Effect of moisture content on flow behavior and resistance characteristics of dense-phase pneumatic conveying

The flow characteristic of high pressure dense-phase pneumatic conveying of pulverized coal is essential to the safe and stable operation of the gasifier. In this paper, the effects of coal moisture content on conveying behavior and resistance characteristics of dense-phase pneumatic conveying were explored. Meanwhile, a model of the additional pressure drop of particles was proposed and compared with the experimental data. The results show that though the resistance and cohesiveness increase with increasing moisture content, its influence is different in dense and dilute phase. In the dense-phase region, the coal with lower moisture content shows a larger solid mass flow rate and solid concentration; while in the dilute-phase region, the moisture content has minor effect on conveying characteristics. For the coal with lower moisture content in dense-phase region, the solid mass flow rate and solid concentration are larger, and the gas velocity has a small effect on solid friction factor, due to its smaller cohesiveness and resistance, which is showed in our experiments and inferred from our model. The additional pressure drop model was proposed for straight pipes and bends, whose parameters are probably effective than the existing parameters in this kind of model, as the deviation in the vertical rise pipe, horizontal pipe and bend pipe is controlled within +/- 30%, and the corresponding vertical down pipe are controlled within +/- 40%. (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

This paper investigated the influence of coal moisture content on the characteristics of dense-phase pneumatic conveying, revealing that coal with lower moisture content in the dense-phase region exhibits a larger solid mass flow rate and solid concentration; while the moisture content has a minor effect on conveying characteristics in the dilute-phase region.