Computational Design of Near-Critical Liquefaction Reactor towards Process Intensification

Near-critical liquefaction is a very promising pathway for conversion of biomass feedstocks into high-quality biocrude intermediate towards carbon neutral biofuels production, especially sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). High heating rates are significant towards achieving higher quality and yields of biocrude. To assist in understanding the importance of different heating techniques and the heating parameters such as thermal power supplied and particle size, Eulerian-Eulerian volume of fluid approach was utilized to model the behavior of heat transfer in a lab-scale liquefaction reactor. The results revealed that conductive heat transfer is of more importance in induction heating than in constant temperature coil heating. Additionally, further investigation into induction heating modeling revealed the particle size effect is considerable at higher end of thermal power input compared to lower power operation. This reveals the indirect influence of particle size for near-critical liquefaction performance for improved biocrude yields and performance at high heating rates.