STRUCTURE-BASED PREDICTIVE MODEL FOR COAL CHAR COMBUSTION

Progress was made this period on a number of tasks. A significant advance was made in the incorporation of macrostructural ideas into high temperature combustion models. Work at OSU by R. Essenhigh in collaboration with the University of Stuttgart has led to a theory that the zone I / II transition in char combustion lies within the range of conditions of interest for pulverized char combustion. The group has presented evidence that some combustion data, previously interpreted with zone II models, in fact takes place in the transition from zone II to zone 1. This idea was used at Brown to make modifications to the CBK model (a char kinetics package specially designed for carbon burnout prediction, currently used by a number of research and furnace modeling groups in academia and industry). The resulting new model version, CBK8, shows improved ability to predict extinction behavior in the late stages of combustion, especially for particles with low ash content. The full development and release of CBK8, along with detailed descriptions of the role of the zone 1/2 transition will be reported on in subsequent reports. ABB-CE is currently implementing CBK7 into a special version of the CFD code Fluent for use in the modeling and design of their boilers. They have been appraised of the development, and have expressed interest in incorporating the new feature, realizing full CBK8 capabilities into their combustion codes. The computational chemistry task at OSU continued to study oxidative pathways for PAH, with emphasis this period on heteroatom containing ring compounds. Preliminary XPS studies were also carried out. Combustion experiments were also carried out at OSU this period, leading to the acquisition of samples at various residence times and the measurement of their oxidation reactivity by nonisothermal TGA techniques. Several members of the project team attended the Carbon Conference this period and made contacts with representatives from the new FETC Consortium for Premium Carbon Products from Coal. Possibilities for interactions with this new center will be explored. Also this period, an invited review paper was prepared for the 27th International Symposium on Combustion, to be held in Boulder, Colorado in August. The paper is entitled; "Structure, Properties, and Reactivity of Solid Fuels," and reports on a number of advances made in this collaborative project