BIOTC: An open-source CFD code for simulating biomass fast pyrolysis

The BIOTC code is a computer program that combines a multi-fluid model for multiphase hydrodynamics and global chemical kinetics for chemical reactions to simulate fast pyrolysis of biomass at reactor scale. The object-oriented characteristic of BIOTC makes it easy for researchers to insert their own sub-models, while the user-friendly interface provides users a friendly environment as in commercial software. A laboratory-scale bubbling fluidized bed reactor for biomass fast pyrolysis was simulated using BIOTC to demonstrate its capability. Program summary Program title: BIOTC-2.1.x Catalogue identifier: AESJ_v1_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AESJ_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 82295 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 266197 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C++. Computer: All capable of running Linux. Operating system: Linux. Has the code been vectorized or parallelized?: Parallelized with MPI. Classification: 22. External routines: MPI, OpenFOAM (http://www.openfoam.org) Nature of problem: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of biomass fast pyrolysis at reactor scale can help reveal the details of the process and develop an understanding of the underlying mechanisms for reactor operation and optimization. However, the existing CFD codes, commercial or open-source, still pose difficulties for users to carry out an efficient simulation. Therefore, an open-source CFD code that integrates the merits of mainstream commercial and open-source codes, i.e., user-friendly interface and convenient sub-model implementation, is by all means necessary for reactor-scale simulation of biomass fast pyrolysis. Solution method: A multi-fluid model (MFM) is used to solve the multiphase fluid dynamics, while a global reaction mechanism is employed to solve the chemical reactions in the fluidized-bed reactors. Partial differential equation solvers and ordinary differential equation solvers provided by OpenFOAM are used to solve the MFM conservation equations and the chemical reaction equations, respectively. The coupling of MFM and chemical reactions is realized by a time-split numerical scheme. Running time: It depends on the dimension of the reactor and the complexity of the in-reactor process. Typically, for the tutorial case provided, the run time ranges from several hours to tens of hours. The small test case provided takes approximately 30 min on a serial machine. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.