Jo Jul 2, 2024

ASPEN PLUS, a chemical process design system, is widely used for solving scientific and technological problems arising in the process, device design and process operation, for production of chemicals.

Process simulation techniques have been widely used in the development of new processes because of their high economic effectiveness and scientific accuracy. So far, many researchers have used ASPEN PLUS to simulate gasification processes.

Choe Hyon Il, a researcher at the Faculty of Metal Engineering, has developed an entrained-flow gasification compartment model, which consists of sub-models of pyrolysis, combustion and gasification, by combining the modules provided by Aspen Plus, and analyzed the effects of operating conditions, i.e., oxygen to coal ratio, steam to coal ratio and pressure, on the composition of coal gas.

The results are as follows.

As the oxygen to coal ratio increases from 0.7 to 0.9, the CO content increases by 16% in the outlet gas and the H2 content decreases by about 20%. The CO2 content starts to increase when the oxygen to coal ratio is greater than 0.85. When the steam to coal ratio varies from 0.12 to 0.6, the CO content in the outlet coal gas is reduced by 50% and the H2 content by 29%. As the pressure increases, the effective content in the outlet coal gas decreases, but it is not very large, and especially the effect becomes weaker above 300kPa.