Soft Matter and Complex Systems Seminar
sala 2.08, ul. Pasteura 5
2015-01-16 (09:30) 
dr Kamil Kwiatkowski (IFT UW)
Physical aspects of thermal decomposition of biomass particle
We focus on processes of thermal conversion of porous material intogases. Two important types of such processes are pyrolysis andgasification of biomass. Mass and energy transfer, chemical reactionsand their kinetic mechanisms for thin and thick particles will bebriefly discussed.
An experiment on pyrolysis and gasification of a thick wood particlewill be presented together with the corresponding numerical simulations.The results of numerical simulations of pyrolysis matched the results ofthe experiment qualitatively (e.g. presence of the front of pyrolysis)and quantitatively (e.g. good estimation of pyrolysis time). Thephenomena often associated with pyrolysis such as cracking, shrinkage orswelling proved to be rather unimportant from the numerical modellingperspective. The numerically estimated time of char gasification wassignificantly longer than the measured one until fragmentation of thechar particle into small elements was taken into account. The effect offragmentation appeared to be of crucial importance for gasificationmodelling
An experiment on pyrolysis and gasification of a thick wood particlewill be presented together with the corresponding numerical simulations.The results of numerical simulations of pyrolysis matched the results ofthe experiment qualitatively (e.g. presence of the front of pyrolysis)and quantitatively (e.g. good estimation of pyrolysis time). Thephenomena often associated with pyrolysis such as cracking, shrinkage orswelling proved to be rather unimportant from the numerical modellingperspective. The numerically estimated time of char gasification wassignificantly longer than the measured one until fragmentation of thechar particle into small elements was taken into account. The effect offragmentation appeared to be of crucial importance for gasificationmodelling