal types found in Nigeria, and as such would
require washing prior to coking. Interested readers may consult
the Refs. [8,16] further for more information on LaaObi coal.
CFD is the mathematical modeling and simulation of ow and
thermal systems, where it is assumed that the governing equations
are in the form of NavierStokes, thermal energy, and species
equations along with the appropriate equations of state. The
method requires the mass, momentum, thermal energy, and
Table 1
Reaction rates and constants.
Reaction rate
(kmol m3 s1)
Reaction rate
constant
r1 = k1Crawcoal
0:7
r2 k1 C 0:8
O2 C CH4
17:5Y H2O P
r3 k3 Y CO Y 0:5
H2O 124Y H2O RT
k4 C 1:5
H2 C O2
r4
r5 = k5CtarCO2
r6 6ucdYp char kc C O2
1:8
r8 = k8CN2CO
r9 = k9CNCO2
c
kc 1=kRT=w
1=k2
d
180
excellent review and overview of oxy-fuel coal-combustion technology was presented in [23,24]. CFD modeling of the FBC of coal
for design and scale-up purposes eliminates, to some degree, the
need for expensive testing of prototype FBC systems; thus, it helps
in arriving at the best design conditions. The importance of such
modeling and simulation to predict combustor performance cannot be overemphasized particularly for commercialization of FBC
technology, and environmental sustainability in Nigeria, as well
as for other developing nations.
2. Model description
The objective of the present study is to numerically study the
process of the heterogeneous combustion of the Nigerian Laa
Obi coal particles in a uidized-bed reactor for air- and oxy-fuel
combustion. The coal was taken from the LaaObi site in the
MBT of Nigeria; the coal particle sizes varied from 10 mm to
25 mm.
Fig. 2. Geometric description of the computational mesh with estimated dimensions (units: mm).
181
@um qm
!
_
um qm um m;
@t
um 1:
mw
!
@um qm um
! !
rum qm um um
@t
!
!
_ !c ;
g Mm dm;h F int;c mu
um rp um rst qm um~
st is the turbulent stress tensor given by the standard k-epsilon turbulence model. The interphase momentum-transfer terms are equal
and opposite for the two phases (i.e., Mg,c = Mc,g), representing the
drag force expression for high particle loading [25]. The solid stress
caused by interparticle collisions is represented by the solid
pressure force Fint,c, and dm,h is the Kronecker delta such that:
580uc;lim uc
F int;c e
ruc ;
where uc,lim is the packing limit of coal powder [25]. The energy
conservation is given in terms of the enthalpy h and is represented
as:
@
!
u q hm rum qm um hm
@t m m
rum km rT m Sm dm;c qr ;
!
@
!
u q Y i rug qg ug Y i r J i Ri ;
@t g g
The coal friction or the friction of the dispersed phase over the
walls of the system is accounted for via the molecular and turbulent viscosity concepts applied to the Eulerian dispersed phase. The
latter is given by the standard ke model while the rst uses the
so-called apparent viscosity concept when the viscosity of the
aircoal mixture is calculated by the RoscoeBrinkman expression:
lcoal
dr coal
1
_
m;
dt
4pr2coal q
where rcoal is the radius of the coal particle, and the mass transfer
rate is given in Eq. (1).
Several reactions are considered to take place during coal combustion, such as char burnout; convection and radiation heat transfer between particles and gases; thermal and fuel NO formation/
destruction; and devolatization. It is important to take account of
these, especially coal devolatization [27]. However, in this work,
Table 2
Solver parameters.
Solver parameters
Values
SIMPLE scheme
Time step
Number of inner iterations
Relaxation factor momentum
Relaxation factor pressure
Relaxation factor turbulence
Number of sweeps
Residual tolerance
1 ms
5
0.3
0.1
0.3
100
0.05
Table 3
Operating parameters.
Operating parameters
Values
Table 4
Analysis of LaaObi coal.
Analysis
Values
Proximate analysis
Moisture (wt%)
Volatile mater (wt%)
Ash (wt%)
Fixed carbon (wt%)
2.91
27.19
18.62
51.28
Ultimate analysis
C (wt%)
H (wt%)
N (wt%)
S (wt%)
Gross caloric (kJ/kg1)
59.29
40.61
2.10
1.81
23,721.4
182
Fig. 3. Contours and time series of the coal volume fraction in the midline cross-section of the reactor for 120 s of the process for 10 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate.
yields
yields
R2
R3
H2 1=2O2 ! H2 O;
Hydrocarbon oxidation:
R4
183
(a) 10 mm coal at 2 s
(d) 25 mm coal at 2 s
(c) 10 mm coal at 20 s
(b) 10 mm coal at 10 s
(e) 25 mm coal at 10 s
(f) 25 mm coal at 20 s
Fig. 4. (af) Temperature contours (K) in the midline cross-section of the reactor at 2, 10, 20 s of the process for 10 mm and 25 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate.
yields
R5
Carbon oxidation:
yields
yields
C O2 ! CO2 ;
Carbon oxide generation:
R7
R6
N2 O ! NO N;
yields
N O2 ! NO O:
R8
R9
184
T [K]
1280
1260
1240
1220
1200
1180
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
z/Hmax
Fig. 5. Reactor temperature as a function of the dimensionless axial coordinate for
10 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate at 20 s.
Table 5
Comparison of experimental and CFD predictions for space average reactor temperatures as a function of time for 10, 15, 20, 25 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate.
Time (s)
Temperature, K
10 mm
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Discrepancy, %
15 mm
20 mm
25 mm
CFD
Exp.
CFD
Exp.
CFD
Exp.
CFD
Exp.
1124
1152
1176
1190
1207
1216
1236
1253
1268
1284
1108
1154
1166
1197
1213
1213
1226
1248
1248
1283
1023
1109
1127
1105
1113
1126
1160
1163
1183
1180
1061
1141
1166
1083
1117
1141
1197
1188
1210
1188
1005
1064
1079
1121
1088
1110
1094
1156
1148
1163
1083
1073
1106
1154
1095
1166
1108
1173
1152
1188
1003
1057
1088
1055
1113
1090
1122
1097
1082
1110
1026
1085
1106
1013
1141
1061
1154
1095
1095
1129
10 mm
15 mm
20 mm
25 mm
2
0
1
1
1
0
1
0
2
0
5
4
4
3
0
2
4
3
3
1
10
1
3
4
1
6
2
2
0
3
3
3
2
6
3
4
4
0
2
2
185
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
z/Hmax
Fig. 7. Gas-velocity magnitude as a function of the dimensionless axial coordinate
for 10 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate at 20 s of the process.
0.5
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
|
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
z/Hmax
Fig. 8. Char content as a function of the dimensionless axial coordinate for 10 mm
coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate at 20 s of the process.
fresh coal is injected into the process. The char is further fully
burned down or consumed to negligible amounts. We also note
that the residuals of the particles with the unburnt material were
transported over the ow system as the second, dispersed phase.
The ash was assumed to remain with the coal particles, with
reduced size, thus there was no separate modeling to account for
ash segregation and transport.
7.5. Emissions
Fig. 9 reports the contours of the CO concentration in the midline cross-section of the reactor for 2, 10 and 20 s of the process,
with a mean particle size of 10 mm, and a 0.3 kg/s feed rate. It follows from the gure that the amount of carbon monoxide
decreases with time since the temperature rises and more oxygen
is captured by reactions in the dioxide production. Initially, the
maximum CO concentration is located above the bed; later, it shifts
25000
20000
CO (ppm)
186
15000
10mm-CFD
10mm-Exp.
10000
25mm-CFD
5000
0
25mm-Exp.
2
10
12
Time (s)
14
16
18
20
Fig. 10. Comparisons of CFD with experimental results for space average concentrations of CO as a function of time for 10 and 25 mm coal particles at a 0.3 kg/s feed
rate.
Fig. 9. Contours of CO concentration (ppm) in the midline cross-section of the reactor at 2, 10, and 20 s of the process for 10 mm coal particles at a 0.3 kg/s feed rate.
187
Fig. 11. Contours of NOx concentration (ppm) in the midline cross-section of the reactor at 2, 10, and 20 s of the process for 10 mm coal particles at a 0.3 kg/s feed rate.
25000
900
800
20000
600
500
10mm-CFD
400
10mm-Exp.
300
25mm-CFD
200
25mm-Exp.
15000
10000
5000
100
0
O2 [ppm]
NO x (ppm)
700
10
12
14
16
18
20
Time (s)
Fig. 12. Comparisons of CFD with experimental results for space average concentrations of NOx as a function of time for 10 and 25 mm coal particles at a 0.3 kg/s
feed rate.
further into the bed. Fig. 10 reports the reactors average concentrations of CO over time for 10 mm and 25 mm particles; the CFD
predictions are also compared with the experimental data.
It is observed from Fig. 10 that an increase in particle size
decreases the CO amount in the system since it hinders combustion.
The oscillations are caused by the temporal pulsations of temperature (as illustrated). The model agrees well with the experiment.
The contours of NOx concentration are given in Fig. 11 for the
case with 10 mm coal particles at a feed rate of 0.3 kg/s. The temporal behavior of NOx differs from carbon dioxide since reactions
R8R9 require a relatively high temperature. NOx production is
therefore proportional to the temperature rise history, while the
spatial distribution of the NOx concentration is similar to that
observed for CO.
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
z/Hmax
Fig. 13. Oxygen concentration as a function of the dimensionless axial coordinate
for 10 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate for 20 s of the process.
188
Fig. 14. Contours of the particle Nusselt number for the midline cross-section of the
reactor for 20 s of the process for 10 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate.
Fig. 16. Temperature contours (K) in the midline cross-section of the reactor at 20 s
of the process for 10 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate for oxy-fuel
combustion.
1320
T - air
T - oxy
1300
1280
T [K]
1260
1240
1220
1200
1180
1160
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
z/Hmax
Fig. 17. Comparison of oxy-fuel and airfuel combustion temperatures as a
function of the dimensionless axial coordinate at 20 s of the process for 10 mm
coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate.
Fig. 15. Contours of thermal heat ux on the walls of the reactor for 20 s of the
process for 10 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate (dimensions in W/m2).
189
16
14
Vg - oxy
0.35
char fraction
Char-oxy
0.4
12
10
8
6
4
0.3
0.25
|
0.2
0.15
0.1
2
0
Char - air
0.45
Vg - air
0.05
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
z/Hmax
Fig. 18. Comparison of oxy-fuel and airfuel combustion gas velocity magnitudes
as a function of the dimensionless axial coordinate at 20 s of the process for 10 mm
coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate.
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
z/Hmax
Fig. 20. Char content as a function of the dimensionless axial coordinate for 20 s of
the process for 10 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate.
Fig. 21. Contours of the thermal heat ux on the walls of the reactor under oxy-fuel
combustion for 20 s of the process for 10 mm coal particles at a 0.2 kg/s feed rate
(dimensions in W/m2).
190
191