Internal heat transfer characteristics of large-particle oil shale during pyrolysis

A 2D cylinder transient heat transfer model was developed for single-particle oil shale pyrolysis in the fixed-bed reactor. Variations of physical properties of oil shale were considered in this model. The developed model was solved using ANSYS after determining boundary conditions. And then intraparticle temperature distribution was obtained during oil shale pyrolysis. Moreover, effects of particle size and heating rate on intraparticle temperature distribution were investigated. The radius of 30-mm oil shale and pyrolysis time were divided into ten equal intervals to calculate temperature at any time and any position during the sample pyrolysis. The calculated results reasonably agreed with actually measured temperature.