SIMULAÇÃO DO PROCESSO DE GASEIFICAÇÃO VIA CFD VISANDO A PRODUÇÃO DE BIOQUEROSENE PARA O SETOR AEROESPACIAL

Abstract

The use of biomass as a biofuel source has grown in recent decades as a sustainable alternative to petroleum-derived products, including aviation kerosene (AVK). Biofuels offer an option to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for climate changes. In this study, the process of biomass conversion through gasification in a fluidized bed reactor was investigated. ANSYS FLUENT 2022 R2 was employed to simulate a gasifier, considering the presence of a gas phase and a particulate phase (composed of biomass and sand), using the Eulerian approach and Granular Kinetic Theory. The computational model was constructed by utilizing the kinetics described in Nunn et al.'s work (1985) through the creation of a User-Defined Function (UDF) compiled in ANSYS FLUENT. The mesh test was conducted based on the works of Taghipuor et al. (2005) and Sant'Anna et al. (2017). The results of the mesh test indicated that Mesh 2 was selected due to its superior quality parameters. Within the chemical kinetics, the influence of temperatures (800, 973, and 1200 K) on the compositional concentrations of synthesis gases (CO, CO2, H2, and CH4) was analyzed. In the simulation of the mathematical model for the biomass pyrolysis process, the results showcased the final composition of gas production, tar (0,493%), and char (0,090%). At the simulation temperature of 973 K, thermal cracking of the light tar gases occurs, ensuring better perfomance of the gasification process.