Experimental and simulation analysis on reaction characteristic of smoldering treatment of oily sludge

doi:10.3785/j.issn.1008-973X.2026.03.023

Journal of ZheJiang University (Engineering Science)

2026, Vol. 60

Issue (3): 670-678 DOI: 10.3785/j.issn.1008-973X.2026.03.023

Experimental and simulation analysis on reaction characteristic of smoldering treatment of oily sludge

Ye ZHANG1(

),Longjie JI2,3,Hongxuan LI2,3,Peng LIU2,3,Shupeng LI2,3,Shi FENG1,Jinqing WANG1,Xu XU1,*(

),Mingxiu ZHAN1

1. College of Energy Environment and Safety Engineering, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
2. Beijing Construction Engineering Group Environmental Remediation Limited Company, Beijing 100015, China
3. National Engineering Laboratory for Site Remediation Technologies, Beijing 100015, China

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Abstract

Smoldering treatment was applied to oily sludge to evaluate the disposal effectiveness and analyze the difference in smoldering characteristic under different Darcy air flow rate and heating value aiming at the problem of the high cost and the difficulty of simultaneously achieving harmlessness and resource recovery of existing oily sludge treatment technology. A one-dimensional numerical model of oily sludge smoldering was established. Results showed that the pollutant removal rate in the sludge exceeded 99.7% and the oil recovery rate reached 57.8% after smoldering treatment. The relationship of the average peak temperature and propagation velocity with the mass fraction of water, Darcy air flow rate, and porosity was analyzed. The types and mass fractions of substances before and after smoldering were compared by combining with molecular dynamics simulations. The reactions involved in the smoldering process include not only the cracking of long-chain petroleum hydrocarbons and the oxidation of short-chain hydrocarbons, but also volatilization, cyclization and aromatization, and isomerization of petroleum hydrocarbons. The numerical simulation results showed that the model could reasonably simulate the temperature and propagation velocity during oily sludge smoldering, with an average error of about 11%. The simulated trends in smoldering rate accorded with the experimental results when the Darcy air flow rate and heating value varied, and good agreement was obtained under different conditions.

Key words： oily sludge smoldering characteristic degradation pathway molecular dynamic simulation

Received: 04 April 2025 Published: 04 February 2026

CLC:

X 703

Fund: 浙江省自然科学基金资助项目(LY23E060002).

Corresponding Authors: Xu XU E-mail: 1287509205@qq.com;xuxu@cjlu.edu.cn

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	Ye ZHANG
	Longjie JI
	Hongxuan LI
	Peng LIU
	Shupeng LI
	Shi FENG
	Jinqing WANG
	Xu XU
	Mingxiu ZHAN

Cite this article:

Ye ZHANG,Longjie JI,Hongxuan LI,Peng LIU,Shupeng LI,Shi FENG,Jinqing WANG,Xu XU,Mingxiu ZHAN. Experimental and simulation analysis on reaction characteristic of smoldering treatment of oily sludge. Journal of ZheJiang University (Engineering Science), 2026, 60(3): 670-678.

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https://www.zjujournals.com/eng/10.3785/j.issn.1008-973X.2026.03.023 OR https://www.zjujournals.com/eng/Y2026/V60/I3/670

阴燃治理含油污泥反应特性的实验及模拟分析

针对现有含油污泥处置技术存在的成本高、难以兼顾无害化和资源化的问题，采用阴燃法处置含油污泥，探究处置效果以及在不同达西空气流速、热值条件下的阴燃特性差异，建立一维的含油污泥阴燃数值模型. 结果表明，阴燃处理后污泥中的污染物去除率大于99.7%，油回收率可达57.8%. 明确了污泥阴燃的平均峰值温度和传播速度与水的质量分数、达西空气流速、孔隙率的关系. 对比阴燃前、后的物质种类和质量分数变化并结合分子动力学模拟，发现阴燃过程的反应不仅涉及长链石油烃的裂化和短链石油烃的氧化，还包含石油烃的挥发、环化和芳构化、异构化等. 数值模拟结果表明，利用该模型，能够较好地模拟含油污泥阴燃过程的温度和速度，平均误差约为11%. 当达西空气流速和热值改变时，模拟结果与实验结果的阴燃速率变化趋势一致，模拟结果与实验结果在不同条件下符合较好.

关键词： 含油污泥, 阴燃特性, 降解路径, 分子动力学模拟

Tab.1 Proximate analysis and ultimate analysis of landed oily sludge

Tab.2 Type and mass fraction of petroleum hydrocarbon in original oily sludge

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of oily sludge smoldering device

Fig.2 Molecular structure diagram of eicosane

Fig.3 Curve of ignition time of smoldering with moisture mass fraction

Fig.4 Variation curve of average peak temperature and propagation speed of smoldering with moisture mass fraction

Fig.5 Curve of average peak smoldering temperature and smoldering speed with Darcy air velocity variation

Fig.6 Curve of relationship between smoldering average peak temperature and calorific value

Fig.7 Curve of average peak temperature and propagation speed of smoldering with porosity variation

Fig.8 Schematic diagram of possible pollutant degradation pathway during smoldering process of oily sludge

Tab.3 Mass fraction of major component in condensate from oil sludge smoldering exhaust

Fig.9 Statistics of carbon-containing mass fraction at different temperature and isothermal evolution of number of H₂ and total amount of product at 4 000 K

Fig.10 Comparison between simulation and experimental result of oily sludge smoldering

Fig.11 Difference of simulation and experimental result in average peak temperature and smoldering rate with variation of Darcy air velocity

Fig.12 Difference of simulation and experimental result in average peak temperature and smoldering rate of different calorific value


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