Biomass furnace study via 3D numerical modeling
International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
ISSN: 0961-5539
Article publication date: 7 March 2016
Abstract
Purpose
In the recent years the interest toward the use of biomass as a fuel for energy conversion, along with the continuous tightening of regulations, has driven the improvement of accurate design techniques which are required to optimize the combustion process and simultaneously control pollutant emissions. In this paper the use of a 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics approach is analyzed to that aim by means of an application to an existing 50 MW biomass fixed-bed combustion furnace fueled by grape marc. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The studied furnace is an interesting example of biomass utilization as it may integrate biomass with organic residual by an industrial process. The numerical model has been implemented into an OpenFOAM solver, with an Eulerian-Lagrangian approach. In particular, the fully 3D approach here presented, directly solves for the gas and solid evolution in both the combustion bed and the freeboard. Special care has also been devoted to the treatment of radiating fluxes, having a remarkable influence, again, on the bed evolution.
Findings
Results have been compared to experimental data in terms of temperature showing a good agreement. Further comparisons have been done with literature available data for a similar power size biomass furnace showing reasonable similarities.
Originality/value
Emission formation processes in a biomass furnace are dealt with in this paper. The innovation lies in the use of a fully 3D numerical approach, that is validated with regard to temperature measurements gathered in a multi-MW experimental furnace.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Bonollo Energia S.P.A., for having contributed significantly to the activities reported in this paper.
Citation
Cordiner, S., Manni, A., Mulone, V. and Rocco, V. (2016), "Biomass furnace study via 3D numerical modeling", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 515-533. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-03-2015-0089
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited