Scale-up Method for

High Temperature Black Liquor Gasification

in Pressurised Entrained Flow Gasifiers

Magnus Marklund, Energy Technology Centre

Rikard Gebart, Energy Technology Centre
Ragnar Tegman, Chemrec AB

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BLG DRIVING FORCE

Wood chips Pulp

DIGESTER

White liquor Weak black liquor

PULP MILL
CAUSTICIZERS
AND
RECOVERY CYCLE EVAPORATORS
LIME KILN
Steam

Green liquor Black liquor

RECOVERY
BOILER
BLACK LIQUOR
GASIFIER

MOTOR
ELECTRICITY CHEMICALS HYDROGEN
FUEL

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 BLG DRIVING FORCE

Black Liquor Energy

20 TWh*
in Swedish Pulp Mills
DME
or
Black Liquor 20 TWh
30 TWh Added energy
Biofuels Methanol
39 TWh
or

24 TWh
Hydrogen

* Corresponds to 30% Swedish market need of transport fuels year 2000

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CHEMREC DP-1 PLANT

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 CHEMREC DP-1 PLANT

BLACK LIQUOR SHORT TIME

CONTACTORS
COOLING
OXYGEN AND WATER
ATOMIZING MEDIA
WHITE
GAS COOLER
LIQUOR

REACTOR
RAW
GAS

QUENCH

CLEAN, COOL
SYNTHESIS
GREEN GAS
LIQUOR

WEAK CONDENSATE
WASH

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CURRENT SCALE-UP NEEDS

Capacity
Plant Location Process Units Pressure Purpose
tDS per d/ (bar)
MWt

DP1*) Pite, Sweden - Gasification 20 / 3 32 - Verify Plant technical

& BLG-Program - Gas Cooling features.
- Gas Cleaning - Secure performance for DP-2

DP2*) Kappa Kraftliner - Full BLG ~300 / 45 32 - Commercial Demo plant

Pite - Either -CC or -MF - Net prod. of10 MWe
concept and 35 t/h of steam.
or 100 tpd of MeOH

*) Plant Investments Supported by a Grant

from the Swedish Government of 238 MSEK, approx 25 Mill

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 CFD REACTOR SCALE-UP MODEL
BASICS

Based on CFX4.4 CFD code

Euler/Lagrange two phase formulation
Drying, pyrolysis, char and smelt reactions
k- turbulence model
EBU/Kinetic controlled combustion model
Discrete Transfer radiation model
Rosin-Rammler droplet distribution

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CFD REACTOR SCALE-UP MODEL

CHEMISTRY Associated swelling
during conversion
Drying {BL BLS + H 2O( g ) +
Devolatilization {BLS Volatiles( g ) + Char (l , s) +
C (s ) + O2 ( g ) CO2 ( g )

Char C conversion C (s ) + CO2 ( g ) 2CO( g )
-
(van Heiningen and Connolly 2003)
C (s ) + H O( g ) CO( g ) + H ( g )
2 2

C ( s) + (2 f c / s )Na2 SO4 ( s )
1
4
-
Sulphate/sulphide cycle
(Wg et al. 1995) 4 (2 f c / s )Na2 S ( s) + f c / s CO( g ) + (1 f c / s )CO2 ( g )
1

Na2 S ( s) + 2O2 ( g ) Na2 SO4 ( s )
CH 4 + 0.5O2 CO + 2 H 2
CH + 2 H O CO + 3H
Gas phase combustion 4 2 2

(Jones and Lindstedt 1988) H 2 + 0.5O2 H 2O

CO + H 2O CO2 + H 2

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 CFD REACTOR SCALE-UP MODEL
STRATEGY

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SPRAY BURNER CHARACTERIZATION

Vessel with optical access

Characterization using PDA

SMD

140
120
case1
100
case2
d (micron)

80 case3
60 case4

40 case5
case6
20
0
1 bar 5 bar -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0
R (mm)

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 CFD MODEL VALIDATION

Main outputs from CFD model:

Fluid motions
Gas, droplet and wall
temperatures
Gas and smelt compositions
at outlet

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CFD MODEL VALIDATION

GAS ANALYSES
BLACK LIQUOR SHORT TIME
CONTACTORS
COOLING
OXYGEN AND WATER
ATOMIZING MEDIA

WHITE
GAS COOLER
LIQUOR

REACTOR THERMO-
COUPLES
RAW
GAS
QUENCH

CLEAN, COOL
SYNTHESIS
GREEN GAS
LIQUOR

WEAK GL ANALYSES CONDENSATE

WASH

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 CFD MODEL VALIDATION

Considered operational condition:

Liquor from Smurfit Kappa
Kraftliner Pite
8.8 tonnes BLS/24h
(44% load)
72 % DS
15 bar at = 0.39
Additional N2 to
assist atomisation

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CFD MODEL VALIDATION

Temperatures at the thermocouple locations
Experimental CFD Model
[C]

1064 C 899 C

1066 C 937 C

952 C 943 C

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 CFD MODEL VALIDATION
Gas composition after gas cooler (CCC)

Specie Experimental CFD Model

CO 19.50 33.27
CO 2 26.50 21.14
CH 4 2.10 0.00
COS 0.02 0.00
H2 S 1.70 1.93
H2 33.00 29.46
H2 O 0.38 0.38
N2 16.81 13.83

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CFD MODEL VALIDATION

Performance

Quantity Est. Experimental CFD Model

Reduction efficiency 98.0% 99.7%
C conversion 96.8% 95.5%

Smelt composition
Specie Est. Experimental CFD Model
Na2 CO 3 71.31 67.35
Na2 S 10.28 8.76
Na2 SO4 0.21 0.03
C 18.20 23.86

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 CONCLUSIONS
In-situ measurements from the inside of the reactor are
necessary before a definite conclusion about the validity
of the model can be drawn

Reasonable accurate:
Global performance parameters e.g. Carbon
conversion
Predicted smelt composition

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CONCLUSIONS
More/better experimental data needed:

Spatially resolved temperature measurements

Gas probe sampling inside reactor
Smelt/char sampling for analysis

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