Pore-Level Study of Syngas Production From Fuel-Rich Partial Oxidation in a Simplified Two-Layer Burner

We performed pore-level simulation of fuel-rich partial oxidation of a CO₂/CH₄ mixture in a two-dimensional porous burner with staggered arrangement of discrete particles. The chemistry was treated with detailed chemical kinetics GRI-Mech 1.2, and surface-to-surface radiation was taken into account by the discrete ordinates (DO) model. The predicted results were validated against the available experimental data and results by the volume-averaged method. The predicted main syngas products (CO, H₂, and CO₂) agreed well with the experimental data for the whole investigation range; it indicated that the pore-level simulation could precisely predict syngas productions from fuel-rich partial oxidation in a two-layer burner with the simplified arrangement of porous media. Variations of species, temperature, and velocity within the pores were presented and discussed. The predicted molar fractions of CO, H₂, CO₂, H₂O, etc. over the pores between particles were highly two-dimensional; the flame thickness was on the order of the particle diameter (2.5 mm) and smaller than the particle diameter. The predicted area-weighted average temperatures were greater than the experiments due to the ignorance of the heat loss to the surroundings through burner walls. The effect of CO₂ adding on syngas production is examined.