Fully resolved direct numerical simulation of single coal particle gasification in supercritical water

Supercritical water gasification is a promising technology in the context of carbon neutrality, since it converts coal into hydrogen and easily-captured CO2. A fully resolved direct numerical simulation of single particle gasification in supercritical water is conducted in this paper in order to investigate process details at particle scale. To handle the shrinking reactive particle, a directional ghost-cell immersed boundary method is used with a general Robin-type boundary condition at the interface. Detailed flow field and interphase heat/mass transfer near the reactive coal particle are revealed and compared with standard non-reactive cases – used for validation. They are found to be significantly affected by the combined effect of the reaction-induced Stefan flow, particle shrinking, species generation or destruction, and reaction heat release. The chemical processes are then studied with special attention on the gas-phase reaction time-scale. This study delivers a detailed understanding of coal particle gasification in supercritical water, and provides a first successful test of efficient numerical methods needed for large-scale supercritical water gasification simulations.