A one dimensional (1-D) steady-state biomass fast pyrolysis reactor model is developed for integration
with a biomass pyrolysis plant system model. A state-of-the-art biomass pyrolysis kinetic mechanism
is combined with the 1-D Eulerian fluid dynamics and heat transfer description. Simulations are
performed for a small scale reactor (0.023 kg/s) with four different biomass feedstocks (pine, wheat
straw, olive husks, organic fraction of MSW). Results show that biomass particles are heated to pyrolysis
temperature of 786 K in 0.3 s and 99% biomass conversion is reached in 0.9 s from entering the reactor.
Comparison of pyrolysis products yields against available literature data shows that the employed reaction
mechanism generally gives good predictions. However, water yield is under predicted. Fluid dynamics
and heat transfer results are compared with averaged results from a 2-D, transient reactor model
developed in Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges (MFIX). Comparison of the 1-D and the 2-D
model results shows flow patterns and reasonably similar values of flow parameters, with the average
relative error between the gas velocities of 10%. The solids velocity predictions from the 1-D model carry
a larger error since particle clustering is neglected in the plug flow approximation. The 1-D model is still
considered attractive because of a reasonable agreement with the averaged experimental results