CFD analysis of hydrodynamic behavior in a fluidized bed gasifier

Gasification of biomass is a technology that can satisfy the requirements of progressively severe environmental regulations. In this study, hydrodynamic behavior of a gas–solid fluidized bed gasification reactor is investigated numerically. Computational results of a two-dimensional gasifier from the open-source software package OpenFOAM have compared with the experimental data available in the literature. The Eulerian–Eulerian multi-phase model was applied for the bulk motion of the two-phase flow, and the kinetic theory of granular flow was used to predict the solid-phase interactions. Momentum exchange coefficients were calculated using the Gidaspow and Syamlal–O’Brien drag functions. The CFD predicted pressure drop agreed reasonably well with the cold model reactor test data.