2012

101 11 25~27

Paper number: X00-002

Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion Concept Design and the Cold Model
Numerical Simulation
Zu-Zen Chu C.P. Chen Chien-Hui Shen Heng Lin
2nd Division Chung Shun Institute of Science and Technology
E-mail:zuzenchu@gmail.com
NSC Project No: NSC 101-3113-P-008-002
Abstract
This paper presents a 10 atmospheric pressure and
1.0MW fluidized bed combustion boiler and proceeds to
the cold model numerical simulation to verify the
conceptual design is suitable. The results will provide a
basic blueprint for the future demonstration PFBC
boiler.
Key word: PFBC,Two phase Flow

1.

Introduction

The pressurized fluidized bed combustion (PFBC)

comes from traditional fluidized bed technology. The
major concept of PFBC is to increase the boilers
pressure from ambient pressure to 0.6Mpa~1.6Mpa.
Because the pressurized chamber was adapted, the
efficiency of combustion was enhanced and the size of
the boiler can be largely reduced. The most important
achievement is that it can reduce the emission products
significantly. Carbon dioxide becomes the main exhaust
gas. The concentration of carbon dioxide can reach
around 95%. If we can store it in underground,
environment will suffer with no pollution impact.
Beside this, it can increase the power generation
efficiency from 3% to 4%. This is a worthy technology
for generating electricity of the future.

2.

The Concept Design of PFBC

2.1. The Design Requirements

The bed material for the PFBC includes bituminous
coal, water, limestone and round sand. While in
operation, the bed temperature needs to keep under
900 by using the immersed tube to extract the heat
flux .The sieve diameter of the coal particle is chosen as
two mm. Contains of coal are listed in below:
Car
Har
Oar
Sar
Nar
Mar
68.8% 4.5% 9.1% 0.56% 1.63% 2.6%
The feeding system of the bed material contains
coal silo and screw feeder. Before enter the furnace and
become coal water slurry, limestone and water need to
be added to the coal. The required coal for the
combustion is 155 kg per hour. The required water for
the coal water slurry is 31 kg per hour. The required
limestone for the combustion is 10.84 kg per hour which
was used as desulfurization.
When operating in 10 atmospheric pressure and

273oK condition, theoretical calculation of air volume

required for burning one kilogram coal v0 is
V 0 0.00889 Car 0.0265 H AR
(1)
0.00333 S AR 0.00333 OAR
Substitute CarHarSarOar into equation (1), we
can get air required V0 0.735 m3/kg or 110.25 m3 per
hour. Transfer to the oxygen requirement, burning one
kilogram coal needs 23.11m3/kg or 332.8 kilogram.
Due to 10% oxygen-enriched combustion is used,
practical oxygen required needs to be modified to
366.087 kilogram per hour.
The theoretical flue gas Vy can be derived as
V y VRO 2 VN02 VH 2O Vb VO 2
VRO 2 0.01866Car 0.007 S ar
VN 2 0.008 N ar
Vb 0.79V 0

VO 2 0.021V 0
(2)
VH 2O 0.111H ar 0.0124M ar 0.2 / H 2O
In equation (2), VRO2 is volume of tri-molecular
gas. Vb is the recirculation flue gas volume which will
take place the role of nitrogen in combustion. VO2 is the
residual of oxygen when the burn is finished. When
burn one kilogram coal, the final volume for flue gas are
VRO2
VN2
Vb
VH2O
VO2
0.1288 0.0013 0.5512 0.0813 0.0149
The total flue gas volume Vy is around 0.7597 m3/kg.
The recirculation flue gas ratio is defined asVy
divide by Vb. From this definition, the recirculation flue
gas ratio is 72.56%The final emission of the waste gas
contains as
VCO2
VN2
VH2O
VO2
92.095% 0.181% 5.650% 2.073%
2.2. Critical Velocity Calculation
In operating the PFBC, the gas velocity usually
has to reach a certain value such that bed material can
switch from fixed bed to fluidized bed .This velocity is
called critical velocity umf. The calculation of critical
velocity usually depends on approximate solution or
through experimental method. The formulation is
derived as:
d p ( p g ) g 3
u mf
mf p
1.75 g
(3)
Critical Reynolds number Remf is defined as

2012
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Re mf

d p u mf g

Archimedes number Ar is defined as

d 3 ( p g )g
Ar p g
2

(4)

(5)

The input parameters include sphericity p 0.581,

the apparent density p 2594 kg/m3, tapped density b
1350 kg/m3 and the critical porosity mf 0.48. The
average diameter dp of ground sand is set to 1 mm.
Under ten atmospheric pressure and 900 furnace
temperature, the characteristic of the furnace are
Remf
Ar
umf
42.808 50044.304 0.467 m/s
To make sure the furnace get a fully fluidized
situation, a fluidization velocity u0 was used which
usually assumes 2 or 3 times of the critical velocity. In
our design, the fluidization velocity u0 was set to 1m/s.
It can guarantee us that a fully developed
condition
in our furnace.
For the reason to understand the fluidized
phenomenon, the Technical Institute of Swiss Union in
1971, have proposed a fluidization regime map, shown
in fig.4. From the Reynolds number Re and drag
coefficient 1/Ctwhich is calculated approximately
equals to 0.126, we can figure out our PFBC furnace
probably falls into a bubbling bed zone.
2.3. Furnace Configuration Design
Due to the fluidized bed is located in the bubbling
beds. It can be divided by two clear types of zone. The
lower one is called dense phase and the upper one is
called the dilute phase. In the dense phase zone, a
rectangular shape was designed with conical opening in
axial direction which can increase the fluidized velocity
and reduce the sintering. In the dilute phase zone, a
straight rectangular shape was adapted. In the last
section of the furnace, a divergent section is used to
speed up the flue gas. Hoping that can offer a sufficient
velocity for the particles while entering the cyclone
separator.
The sizing of the furnace is decided by(1)the mass
flow rate under the air distributor 0.502314 kg/m3
(2)The total mass flow rate in the furnace 0.55699
kg/m3 (3)coal particle burning time 1.5 second
(4)furnace cross-section heat release rate 1.2996 MW.
From above values, we can calculate the width of lower
dense phase zone is 26.7 cm. In actual design, a value of
30 cm was taken. The width of the upper dilute zone is
54.8 cm. In actual design, a value of 57 cm was taken. If
we assume the furnace cross-section heat release rate Qs
equals to 4 MW/m2 and the lower heating value (LHV)
Qnet,ar is 27017.65 KJ/kg. The height of dense zone can
be evaluated as 1.2573 m. The volume of bed material
required is 0.3 m3. Consider the capacity of immersed
tube and the future expanding ability, the height of
dense zone assumes 1.8 m. The height of dilute zone
usually depends on the value of coal particle burning

Paper number: X00-002

time. For the time being, the height of dilute zone is
temporarily set 1.5 m. We will modify this to a proper
value when finishing the hot model CFD simulation. In
order to increase the flue gas velocity from 0.43 m/s to
25 m/s before entering the cyclone separator, the last
part of the furnace is using a converge section. The bent
rectangular tube which connects furnace and cyclone
separator is designed with 99cm rectangular
cross-section.
Outer housing of the furnace adopts two different
layers design. The outer shell uses a round shape
stainless steel to resist the high pressure. The inner shell
use rectangular shape refractory bricks to resist the high
temperature. The outer diameter is set to 2 meter and the
thick of refractory brick is set to 32 cm. The detailed
furnace design is shown in fig.1.
The bed pressure drop is another key parameter
which can be calculated as
(6)
pb H 0 (1 b ) ( p g ) g
In equation (6), H0 is the height of moving packed bed.
b is the moving bed porosity which is set to 0.66667.g
is the gas density which equals to 4.266038427 kg/m3.
Finally we get the bed pressure drop 10643.77 pa.
2.4.
Gas Distributor Design
The Basic concept design of the gas distributor
requires:(1)uniform flow avoids choked area(2)strong
dynamic energy in the exit of nozzle in order to mix up
the bed material(3)proper pressure drop dont waste
too much pressure head(4)prevents the deformation of
gas distributor due to the heating effect(5)prevents the
nozzle from plugging and easy to clean the fouling.
From volume rate below the air distributor and
gas temperature at 117,the total area for the orificef
can be calculated.
B j V 0
273 t 0
(7)
f

3600 u or
273
Where Bj is the coal consumption per hour. The
orifice velocity uor is usually assigned around 35m/s at
ambient pressure condition. We take the value of 38 m/s
then modifies to ten atmospheric pressure criteria.
u
(8)
u or or
P
From equation (8), uor equals to 12.02m/s. The
total area for the orifice f from equation (8) is
0.003717081 m2. The number of nozzles needed for the
gas distributor can be calculated by following equation:
4 f
(9)
m
nd o2r
In equation (9), dor is the diameter of orifice, set to
5 mm. n is the number of orifice for each nozzle, set to
8. From equation (9), the required nozzles are twenty
four. The open area ratio is a key parameter for the
nozzle design which was defined as the gas distributor
area Ab divided by total area of the orifice f.

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2
nmd or
f
100%
100%
Ab
4 Ab

(10)

Where the gas distributor area Ab is 0.09 m2. The open

area ratiofrom equation (10) is 4.2% which satisfies
the design required criteria from 4% to 8% .
Summarizing the above results, 24 cap type
nozzles were decided to use for the 3030 cm
bowl-shaped gas distributor. Each nozzle contains
eight orifices. In the center of the gas distributor, a 50
mm diameter ash hopper was used to get rid of the ash.
The final furnace sizing is shown in figure2 and
figure3.
The distributor pressure drop is another key
parameter. For a proper design, the ratio of distributor
pressure drop over the bed pressure drop, called ,
which is required 0.4 to 0.5. The way to calculate the
distributor pressure drop is as following:
pbf

2
g u or

(11)

Where is the drag coefficient equals to 5.0. The

parameter g is the gas density 12.6377 kg/m3. The
parameter uor is the orifice velocity 12.02m/s. The
pressure calculated in equation (11) is 4562.227pa. The
ratio of distributor pressure drop over the bed pressure
drop is calculated as 0.43 which can satisfy the design
requirement.

Paper number: X00-002

( s s vs ) ( s s vs vs ) s p s msg vsg
t

K sg (vs vg ) s s ( Fs Flift ,s Fvm,s )
(15)
The stress-strain tensor is shown below:

(16)
i i i (vi viT ) i (i i ) vi

In equation(16),ii are the shear stress and bulk

viscosity respectively for i phase. F

is the external
i

forces which include lift force Flift , i ,virtual force Fvm ,i ,

and pressure force. vi , j is the relative velocity which is

defined as:
If mi,j>0(mass from phase i to phase j)

vi , j = v i

If mi,j<0(mass from phase j to phase i) vi , j = v j

The external force for the volume mainly comes
from the gravity. The lift force and virtual mass force
are too small and can be neglected.
The bulk viscosity s explained as the particles
resist compression or expansion force and can be
expressed as following

4
(17)
s s s d s g 0,ss (1 ess )( s ) 0.5
3

In above equation g 0,ss is the radical distribution

function coefficient and

3.

ess means the recovery

coefficient of the colliding particles. s is the

Cold Flow Numerical Simulation

3.1. Numerical Modeling

The most commonly used numerical scheme for
the two phase flow is Eulerian-Eulerian method, which
treats the gas and particles as continue mediums. They
both exist and penetrate to each other and the gas and
particles are coupled through the drag force. A
conservation form can be applied to describe this
phenomenon. This method is regarded as the most
advance model in today.
3.2. Governing Equations
The governing equation for Two- phase flow is as
following
( i i )

(12)
( i i vi ) mij
t

g s 1

(13 )

Where i represents the porosity of a small

volume. The index i and j represent different phase.
The sub-index g means gas phase and the s means
solid phase. mi,j represents the chemical reaction and
mass interchange. The conservation form for the gas
phase and particle phase are as following:

( g g v g ) ( g g v g v g ) g p g m gs v gs
t

K gs (v g v s ) g g ( Fg Flift , g Fvm, g )
(14)

temperature of the particle.

Shear stress s contains collisionkinetic and
friction three parts.

s s,col s,km s , fr

(18)

Collision viscosity is defined as:

s ,col

0.5
4
s s d s g s g 0,ss (1 ess ) s
5

(19)

Kinetic viscosity is defined as:

s ,km

10d s s

96 s (1 ess ) g 0, ss

4
g 0, ss s (1 ess ) 2
5

Friction viscosity is defined as:

p sin
s , fr s
2

(20)
(21)

I 2D

Where ps is the solid pressure is the internal friction

angleI2D is the second invariant for the stress.

K g , s (v g vs ) is the drag force of the particle.

In this article we will use the Syamlal-OBrien model to
simulate the motion of particles.
Re s
(22)
3 s g g
K gs

v r2,s d s

CD
v vs v g
r ,s

Where CD is defined as:

C D 0.63

4.8
Re s / v r ,s

(26)

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Where

vr ,s is defined as:

vr , s 0.5 ( A 0.06 Re s

(27)

(0.06 Re s )2 0.12 Re s (2 B A) A2 )
The coefficients of A and B are defined as:
A g4.14 , B 0.8 1g.28 for g 0.85
A g4.14 , B g2.65

Re s

for

g d s vs v g

g 0.85

In our numerical analysis, we adopt the

commerical software Fluent to simulate the cold model
of two phase flow under the Eulaerian coordinate. A real
three-dimensional fluidized bed, which includes the
complicated gas distributor, was used to simulate the
fluidized particle moving behavior, velocity distribution
and pressure drop of the bed material under ten
atmospheric pressure.
3.3. 3D Cold Model Flow Simulation
In this chapter a real three-dimensional, unsteady,
two phase flow simulation was conducted. The real
fluidized bed boiler includes gas distributor and 24 hat
type nozzles. Each nozzle is opened with 8 orifices
around it. The grid point of the numerical analysis is
about 1,000,000. The pressure is set to 10 atmospheric
and the temperature is set to 600oK inside the boiler.
The velocity at the entrance of the gas distributor is set
to 0.8 and 1.3m/s which equals to the mass flow rate
0.36 and 0.59 kg/s respectively.
The results of three-dimensional simulation are
shown in fig.5 to fig.9. The velocity distribution near
the orifice for the case of bed height 50cm and mass
flow rate 0.59kg/s at time 6.8 second is shown in Fig.5.
The result shows that the average velocity is around 10
to 19 m/s which are slightly higher than the design value
12.02 m/s. We take a further observation into the flow
field where a uniform flow without any choking
condition can be observed. The solid volume fraction
distribution varied with time for the case of bed height
50cm and mass flow rate 0.59kg/s is shown in Fig.6.
The red zone shows a higher concentration of solid
volume. In here, a rising bubble formation can be
watched at time 0.8 second. The bubble keeps on
growing and rising up until 1.2 second finally breakup
at the surface. When time came to 4 seconds, the solid
volume distribution becomes very uniform. The red
zone begins to shrink into a very small area near the gas
distributor. The solid volume fraction distribution varied
with time for the case of bed height 50cm and mass
flow rate 0.36kg/s, corresponding to a fluidized velocity
0.8m/s, is shown in Fig.7. Because the lower fluidized
velocity, the flow field is not uniform and the red zone
of solid volume distribution is larger than the previous
case. The solid volume fraction distribution varied with
time for the case of bed height 75cm and mass flow rate
0.59kg/s, corresponding to a fluidized velocity 1.3m/s,

Paper number: X00-002

is shown in Fig.8. A rising bubble formation can be
watched at time 0.8 second. The bubble breaks up at
time 1.6 second. When time came to 4 seconds, large
concentrated solid volume fraction can be observed. The
solid volume fraction distribution varied with time for
the case of bed height 75cm and mass flow rate 0.36kg/s
(fluidized velocity 0.8m/s) is shown in Fig.9. Because
of the higher bed material and lower fluidized velocity
the solid volume fraction becomes very non-uniform.
The red zone was enlarged.
Rearrange the numerical results and make a list
for the pressure drop and expansion ration.
Height
Pressure Expansion
m
of
Ratio
(kg/s) Drop
bed(cm)
(pascal)
Case1 50
0.59
9920
2.29
Caae2 50
0.36
8450
1.72
Case3 75
0.59
12640
2.04
Case4 75
0.36
11500
1.43

4.

Conclusion

Accomplish the 1MW10 atmospheric pressure

pressurized fluidized bed combustion concept design
and the cold model numerical simulation. The numerical
results show the bed material can be in a fully fluidized
condition and match with the design requirements. In
next year a cold model experiment will be conducted in
CSIST in order to further verify the proper design for
the furnace.

5. Acknowledgements
NSC Project No.SC101-3113-P-008-002. Thanks
for the support from the vice director of 2nd division
CSIST and my colleagues in the aerodynamics group.

6.
1.

2.

3.

4.
5.
6.

References

Dong-Fang Li The Numerical simulation of two

phase flow in CFBC China Petroleum University
thesis S0604521, 2009.
Chun-Mei Lu, Shi-Qing Cheng, Yong-Zheng
Wang, Kui-Hua Han, Jian-Li Zhao The
Construction and Operation of CFBC China
Electric Power Press.
Hsien-pin Sun, Chung Huang The Apply of
Large Scale CFBC Technology in Industry China
Electric Power Press.
Chien-Sung Tsien The Technology of FBC Kau
Li Press, Taiwan.
Fluent Inc. ANSYSFLUENT12.1 Users Guide.
Fluent Inc, 2011.
Taghipour, F. Experiment and computational
study of gas-solid fluidized bed hydrodynamics,
chemical engineer science 60, 2005.

2012
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Paper number: X00-002

Fig. 1 1MW10 ATM fluidized bed concept design

Fig. 5 The velocity distribution near the nozzle

Fig. 2 Configuration of gas distributor

0.4

1.6

0.8

2.0

2.4

1.2 sec

3.2 sec

Fig. 3 Configuration of gas nozzle

4.0

4.8

5.6

6.4 sec

Fig. 6 The solid volume fraction varies with time(Bed

Fig. 4fluidization regime map

=0.59 kg/sV= 1.3 m/s)

height=50 cm m

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101 11 25~27

0.4

0.8

1.2 sec

1.6

2.0

2.4

3.2 sec

4.0

4.8

5.6

6.4 sec

5.6

Paper number: X00-002

0.4

0.8

1.2 sec

1.6

2.0

2.4

3.2 sec

4.0

4.8

5.6

6.4 sec

6.4

Fig. 7 The solid volume fraction varies with

Fig. 9 The solid volume fraction varies with

time(Bed height=50 cmm =0.36 kg/sV= 0.8 m/s)

time(Bed height=75 cmm

=0.36 kg/sV= 0.8 m/s)

0.4

0.8

1.2 sec

1.6

2.0

2.4

3.2 sec

Email:zuzenchu@gmail.com
NSC101-3113-P-008-002

4.0

4.8

5.6

6.4 sec

Fig. 8 The solid volume fraction varies with time(Bed

=0.59 kg/sV= 1.3 m/s)

height=75 cm m

1.0MW