Numerical Simulation of Oil Shale Pyrolysis under Microwave Irradiation Based on a Three-Dimensional Porous Medium Multiphysics Field Model

Hao Wang, Xiaogang Li, Jingyi Zhu, Zhaozhong Yang, Jie Zhou and Liangping Yi
Additional contact information
Hao Wang: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Xiaogang Li: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Jingyi Zhu: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Zhaozhong Yang: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Jie Zhou: Institute of Applied Electromagnetics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
Liangping Yi: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: The pyrolysis characteristics of oil shale during heat treatment dominate the oil production of kerogen. In this study, the pyrolysis characteristics of oil shale in a laboratory microwave apparatus were investigated based on a novel fully coupled three-dimensional electromagnetic-thermal-chemical-hydraulic model according to the experimental microwave apparatus. By simulating the electric field, temperature distribution, and kerogen decomposition within oil shale subjected to microwave irradiation, several parameters, including waveguide, position, and power, were successfully optimized. The results indicated that the non-uniform temperature distribution was consistent with the distribution of the electric field. Double microwave ports were more effective than single ports in terms of heating rate and temperature uniformity. There was an optimal location where the highest heating efficiency was obtained, which was on the left of the cavity center. When irradiation was conducted over a range of microwave powers, a higher power was suitable for achieving a rapid temperature increase, whereas a lower power was suitable to gain a high efficiency of the pyrolysis rate. Therefore, a variable power heating mode was introduced to decrease the heating time and improve the heat uniformity simultaneously during oil shale pyrolysis. Specifically, the secondary reactions of oil products should be maximally avoided by controlling the microwave power.

Keywords: oil shale; pyrolysis; microwave; simulation; finite element method (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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/9/3256/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/9/3256/ (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:15:y:2022:i:9:p:3256-:d:805200

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 ().