Thermochemical conversion of biomass through either gasification, to produce syngas, or pyrolysis, to produce a liquid bio-oil, faces significant challenges to become economically viable at large, commercial scales. Among those challenges is the lack of product consistency at the exit of the conversion reactor, which can be explained in part by the wide range of feedstock used, and the poor understanding of the sensitivity to the operating conditions of the fundamental chemical and physical processes occurring inside the conversion vessel. Thanks to recent advances in modeling dense granular flows, Computational Fluid Dynamics can now be used as a complement to experimental measurements to help diagnose and improve the design of these conversion reactors.
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