Neutron imaging of heterogeneous solid fuels under heating

Solid-fuel pyrolysis, gasification, and combustion continue to play an important role in the industrial and utility sectors. Behavior of heterogeneous fuels such as biomass (e.g., wood and grasses), municipal solid waste (MSW), and coal is less understood on the micro than the macro scales, particularly in relation to computational models which can assist reactor scale-up design and optimization. One limitation is understanding the complex processes of fuels as they degrade under heating, with counterflowing heat and mass fluxes.