Energy & Fuels, Vol.25, No.4, 1859-1868, 2011
Eulerian Model for the Condensation of Pyrolysis Vapors in a Water Condenser
The paper presents the simulation of the pyrolysis vapors condensation process using an Eulerian approach. The condensable volatiles produced by the fast pyrolysis of biomass in a 100 g/h bubbling fluidized bed reactor are condensed in a water cooled condenser. The vapors enter the condenser at 500 degrees C, and the water temperature is 15 degrees C. The properties of the vapor phase are calculated according to the mole fraction of its individual compounds. The saturated vapor pressure is calculated for the vapor mixture using a corresponding states correlation and assuming that the mixture of the condensable compounds behave as a pure fluid. Fluent 6.3 has been used as the simulation platform, while the condensation model has been incorporated to the main code using an external user defined function.