Heat and mass transfer analysis of a suspension of reacting particles subjected to concentrated solar radiation – Application to the steam-gasification of carbonaceous materials

A chemical reactor for the steam-gasification of carbonaceous materials (e.g. coal, coke, biomass) using high-temperature solar process heat is modeled by means of a two-phase formulation that couples radiative, convective, and conductive heat transfer to the chemical kinetics for polydisperse suspensions of reacting particles. The governing mass and energy conservation equations are solved by applying advanced Monte–Carlo and finite-volume techniques with smoothing and underrelaxation. Validation is accomplished by comparing the numerically calculated temperatures, product compositions, and chemical conversions with the experimentally measured values obtained from testing a 5 kW solar reactor prototype in a high-flux solar furnace. A unique feature of the reactor concept is that the gas-particle flow is directly exposed to concentrated solar radiation, providing efficient radiative heat transfer to the reaction site for driving the high-temperature highly endothermic process.