Process Modelling of Entrained Flow Gasification

This paper presents the development of a mathematical model in gPROMS of a process for the generation of high quality synthetic fuels from alternative fuels. The first stage is the model of an entrained flow gasifier for the generation of syngas thermodynamically to ensure the feasibility of the gasifier. This is done by minimising the Gibbs free energy of the system and applying the system constraint of the Lagrange multipliers that represent the chemical potential of each species in the system. The best syngas ratio (H-2/CO) of around 1 is predicted at temperatures greater than 1400 K with the least amount of carbon dioxide produced. The model was subsequently put through a sensitivity analysis study to determine the effect of property estimation methods. The simulations are shown to be insensitive to the different Equation of State (EOS) methods. Hence considerable time can be saved by using the ideal gas assumption instead of the other more complicated EOS methods.