IMPROVED DIAMETER, VELOCITY, AND TEMPERATURE-MEASUREMENTS FOR CHAR PARTICLES IN DROP-TUBE REACTORS

Coal combustion researchers have typically used the average temperature and residence time of a burning particle cloud to determine the high-temperature reactivity of coals and chars. These average values, however, cannot account for particle-to-particle variations or their possible causes. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories developed a pyrometry technique to simultaneously measure the temperature, velocity, and diameter of individual char particles burning in a transparent-wall flat-flame facility. This work reports two significant advances relative to the optical pyrometry technique. First, pyrometer modifications together with a new analysis technique now permit the particle properties to be measured for smaller/cooler particles. Second, the modified pyrometer has been implemented in two heated-wall drop-tube reactors, rather than transparent-wall, flat-flame burners. This is significant because drop-tube reactors allow greater flexibility/control of gas environments and operating pressures during char oxidation. Glowing reactor walls, however, present some unique challenges for these optical measurements. Means of overcoming these challenges are discussed, and reliable in situ measurement of particle temperatures, velocities, and diameters is verified. The results of measurements made in these drop-tube reactors, both for calibration tests and actual oxidation tests with Spherocarb and a Utah bituminous coal char, are also presented.