Simulation of Combustion and Thermal-Flow Inside a Petroleum Coke Rotary Calcining Kiln—Part I: Process Review and Modeling

Calcined coke is an important material for making carbon anodes for smelting alumina to aluminum. Calcining is an energy intensive industry and a significant amount of heat is wasted in the calcining process. Efficiently managing this energy resource is tied to the profit margin and survivability of a calcining plant. To help improve the energy efficiency of the calcining process, a 3D computational model is developed to gain insight of the thermal-flow and combustion behavior in the calciner. Comprehensive models are employed to simulate the moving petcoke bed with moisture evaporation, devolatilization, and coke fines combustion with a conjugate radiation-convection-conduction calculation.