REI is not only working to solve today’s problems
for industry, but also preparing to solve tomorrow’s problems.
REI is involved in developing expertise and analysis tools for
a number of emerging technologies such as fluidized
bed combustion, gasifiers, fuel cells, and black liquor gasification.
These technologies involve many of the same fundamental
processes as more established combustion technologies, however
they also involve processes that are more difficult to characterize
and model. REI’s team of researchers is working with outstanding
researchers from government and academic research institutions
to develop models that describe and evaluate these technologies.
REI is also developing methods and tools to help
design and implement energyplexes of the future. These systems
will not only generate power at near-zero emissions, but will
also be chemical plants. Get more information on REI’s work
with these systems here.
If you are interested in investigating these or
other new technologies, contact REI
to see how we can help.
Fluidized Bed Combustor
REI led a team to develop a fluidized bed combustor as part of
NASA's Advanced Life Support Program. Modeling and experimental
techniques were used to design the system. Pilot-scale system
was designed, built, tested and delivered to NASA.
Gasifiers
REI is developing models for 1- and 2-stage gasifiers to help
determine optimal designs for carbon conversion, cold gas efficiency,
unburned carbon in slag and ash, and generated syngas properties.
Parameters impacting gasifier performance that are studied include
fuel type (coal, char-recycle, petcoke, waste, biomass), oxidant
properties (oxygen concentration, pre-heat temperature), feed
properties (wet vs. dry, solids loading, pre-heat temperature).
Current applications include power generation and black liquor
gasification.
Fuel Cells
One exciting new technology in power generation is fuel cells.
Fuel cells offer a number of benefits including quiet, simple
operation, design flexibility, and clean, efficient operation.
There are a number of technical barriers that must be overcome
before fuel cells can become commercially viable. REI is developing
models to better understand and evaluate fuel cell performance.
One area of current focus is solid oxide fuel cells, schematically
illustrated below.
Black Liquor Gasification
With financial support from the Department of Energy, REI has been
developing a mathematical model to simulate black liquor
gasification in a commercial demonstration fluidized bed in Big
Island, Virginia, owned by Georgia-Pacific Corporation. The
bubbling fluidized bed, shown below, has four in-bed indirect
PulseEnhancedTM heater bundles
to provide energy for the endothermic gasification reactions.
The model assumes that the bed consists of three distinctive
phases: the bubble phase, the wake phase and the dense phase;
the model includes the following submodels:
- Bubble flow (growth by coalescence and split when striking tubes)
- Bed hydrodynamic model
- Drying and devolatilization of black liquor
- Gasification kinetics
Work is in progress to develop other submodels for:
- Tar formation and destruction
- Bed agglomeration
- Formation of a volatile and moisture plume
