Characteristic analysis of gas & solid phase flow in oil shale pyrolysis circulating fluidized bed

Abstract

Emissions from common oil shale extraction equipment contain many small-size oil shale particles unprocessed. Pyrolyzing oil shale by using CFB (circulating fluidized bed) can solve this problem well. To investigate kinetic characteristics of oil shale particles in CFB, we studied the difference in fluidization characteristic of oil shale particles between various mainflow air intakes by simulating the fluidization process based on computational fluid mechanics of particles. It turned out that: when airflow pushes particles a spherical "bubble" zone forms, and when the bubble bursts the horizontal size is subtly affected by air intake; increasing air intake can accelerate oil shale particles fluidization and improve the cyclone separator outlet air velocity.