Applicability analysis of burners arrangement for an improved entrained-flow fine slag gasifier

Fine slag with high carbon content is unsuitable for brick-making or road paving and is usually deposited in piles or landfills. The atmospheric entrained-flow gasification technology can make use of the unburned carbon in fine slag, thereby resolving the problem of wasted resources and environmental pollution caused by waste fine slag. The arrangement of burners has an impact on the flow field within the gasifier, which subsequently affects the gasification performance. It is important to find a suitable burner arrangement for different gasification raw materials. This study investigates the gas–solid flow characteristics in 10,000 Nm³/h fine slag entrained-flow gasifiers using a combination of two-phase experiments and numerical simulations. The flow fields were compared in detail for three different burner arrangements. The results indicate a clear central tangent circle under the co-biased burner arrangement, which leads to the highest particle concentration and swirl intensity near the membrane wall. This condition is most conducive to slag formation. No rotating flow field is generated in the gasifier under the opposed and counter-biased burner arrangements. The high-temperature region is located near the top of the chamber. Additionally, the residence time of fine slag is short. These factors make it unsuitable for powder gasification. The results will be helpful to the design and operation of entrained-flow powder-feedstock gasifiers with multiple burners.