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Research Papers

# Simulation of Combustion and Thermal-Flow Inside a Petroleum Coke Rotary Calcining Kiln—Part II: Analysis of Effects of Tertiary Airflow and Rotation

[+] Author and Article Information
Zexuan Zhang

Energy Conversion and Conservation Center, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA 70148-2220zzhang@uno.edu

Ting Wang

Energy Conversion and Conservation Center, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA 70148-2220twang@uno.edu

J. Thermal Sci. Eng. Appl 2(2), 021007 (Oct 28, 2010) (7 pages) doi:10.1115/1.4002525 History: Received February 06, 2010; Revised September 09, 2010; Published October 28, 2010; Online October 28, 2010

## Abstract

A computational model is established to simulate the combustion and thermal-flow behavior inside a petcoke rotary calcining kiln. The results show that peak temperature is located at the tertiary air zone and a cold region that exists between the natural gas combustion zone and the tertiary air zone causes the coke bed to lose heat to the gas stream. The cold tertiary air injections reduce the gas temperature inside the kiln, so preheating the tertiary air using extracted gas or other waste energy is essential to saving energy. The devolatilization rate and location have a pronounced effect on the simulated temperature distribution. As the calcining kiln rotates, the tertiary air injection nozzles will move relative to the coke bed and exert cyclic air-bed interactions. At zero angular position, the air injection nozzles are diametrically located away from the bed so the interactions between the tertiary air jets and the coke bed are minimal. As the kiln rotates to a 180 deg position, the stem of the air injection nozzles are actually buried inside the coke bed with the nozzles protruding outward from the bed. At this position, the tertiary air jets will provide a fresh layer of air just above the coke bed, and the interaction between the air flow and the coke bed becomes strong. The 45 deg rotational angle case shows a better calcination with a 100 K higher bed surface temperature at the discharge end compared with the rest of rotational angles. Without including the coke fines combustion and the coke bed, the lumped gas temperature for the rotational cases shows a peak temperature of 1400 K at $Z/D=2$, which is due to natural gas combustion; the lowest temperature is around 1075 K at two locations, $Z/D=4$ and 8. The exhaust gas temperature is approximately 1100 K. The insight gained from this study will be used to design innovative means to reduce natural gas consumption.

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## Figures

Figure 1

Tertiary air injector locations and labeling (same as Fig. 1 in part 1)

Figure 2

Temperature contours inside the kiln for Case 1

Figure 3

Species mass fraction inside the kiln for vertical midplane at x=0 for Case 1

Figure 4

Mass weighted species mass fraction distributions inside the kiln for Case 1

Figure 5

Temperature contours at each tertiary air inlet location for Case 1

Figure 6

Centralline static temperatures for gas and coke beds for Case 1 including mass flow weighted gas temperature

Figure 7

Velocity profiles for Case 1

Figure 8

Temperature contours on the vertical plane x=0 for various rotational angles

Figure 9

Temperature contours on the horizontal midplane y=0 for various rotational angles

Figure 10

Temperature contours of horizontal plane y=−0.9144 for various rotational angles

Figure 11

Temperature contours at each tertiary air injection location for various rotational angles

Figure 12

Mass flow weighted average and lumped gas static temperature for various rotational angles. (a) Mass flow weighted average temperature for each rotational angle. (b) Lumped gas temperature for rotational cases.

Figure 13

Bed surface centerline static temperature for various rotational angles

Figure 14

Streamwise velocity profiles on the vertical plane x=0 for various rotational angles

Figure 15

Streamwise velocity profiles on the horizontal plane y=0 for various rotational angles

Figure 16

Velocity profiles at each tertiary air injection location for various rotational angles

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