Mathematical modelling of Degussa Furnace

Abstract: The energy demands in the world is rapidly increasing and with this,  a supply nuclear  power  is  of  much  interest.    Nuclear  fuel  is  relatively  efficient  when comparing to power sources like wind­ and hydropower plants. Pellets are used as fuel by many plants however, its main concern is to find maximize cost efficiency and  minimize  fuel­waste.   Studying  how  to  get  the  pellets  to  be  as  optimal  as possible is of massive importance and in huge focus in order to match the worlds power demand. These  pellets  are  sintered  in  a  furnace  type  known  as  ”pusher­type”  furnaces that functions continuously and is incredibly efficient when it comes to its heat transfer capacity and high­performance output.  In this sintering process, a gas­ flow from the opposite side from the pellets interacts with the solid pellets in order to get the desired reaction. However, the turbulence and the nature of the multi­ phase flow problem causes many unknown interactions and the main focus is do create a theoretical model based on the process parameters to understand what is happening in the furnace. In this study, a simplified model of the inside of the furnace chamber was created in order to observe where and when in the furnace a dissociation from CO2 to CO + O2 would occur. Data given by Westinghouse was put into a mathematical model created in MATLAB and parameters given by the thermodynamic model was in turn put in to ANSYS, a program based on Computational Fluid Dynamics for a simulation. The simulation was considered a success when the gas­mix goes from 3% CO2 to 0.4%. The CFD of the model estimates this to happen at 250 seconds, where as the thermodynamic model predicts the exchange time to be about 200 seconds.   This study is a major first step in understanding the dynamics of the furnace.