Peter Ciesielski, NREL, CO, USA
Pyrolysis is a pre-commercial thermochemical process that converts renewable, plant-based materials such as wood into liquid biofuels. To make pyrolysis a cost-effective method for biofuel conversion, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are using multiphysics simulation to better understand and optimize the process. Thus far, they have used COMSOL Multiphysics® to develop a computational model of the heat and mass transfer processes associated with pyrolysis, featuring the most accurate representation of biomass particle geometry to date. Ongoing development of the process involves adding chemical reactions and phase change to create a complete model of pyrolysis that can be used to improve the performance of large-scale reactors – an essential step in making the mass production of biofuels more efficient.
Suggested Stories
Defying Convention to Achieve Faster Signal and Simulation Speeds
As the demand grows for faster electronic devices in smaller packages, we need to develop optimized high-speed ...
Application Builder and COMSOL Server: A Review
William Vetterling, research fellow and manager of the Image Science Laboratory at Zink Imaging, created an intuitive ...
Peeling Away Memory Chips
As memory chips become smaller and smaller, designers must ensure that the chips stay intact during the manufacturing ...
Simulating Laser-Material Interactions
California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) oversees the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which ...
