MODELING CHAR OXIDATION AS A FUNCTION OF PRESSURE ...
MODELING CHAR OXIDATION AS A FUNCTION OF PRESSURE ...
MODELING CHAR OXIDATION AS A FUNCTION OF PRESSURE ...
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Second Effectiveness Factor and ERE<br />
Essenhigh (1988) proposed a so-called “second effectiveness factor” to account<br />
for the internal combustion of char oxidation in conjunction with the Langmuir rate<br />
equation. This method has theoretical and practical difficulties (see Chapters 2 and 5).<br />
The effectiveness factor approach developed in this project can potentially overcome all<br />
these difficulties.<br />
Essenhigh (1988) also proposed a "Extended Resistance Equation" (ERE) to<br />
represent the char oxidation rates. The ERE takes into account boundary layer diffusion,<br />
adsorption, desorption and internal combustion (pore diffusion effects) while retaining a<br />
simple form. However, it was shown in Chapter 5 that the ERE is mathematically invalid<br />
except for some special cases (e.g., when the Langmuir kinetics reduces to first order, or<br />
when the film diffusion resistance can be neglected). The approach used in this project<br />
overcomes this difficulty with minimal computational efforts.<br />
Mechanisms<br />
Although the adsorption-desorption mechanism (Essenhigh, 1988) is commonly<br />
assumed when the Langmuir rate equation is used, many different mechanisms lead to<br />
expressions that can be simplified to the Langmuir rate equation. The approach of this<br />
project is general and independent of specific mechanisms. Therefore, k 1 and k 0 (two rate<br />
constants) are used in this project instead of k a (adsorption rate constant) and k d<br />
(desorption rate constant).<br />
It is commonly believed that the activation energy of adsorption is lower than that<br />
of desorption. Based on this belief and the adsorption-desorption interpretation of the<br />
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