Prediction of Steam Jacket Dynamics and Water Balances in Underground Coal Gasification

Christopher Otto and Thomas Kempka
Additional contact information
Christopher Otto: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Fluid Systems Modelling, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Thomas Kempka: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Fluid Systems Modelling, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Underground coal gasification (UCG) converts coal to a high-calorific synthesis gas for the production of fuels or chemical feedstock. UCG reactors are generally operated below hydrostatic pressure to avoid leakage of UCG fluids into overburden aquifers. Additionally, fluid flow out of and into the reactor is also determined by the presence of the steam jacket, emerging in close reactor vicinity due to the high temperatures generated in UCG operation. Aiming at improving the understanding of the substantial role of the steam jacket in UCG operations, we employ numerical non-isothermal multiphase flow simulations to assess the occurring multiphase fluid flow processes. For that purpose, we first validate our modeling approach against published data on the U.S. UCG field trials at Hanna and Hoe Creek, achieving a very good agreement between our simulation and the observed water balances. Then, we discuss the effect of coal seam permeability and UCG reactor pressure on the dynamic multiphase flow processes in the reactor’s vicinity. The presented modeling approach allows for the quantification and prediction of time-dependent temperature and pressure distributions in the reactor vicinity, and thus steam jacket dynamics as well as reactor water in- and outflows.

Keywords: underground coal gasification; non-isothermal multiphase flow; numerical simulation; model validation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/6/739/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/6/739/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:6:p:739-:d:99387

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().