Defluidization and agglomeration of a fluidized bed reactor during Cynara cardunculus L. gasification using sepiolite as a bed material

This work studies the defluidization time and the agglomerate generation in a bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) reactor during Cynara cardunculus L. gasification using, separately, two different bed materials, silica sand and sepiolite 〖(MG〗_8 〖Si〗_12 O_30 (OH)_4 〖(OH〗_2)(_4^)8 H_2). The high adsorption capacity and the elemental composition of the sepiolite make it suitable as an alternative bed material in order to reduce agglomeration. Experiments were performed on a stainless steel lab-scale BFB reactor operating with air as a gasifying agent at different air excess ratios (u/umf). A quartz reactor was alternatively used for the visualization of bed material and biomass during gasification, allowing one to observe the agglomerate formation process. Pressure signals were analyzed both in time and frequency domain to determine the defluidization time. Furthermore, the shape and size of the bed material after the experiments were evaluated. Higher defluidization times in the case of sepiolite were measured. Particle sizes were affected by the type of bed material and the air excess and agglomerates of different shapes were formed for sepiolite and silica sand.Publicad

Dynamics of large turbulent structures in a steady breaker

The flow near the leading edge of a steady breaker has been studied experimentally using Bubble Image Velocimetry (BIV) with the aim of characterizing the dynamics of the large eddies responsible for air entrainment. It is well reported in the literature, and confirmed by our measurements of the instantaneous velocity field, that this flow shares some important features with the turbulent shear-layer formed between two parallel semi-infinite streams with different velocities. Namely, the formation of a periodic array of coherent vortices, the constant convective velocity of those vortices, the linear relation between their size and their downstream position and the self-similar structure of both mean velocity profiles and Reynolds shear stresses. Nonetheless, important differences exists between the dynamics of the large eddies in a steady breaker and those in a free shear-layer. Particularly, the convective velocity of these large structures is slower in a steady breaker and, consistent with this, their growth rates are larger. A physical interpretation of these differences is provided together with a discussion of their implications. To support our measurements and conclusions, we present a careful analysis of the accuracy of the BIV technique in turbulent flows with large bubblesThe authors wish to thank Professor Emil J. Hopfinger for his valuable suggestions on the interpretation of the experimental data. This work was supported by the ONR through Grant N00014-05-1-0121 and by the Spanish Ministry of Science (MICINN) through Grant DPI2008-06369Publicad

Experimental characterization of starting jet dynamics

The dynamics of a laminar starting jet are explored in a series of laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. We identify new, objective methods for characterizing the leading vortex ring, enabling robust comparisons with results from a numerical model. Observations of circulation in the initial vortex ring and for the total jet are reported along with strain rate at the leading stagnation point. Growth and pairing of shear instabilities trailing the leading vortex ring is observed. Development of these secondary vortices and their subsequent interactions with the leading vortex has significant effects on the characteristics of the primary vortex ring. Strong fluctuations in strain rate at the leading edge are associated with the pairing of the initial vortex ring with a trailing secondary ringSupport for this research was provided by the Spanish MEC and European Union under Projects # ENE2005-08580-C02-01 and DPI2005-08654-C04-01Publicad

Energy and Exergy analysis in an asphalt plant's rotary dryer

In this paper, energy and exergy analyses of a rotary dryer employed in a Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) plant for heating and drying of the aggregates in the mixture is presented. In the analysis, the exergy method in addition to the more conventional energy analysis, is employed to identify and evaluate the ther modynamic losses. The results show that, at design conditions, the plant performs with energy and exergy efficiencies of 0.89 and 0.18, respectively. The energy losses are mainly due to the flue gases. The exergy distribution indicates that the combustion and the heat transfer at different temperatures in the burner yield the highest exergy destruction in the process. A parametric study is conducted for the plant under various operational production parameters, including different humidities of the aggregates and filler content in aggregates, working temperatures and ambient conditions, in order to determine the parameters that affect the plant performance. It is shown that the solids humidity has a great impact on energy requirements. A better and sustainable use of the heat source employed in the dryer is proposed to avoid the high irreversibilities found. Furthermore, operating corrections in the mix or in the exhaust gas temperature are proposed to optimize the performance of the plantThis work has been has been partially funded by the Spanish Government, Project DPI2009 10518 and the Fenix project Research on new concepts for more safe and sustainable roads (CENIT 2007 1014). Also, the authors aknowledge the support provided by Intrame S.APublicad

Distributor performance in a bubbling fluidized bed: Effects of multiple gas inlet jet and bubble generation

This study considers the role of the distributor effect during the bubble generation, growth and interaction within a bubbling fluidized bed. To characterize this effect, short-term and long-term dynamics are explored in time and frequency domains. Controversy occurs when inspecting what is actually known of the gas distribution mechanism in bubbling fluidized beds. To sustain discussion, classical and innovative techniques, such as Digital Image Analysis, DIA, and Wavelet Analysis WA, are used. As a result, the conclusion is that the distributor not only has no effect in the averaged long-term dynamics but also has no effect on the general bubble generation characteristic frequencies. The analysis performed on the bubble generation region concludes that the distributor design has a great influence at the short-term scale such as during the bubble generation process controlling the spatial distribution of the bubble nucleation sites over the distributor plate

Solar multiple optimization of a DSG linear Fresnel power plant

Linear Fresnel power plants are currently one of the most promising concentrating solar power plants. However there are only a few commercial projects. These power plants have a lower efficiency than parabolic trough collector plants and are still expensive. To increase the efficiency of these plants, the utilization of water/steam in the receivers (direct steam generation, DSG) and thermal storage (TES) have been considered. As case study, a 50 MWe solar-only linear Fresnel power plant located in Seville, Spain is considered. The effects of the solar field size and the thermal storage size on the annual production of the plant are analyzed: Nine different solar field sizes and up to eight thermal storage sizes have been compared. An economic optimization is presented in order to determine which plant has lowest Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). It has been found that for the power plants with no-storage the optimum solar multiple (SM) is 1.7, whereas for the cases with thermal storage, the optimum configuration is a larger solar field (SM = 2), with a thermal storage of 2 h

Estimation and experimental validation of the circulation time in a 2D gas-solid fluidized beds

The circulation time is defined as the time required for a group of particles to reach the freeboard from the bottom of a fluidized bed and return to their original height. This work presents an estimation and validation of the circulation time in a 2D gas solid bubbling fluidized bed under different operating conditions. The circulation time is based on the concept of the turnover time, which was previously defined by Geldart [1] as the time required to turn the bed over once. The equation tc,est =2Ah′/Qb is used to calculate the circulation time, where A is the cross section of the fluidized bed, h′ is the effective fluidized bed height and Qb is the visible bubble flow. The estimation of the circulation time is based on the operating parameters and the bub ble phase properties, including the bubble diameter, bubble velocity and bed expansion. The experiments for the validation were carried out in a 2D bubbling fluidized bed. The dense phase velocity was measured with a high speed camera and non intrusive techniques such as particle image velocimetry (PIV) and digital image analysis (DIA), and the experimental circulation time was calculated for all cases. The agreement between the theoretical and experimental circulation times was satisfactory, and hence, the proposed estimation can be used to reliably predict the circulation time.Publicad

Influence of eccentricity on the thermomechanical performance of a bayonet tube of a central solar receiver

This work numerically evaluates the thermal and mechanical behaviors of eccentric bayonet tubes to be used in external central receivers of solar power tower plants. A bayonet tube is composed of two tubes, one inside the other, creating circular and annular sections, through which the molten salt of the receiver sequentially flows. Eccentricity in the annular section is achieved by displacing the axis of the interior tube with regard to the exterior one. For comparative purposes, two examples of conventional tubes (single tubes with circular cross-sections with diameters of 25mm and 50mm) are also investigated in this work to compare their performances with those of bayonet tubes. The results obtained with the eccentric configurations show an enhancement of the heat transfer to the molten salt and a reduction of the tube wall overheating compared with the concentric bayonet tubes and the largest simple tube. For conditions representative of the normal operation of a solar power tower, eccentric bayonet tubes could reduce the pressure drop by 30.8% and increase the convective heat transfer achieved in a concentric configuration of the bayonet tube by 26.1%. Nevertheless, this pressure drop was considerably higher than those obtained in the smallest and largest simple tubes, which were 1.28 bar and 0.13 bar, respectively. To investigate whether the enhancement of the convection heat transfer experienced by bayonet tubes compensates for their higher pressure drop or not, a Performance Evaluation Criterion (PEC) was proposed and used to compare the global performance of bayonet tubes with that of conventional tubes. The bayonet tubes with eccentricity 0.45 obtained the largest PEC, which was up to 13% higher than reference conventional tubes. Enhancement of the tube wall refrigeration produced when increasing the eccentricity is reflected in the maximum tube temperature and thermal stresses, which are found to diminish by approximately 8.8% with the highest eccentricity. In addition, the largest eccentric bayonet tube layout obtains the smallest peak temperatures compared to conventional tubes. The lower inertial moment of the smallest conventional tube indicates that its thermal stress is 2.1% lower than the stress obtained in the most eccentric layout analyzed in this work. Nevertheless, the time to rupture associated with creep damage of the eccentric bayonet tube is 1.04 times higher than that obtained in the smallest simple tube, demonstrating that bayonet tubes could be a potential alternative to the current tubes of external tubular receivers.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the grants RTI2018-096664-B-C21 funded by FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación-Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Spain and PID2021-122895OB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. This work was also financed by the Community of Madrid, Spain through the line of “Excelencia del Profesorado Universitario” of the Pluriannual Agreement with the UC3M, Spain (EPUC3M22), within the framework of the V PRICIT (V Plan Regional de Investigación Científica e Innovación Tecnológica). Rafael Pérez-Álvarez acknowledges support from the scholarship ”Ayudas para contratos predoctorales para la formación de doctores” BES-2016-078455 awarded by the Ministerio de Economá, Industria y Competitividad, Spain

Comparison of the heat transfer characteristics of molten salt, liquid sodium and supercritical CO2 in bayonet tubes of solar tower receivers

The solar tower receivers tend to experience rupture problems due to the high thermal gradients and the corrosion produced by the working fluid, typically solar salt. In this work we have developed a series of CFD simulations to study a new receiver design composed of bayonet tubes aimed to reduce the overheating the receiver in the most thermally demanded area. These simulations evaluate the thermal behavior of the tubes for different working fluids, i.e. molten salt, liquid sodium and supercritical CO2. The simulations show that, for all the working fluids analyzed, it is possible to reduce the high temperatures of the tube thanks to the asymmetries created when the bayonet tube has an eccentric configuration. Besides, the greatest reduction of temperature in bayonet tubes is achieved when the working fluid is liquid sodium due to its higher thermal conductivity.The authors would like to thank the financial support provided by the Spanish government through the project ENE2015-69486-R (MINECO / FEDER, UE)

The water cost effect of hybrid-parallel condensing systems in the thermo-economical performance of solar tower plants

The importance of considering the water price in the analysis of the impact of dry versus hybrid condensing systems in the thermo economical performance of solar tower plants was demonstrated in this work. The dry condensing system consists of several induced-draft air-cooled condenser cells (ACCs) and the hybrid system consists of a parallel system where the condensing steam is split between the ACCs and a surface steam condenser where circulating water is cooled in a wet mechanical-draft cooling tower. The influence of the operating parameters of either the dry or wet cooling systems on the cooling load and fan power consumption were studied. Then, for a given condensing system (a system with a defined number of installed ACCs units and cooling tower units) and given the dry-air and wet-bulb air temperatures, the operating parameters were optimized to maximize the revenues of the power plant. This optimization depends on the water-to-electricity price ratio , showing that at low ambient temperature when this ratio increases it is not profitable to turn on the cooling towers since the water cost is not counterbalanced by the higher cycle efficiency obtained with the lower condensation temperature. Finally, the annual operation and the LCOE and NPV of the CSP plant located in Dunhuang were analyzed for both dry and hybrid condensing systems with different number of ACCs and wet towers, showing that the most cost-effective configuration is the 16 ACCs with 3 wet cooling towers for water-to-electricity price ratio = 4 ($/m3)/($/kWhe) and = 5 ($/m3)/($/kWhe), but for = 10($/m3)/($/kWhe), the best option is with only 2 wet towers.This research is partially funded by the Spanish government under the project RTI2018-096664-B-C21 (MICINN/FEDER, UE)