Strategies for heat recovery in a reverse flow reactor designed to lessen coal mine methane emissions test

Thermal pollution resulting from the release of ventilation air methane (VAM) has emerged as a pressing concern in coal mining. This study aims to address this issue by harnessing the waste VAM energy and converting it into reusable resources, employing an efficient thermal flow reversal reactor. The research investigates five distinct heat extraction strategies and compares their performance. The numerical analysis focuses on transient heat recovery performance by employing a two-step reaction mechanism. Furthermore, the study uncovers the heat transfer characteristics of heat exchange tubes and conducts an analysis of construction costs and profit periods for the different strategies. The findings indicate that the central heat recovery strategy exhibits inferior recovery performance, resulting in higher outlet temperatures and lower extracted power. Conversely, the end recovery strategy successfully reduces heat loss by 56%. The two-sided strategy demonstrates better recovery performance, maintaining an average outlet temperature of 311 K. Additionally, the heat recovery efficiency of the heat exchange tube is approximately 85.6%. Although the combination strategy appears to reduce outlet heat loss, it results in an extended investment payback period.