Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801

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Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaap

Numerical simulation and multi-process coupling analysis for biomass

pyrolysis fluidized bed reactor based on synergistic effects between biomass
and nitrogen inlet modes
Li Cai a, Qinhui Wang b, Qingang Xiong c, Xuerong Wang a, Linchen Fu a, Luchang Han a, *,
Zhiping Wang d, Yefeng Zhou a, *
a
National & Local United Engineering Research Centre for Chemical Process Simulation and Intensification, College of Chemical Engineering, Xiangtan University,
Xiangtan 411105, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
c
State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
d
Xiangtan Boiler Co., Ltd., Xiangtan 411105, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Biomass fast pyrolysis fluidized bed reactor is regarded as one of the most promising technologies for high value
Biomass pyrolysis utilization of biomass. In this work, one two-dimensional fluidized bed reactor model was established, coupling
Fluidized bed reactor with multiphase CFD simulation method and pyrolysis reaction kinetics, and further verified by the experimental
Synergistic effects
data. This work mainly investigated the effects of biomass inlet and nitrogen inlet modes on multi-process
Biomass inlet
Nitrogen inlet
characteristics, such as flow behavior, heat transfer and pyrolysis reaction. The synergistic effects between the
Multi-process coupling analysis two inlet modes were further explored and thus would affect the three-phase pyrolysis product distribution. The
results showed that the spatial particle distribution and temperature distribution in the dense phase zone were
becoming more uniform and the tar yield increased when the biomass inlet mode changed from single nozzle to
double nozzles jetting opposite. Besides, when the nitrogen nozzle number was set as one and the auxiliary gas
velocity was set as 0.15 m/s, much larger local circulation formed in the dense phase zone, meanwhile the
particle volume fraction and temperature became more evenly distributed, which was conducive to the biomass
pyrolysis process. The nitrogen inlet mode was found to show a greater impact on the tar yield compared to the
biomass inlet mode. For single gas inlet mode, one biomass nozzle should be preferred for lower auxiliary gas
velocity and the opposite double nozzle would be better for higher auxiliary gas velocity. The synergistic effects
between biomass and nitrogen inlet modes were further summarized, which were found to have a positive impact
on the biomass pyrolysis reaction characteristics. Based on the above conclusions, this work could provide a
feasible theoretical guidance for designing fluidized bed pyrolysis reactor and optimizing the biomass pyrolysis
process.

1. Introduction
With the aggregating global energy crisis and environmental pollu­
tion, the biomass as a promising alternative energy source for petroleum
has gained excessive attention[1–5]. Among all biomass conversion
technologies[6], biomass fast pyrolysis mainly aims at obtaining liquid
products (tar). Being featured with wide applicability of raw materials,
high conversion rate, high product value and being easy to scale, it is one
of the most promising biomass high-value utilization technologies at
present[7–10].
The pyrolysis reactor is the core of the whole biomass pyrolysis
system [11]. The fluidized bed is considered as one of the main reactors
for biomass fast pyrolysis due to its advantages of good heat and mass
transfer performance, easy operation and amplification [11–13].

* Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: hanlc@xtu.edu.cn (L. Han), zhouyf@xtu.edu.cn (Y. Zhou).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaap.2022.105801
Received 18 May 2022; Received in revised form 9 October 2022; Accepted 21 November 2022
Available online 23 November 2022
0165-2370/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
L. Cai et al.
Carrying out experiments is a direct way to study the fast pyrolysis
characteristics of the biomass. However, experimental researches are
often hindered by high operating costs and strict reactor conditions.
With the rapid development of computer technology, computational
fluid dynamics (CFD), as an important supplementary method for the
theoretical analysis and experimental measurement, has been increas­
ingly widely used. Flow field parameters including the velocity distri­
bution and temperature distribution in the reactor can be accurately
obtained through CFD. [14]. At the same time, it can accurately reflect
the effects of operating parameters and design parameters on the per­
formance of the pyrolysis reactor in an economical and effective way.
Xiong et al. [15,16]conducted a large number of researches on the
simulation of fast pyrolysis of biomass. The effects of different operating
parameters on the tar yield from bubbling fluidized bed biomass py­
rolysis were explored [15]. The results showed that high tar yield could
be obtained when the wall temperature and inlet temperature were kept
at about 800 K and the nitrogen rate was about 0.6 m/s. CFD multi-fluid
modeling (MFM) method was employed to simulate the effect of gas
phase residence time on tar yield in the fast pyrolysis of red oak [16].
Simulation results indicated that increasing fluidization rate can
improve the tar yield but increase its fluctuation. When the fluidization
rate was relatively low, the fluctuation range of the tar yield increased
with the increase of the static bed height. Xue et al. [17]simulated a
lab-scale bubbling fluidized bed reactor using Euler-Euler method. The
results showed that the inlet gas velocity had an impact on the particle
transport and gas residence time, and thus affected the yield of final
products. The increase of inlet gas velocity was conducive to the increase
of the tar yield. Bai et al. [18] established a multiphase flow model based
on particle dynamics theory to investigate the mixing and segregation
behavior of biomass mixtures in bubbling fluidized beds, showing that
superficial gas velocity had a significant effect on particle segregation.
To be specific, particles mainly segregated at low superficial gas veloc­
ities, while mixing occurred at high superficial gas velocities. In addi­
tion, the increase in superficial gas velocity intensified particle mixing in
the reactor. Upadhyay et al.[19]simulated the biomass fast pyrolysis
process in a rectangular bubbling fluidized bed based on the MP-PIC
method, and analyzed the effects of different operating conditions and
reactor geometries on the product yield. Simulation results indicated
that the increased apparent gas velocity enhanced the intergranular
mixing and the consequent heat transfer, which in turn increased the tar
yield.
Multiphase flow dynamics in the fluidized bed has always been the
focus of researchers and engineers. For the fluidized bed reactor, the
influence caused by its geometric structure cannot be ignored. Wu et al.
[20]used Euler-Euler method to simulate the influence of the lateral jet
flow number and the jet width on gas-solid two-phase flow in the
multi-nozzle fluidized bed. The results showed that, with more than one
jet flow, a stable nozzle structure was formed at the side edge of the bed.
Compared with the single nozzle spouted bed, the velocity and con­
centration distribution of particles in the multi-nozzle fluidized bed
were more flat. There was an optimal combination of the jet flow
number and the jet width making the fluidization state of particles the
best. Ostermeier et al. [21]carried out numerical simulation of the 3D
bubbling fluidized bed hydrodynamics with Euler-Euler method, and
studied the effects of wall boundary conditions, particle size distribu­
tion, particle sphericity and inlet geometry of the nozzle bottom plate on
fluidized bed hydrodynamics. The results showed that the nozzle
arrangement had a strong influence on the internal flow field of gas and
solid in the fluidized bed. Duan et al.[22]designed a multi-chamber
fluidized bed reactor for biomass fast pyrolysis and conducted numeri­
cal simulation of the cold gas-solid two-phase flow in the reactor. The
impacts of the feed speed, opening size of the separator and the elevation
angle of the deflector on the conveying performance of the reactor were
studied, and the feed speed and internal structure of the reactor were
optimized. Rahimpour et al. [23]investigated the effects of three
distributor types on fluid dynamics in the fluidized bed. They found that
2
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801
using different types of distributors would result in different initial
bubble sizes, rates of bubble’s separation from the distributor surface
and bubble merger and eruption. Hassan et al. [24]studied the in­
fluences of different distributor types and operating parameters on the
particle circulating flux in a 2D baffle CFB. The results manifested that
the superficial gas velocity and the distributor type had a significant
influence on the circulation rate within particles. More specifically, the
circulation flux increased with the increase of the superficial gas velocity
for different distributor types. Other scholars [19,25]also pointed out
that the influences of the nozzle type, number and position should be
considered when exploring fluid dynamics characteristics of the fluid­
ized bed. In summary, the structure, material characteristics and oper­
ating parameters of the fluidized bed would affect the gas-solid
two-phase flow behavior, heat transfer characteristics and then influ­
ence the pyrolysis reaction performance in the fluidized bed. Among the
above literature, it can be noticed that most of the studies concerned the
influence of operating parameters on the pyrolysis reaction in the
bubbling fluidized bed reactor, while the studies relating to the effects of
the fluidized bed inlet structure on the pyrolysis in the reactor were
scare. The work involving in gas inlet and biomass inlet modes on the
multi-process characteristics during the fluidization is of significant and
thus requires further studying. Especially, the synergistic effects be­
tween the two inlet modes on the biomass pyrolysis reaction is more
complex.
This work mainly proposed that, by adding one or more gas nozzle
jets and changing the biomass inlet mode at the same time. In this work,
based on the kinetic theory of granular mixture (KTGM), a two-
dimensional biomass pyrolysis model was established, and the accu­
racy of the model was verified by comparing the simulated values with
the experimental values produced from the lab-scale bubbling fluidized
bed pyrolysis. According to the validated model, the effects of biomass
inlet and nitrogen inlet modes on multi-process characteristics, such as
flow behavior, heat transfer and pyrolysis reaction in the reactor were
studied. Furthermore, the synergistic effects between the two inlet
modes were explored and thus would affect the three-phase pyrolysis
product distribution. Therefore, this work is expected to provide some
reference for the exploration and optimization of the biomass thermal
conversion process, so as to improve the biomass thermal conversion
efficiency. The main research contents and structure of this work is
shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Main research content and structure of this work.
L. Cai et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801

2. Numerical methodology Table 2

Constitutive relations for the gas-solid flow.
2.1. Mathematical model Solid phase pressure
( )3
∑M dsi + dsj ( )
psi = αsi ρsi Θsi + g0,si sj αsj αsi ρsi Θsi 1 +esi sj (14)
2.1.1. Governing equations j=1
4d3si
With a model built by the Euler-Euler approach, CFD was utilized to Restitution coefficient after interparticle collision
simulate the pyrolysis process of biomass in fluidized bed. The Euler- esi sj = 0.97 (15)
Euler approach treated both the gas and solid phases as an inter­ Solid shear viscosity
μsi = μsi ,col +μsi ,kin +μsi ,fr (16)
penetrating continuum. The gas was considered as the primary phase,
Solid frictional viscosity
whereas the solid phases were considered as secondary or dispersed p sinϕ
phases. Each solid phase was distinguished by its physical properties μsi ,fr = s√
i
̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ (17)
2 I2D
(diameter, density, etc.) or through its thermal properties (reactive or Solid kinetic viscosity
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ [
inert particles). The governing equations including the continuity αs ρ ds Θsi π
μsi ,skin = i si i
2 ]
1 + (1 +esi si )(3esi si − 1)αsi g0,si si (18)
equations of gas and multi-component solid phases (biomass, sand), 6(3 − esi si ) 5
Solid collisional viscosity
momentum, energy and species transport conservation equations used 4 Θ
μsi ,col = αsi ρsi g0,si si (1 +esi si )( si )1/2 (19)
are shown in Table 1. The ṁ→ u was the interphase momentum transfer 5 π
→ Radial distribution function
due to evaporation. Note that R and ṁ→ u were not included in Eq. (6), αs 1/3 − 1 1 ∑M αsj
due to the inert nature of the sand particles. The last term in Eq. (8) and g0,si si = [1 − ( ) ] + dsi (20)
αs,max 2 j=1 d
sj
Eq. (9) represented the interphase enthalpy exchange due to evapora­ dsj g0,si si + dsi g0,sj sj
g0,si sj = (21)
tion. The Qsi g represented the intensity of the heat exchange between dsi + dsj
∑M
αs = j=1 αsj (22)
the gas and multi-component solid phases. The hsi g represented the
′

Granular temperature
volumetric heat transfer coefficient between gas phase and multi- [
3 ∂ ] ( ̿ ̿
) ( )
component solid phases, Ai represented the contact area of gas-solid (αs ρ Θs ) +∇(αsi ρs Θsi )→ u si = − psi I +τsi : ∇→ u si + ∇ kΘsi ∇Θsi − γΘs +
( ) 2 ∂t i s i i

interface and Tsi − Tg represented temperature difference between ∑2

k=1 ∅ksi (23)
the gas and multi-component solid phases. The closure relations and Diffusion coefficient
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
constitutive relations involved in the model are shown in Table 2. 150dsi ρs Θsi π 6 Θsi
kΘsi = [1 + αsi g0,si si (1 + esi si )]2 +2dsi ρs α2si g0,si si (1 +esi si ) (24)
384(1 + esi si )g0,si si 5 π
Collisional dissipation
2.1.2. Drag model ( )
12 1 − e2si si g0,si si
Drag is an important way of momentum transfer between fluid and γ Θs = √̅̅̅ α2si ρs Θ3/2
si (25)
dsi π
solid phases in a gas-solid fluidized system. The gas-solid drag model
i

Volume viscosity
adopted in this study was the non-homogenized EMMS model for 4 Θs
λsi = αsi ρsi dsi g0,si si (1 +esi si )( i )1/2 (26)
mesoscale structures[26]. 3 π

Table 1
Governing equations of gas and multi-component solid phase flow.
The continuity equations of gas phase and multi-component solid phases(biomass, sand)
∂
u g ) = Rg (1)
(α ρ ) +∇ • (αg ρg →
∂t g g
∂
u si ) = Rsi (2)
(αs ρ ) +∇ • (αsi ρsi →
∂t i s i
∑2
i=1 αsi +αg = 1 (3)
The momentum equations of gas phase and multi-component solid phases
∂( ) ( ) ̿ ∑2 (→ → ) →
u g +∇ • αg ρg →
αg ρg → u g→u g = − αg ∇p +∇ • τg +αg ρg → g − i=1 Kgsi u g − u si + R s1 g +ṁs1 g u s1 g (4)
→
∂t
∂ ̿ ( ) →
(αs ρ → u s ) +∇ • (αs1 ρs1 →u s1 →u s1 ) = − αs1 ∇p − ∇ps1 +∇ • τs1 +αs1 ρs1 → g +Kgs1 → ug− → u s1 +Ks1 s2 (→ u s2 − u s1 ) + R gs1 − ṁs1 g →
→ u s1 g (5)
∂t 1 s1 1
∂ ̿ (→ → )
(αs ρ u s ) +∇ • (αs2 ρs2 u s2 u s2 ) = − αs2 ∇p − ∇ps2 +∇ • τs2 +αs2 ρs2 g +Kgs2 u g − u s2 +Ks2 s1 ( u s1 −
→ → → → → u s2 ) (6)
→
∂t 2 s2 2
Stress-strain tensor
̿
[( ) ( )T ] 2 ̿
τf = αf μf ∇→ u f + ∇→ uf +αf (λf − μf )∇ • → u f I (7)
3
The energy equations of gas phase and multi-component solid phases
∂( ) ( ) ∂p g ̿ ( )
αg ρg hg +∇ • αg ρg → u g hg = α g + τg : ∇ → ug− → q g +Sg +Qgs1 +Qgs2 + ṁs1 g hs1 g − ṁgs1 hgs1 (8)
∂t ∂t
∂ ∂ps ̿ ( )
(αs ρ hs ) +∇ • (αs1 ρs1 → u s1 hs1 ) = αs1 1 + τs1 : ∇→ u s1 − →q s1 − Sg +Qs1 g + ṁgs1 hgs1 − ṁs1 g hs1 g (9)
∂t 1 s1 1 ∂t
∂ ∂ps ̿
(αs ρ hs ) +∇ • (αs2 ρs2 → u s2 hs2 ) = αs2 2 + τs2 : ∇→ u s2 − →q s2 +Qs2 g (10)
∂t 2 s2 2 ∂t
The intensity of the heat exchange between the gas and multi-component solid phases
( )
Qsi g = hsi g Ai Tsi − Tg (11)
′

Volume heat transfer coefficient

kg Nusi
hsi g = (12)
′

dsi
The species transport equation of gas phase
[ ( ) ]
∂( ) ( ) μ ∇T ( )
α ρ Y +∇ • αg ρg →u g Yi,g = − ∇ • αg − ρg Di,g + t ∇Yi,g − DT,i,g + ṁi,gs1 − ṁi,s1 g +Ri,g (13)
∂t g g i,g Sct T

3
L. Cai et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801

⃒ ⃒
αsi 2 μg αsi ρg ⃒→ug− →
u si ⃒ rapidly converted to gaseous water by evaporation. According to pre­
Kgsi ,Ergun = 150 + 1.75 εg ≤ 0.7403 (27) vious studies, the drying process of biomass was often modeled by
αg dsi 2 dsi
chemical reactions whose rates were calculated using the first-order
⃒ ⃒ Arrhenius equation[31].
3 αsi αg ρg ⃒→ug− →
u si ⃒ −
Kgsi = CD Hd εg 2.65
εg > 0.7403 (28)
4 dsi H2 O(biomass, l)→H2 O(gas, g) (35)

where the correction factor Hd can be expressed as:

2.1.4.2. Devolatilization. Biomass consists of four components: fixed
⎧( ⎫
⎪
)
⎪ carbon, volatile matters, moisture and ash. After drying, the biomass
⎪
⎪ − 4.20283 + 860.378α17.0067 0.7403 ≤ αg < 0.9112 ⎪
⎪
⎨ ( g ⎪
⎪
⎬ started to undergo pyrolysis to produce tar, char and non-condensable
)
Hd = 257.7167 − 328.011αg6.5972
0.9112 ≤ αg < 0.9636 (29) gases NCG(CO, CO2 , H2 , CH4 , H2 O). In one-step multi-reaction ki­
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ netics model, the pyrolysis rate of biomass was calculated using the first-
⎩ 10.9636 ≤ αg ≤ 1 ⎭
order Arrhenius equation, and the kinetic parameters were quoted from
relevant experimental data done earlier by Pasangulapati[32], where
where the drag coefficient CD can be expressed as: the pre-exponential factor A and the activation energy E used were
24 [ ( )0.687 ] 2.16 × 10− 7 s− 1 and 1.037 × 108 J/kmol.
CD = 1 + 0.15 αg Resi (30) The stoichiometric coefficients of the pyrolysis products were
αg Resi
calculated from the experimental results of biomass pyrolysis (α1 , α2 , α3 ,
where the solid phase i Reynolds number Resi can be expressed as: α4 , α5 , α6 , α7 )[33,34]. To evaluate the seven unknown stoichiometric
⃒ ⃒ coefficients, the appropriate representation of chemical formula for
dsi ρg ⃒→ug− →
u si ⃒ biomass and tar were necessary. These were calculated from the ulti­
Resi = (31)
μg mate analysis data[35]. For example, as shown in Table 3, the elemental
analysis of corn cobs provided the following: carbon, 47.35 wt%;
The solid-solid drag model adopted was the Syamlal-O′ Brien sym­
hydrogen, 5.9 wt%; and oxygen, 38.07 wt%. Therefore, the chemical
metric model[27]：
formula for corn cobs was assumed CH1.495 O0.603 and the corresponding
3(1 + es1 s2 )(π2 + π8 Cfr,s1 s2 )αs1 ρs1 αs2 ρs2 (ds1 + ds2 )2 g0,s1 s2 →
2
tar assumed represented by CH1.645 O0.502.
Ks1 s2 = | u s1 − →
u s2 |
2π (ρs1 d3s1 + ρs2 d3s2 ) Biomass→α1 Char + α2 tar + α3 CO2 + α4 CO + α5 CH4 + α6 H2 + α7 H2 O
(32) (36)

2.1.3. Heat transfer model

The heat transfer between the sand and biomass-mixture phase was 2.2. Simulation parameters and boundary conditions
neglected in this study due to the rather low ratio between particle-
particle heat transfer and gas-solid heat transfer[28]. The gas-solid Fig. 3 showed the simulated two-dimensional fluidized bed reactor
heat transfer coefficient was determined based on Nusselt number structure and its schematic figure of meshing. Although the real fluid­
which was calculated by the experience correlation developed by Gunn ized bed was cylindrical, the two-dimensional reactor configuration was
[29]： simulated in this study in order to reduce the computational effort. Xue
( )( ) et al.[17]. carried out a systematic 2D and 3D comparison on the hy­
Nusi = 7 − 10αg + 5α2g 1 + 0.7Re0.2
1
+ (1.33 − 2.4αg + 1.2α2g )Re0.7
1
drodynamics of biomass pyrolysis in a laboratory fluidized bed reactor,
si Pr si Pr
3 3

revealing both 2D and 3D simulations were capable of correctly pre­

(33)
dicting the product yields. A two-dimensional bubbling fluidized bed
where the Plante Number Pr can be expressed as: model, with a width of 40 mm and a height of 344 mm, was built and
divided by a quadrilateral structural network using Gambit (ANSYS Inc.,
Cpg μg USA) pre-processing software. The biomass feedstock was injected from
Pr = (34)
kg the left side at 20 mm from the bottom of the reactor and at a height of
8 mm. The initial gas phase was pure nitrogen, which was uniformly fed
2.1.4. Chemical reaction model from the bottom of the reactor. The initial filling height of the fluidized
In this study, one-step multi-reaction kinetics model[30](shown in bed was 80 mm with sand and a filling volume fraction of 0.59.
Fig. 2) was used to predict the fast pyrolysis process of Corn cobs in
fluidized bed reactor. Two main processes are included, drying and Table 3
devolatilization. The reaction kinetics of drying and devolatilization will Biomass data and pyrolysis measurements.
be numerically simulated by converting into UDF code and then im­ Property Corn Property Corn
ported into Fluent. cobs cobs

Proximate analysis (wt%) Experimental data

2.1.4.1. Drying. The addition of biomass to the fluidized bed pyrolysis Fixed carbon 14.65 Pyrolysis products (wt
reactor starts the temperature rise with the encounter of the superheated %)
bed material phase and nitrogen, and when the elevated temperature Volatile matters 76.63 Char 18.9
Moisture 6.78 Tar 61.0
lies between 100 and 150 ◦ C, the water contained in the biomass is Ash 1.94 NCG 20.3
Biomass ultimate analysis NCG (wt%)
(wt%)
C 47.35 CO2 51.5
H 5.9 CO 40.9
O 38.07 H2 1.3
N 0.18 CH4 6.3
Tar ultimate analysis (wt%)
C 55.14
H 7.56
O 36.9
Fig. 2. One-step multi-reaction kinetics model.

4
L. Cai et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801

state depended strongly on the initial temperature field. Xue et al.[36]

observed that when the initial temperature field deviated significantly
from the final temperature field, it would take more than 100 s to reach
thermal steady state, whereas with a suitable initial temperature field
used, thermal steady state could be reached within a few seconds.
Therefore, in this study, the initial temperature of the whole fluidized
bed was 773 K. Some phase parameters and boundary conditions were
shown in Table 5. The total operating time of pyrolysis reactor cases all
simulations was kept as 50 s, where the results of the latter 20 s time
were used for statistical analysis.
To investigate the effect of inlet configuration on gas-solid flow, heat
transfer and pyrolysis reaction characteristics in the fluidized bed py­
rolysis reactor, specifically, the inlet configuration was nitrogen inlet
mode at the bottom of the reactor and biomass inlet mode, as shown in
Figs. 4 and 5(a)(b). Fig. 4(c) showed a schematic diagram where biomass
and nitrogen inlet modes were changed simultaneously. The specific
simulated working condition design in this study was shown in Table 6.
The minimum fluidization velocity of the bed material phase umf =
0.15m/s was calculated by Eq. (37).

d2 ( ) α3mf
umf = g ρs − ρg (37)
150μg 1 − αmf

where αmf is the minimum gas volume fraction for bubbling fluidization.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Gird independence verification

In order to investigate the grid independence, three quadrilateral

grids with different grid cell numbers were used: 215 cells of coarse grid
with the grid size of 8 mm, 860 cells of medium grid with the gird size of
4 mm, and 3440 cells of fine gird with the gird size of 2 mm. As shown in
the figure below, the results for medium and fine grids were compara­
tively similar. Considering the calculation time and prediction accuracy,
medium grids were selected and used in the following studies.
Fig. 3. Schematic of a fluidized bed and grid division.
3.2. Biomass pyrolysis kinetics verification
The Euler-Euler three-phase flow model was embedded in ANSYS
Fluent software. These three phases were mixed gas phase, mixed The validity of the two-dimensional grid calculation results was
biomass phase and the bed material phase. With the mixed gas phase as verified by comparing with those of the fluidized bed biomass pyrolysis
the primary phase and the bed material and mixed biomass phase as the experiments of Mullen et al.[35]. In the two-dimensional simulation, the
secondary phases, various numerical simulations were carried out by
adding specific user-defined procedures. The mixed biomass phase Table 5
included biomass, char and ash as shown in Table 4. Ash was an inert Model parameters and simulations conditions.
component that did not participate in pyrolysis reaction, and sand was Parameters Value
used as sand phase. The physical properties of gas phase mixture and
Biomass feeding rate (kg/h) 0.1
biomass phase mixture were calculated by mixing law. The bed material Biomass feeding temperature (K) 300
phase was composed of sand. The reactor outlet was a standard atmo­ Sand initial packing height (m) 0.08
sphere, and the gravitational acceleration g= 9.81 m/s2 was considered. Sand initial packing volume fraction 0.59
No-slip wall boundary conditions were specified for the gas phase while Sand initial packing temperature (K) 773
Nitrogen inflow velocity (m/s) 0.3
standard wall functions were applied to the solid phase, and the simu­ Nitrogen feeding temperature (K) 773
lation solution method used a pressure-velocity coupling algorithm. Wall temperature (K) 773
Since a mathematically rigorous steady state, in which all the field Gas phase wall No Slip
variables remained constant could not be reached in fluidized bed, a Solid phase wall Standard wall functions
Pressure outlet (Pa) 101325
transient solver was used to perform the simulation. The thermal steady

Table 4
Physical properties of gases and solids.
Material properties Biomass Sand Char Ash Tar

Density ρ(kg/m3) 400 2600 2330 2400

Heat capacity Cp(J/(kg*K) 2300 800 1100 856 2500
Thermal conductivity K(W/m*K) 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0454 0.02577
5 5 5 5
Viscosity μ(kg/m*s) 1.72 * 10− 1.7894 * 10− 1.72 * 10− 1.7894 * 10− 3 * 10− 5
Diameter (m) 0.0004 0.00052

5
L. Cai et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of inlet configuration change: (a) Nitrogen inlet mode; (b) Biomass inlet mode; (c) Simultaneous change of biomass and nitrogen
inlet modes.

Fig. 5. Comparison of parameters using different grids with grid sizes of 8, 4, and 2 mm: (a)Temporal evolution of predicted tar mass fraction at the reactor exit; (b)
Axial distributions of time-averaged gas temperature at statistically steady state.

predicted steady-state tar yield was 61.88%, while the experimental two-dimensional simulation. In addition, the two-dimensional simula­
data was 61%, as shown in Fig. 6(a). It can be seen from Fig. 6(b) that tion was also employed in the following parameterization studies in
there were differences between the simulated NCG composition and the view of the computational workload it reduced.
experimental measurements. Those were resulted from the simplified
method (Eq. (36)) used to determine the fitting parameters used in the
3.3. Effect of the biomass inlet mode
pyrolysis reaction, as previously reported by Boateng et al.[33]. The
results showed that the existing reactor can be well simulated by the
In this section, the effects of the biomass inlet mode on the multi-

6
L. Cai et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801

Table 6 right side was comparatively higher because it was only hindered by the
Simulation design table. quartz sand. At the same time, the gas velocity near the biomass inlet
Am /A b n ug /(m/s) uf /(m/s) usp /(m/s) area was the largest, because some gas products were generated from the
biomass fast pyrolysis, which increased the gas velocity in this area.
0 1,2 0 0.2/0.3/0.4/
0.5/0.6/0.7
Fig. 8(b) and (c) illustrated that both the quartz sand and the biomass
20% 1,2 1 0.6 0.15 2.400 had obvious movement signs. When the particles moved to the free
0.25 2.000 space area, they showed a tendency of falling because the drag force of
0.35 1.600 the gas was not strong enough to support their gravity, and all the solid
0.45 1.200
phases did not leave the reactor. After the biomass inlet mode was
20% 1,2 2 0.6 0.15 1.275
0.25 1.125 changed from single nozzle to double nozzles jetting opposite, the dis­
0.35 0.975 tribution of the contour was axisymmetric.
0.45 0.825
20% 1,2 3 0.6 0.15 0.900
3.3.2. Effect of the biomass inlet mode on the heat transfer performance
0.25 0.833
0.35 0.767
Fig. 9 respectively showed the time-averaged temperature distribu­
0.45 0.700 tions of the gas phase, the biomass phase and the bed material phase in
the reactor with different biomass inlets. In general, the temperature of
Note:
the three phases decreased first and then increased gradually along the
Am/A - the ratio of gas inlet cross-section area to the reactor
b - the number of biomass inlets bed height, and the temperature differences of the gas phase and the bed
n - the number of nitrogen nozzles material phase were relatively small. However, because the biomass was
added horizontally to the reactor at room temperature, the temperature
process characteristics, such as flow behavior, heat transfer and pyrol­ difference of the biomass phase was comparatively larger than the other
ysis reaction in the fluidized bed reactor were explored from the inlet two phases. As shown in Fig. 9(a), in the biomass inlet zone at the
bottom of the bed(0.016 m<H<0.024 m), there was an obvious low
modes of single nozzle (b=1) and double nozzles jetting opposite (b=2)
respectively. temperature zone in the gas phase temperature distribution, which was
due to the convective heat transfer occurred after the gas encountered
3.3.1. Effect of the biomass inlet mode on the flow the biomass so that the gas temperature was significantly reduced. On
Fig. 7 showed the time-averaged volume fraction of the bed material the whole, the gas temperature distributions in the biomass inlet zone
phase with different biomass inlets. Under the premise that the biomass (0.016 m<H<0.024 m) and the upper part of the dense bed
feed quantity remained unchanged, when the biomass inlet mode (0.024 m<H<0.125 m) were lower, because the endothermic processes
changed from single nozzle to double nozzles jetting opposite, the solid such as biomass drying and pyrolysis mainly happened in those areas.
flow state changed, the number of local circulation areas increased, the However, in the middle and upper part of the reactor
flow structure became more complex, and the distribution of particles (0.15 m<H<0.344 m), the temperature gradually rose. This was
was more uniform. because after the biomass particles entered the reactor, a part of the gas
Fig. 8 presented the vertical velocity distributions of the gas phase, was generated from the drying and pyrolysis of the biomass. That part of
the biomass phase and the bed material phase in the reactor with the gas rose at the gas velocity of nitrogen and improved the average
different biomass inlets. It can be seen from Fig. 8(a) that the gas ve­ temperature of the gas phase.
locity on the left side was lower than that on the right side in the middle- As can be seen from Fig. 9(b), the biomass temperature was lower in
upper part of the reactor(0.15 m<H<0.334 m) with single biomass the biomass inlet area(0.016 m<H<0.024 m) and the middle and upper
inlet. The reason why there was a velocity stratification from left to right section of the dense phase bed(0.024 m<H<0.125 m) at the bottom of
in the reactor was that after the biomass at normal temperature entered the reactor, while the temperature was relatively higher in the upper
the reactor at a certain speed and encountered the rising high- section of the dense phase bed(0.125 m<H<0.15 m). And the figure
temperature gas on the left side, the pyrolysis and diffusion were showed that the temperature distributions in the dense phase bed area of
happened, which caused great resistance to the gas on the left side so as the reactor were significantly different after the biomass inlet changed
to decrease its velocity rapidly. Moreover, the velocity of the gas on the from single nozzle(b=1) to opposite nozzles(b=2). When b= 1, the

Fig. 6. Comparison of the experiment and simulation data for the mass fraction of the pyrolysis products at steady state condition: (a) Overall products; (b) Non-
condensable gases.

7
L. Cai et al.
Fig. 7. Time-averaged volume fraction of the bed material phase with different biomass inlets (white arrow: streamline;1–4: local circulation loop): (a) b= 1;
(b) b= 2.
biomass temperature near the left wall was the lowest, while that near
the right wall was the highest in the biomass inlet area
(0.016 m<H<0.024 m) and the middle and upper section of the dense
phase bed at the bottom of the reactor(0.024 m<H<0.125 m). The
reason for this phenomenon might be shown as follows: considering that
processes including the biomass drying and pyrolysis reaction absorbed
heat, and the inlet temperature of biomass particles was lower(300 K),
high density biomass particles in normal temperature would drop down
after being injected into the reactor from the inlet. And there was an
endothermic process after biomass particles encountered the high-
temperature nitrogen and the sand and then had convective heat
8
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801
transfer and contact thermal conductance, which made a rapid heat
increasing. Therefore, the temperature difference between the inlet area
and the bottom of the reactor was great, and the temperature of the left
wall was relatively lower than that of the right wall in the dense phase
area. When a certain temperature was reached, the pyrolysis reaction
took place and the volatiles were released from the interior of the
biomass particles into the reactor. Due to the high gas velocity and short
residence time of particles, a large part of particles were brought to the
upper section of dense phase bed(0.125 m<H<0.15 m) under the action
of nitrogen, so the temperature in this area increased obviously.
It can be seen from Fig. 9(c) that the bed material phase temperature
L. Cai et al.
Fig. 8. Time- averaged vertical velocity distribution in pyrolysis reactor with different biomass inlets: (a) Gas; (b) Biomass; (c)Bed material.
was evenly distributed in the whole reactor and tended to rise slightly
with the increase of the axial height, but there was little difference
among the bed material phase temperatures at different radial positions.
The primary reason was that the bed material phase, as inert particles,
only did simple heat exchange with biomass particles without partici­
pating in the reaction.
3.3.3. Effect of the biomass inlet mode on the pyrolysis
Fig. 10 showed the mass fraction of pyrolysis products at different
nitrogen gas velocities in the reactor with different biomass inlets. In the
reactor with single inlet(b=1), the tar yield was the highest when the
nitrogen inlet rate was 0.3 m/s, and with the increase of gas velocity, it
tended to be flat after a small decrease. With the same nitrogen velocity,
the tar yields both showed increase when the biomass inlet were set as
b= 1 and b= 2. It was found that the tar yield increased more and the
unreacted biomass decreased with lower gas velocity, which might be
because the distribution and the temperature distribution of particles in
the dense bed area were more uniform (as analyzed in Sections 3.3.1 and
3.3.2) after changing the biomass inlet from b= 1 to b= 2, thus the
biomass pyrolysis in this area was promoted.
3.4. Effect of the nitrogen inlet mode
This section explored the influence of the nitrogen inlet mode on the
flow, heat transfer and pyrolysis reaction in the fluidized bed reactor
from aspects of the number of nitrogen nozzles and the auxiliary gas
velocity.
9
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801
3.4.1. Effect of the number of nitrogen nozzles on the flow
In this section, four inlet modes with the nitrogen nozzle number of
0, 1, 2, 3(n = 0,1,2,3) were simulated. Fig. 11(a) showed the time-
averaged volume fraction distribution of the bed material phase with
different nitrogen nozzles. Keeping the total mass flow of nitrogen at the
inlet remains unchanged and the auxiliary gas velocity at a minimum
fluidization gas velocity of 0.15 m/s, with the increase of the number of
nitrogen nozzles, the jet velocity of every nozzle decreased. In conse­
quence, penetration and extension abilities of the spouting gas was
weakened, local circulation area changed, the flow structure became
more complex, and the distribution of the bed material phase was more
close to what it was when n = 0. When n = 1, single nozzle spouting
velocity at the bottom of the reactor achieving the highest, the particles
were entrained by the spouting gas which mainly showed an axial effect,
and the biomass horizontal feed on the left side produced a lateral effect
simultaneously. Therefore, the above two effects formed a clockwise
local particle circulation. When n = 2, the size of area 1 was reduced and
area 3 generated, which can be explained form two major reasons. For
one thing, the downward particles in the center of the fluidized bed had
the maximum velocity and hindered the upward movement of the gas to
a certain extent. Moreover, at the right nitrogen nozzle near the bottom
of the fluidized bed, the particles were entrained by the spouting gas and
moved upward. Therefore, a local counterclockwise circulation struc­
ture was generated. For another, the gas velocity of the nitrogen nozzle
near the bottom left side of the fluidized bed weakened the lateral effect
of the biomass horizontal feed to a certain extent. When n = 0 and n = 3,
the axial penetration of the spouting gas was weakened because of the
lower spouting gas velocity when n = 3. Meanwhile, the weakening of
the gas velocity of the nitrogen nozzle near the bottom left side of the
L. Cai et al.
Fig. 9. Time- averaged temperature distribution in pyrolysis reactor with different biomass inlets: (a) Gas; (b) Biomass; (c)Bed material.
Fig. 10. Mass fraction distribution of pyrolysis products at different nitrogen
gas velocities.
fluidized bed to the biomass horizontal feed on the left side was getting
smaller, leading to the formation of a local counterclockwise circulation
structure in the biomass inlet area.
Fig. 11(b) showed the time-averaged vertical velocity distribution of
the gas phase in the pyrolysis reactor with different number of nitrogen
10
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801
nozzles. It can be seen from the figure that the velocity contours of n = 0
and n = 3 gas phases showed almost no difference, but there were dif­
ferences between n = 1 and n = 2. When the height of the fluidized bed
was lower than 0.15 m, compared with the other number of nitrogen
nozzles, n = 1 leaded to the highest gas velocity in the area near the
biomass inlet which may be caused by two factors: Firstly, the gas ve­
locity was the largest at the single nozzle while maintaining the total
mass flow of the inlet nitrogen constant. secondly, the gas velocity might
be increased by the gas products generated from the biomass fast py­
rolysis. As the number of nozzles was two(n = 2), The gas velocity on the
right side of the reactor was larger, which might be due to the influence
of the nitrogen velocity at the right nozzle.
Fig. 12 depicted the time-averaged axial distribution of the dimen­
sionless Re number under the condition of using different number of the
nitrogen nozzles. The physical meaning of Re was that it reflected the
local gas-solid flow. Re was calculated by Eq. (38). It can be concluded
that, in general, there was a distinction between Re’s distributions in the
dense phase area and the thin phase area, indicating the great difference
between the gas-solid flow behaviors of particles in those two areas. In
the area below the biomass inlet, Re decreased greatly, especially when
n = 1. In the biomass inlet area(0.016 m<H<0.024 m) and the dense
bed area(0.024 m<H<0.2 m), Re showed a fluctuation change and then
increased slightly. That may be the result of a combination of collision
and drag forces.
⃒ ⃒
ds ⃒→ug − →
u s ⃒ρg
Re = (38)
μg
L. Cai et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801

Fig. 11. Time-averaged parameters in pyrolysis reactor with different nitrogen nozzles: (a) Time-averaged volume fraction of the bed material phase (white arrow:
streamline;1–3: local circulation loop); (b) Time-averaged vertical velocity distribution of gas phase.

Fig. 12. Axial distribution of time- averaged dimensionless Re number with

Fig. 13. Axial distribution of time- averaged temperature of biomass phase in
different nitrogen nozzles.
pyrolysis reactor with different nitrogen nozzles.

3.4.2. Effect of the number of nitrogen nozzles on the heat transfer
performance
Fig. 13 showed the time-averaged temperature distribution of the
biomass phase along the bed height with different nitrogen nozzles.
According to Fig. 13, a distinct S-shaped temperature curve could be
seen at the bottom of the reactor, similar to that reported by Gao et al.
[37]and Li et al.[38]. The variation trends were similar when n = 0 and
n = 3. Also, the variation trends were similar when n = 1 and n = 2, and
their temperature distributions were more uniform. As stated in Fig. 11
(a), a large local circulation was formed in this area, which contributed
to promoting the uniform mixing of particles and the uniform distribu­
tion of temperature there. When the fluidized bed layer was higher than
0.125 m, setting n = 1, the biomass particle temperature was lower than
those in other conditions. As shown in Fig. 11(a), there were local cir­
culations in this area when the number of nozzles was more than one,
which brought particles to the middle part of the reactor
(0.125 m<H<0.2 m), resulting in the increase of the temperature. At the
same time, the highest temperature was achieved when n = 2. Fig. 11(b)
indicated that the larger gas velocity on the right side of the reactor
brought the particles to the middle of the reactor under the action of

11
L. Cai et al.
Fig. 14. Mass fraction distribution of pyrolysis products at different nitro­
gen nozzles.
nitrogen, so the temperature was significantly higher.
3.4.3. Effect of the number of nitrogen nozzles on the pyrolysis
Fig. 14 showed the mass fraction distribution of pyrolysis products
under different nitrogen nozzles. It can be seen from the figure that the
tar yield reached its highest value when n = 1. With the increase of the
number of nozzles, the tar yield first decreased and then increased.
Under the uniform gas distribution mode(n = 0), the tar yield was the
lowest. From the perspective of gas-solid flow, it can be drawn from
Fig. 11(b) that in the area where biomass pyrolysis occurred, setting
n = 1, the gas velocity reached its maximum. With the increase of the
Fig. 15. Time-averaged parameters in pyrolysis reactor with different values of uf : (a) Time-averaged volume fraction of the bed material phase (white arrow:
streamline;1–4: local circulation loop); (b) Time-averaged vertical velocity distribution of gas phase.
12
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801
gas velocity, the convection flow of tar increased and its residence time
decreased, thus preventing it from cracking into gas and improving the
tar yield. Regarding to the heat transfer, it can be seen from Fig. 13 that
in the biomass pyrolysis area, the particle temperature was high as
n = 1. With the increase of the temperature, the char yield decreased,
and the yields of the NCG gas and tar increased. Meanwhile, Fig. 14 also
presented that the unreacted biomass mass fraction was the lowest when
the number of nitrogen nozzles was one, that is, the biomass conversion
rate was the highest at that time. As shown in Fig. 11(a), a large local
circulation was formed in this area, which was conducive to promoting
the uniform mixing of particles and the uniform distribution of the
temperature, thus facilitating the pyrolysis of biomass.
3.4.4. Effect of the auxiliary gas velocity on the flow
The influence of the number of nitrogen nozzles on the flow, heat
transfer and pyrolysis reaction in the fluidized bed reactor was studied
previously. Based on the studies above, the effects of the auxiliary gas
velocity were explored with the total mass flow rate of the nitrogen inlet
remaining unchanged. It can be concluded from the previous section
that when n = 1, both the tar yield and the biomass conversion rate were
relatively high. Therefore, by continuously setting n = 1, this section
discussed effects of the auxiliary gas velocity on the flow, heat transfer
and pyrolysis reaction in the fluidized bed reactor.
In this section, four kinds of auxiliary gas velocities: uf = 0.15m 0.25m
s , s ,
0.35m
s , 0.45m/s were simulated. Fig. 15(a) showed the distribution of the
time-averaged volume fraction of the bed material phase at different
auxiliary gas velocities. Maintaining the total mass flow of the nitrogen
at the inlet unchanged and n = 1, with the increase of the auxiliary gas
velocity, the nozzle gas velocity decreased, which weakened the pene­
tration and expansion abilities of the spouting gas, changed the local
circulation area, and complicated the flow structure. The introduction of
a certain amount of auxiliary gas (uf = 0.15m/s) enabled the overall
L. Cai et al. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801

clockwise loop (Region 1) to form throughout the bed. When uf =

0.15m/s, single nozzle spouting velocity at the bottom of the reactor
achieved the highest. Meanwhile, the particles were entrained by the
spouting gas which mainly showed an axial effect, and the biomass
horizontal feed on the left side produced a lateral effect. Therefore, the
above two effects formed a clockwise local particle circulation. When uf
= 0.25m/s, with the increase of the auxiliary gas velocity, the lateral
shear effect of the biomass feed on the left side was gradually weakened
to some extent and the local counterclockwise circulation structure
(Region 3) was generated. When auxiliary gas velocity was further
increased to uf = 0.35m/s and uf = 0.45m/s, the difference of velocity
between the main spouting gas and the auxiliary gas became smaller.
Local particle circulation loops (Regions 2 and 4) formed near the wall at
the bottom of the reactor. Fig. 15(b) exhibited the time-averaged ver­
tical velocity distribution of the gas phase in the reactor at different
auxiliary gas velocities. It can be seen from the figure that with the in­
crease of the auxiliary gas velocity, the gas velocity near the biomass
inlet area gradually decreased. This may be caused by two factors: on the
one hand, with the increase of the auxiliary gas velocity, the lateral
shear effect of the biomass feed on the left side was gradually weakened Fig. 17. Axial distribution of time-averaged temperature of biomass phase in
to some extent and then the gas velocity was reduced. On the other hand, pyrolysis reactor with different values of uf .
the gradual reduction of some gas products generated from the fast
pyrolysis of biomass might also play a part, which reduced the gas ve­ fluidized bed layer was higher than 0.125 m, the biomass particle tem­
locity in this area. Fig. 16 showed the time-averaged axial distribution of perature was the lowest with uf = 0.15m/s and the highest with uf =
the dimensionless Re number at different auxiliary gas velocities. The 0.25m/s. This may be caused by two factors: on the one hand, with the
figure indicated that Re decreased significantly in the area below the increase of the auxiliary gas velocity, a large part of particles were
biomass inlet, particularly when uf = 0.15m/s. brought to the upper section of dense phase bed(0.125 m<H<0.15 m)
under the action of nitrogen, so the temperature in this area increased
3.4.5. Effect of the auxiliary gas velocity on the heat transfer performance obviously. On the other hand, as can be seen from Fig. 15(a), with the
Fig. 17 showed the time-averaged temperature distribution of the increase of the auxiliary gas velocity, the time-averaged bed height of
biomass phase along the bed height at different auxiliary gas velocities. the bed material phase increased, causing an increase in temperature.
Referring to the figure, there was little difference in the temperature Besides, the axial distribution of time-averaged temperature of biomass
distributions under those four auxiliary gas velocities at the biomass phase in pyrolysis reactor became more even with uf = 0.15m/s, which
inlet zone(0.016 m<H<0.024 m) and the middle and upper section of proved that the clockwise loop facilitate particle mixing and heat
the dense phase bed(0.024 m<H<0.125 m). The biomass temperature transfer in this region, as presumed in Section 3.4.4. To be specific, the
near the biomass inlet was the lowest and gradually increased with the introduction of a certain amount of auxiliary gas (uf = 0.15m/s) enabled
distance from the inlet. This was because after the biomass particles in the overall clockwise loop to form throughout the bed. The clockwise
normal temperature were injected into the reactor from the inlet, there particle loop throughout the bed promoted the heat transfer of particles
was an endothermic process after biomass particles encountered the in the bed.
high-temperature nitrogen and the sand and then had convective heat
transfer and contact thermal conductance, which caused a rapid heat 3.4.6. Effect of the auxiliary gas velocity on the pyrolysis
increasing. Therefore, the temperature of the left wall was relatively Fig. 18 depicted the mass fraction distribution of pyrolysis products
lower than that of the right wall in the dense phase area. When the at different auxiliary gas velocities. What can be drawn from the figure

Fig. 16. Axial distribution of time-averaged dimensionless Re number with Fig. 18. Mass fraction distribution of pyrolysis products at different values
different values of uf . of uf .

13
L. Cai et al.
was that, with the increase of the auxiliary gas velocity, the tar yield
decreased gradually and the mass fraction of unreacted biomass
increased first and then decreased. From perspectives of the gas-solid
flow and heat transfer, Figs. 15–17 reflected that the gas velocity
reached its maximum when uf = 0.15m/s in the area where biomass
pyrolysis occurred, so that the tar yield was improved. Besides, a large
local circulation formed in this area was conducive to promoting the
uniform mixing of particles and the uniform distribution of temperature
there, thus facilitating the biomass pyrolysis.
3.5. Synergistic effects between biomass and nitrogen inlet modes
Fig. 19 showed the mass fraction distribution of pyrolysis products
under different biomass and nitrogen inlet modes. As can be seen from
Fig. 19(a), when b= 1, with the constant total mass flow rate at the inlet,
successively increasing the number of the nozzle from n = 1 to n = 3,
the tar yield showed an overall downward trend. However, it was higher
than that under the condition of the uniform gas intake (n = 0), and the
mass fraction of unreacted biomass was lower under the condition of
n = 1. As the value of n were 1 and 3, the auxiliary gas velocity exerted a
deeper influence on the tar yield, making the tar yield decrease with its
increase, while the influence was smaller when n = 2. When n = 1, a
relatively low auxiliary gas velocity (uf = 0.15m/s) should be adopted.
It can be seen from Fig. 19(b) that when b= 2, the change trend of the tar
yield with the number of nitrogen nozzles was the same as that when
b= 1 under the condition that the total mass flow rate of the nitrogen
inlet remaining unchanged. Besides, for the same number of nitrogen
nozzles, the effect of the auxiliary gas velocity on tar yield was small,
and it got smaller with the increase of the number of nitrogen nozzles.
Therefore, when n = 1, a relatively higher auxiliary gas velocity (uf =
0.35m/s) should be adopted. The comparison of Fig. 19(a) and (b) found
that, compared with using single nozzle, when altering the values of n
and uf the appliance of double nozzles jetting opposite slowed the
change degree of the mass fraction of pyrolysis products, and increasing
the number of biomass nozzles weakened the influence of the nitrogen
inlet mode on the biomass pyrolysis reaction.
Fig. 20 showed the synergistic effects between biomass and nitrogen
inlet modes. In this work, the synergistic effects between two inlet
modes on the distribution of three-phase pyrolysis products were
investigated by analyzing the flow behavior, heat transfer performance
and pyrolysis reaction. Discussing about the biomass inlet mode, with
the change of single nozzle to double nozzles jetting opposite, the vol­
ume fraction and temperature of particles were more evenly distributed
in the dense phase area, which was favorable for biomass pyrolysis and
thus improved the tar yield. Discussing about the nitrogen inlet mode,
n = 1 achieved the highest tar yield. When n = 1, to promote the
Fig. 19. Mass fraction distribution of pyrolysis products at different values of n and uf : (a)b= 1; (b) b= 2.
14
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801
biomass pyrolysis and finally improve the tar yield, a relatively low
auxiliary gas velocity of uf = 0.15m/s should be chosen, which was
beneficial to the formation of a larger local circulation that was positive
to the particle mixing and temperature’s uniform distribution. In terms
of the above two results, a further study was conducted on the syner­
gistic mechanism when changing the biomass and nitrogen inlet modes
simultaneously. Specifically, it indicated that the nitrogen inlet mode
imposed a greater positive impact on the tar yield than the biomass inlet
mode, especially with the single nitrogen nozzle. Taking the influence of
the biomass inlet mode into consideration, when n = 1, b= 1 should be
selected under the condition of a lower auxiliary gas velocity, and b= 2
should be selected when the auxiliary gas velocity was higher. The
comprehensive study and analysis showed that the optimal structural
parameters were n = 1, uf = 0.15m/s and b= 1. The highest tar yield
and excellent pyrolysis performance were achieved under these
parameters.
4. Conclusion
In this work, a two-dimensional biomass pyrolysis model was
established to study the effect of the inlet structure on the performance
of the fluidized bed pyrolysis reactor. Specifically, this work investigated
the effects of biomass inlet mode and nitrogen inlet mode on multi-
process characteristics, such as flow behavior, heat transfer and pyrol­
ysis reaction. The synergistic effects between biomass and nitrogen inlet
modes on biomass pyrolysis performance were further revealed. The
conclusions were summarized as follows:
(1) By changing the biomass inlet from single nozzle (b=1) to double
nozzles jetting opposite (b=2) in bubbling fluidized bed, the
number of local circulation areas increased, resulting in flow
structure more complex. At the same time, the temperature
contours of each phase showed an axisymmetric distribution,
thus leading to the distribution of each phase temperature and
particle volume fraction in the dense phase area becoming more
uniform, which was beneficial to the biomass pyrolysis and the
improvement of the tar yield.
(2) The nitrogen inlet mode could be changed from the number of
nozzles(n) and the auxiliary gas velocity (uf ). On the one hand,
keeping uf = 0.15m/s, with the increase of the number of nitro­
gen nozzles from n = 1 to n = 3, the tar yield first decreased and
then increased, but was always higher than that when n = 0. On
the other hand, keeping n = 1, the tar yield gradually decreased
with the increase of the auxiliary gas velocity. It was discovered
that the condition of n = 1 and uf = 0.15m/s favored the for­
mation of a larger local circulation that was positive to the
L. Cai et al.
Fig. 20. Schematic diagram of the synergistic effects between biomass and nitrogen inlet modes.
particle mixing and temperature’s uniform distribution in the
dense phase bed. In this way, the biomass pyrolysis was facili­
tated and the tar yield was improved.
(3) Combining the above two studies, the synergistic effects between
biomass and nitrogen inlet modes were revealed. Compared with
using single nozzle, the appliance of double nozzles jetting
opposite slowed the change degree of the mass fraction of py­
rolysis products when altering the values of n and uf , thus
increasing the number of biomass nozzles weakened the influence
of the nitrogen inlet mode on the biomass pyrolysis reaction. In
terms of the tar yield, the number of nitrogen nozzles showed the
greatest impact among other factors, and the tar yield was
comparatively high when n = 1. Due to the effect caused by the
biomass inlet mode, single nozzle should be applied when the
auxiliary gas velocity was lower and double nozzles jetting
opposite should be preferred for higher auxiliary gas velocity. On
the whole, the condition of n = 1, uf = 0.15m/s and b= 1 could
achieve the highest tar yield and excellent biomass pyrolysis
performance.
In the future, we will further develop the biomass pyrolysis model
into 3D simulation, and comprehensively explore the effects of various
geometric structures and spatial factors on the gas-solid flow, heat
transfer and pyrolysis reactions in the fluidized bed.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Li Cai: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Data
curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software.
15
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 169 (2023) 105801
Qinhui Wang: Writing – review & editing. Qingang Xiong: Concep­
tualization, Writing – review & editing. Xuerong Wang: Writing
–review & editing. Linchen Fu: Writing – review & editing, Investiga­
tion. Luchang Han: Writing – review & editing, Supervision. Zhiping
Wang: Writing – review & editing. Yefeng Zhou: Writing – review &
editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Project administration.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data Availability
The data that has been used is confidential.
Acknowledgements
The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (22078278, 22178123), Hunan Natural Science Foundation for
Outstanding Young Scholars (2020JJ3033, 2021JJ30653,
2022RC1111), Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China
(2021M690055), the State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization
(No.ZJUCEU2021009).
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