Abstract

Accurately modeling key aspects of coal combustion allows for the virtual testing and application of new technologies and processes without the need for investments in lab- and pilot-scale facilities, since such facilities may only be used for a few small tests. However, modeling of subprocesses must not only be accurate but computationally efficient. Modeling of coal devolatilization reactions and processes are one of the important parts of large-scale simulations of coal combustion systems. The work presented here details efforts to improve the modeling of coal devolatilization processes in massively-parallel simulations of coal combustors, including: (1) devolatilization rate/yield models, (2) modeling various chemical, physical, and thermodynamic properties of coal, char, and tar (including structural NMR parameters like carbon aromaticity, the elemental composition of coal char and tar, and the heating value of coal-based and other fuels), and (3) the application of various simplifying assumptions to equilibrium calculations of coal devolatilization products using multiple levels of fuel mixture fractions. Using several different advanced statistical methods, the models discussed here were developed and improved by careful comparison with large sets of experimental data. The advanced statistical methods and procedures show large improvements in these models over previous work.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Chemical Engineering

Rights

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