Abstract

The development of alternative technologies for the removal of gas pollutants is an important aspect for the environmental friendliness of energy production. During coal gasification, N₂ contained in coal is converted to NH₃ and, as much as 50% of the ammonia in the fuel gas can be converted to nitrogen oxides (ΝΟx). At these conditions, decomposition seems to be the only applicable solution for the removal of NH₃. The application of a high temperature catalytic membrane reactor process appears to offer an efficient and cost effective method of removing the NH₃ from coal gasification gas streams.

The present work examines the operation of such a selective membrane, used for the decomposition of NH₃, under a 2-D axissymetric CFD approach where the flow field, the chemical reactions and the selective porous membrane behavior are being modeled and computed. The main target of this effort was to obtain a more detailed view of the flow field and to investigate the decomposition of ammonia in comparison with a simpler 1-D modeling approach and, thus, to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Recommended Citation

Sideridis, Athanasios; Koutsonikolas, Dimitrios; Missirlis, Dimitrios; Topis, Savas; Kaldis, Sotiris; Skodras, George; and Sakellaropoulos, George (2008) "Computational Fluid Dynamics Study on the Decomposition of Ammonia in a Selective Porous Membrane," Chemical Product and Process Modeling: Vol. 3 : Iss. 1, Article 42.
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/cppm/vol3/iss1/42