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(Madhava Syamlal)
Madhava Syamlal (Chemical 1977) works at National Energy Technology Laboratory at
He can be contacted at: msyamlal@gmail.com
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Techlines provide updates of specific interest to the fossil fuel community. Some Techlines may be issued by the Department of Energy Office of Public Affairs as agency news announcements. Issued on: August 6, 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Honors DOE Researcher
Award Recognizes Accomplishments in Fluidization, Fluidized Processes
AIChE presents the award every two years to an AIChE member "who has made significant contribution to the science and technology of fluidization or fluidized processes and who has shown leadership in the engineering community." This year the award goes to Dr. Madhava Syamlal, Focus Area Leader for Computational and Basic Sciences at NETL. Dr. Syamlal will receive his award during AIChE's 2009 annual meeting set for November 8–13, 2009, in
"I have devoted more than 20 years of my research career to solving problems associated with gas-particle flows," said Dr. Syamlal, who joined the U.S. Department of Energy in 2004 after holding several key research positions at Fluent Inc. and other companies. "As such, I am grateful to be recognized by my peers at AIChE."
Dr. Syamlal has focused on strategies to overcome problems associated with models of gas-particle flows. His research has led to the development of numerical solutions in use today to simulate fluid-particle flows. Dr. Syamlal's award notification stated that his efforts "have changed the way we all do our engineering in particle technology."
Dr. Syamlal's body of work resulted in the development of an open-source code, called MFIX, which is used worldwide as a standard for scientists conducting research related to fluid-particle flow modeling and simulation. MFIX, which stands for Multiphase Flow with Interphase Exchanges, is a general-purpose computer code developed at NETL to describe the hydrodynamics, heat transfer, and chemical reactions in fluid-solids systems. MFIX has been applied successfully at NETL in modeling advanced gasifiers.
MFIX's applicability has gone way beyond chemical engineering processes to include geological applications. For example, MFIX is currently being used to model volcanic flows and to explore multiphase dynamics at DOE’s
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About Madhava Syamlal
Madhava Syamlal earned a B. Tech in chemical engineering from IT-BHU (1977) and an M.S. (1981) and a Ph.D. (1985) in chemical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. After completing his Ph.D., he joined EG&G as a research engineer, working for the Department of Energy (DOE) research center now called National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). There Syamlal became the architect of the open-source software MFIX, used by research organizations and universities around the world for multiphase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. In 1998 he joined Fluent, Inc., where one of his major accomplishments was the development of the first commercial software for coupling device-scale models, such as CFD models, with plant-scale models or process simulation. Currently, Syamlal leads the Computational and Basic Sciences Focus Area at NETL, which develops physics-based simulations for reducing the development time of zero-emission energy systems, the simulations ranging from the atomic/molecular-scale, to the device-scale, and to the plant-scale.
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Advanced Research Computational Energy Sciences
http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/coalpower/advresearch/mfix.html
MFIX
MFIX (Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges) is a general-purpose computer code developed at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) for describing the hydrodynamics, heat transfer and chemical reactions in fluid-solids systems. It has been used for describing bubbling and circulating fluidized beds and spouted beds. MFIX calculations give transient data on the three-dimensional distribution of pressure, velocity, temperature, and species mass fractions. MFIX code is based on a generally accepted set of multiphase flow equations. The code is used as a "test-stand" for testing and developing multiphase flow constitutive equations.
Consider a fluidized bed coal gasification reactor, in which pulverized coal is fed into the bottom of a vertical, cylindrical reactor tube along with air and steam. As the coal particles rise in the tube and are heated, they bump into each other, into the sidewalls of the reactor, and into hot gas molecules in the air. Chaos prevails. Reactions between the coal particles and gases produce the desired syngas combination of CO and hydrogen, but also carbon dioxide, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, and various hydrocarbons. Reaction products change if you modify the ratio of air to coal volumes, the particle size of the coal, the velocity of the air, the temperature or pressure of the reactor, the diameter of the reactor tube, or other variables.
How to optimize such a chaotic process? Experimentally, an engineer could carefully change one variable at a time, run the reactor for a day or two, and monitor the reaction products that emerge from the process. But this can be difficult, especially if you’re at the stage where you’re trying to determine the optimum diameter of the reactor—not an easy thing to change. Computationally, you can easily change any variable—including the tube diameter—and let the supercomputer and the MFIX software simulate the experiment. Furthermore, you’ll end up with more detailed data. MFIX can tell you the position, velocity, temperature, pressure, and chemical composition of each tiny volume (called a computational cell) inside the gasifier every few seconds. In one simulation, the NETL researchers divided a small region of the gasifier into 12 million of these computational cells to gain a high-resolution picture of the region. By collecting each of these “snapshots” of the state of the reactor and looking at them sequentially using visualization software, you can watch a movie of the simulated experiment, and see how the process changes with time. The main goal here is simulate high-efficiency, near-zero emissions processes to evaluate proposed system design and performance.
MFIX’s versatility has found applications in such diverse areas as volcanology, nuclear fuel particle coating, polyethylene production, and fluid catalytic cracking—anywhere solids and fluids (liquids and gases) come into contact.
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The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)
Chris Guenther, left, and Madhava Syamlal discuss the results of a transport gasifier simulation produced by MFIX.
http://www.netl.doe.gov/newsroom/netlog/jan2008/netlog_dec07.html
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Additional links
Profile of Madhava Syamlal in LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/madhava-syamlal/9/161/6a3
About CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics by FLUENT Company
http://www.fluent.com/solutions/whatcfd.htm
CFD in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_fluid_dynamics
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NETL implements a broad spectrum of energy and environmental research and development (R&D) programs that will return benefits for generations to come:
* Enabling domestic coal, natural gas, and oil to economically power our Nation’s homes, industries, businesses, and transportation …
* While protecting our environment and enhancing our energy independence.
NETL has expertise in coal, natural gas, and oil technologies, contract and project management, analysis of energy systems, and international energy issues.
In addition to research conducted onsite, NETL’s project portfolio includes R&D conducted through partnerships, cooperative research and development agreements, financial assistance, and contractual arrangements with universities and the private sector. Together, these efforts focus a wealth of scientific and engineering talent on creating commercially viable solutions to national energy and environmental problems.
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(if you having troubles, try posting your comment on this page or send an email to chronicle @ itbhuglobal.org)Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP