In this page, you can find short information about simulation programs used in previous studies. Please contact me by Email if you are interested in receiving source codes of the programs.
Our program is usually written either in Fortran90 or Matlab. When it is written in Fortran90, the program has been compiled with G95 compiler (http://www.g95.org). There are source files (.f90) and one execution file (cmp.bat).
List of simulation programmes
1. Particle simulation for the biomass pyrolysis (and char gasification)
Simplest model is the shrinking core model (A. Biswas and K. Umeki, 2015. Chemical Engineering Journal, 274, 181-191). Other models are numerically solving PDEs.
Basic heat conduction models with chemical reactions (based on D. Pyle and C. Zaror, 1984. Chem. Eng. Sci., 39, 147-158) suitable for large particles (>5 mm) at low temperature range (400-700 C)
Consideration of particle motion suitable for pulverised burners. (K. Umeki et al., 2012. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 51, 13973–13979)
Consideration of gas transport inside particles to investigate effect of pore structure (A. Biswas and K. Umeki, 2015. Chemical Engineering Journal, 274, 181-191)
The models can adopt various (pyrolysis/char gasification) kinetic models including single reaction model (suitable for high heating rate); 3-parallel reaction model (suitable for slow heating rate).
2. Process simulation models used for techno-economic analysis
Process simulation models (flow sheet modelling based on unit operations) were developed to carry out techno-economic analyses of future biorefinery. The model also includes the semi-kinetic model of a bubbling fluidized bed gasifier that consider internal heat and mass transfer effects in char gasification. The program is written as matlab sub-program for each unit operation, so it can be easily adopted to various plant configurations by changing the main program. In fact, the program was applied for hybrid power generation system of b-IGCC and CSP as well as SNG production plant integrated with sawmill. The results have been published in the journal (Y. Tanaka et al., 2015. Applied Energy, 160, 664-672; S. Mesfun et al., 2015. ECOS conference).
3. One-dimensional model for updraft fixed-bed gasifier
1D model for updraft fixed-bed gasifer was developed to investigate how the gasification progress inside the fixed bed reactor when high temperature steam was supplied to carry out gasification without oxygen or nitrogen. The results were published in a journal. (K. Umeki, T. Namioka, K. Yoshikawa, 2012. Applied Energy, 90, 38-45)
4. Themochemical equilibrium calculation
This program is the one I am using daily basis to get the information about theoretical reaction temperature and composition after gasification or combustion based on thermochemical equilibrium. I am using the NASA method for the calculation and thermodynamic properties of species were taken from NASA 9 coefficient polynominal (B. J. McBride, M. J. Zehe, S. Gordon. “NASA Glenn Coefficients for Calculating Thermodynamic Properties of Individual Species,” NASA/TP-2002-211556, Sept. 2002.). The program is written in matlab platform, and it can be easily expanded for more specied by adding thermodynamic data from NASA Thermo Build.
5. Other programmes (data/kinetic analyses)
We also own a number of codes written in matlab etc. that are used to carry out data analyses and kinetic modelling. The examples are image analyses for particle dispersion and CCD pyrometry (B. Göktepe, K. Umeki, R. Gebart, 2016. Fuel Process. Technol., 141, 99-105), estimation of kinetic parameters from gasification experiments (e.g. A. Bach, E. Furusjö, K. Umeki, 2015. Biomass Bioenerg. 79, 155-165), and so on.