Abstract
In this work, predictions from a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model is compared to experimentally obtained data from a pressurized black liquor gasifier. The data consists of gas samples taken from the hot part of the gasification reactor using a water cooled sampling probe. During the considered experimental campaign the oxygen to black liquor equivalence ratio (λ) was varied in three increments, which resulted in a change in reactor temperature and gas composition. The numerical study consists of CFD and thermodynamic equilibrium calculations in the considered λ range using boundary conditions obtained from the experimental campaign. Furthermore, the influence of material description simplification is evaluated using the equilibrium code. The influence of methane concentration on gas composition is evaluated using both CFD and thermodynamic equilibrium calculations. The results show that, the main gas components (H2, CO, C02) can be predicted using both CFD and thermodynamic equilibrium if the H2S and CH4 concentrations are specified and that the influence from simplifying the material description is small.