Lagrangian approach to simulation of reacting flow of a spouted fluidized bed for chemical looping combustion with a simulated coal direct injection

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is a next generation combustion technology that shows great promise as a solution for the need of high-efficiency low-cost carbon capture from fossil fueled power plants. In this paper, numerical simulations are made of the multiphase solid-gas flow in a spouted fluidized bed fuel reactor for coal direct CLC (CD-CLC) using the Lagrangian particle-tracking approach known as the Discrete Element Method (DEM) coupled with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution for the fluid phase. The reaction mechanisms for the reduction of the Fe-based oxygen carrier by coal are incorporated by considering a gaseous fuel injection that represents the accurate products of the devolatilization and gasifi cation of coal based on its chemical and physical properties. The overall results of the simulation indicate that the chemical reactions have been successfully incorporated into the coupled CFD-DEM approach and in line with similar results in the literature. This work provides the foundation for future simulations of CD-CLC systems using solid coal as a fuel considering a binary particle bed, which will be crucial for successful deployment of the CD-CLC technology from the laboratory scale to pilot and industrial scale projects.