A new perspective on the effect of gasification agent flow on gasification performance in an entrained flow gasifier

• A new perspective on gasification performance than previously studied; • The impact of gasification agent flow rate on gasifier’s flow field is investigated; • The particle updraft ratio is highest at design gasification agent flow rate. • The gasification agent flow rate significantly affects the flow field inside the furnace. The gasification agent’s flow rate has a significant impact on gasification performance. However, current research has only examined the effect of material balance on syngas composition. No studies have investigated the impact of gasification agent flow rate on mixing characteristics and flow field in the gasifier. To enhance the gasification performance of the gasifier, this study employs two cold-flow experiments. A 0.75: 1 single-phase flow experiment shows that at a gasification agent flow rate of 75%, mixing between the airflows is dominated by flow diffusion, resulting in a low mixing degree. At 100% flow rate, axial mixing is intense. At 125% flow rate, the central flow must overcome shear resistance to maintain motion, resulting in weakened diffusion capacity. A 1: 2.5 air-particle two-phase flow experiment shows that in the upper chamber, an increase in gasifier agent flow rate can significantly enhance the tangential average velocity and improve the gas–solid two-phase mixing degree. In the lower chamber, under the three flow rates, the particles all move downward along the wall with the rotating gas flow, and the formed slag layer can protect the membrane wall from ablation.