Towards Electrification of Biomass Pyrolysis in Fluidized Bed for Bioenergy Generation

This study investigates the potential of numerical simulation to optimize bio-oil production through biomass pyrolysis in a fluidized bed reactor. The main objective is to electrify the pyrolysis process by employing microwave-assisted heating as a sustainable alternative to conventional fossil-fuel-based heating, advancing low-carbon strategies in bioenergy production. Eulerian-Eulerian simulations were conducted to represent a polydisperse mixture of inert sand and reactive biomass particles fluidized by an air stream. Biomass decomposition kinetics were described using the Ranzi reaction mechanism, and all numerical experiments were performed with the open-source CFD platform OpenFOAM. The objective is to provide a comparative numerical analysis of biomass pyrolysis under two heating modes-conventional and microwave-highlighting their respective effects on product yield and quality.

The calibration study on the models and their parameters was carried out to ensure both the physical accuracy of the numerical models and the correct hydrodynamic behavior of the fluidized bed. Subsequently, a validation study was performed to confirm that the proposed configuration reproduces the key physical phenomena governing biomass pyrolysis under conventional heating and establishes the possibility of performing a detailed analysis of how operating conditions and material properties influence reactor performance. The results highlight the strong coupling between the hydrothermodynamic behavior of the fluidized bed, the physicochemical properties of the biomass, and the yields of the resulting products. A uniform and well-controlled temperature field within the reactor is identified as a critical factor for achieving efficient biomass conversion and optimizing bio-oil production.

Work In Progress