Numerical simulation study of impact of polydispersity on biomass pyrolysis in draft-tube spouted reactor with fountain confiner

During biomass pyrolysis within spouted reactor, particles exhibit behavior characterized by polydispersity. To explore the impact of polydispersity of bed materials on the biomass pyrolysis, the multiphase particle-in-cell model is constructed to simulate such process. The focus of the study is examining the impact of size distribution of solid materials and the presence of a draft tube on the particle-level properties. The results show that the yields of Gas1 and tar during the first pyrolysis increase about 13.1 % and 14.8 %, respectively, as the PSD width of sand increase from 0.1 to 0.7. In addition, the influence of the draft tube is primarily centered on enhancing interphase interactions rather than pyrolysis yields when a fountain confiner is applied. Fine particles mainly distribute along the interphase of annulus and its vicinity while coarse particles mainly accumulate along the interphase of annulus and spout. Expanding the PSD widths of bed materials from 0.1 to 0.7 results in an approximate temperature increase of 10 K in the floating biomass. The variation of particle slip velocity and heat transfer coefficient exhibits similar trend, mainly due to their interrelation in convective heat transfer. These findings hold valuable insights that can guide optimization design and parameter selection in the conical fountain confined spouted bed reactors.