NOTE

On the Scaling-up of a Two-stage Air Blown Entrained Flow

Coal Gasifier
Caixia Chen’*t,Takahiro Miyoshi’, Hidehiro Kamiya’, Masayuki Horio‘ and Toshinori Kojimaz-*

’ Department of Chemical Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technologv, Koganei, Tokyo 184, Japan
Department of Industrial Chemistry, Seikei University, Musashino-shi, Tokyo 180, Japan
A two-stage air blown entrained flow gasifier is being developed in Japan for the IGCC process. However, its scale-up
up faces significant difficulties because of ash/slag deposition problems. The ash/slag deposition in the gasifier depends
on both the ash properties and entrainment produced by the swirling gas flow. Therefore, the flow hydrodynamics are
critical issues for the control of the ash behavior. In this paper, a comprehensive simulation model is used to examine
the effects of the gasifier geometry and jet configuration on the flow hydrodynamics in order to control the ash deposi-
tion on the gasifier walls. A swirl number for the multi-stage injection swirling gas flow is defined and proved to be the
most important hydrodynamic scaling law for the entrained flow gasifier.
Un gazeificateur bi-etage a ecoulement entraine par de I’air souffle est en cours de mise au point au Japon pour le
procede IGCC. Cependant, son extrapolation pose des problemes serieux a cause du depBt de cendres ou de scories. Le
depBt de cendres ou de scories est lie a la fois aux proprietes des cendres et a I’entrainement produit par I’ecoulement
de gaz tourbillonnant. Par consequent, I’hydrodynamique de I’ecoulement est un aspect critique du contrde du
comportement des cendres. Dans cet article, on a recours a un modele de simulation complet afin d’examiner les effets
de la geometrie du gazeificateur et de la configuration du jet sur I’hydrodynamique de I’ecoulement dans le but de
contrder le depBt de cendres sur les parois du gazeificateur. Un nombre de tourbillons est defini pour I’ecoulement de
gaz tourbillonnant pour une injection multi-etagee et on demontre que celui-ci est la loi de mise a I’echelle hydro-
dynamique la plus importante pour un gazeificateur a ecoulement entraine.
Keywords: entrained flow gasifier, scale-up laws, numerical simulation, ash behavior control.

I n Japan, a 1500-2000 tld commercial scale plant is being

developed for the IGCC (Integrated Coal Gasification
Combined-Cycle) process. The gasifier included in this (1) reductor burner
process is operated in the slagging mode as an air blown (2) higher canbustor burner
(3) lower c d u s t o r burner
pressurized entrained flow reactor. It is known that balanc- D h throat diameter
DO combustor diameter (1 2 m)
ing the calorific value of the product gas for a gas turbine Dn~t swirl diameter
and the combustion temperature in the gasifier is a key point R Dd2
D d Z
in operating a slagging air-blown gasifier (Kristiansen, Rt

1996). In an air blown gasification process, the nitrogen in

the air lowers the combustion gas temperature in the gasifier, Jet centerline
and special measures are required to ensure the discharge of
the molten ash, and the production of a sufficiently high
calorie syngas for stable combustion in the gas turbine. A
two-stage scheme is considered as one of the effective mea-
sures to produce a suitable syngas, i.e., a lower oxygedcoal
ratio with lower operating temperature in the upper stage,
and a higher oxygedcoal ratio with higher operating tem-
perature in the lower stage. Basically, the gasifier is divided
into two regions: a combustion region (combustor) and a
reduction region (reductor), separated by a throat as shown Figure 1 a -200 t/d two-stage air blown gasifier.
in Figure 1. Twenty to forty percent of the pulverized coal 1 b -Nozzle geometry schematic overhead view.
and recycle char, with about 80% of the total supplied air,
are tangentially injected into the combustor through 8 pres-
surized jets. The remaining part of the pulverized coal with molten ash, and makes the reductor operate in the dry-ash
about 20% of the total air is injected into the reductor mode to produce medium calorie syngas through gasification
through 4 jets aimed directly at the center of the reductor. reactions between the devolatilized char and hot combustion
This design makes the combustor operate in the temperature gas. Nevertheless, a major uncertainty of this two-stage
range of 2000 to 2200 K to ensure a smooth discharge of the scheme concerns the deposition characteristics of the vapor-
ized and fine-particle ash fractions, because the molten and
sticky ash particles would escape the combustor and tend to
deposit on the lower temperature part of the reductor
?Research fellow of NED0 (New Energy and Industrial Development
Organization). designed only for melt-free ash. The ash particles may
*Author to whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail address: deposit on the reductor wall in two ways. First, the molten
kojima@chgw.ch.seikei.ac.jp ash slag may be carried into the lower temperature region

THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, VOLUME 77, AUGUST, 1999 145
 and deposit on the walls before it cools down. Second, the
vaporized, sticky fine ash particles may be entrained by the
gas flow and deposit on the surface of the coal particles
injected into the reductor, while the newly formed sticky
coal particles tend to easily deposit on the walls. To control
the ash deposition on the reductor walls, an ideal gas flow
field with the following characteristics is required: suffi-
ciently strong vortex motion to separate the heavier molten
slag from the gas flow in the combustor, minimum up-flow
velocity in the diffuser to minimize the molten ash slag
carry-over into the reductor, and proper flow distribution in
the reductor to prevent the jets from rushing directly toward
the reactor wall, so as to prevent sticky fine particles from
moving toward the diffuser wall before it cools down.
As a result of failing to recognize the importance of the
molten ash behavior, the gasifiers developed in Japan to
date, have faced significant operational difficulties caused
by slagging problems (Araki and Harai, 1996; Hara and
Ichigawa, 1997; Kaneko et al., 1997; Koyama et al., 1996).
Since 1983, a 2 MPa 2 t/d bench scale gasifier at CRIEPI
(Center Research Institute of Electric Power Industry), an
atmospheric 8 t/d gasifier at MHI (Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, Ltd.) and a 2.7 MPa 200 t/d pilot plant in Nakoso
(IGC Research Association) have been tested. Twenty-two
types of coals were tested in the 2 t/d gasifier with a total
gasification time of 2220 h (Hara and Ichigawa, 1997). The
test in the 200 t/d pilot plant was started in March 1991 and
finished by February 1996. Three types of coals were tested
with the total gasification time of 4770 h (789 continuous h)
(Araki and Harai, 1996; Hara and Ichigawa, 1997). Due to
the too small throat diameter in the original design, the slag-
ging problem (sticking slag that built-up on the wall of the
diffuser and occasional plugging of the throat) occurred in
the Nakoso 200 t/d pilot plant (Araki and Harai, 1996, Hara
and Ichigawa, 1997). To solve this problem, some modifi-
cations were made by changing the structural parameters and
operating conditions. Among them, increasing the ratio of the
throat diameter to combustor diameter (Dth/D,) from 0.4 to
0.8 proved to be an effective measure for controlling the slag
growth, and the 200 t/d air blown gasifier has operated quite
succcsshlly under various operating conditions after the
improvement. Further scaling of the gasifier up to a commer-
cial scale plant is expected over the next several years. In
order to deal with slagging during the scale-up, the overall
design principles and scaling laws for the entrained flow gasi-
fier should be established. Such scaling laws would provide
us with not only a deeper confidence for the prediction of the
effects of. the design variables on gasifier performance, but
also sufficient information on controlling of the ash deposi-
tion behavior. In the present paper, a comprehensive simu-
lation model is used to examine the scaling-up issues for the
two-stage entrained flow coal gasifiers. The significance of
controlling the ash behavior in the entrained flow gasifiers
is demonstrated by controlling the gas flow distribution.
Mathematical methods
NUMI:KIC~\L
SIMULATION OF THE GAS FLOW FIELD IN ENTRAINED
FLOW (iASIFIF.RS
As described above, the gas flow field in the gasifier is a
strong swirl flow produced by the orientation of jets issuing
from the air, coal and char injection nozzles. Differing from
the flow fields produced by swirling jets, such a swirl flow
is strictly classified as a ‘vortex’ flow field. Special computa-
tional efforts made in swirl and vortex flow fields are similar
and can be extensively found in the literature (Boysan ‘et al.,
746 T H E CANADIAN JOURNAL OF C H E M I C A L ENGINEERING, V O L U M E 77, AUGUST, 1999
1986, Hargreaves and Silvester, 1990; Sloan et al., 1986;
Zhang and Nieh, 1997), yet no model has addressed and been
applied to an entrained flow gasifier. In the present work, a
comprehensive coal gasification model is developed to simu-
late practical entrained flow gasification facilities, and one of
the main tasks is to model the turbulent flow field in the gasi-
fier. The model uses conventional numerical methods and
submodels recommended for the entrained flow coal com-
bustion and gasification process (Smoot, 1993). In this model,
the gas phase is assumed to be a turbulent, reacting, continu-
um field that can be describled by partial differential, conser-
vation equations in Cartesian coordinates. The conservation
equations are Favre averaged and solved by the SIMPLER
(Patankar, 1980) method. Turbulence was modeled by the
standard k-E model Launder and Spalding, 1972).
The model is then used to predict the flow field in a hvo-
stage air blown gasifier. The flow domain is divided into
rectangular cells bounded by a symmetry wall. The standard
flow grids consist of 25 cells in the x, y and 52 cells in the z
direction. Because a structured gridding approach is used,
the cell boundaries are not laid parallel to the physical
boundaries, and a jagged edge is thus used to approximate
the curved boundary. Neglecting the effect of particles on
the gas flow field and the non-isothermal effects caused by
the gasifier walls, the inflow temperature is assumed to be
constant. A uniform distribution of inlet velocity, fully
developed flow conditions at the outlet, and no slip condi-
tions at the wall are defined. For regions immediately adja-
cent to the wall, the wall b c t i o n approximations are used
for the near-wall grid nodes to modify the low Reynolds
number effect. The turbulence of the nozzle inlet conditions
is 0.02 in inlet Reynolds mean stress (rms)/normal velocity
(mean inlet velocity 50 d s ) and 0.1 in turbulent length
scalehquare root of nozzle area. A converged solution is
defined when the normalized residual (mean residuahormal
velocity) for each velocity component is less than 0.0001
ABOUTTHE SIGNIFICANT DIMENSIONLESSGROUPS DERIVED
FROM BASIC EQUATIONS
To develop a rational data correlation technique and
scale-up procedures for the design of commercial size
plants, the significant dimensionless groups were derived
from basic equations (see Appendix).
Refering to the Appendix, the Reynolds, Froude and
Swirl numbers are significant dimensionless groups derived
from basic equations. In principle, the gas flow field simili-
tude requires the same Re, Fr, and Sw numbers between the
model and the prototype systems. It should be noted that the
Swirl number expressed in Equation (A-20) is deduced
under the condition of constant flow rate and nozzle radius
for all jets. Considering a general multi-injection system
with varied mass flow rate and nozzle size, it is easy to be
understood that the Swirl number will include the flow rates,
jet orientations and nozzle sizes for all the jet nozzles.
Therefore, for the multi-stage injection swirl/vortex flow, a
strict geometric similarity including jet orientation and flow
proportional allotment to each jet is necessary to satisfy the
hydrodynamic resemblance.
Results and discussion
GENERAL HYDRODYNAMICS OF THE TWO-STAGE ENTRAINED
FLOW GASIFIER
For the purpose of optimizing the gas flow field, it is very
important to study the effects of gasifier geometry and jet
 11 IV V I 'I

Dih/ Dc = (1 4 Drl>iDc = 0 8 DfhiDc = I 0

Figure 2 - Effect of throat diameter ratio (DfhlD,) on gas flow Figure 3 - Effect of swirl diameter ratio for the combustor burners
field, 200 tJd, qFW,
: D,cw2: Drw3= 0.1 : 0.44 : 0. (DswllDpw2)on gas flow field, 200 t/d, DfhlD,. = 0.8, O,,.,lD< = 0.

configuration on the general hydrodynamics. To investigate

the sensitivities of these parameters to the gas flow distribution /I

within the gasifier, a numerical simulation was conducted I

for different swirl diameters (diameters of the undeflected
jet circles) of lower combustor burners (D,yw,), higher com-
bustor burners (D,yw) and the reductor burners (Dsw3),and
for different throat &meters ( D J . Various diagrams of the
simulation results show the sensitivities and relationship
between the control variables and the flow field in the gasifier
as discussed below.
effects of throat diameter
Figure 2, which compares the 2-D velocity vector at the
x - z cross section, shows that the throat diameter is critical
for the gas flow field in the gasifier. In the upper part of the
combustor, a strong up-flow exists in the case of a small
throat diameter, while a reversal flow exists in the case of a
larger throat diameter. In the diffuser, the flow field signifi-
cantly changes with a step increase of D J D , from 0.4 to
0.8, but a small change is observed with a Arther increase in
the ratio from 0.8 to 1. These findings explain the significant
improvement for the slag entrainment and deposition on the
reactor experienced in the Nakoso 200 t/d gasifier when Fieure 4 - Effect of swirl diameter ratio for the reductor burners
Df,/Dc increased from 0.4 to 0.8 (Araki and Harai, 1996). Y

Before the improvement, it was considered that the molten
slag was carried by the up-flow to the diffuser, thrown to
and accumulated on the water cooled wall, and/or mixed
with the injected fuel and condensed in the area near the
reductor burners.
Effects of swirl diameter of lower and higher combustor
burners
The model was used to study the effects of swirl diameter
ratio (diameter of undeflected jet circleldiameter of combus-
tor, D~,,/DC) on the gas flow field in the gasifier. With a
Dlh/D, of 0.8 while keeping all other parameters constant, a
simulation was conducted for swirl diameter ratios ranging
from 0 to 0.5. Figure 3 compares the 2-D velocity vector at the
(D,JD,) on gas flow field, 200 t'd, D,,lDC = 0.8, D,,,,,lOC= 0.1,
D,Fw.2/Dc= 0.44.
x - z cross section for various combinations of swirl diameter
ratios for the lower combustor burners (D,tu,lID,.) and higher
ones (D,,,,2/D,). With an increase in D,pwl/Dc, the region of
flow reversal increased in the combustor, but the position of
flow reversal moved hrther down the combustor. The rela-
tive change in the flow reversal position shows that it would
be necessary to provide a smaller D,,u,lIDcthan D,cu,,IDc.to
maintain the positive axial velocity at the bottom in ordcr to
prevent char particles from dropping out of the combustor.
On the other hand, the changes in Dpw2lDc show a signif-
icant effect on the flow field above the diffuser as seen in
Figure 3. As D,,,,/D, increases, the location of the axial

THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, VOLUME 77, AUGUST, 1999 147
 TABLE1
The Operating Conditions and Parameters for Gasifiers Types
x-XIV
Type X XI x 11 x 111 x IV
Scale 1 114 1 114 114
Load ([Id) 200 model 8 model 2
DdDL 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4
D F W , :r)cw,2:DFw3 0.1:0.44:0 0.1:0.44:0 0.1 :0.44:0 0.1:0.44:0 0.1:-:o
Temperature (K) I897 298 1897 298 1800
Pressure (MPa) 2.7 1.02 0.1 0.1 2.0
sw 11,s 11.5 11.5 11.5 7.2
Fr 7.96 x 1 ~ 3 7.96 x lC3 7.96 x I t 3 3.19 x 1C2 7.76 x IC3
Re 1 . 0 105
~ 1.0 105 3.7 x 103 2.0 104 8.4 x 103

velocity maximum moves off the centerline region to the ti,,

reactor wall. This indicates that the vortex motion in the

gasifier becomes stronger with an increase in D,yw2/Dc.
The result with “0” swirl diameter is shown in the same
figure for comparison. It is shown that the jets move directly v,ril Z I U ”

toward the reactor walls both in the combustor and in the

reductor. These results indicate that a vortex flow field is
necessary to control the char particle motion and separate
‘LC dl 0

the molten slag from the gas flow and char particles. ~ “iu”

--- vill

Effects of swirl diameter of reductor burners

The swirl diameter ratio of the reductor burner (D,9w3/Dc)
was varied from 0 to 0.75 in order to investigate its effect on
the gas flow field. The influence of the ratio on the flow
field in the combustor is small, but its influence on the
reductor is significant (as shown in Figure 4). As Dsw3/Dc
increases, the vortex flow becomes stronger.A strong reversal
flow is formed above the reductor burner level for the
largest D,,,/D, of 0.75. Furthermore, a larger D,rw3/Dc
results in an obvious change in the vector directions near the
burner as indicated in Figure 4. This occurrence can be uti-
lized to prevent sticky particles from moving toward the dif-
fuser wall, mixed with the injected fuel and condensed in the
area near the reductor burners. On the other hand, however,
the rather unexpected reversal flow would affect the gasfi-
cation efficiency, because more product gas is carried back
to the combustor with a higher reversal velocity, therefore,
more gas calories would be used to compensate for this heat
loss. A minimum flow reversal can be obtained by selecting
a proper LIcW3/Dc up to 0.44.
EXAMINING
THE HYDRODYNAMICSCALING LAWS
To develop a rational data correlation technique for dif-
ferent scale gasifiers, the hydrodynamic resemblance was
investigated concerning gasifiers types X to XIV. The geo-
metric schemes and operating conditions of the gasifiers are
listed in Table 1. Type X (200 t/d), type X I1 (8 t/d) and type
X IV (2 t/d) are the only three gasifiers practically tested up
to now. The Type X 111 is a 114 scale atmospheric cold model
for type X, and X I is an ideal 114 cold model of type X sup-
posed to maintain the same swirl, Froude and Reynolds
numbers as type X, where the Swirl number is calculated
using Equation (A-20), and the Froude and Reynolds num-
bers are calculated using characteristic values of the diameter
and the axial velocity in the throat.
The simulation model is hrther employed to calculate the
gas flow and velocity distributions for the above gasifiers or
their cold models. h Figure 5, the left part of each diagram
shows the 2-D velocity vector along the x-z cross section. It is
found that all the gasifiers except type XIV have very similar
flow distributions.To observe the detailed gas velocity distri-
Figure 5 - Velocity vector and dimensionless velocity distribu-
tion for five gasifiers.
bution, the dimensionless radial, circumferential and axial
velocities are depicted and shown in the right part of each dia-
gram. As can be seen, the dimensionless velocity distributions
are nearly the same for the gasifiers of types X, X I and type
X 11, regardless of the different Re numbers used in type X 11.
This indicates that the Reynolds number is not important in the
swirl flow field within the studied range. Furthermore, inter-
esting mformation can be found by comparing the velocity dis-
tributions between types X and X 111. Although the Re and Fr
numbers are both different from type X, very similar dimen-
sionless velocity distributions to type X are obtained for type
X 111. Compared with the results concerning the effects of the
Re number, the Fr number has little effect on the flow, but not
significant. On the other hand, very different dimensionless
velocity distributions for the type X IV gasifier are obtained.
Th~sis due to the different Sw number and the shape of the
reactor used. This c o n f m that the Swirl number is the most
important scaling law that satisfies the hydrodynamic resem-
blance in the swirl flow field. Since the Swirl number for the
entrained flow gasifier is a function of geometry and jet ori-
entation, a common Swirl number and strict geometry simi-
larity are required to satisfy the hydrodynamic resemblance
in the entrained flow gasifiers.
These results are in reasonable agreement with the previ-
ously published research. Based on a formal order of mag-
nitude analysis, Kane and Mc Callister (1978) concluded
that the Swirl number, geometric scale ratio and Froude
number were important scaling laws, while the Reynolds
number has no effect on the flow for the vortex flow field.
The model simulation method presented in this paper pro-
vides an examination of the hydrodynamic scaling laws for
the entrained flow gasifiers.
Conclusions
A comprehensive entrained flow gasification model was
used to discuss the scale-up issues of entrained flow gasifiers.

748 THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, VOLUME 77, AUGUST, 1999
The general hydrodynamics in an entrained flow gasifier
and the hydrodynamic scaling laws for the entrained flow
gasifiers were examined by calculating and comparing the
velocity distributions within the different scaled cold and
hot gasifier models operating under various conditions. The
following useful conclusions can be drawn as guidelines for
the scale-up of the two-stage entrained flow gasifiers:
(1) The swirl flow is sensitive to the throat diameter. The
small throat diameter would be responsible for the sticky
molten ash particle carried over to the reductor.
(2) Special attention should be paid to determining the swirl
diameter ratio in order to control the solid particle motion.
A small swirl diameter for the lower combustor burner, and
an intermediate swirl diameter for the reductor burner are
recommended to prevent the sticky particles from moving
toward the reductor walls.
(3) The Swirl number was the most important hydrodynam-
ic scaling law for the multi-stage injecting swirl flow
gasifers. For scaling-up these types of gasifiers, a restricted
geometry similarity including jet orientation and flow pro-
portional allotment to each jet is required.
(4) The Reynolds number has no effect on the swirl flow
distribution similarity within the studied range. The Froude
number has little effect when the particle effect was neglected.
Further research is required to investigate the effects of parti-
cles and its reaction on the gas flow hydrodynamics scaling
law, based on the coupled gas-particle simulations.
From Equations (A-5) and (A-6), the Froude number Fr =
U,,/(gI), the Reynolds number Re E Uo pllp, and the dimcn-
sionless terminal velocity of particle ulUo are important
dimensional groups derived from the motion equations of
gas and particles.
For the vortex flow field, the circumferential and axial
conservation equations of momentum are necessary. The
integral forms are written as:
jt
G, = pu, r2 xm, dr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (A-7)
G, = jt pu, r2 xruz dr ..................... (A-8)
According to the definition of Beer and Chigier (1972),
the swirl number for the combustor system is given by:
It will be convenient for the analysis to define three char-
acteristic velocities of the circumferential, radial and axial
components of uecl u, and uzc. First, the characteristic cir-
cumferential velocity is obtained from the steady state form
of the momentum equation. Referring to Figure 1 for the
definition of the geometrical parameters, the transfer of cir-
cumferential momentum from the jet nozzles entrances at
the outer periphery of the gasifier to the gasifier itself can be
expressed as:

Appendix: Significant dimensionless groups derived from t m j R j V n = mR,uec ..................... (A-10)

basic equations i=l

Neglecting the effects of particles on the gas flow field where R, is the radius of the ith undeflected jet circle,
and the change in gas density, the Navier-Stokes equation is R, = R sin ai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (A-I 1)
written as:
The average jet circle radius (r?) for the multi-stage injcc-
=-pge, -Vp+pV u . . . . , 2 tion system is:
n

and the equation of particle motion is: Rsinaj

R= i=l
......................... (A-12)
dv 4
- .
-(C,p/
dt 3
dppp)Iu.vl(u .v) .ge, . . . . . . . . .
n
and the-characteristics swirl radius R, is defined as the aver-
age of R and the outer radius R, can be expressed as:
where ez = (O,O,l), C, = 24/Rep in terms of the Stokes law,
and the particle Reynolds number is Re = plu - vId& n
Using the terminal velocity, Equation (A-5) is written as: R+zRsinai/n

dv R, = i=l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (A-13)
- = g[( u - v ) 1 ut - e, ] . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 2
dt
Assuming a constant normal velocity V, and nozzle
Choosing a characteristic gasifier length I, a characteristic radius R, for all jets:
axial gas velocity Uo,and introducing the following dimen- mi = mln = pn V, R i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (A-14)
sionless dependent variables:
Substituting Equations (A-1 I), (A-13) and (A-14) into
P 3 p;(p u;),i = t /(I / u,),li= u / u,, 3 = v / u,, v 3 Iv Equation (A- lo), the characteristic circumferential velocity
........................................ is thus reduced to:
(A-4)
n
the dimensionless form of Equations (A-1) and (A-2) are 2Csinai / n
given by:
uec = V, i= I
n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (A-15)
?+ 1 "
u.Vli=--ez-VP+-V
1 "2- -
u ...,.., 1+ C s i n a i / n
'at
li (* * ) Fr Re (A-5)
i= I
Secondly, the characteristic axial velocity is obtained
from the mass flow rate of the gas leaving the gasifier and
thc gasifier geometry:

THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, VOLUME 77, AUGUST, 1999 749
 Reynolds number
particle Reynolds number
swirl radius of jet, (m)
(A- 16) Swirl number
characteristic axial gas velocity, ( d s )
normal velocity at nozzle outlet, (m/s)
Finally, the characteristic radial velocity can be expressed particle diameter, (m)
as the radial component of the mass flow through the noz- (O,O, 1)
zles divided by the larger flow area of the gasifier: gravity acceleration, (m/s2)
turbulent kinetic energy, (m2/s2)
,I n characteristic gasifier length, (m)
total mass flow rate, (kg/s)
pressure, (Pa)
(A- 17) dimensionless pressure
radius of combustor or reductor, (m)
time, (s)
G, and G7 defined in Equations (A-7) and (A-8) can b e dimensionless time
approximated as: velocity vector, ( d s )
dimensionless velocity
G, zz puHcR,2 xruz dr = m Rc u,, . . . . . . . . . . (A- 18) particle terminal velocity, (m/s)
velocity components at 8, z, and r directions. (m/s)
. ,
G- = jg pu; 2 nmz dr = muzc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (A-19) uOr uzc, u,, = characteristic velocity at 8, z, and r direction, (m/s)
V = particle velocity, (m/s)
By substituting Equations (A- 15), (A-1 6), (A-1 8) and 0 = dimensionless particle velocity
(A-19) into Equation (A-9), the Swirl number is reduced to: x, y , z = coordinates, (m)
n Greek symbols
ai = jet angle with radius
E = rate of dissipation of, (k)
P = viscosity, (Pa.s)
P>PP = gas density, particle density, (kg/m3)
Equation (A-20) indicates that the Swirl number of the References
multi-stage injecting swirl flow in the gasifier is a function
of geometry only. The Swirl number is an important para- Araki, S. and Y. Harai, “Test Results at the 200 t/d Nakoso IGCC
Pilot Plant”, J. Japan, Inst. of Energy 75, 839-850 ( I 996).
meter as it is directly related to the ratios of the characteristic Beer, J. M., and N. A. Chigier, “Combustion Aerodynamics”, Applied
velocities. The interpretation of the velocity ratio in terms of Science Publisher, Ltd., London, England (l972), pp. 70-120.
the geometry and the Swirl number is given below: Boysan, F., R. Webber, and J. Swithenbank, “Modeling Coal-Fired
Cyclone Combustor”, Combustion and Flame 63, 7 3 8 6 (1986).
Hara, S. and K. Ichigawa, “Evaluation of Gasification Characteristic
with 2 t/d and 200 t/d Entrained Flow Gasifier”, in Proc. Int. Conf.
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Rl = characteristic swirl radius, (m)
Rn = nozzle radius, (m) Manuscript received July 7, 1998; revised manuscript received
R = average radius of jet circle, (m) May 13, 1999; accepted for publication May 25, 1999.

750 THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, VOLUME 77, AUGUST, 1999