CFD of Underground Coal Gasification
CFD of Underground Coal Gasification
CFD of Underground Coal Gasification
What is UCG ?
Coal is converted insitu into a combustible gas. Out coming gases used as fuel
Source : www.coal-ucg.com
Why UCG ?
Mining and conversion accomplished in a single step. Eliminates the cost of mining, transportation etc. Exploit resources, uneconomic to work by conventional underground coal extraction.
Source:www.coal-ucg.com
Modeling of UCG
One dimensional cavity growth model. (Edgar et al) Two dimensional cavity growth model. (Harloff et al) Integrated 3D model for UCG. (Biezen et al)
Flow Patterns
At first steady state is solved.
C/Co
t/
E(t) vs t/
E(t)
t/
Flow Pattern
Steady state velocity profile.
Flow Pattern(contd.)
Tracer named Air1 with mole fraction = 0.05 introduced at the inlet. F curve and E curve are studied.
Tanks in series fitted the best with n=3 and = 5.50e+4 sec of UCG = 109062.66sec
Et)v .t ( s
s u tio imla n f it
4 .5
3 .5
3 E(t)
2 .5
1 .5
0 .5
0 0
0 .2
0 .4
0 .6
0 .8
1 tim( e ) es c
1 .2
1 .4
1 .6
1 .8 x1 0
2
6
CFD modeling(contd.)
Meshing Details
Mixture of tetrahedral and hexagonal cells. Total of 2,26,330 volume cells. Volume of UCG = 36.3m3
Flow pattern
Due to complexity of the geometry steady state was not achieved.
Conclusion
Studied the velocity profiles in UCG. RTD of the UCG. Compared it with network of reactors.
Future Work
A comprehensive model that includes a network of CSTRs and PFRs which has same RTD as the UCG has to be developed. RTD results should be compared with the experiments.
Thank You!
Equations solved