Experimental Studies of Coal and Biomass Fuel Synthesis and Flame Characterization for Aircraft Engines (Year Two)

摘要

Several prototype, fast-pyrolysis reactors were built and tested to explore various reactor configurations. A high-pressure, fast-hydropyrolysis reactor system was designed based on the prototype, cyclone-type, fast- pyrolysis reactor. In addition, experiments were completed using a micro-scale reactor to better understand the fundamentals of char formation during fast- pyrolysis and fast-hydropyrolysis. To study coal gasification in the presence of excess hydrogen, an optically accessible, high-pressure and high-temperature entrained flow gasifier was constructed. This system utilizes a novel H2-O2 chemical steam generator to produce super-critical steam, and, when the steam generator is operated with equivalence ratios greater than one, gasification in a H2 rich environment can be studied. Tunable diode laser based in-situ gas species concentration measurements and detailed chemistry computations of the gasification process have been initiated. Finally, to analyze the combustion performance of the proposed synthetic liquid fuels, an opposed flow burner was constructed. Particle image velocimetry was used to quantify the velocity flow fields at various operating conditions. The results will be useful for simulation of counter-flow flames using axi-symmetric 2-D flame codes.