scholarly journals CFD Simulation of an Internally Cooled Biomass Fixed-Bed Combustion Plant

Resources ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
César Álvarez-Bermúdez ◽  
Sergio Chapela ◽  
Luis G. Varela ◽  
Miguel Ángel Gómez

The reduction of bed temperature in fixed-bed biomass combustion is an effective measure to lower pollutant emissions. Air staging and bed cooling solutions are active strategies to decrease the fuel bed temperature. This work presents a CFD study of a biomass fixed-bed combustion plant that is equipped with an internal cooling bed system. Eight different cases are calculated to analyze the effect of the total airflow, air staging ratios and bed cooling system on biomass combustion. The findings are validated against experimental data from the literature. The results show good accordance between the numerical results and the experimental data. The primary airflow rate has the biggest influence on the bed’s maximum temperatures. The internal bed cooling system is able to achieve an average bed temperature reduction of 21%, slowing the biomass thermal conversion processes. Bed cooling techniques can be combined with air staging and primary airflow reduction to reduce bed temperatures in order to reduce pollutant emissions and other undesirable phenomena, such as fouling or slagging.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Pérez-Orozco ◽  
David Patiño ◽  
Jacobo Porteiro ◽  
José Luís Míguez

This paper introduces an experimental plant specifically designed to challenge the main operating issues related to modern biomass combustion systems (mainly NOx, particulate matter, and deposition phenomena). The prototype is an 11–18 kW overfed fixed-bed burner with a modular configuration, and the design considers the implementation of certain strategies for improving combustion: (1) a complete refrigeration system that also includes the fuel bed; and (2) an air injection control through flue gas recirculation. First, the stability and repeatability of the facility were successfully tested, establishing the duration of transient periods in the phase of experiment design. The results revealed similar effects in temperature and particulate emissions when comparing the use of the cooling bed and recirculation techniques. Reductions of 15% and up to 70% were achieved for the exhaust temperature and particulate matter concentration, respectively. Otherwise, the refrigeration considerably reduced the bed temperature, especially in its core, which enhanced the condensation of volatile salts and therefore the fouling phenomena. Although the viability of using both techniques as temperature control methods is demonstrated, further studies are needed to clarify the specific effects of each technology and to clarify the possible significance of a hybrid solution that combines both strategies.


Author(s):  
Francesco Fantozzi ◽  
Paolo Laranci ◽  
Michele Bianchi ◽  
Andrea De Pascale ◽  
Michele Pinelli ◽  
...  

Micro gas turbines could be profitably used, for distributed energy production, also exploiting low calorific value biomass-derived fuels, obtained by means of integrated pyrolysis and/or gasification processes. These synthesis gases show significant differences with respect to natural gas (in terms of composition, low calorific value, hydrogen content, tar and particulate matter content) that may turn into ignition problems, combustion instabilities, difficulties in emission control and fouling. CFD simulation of the combustion chamber is a key instrument to identify main criticalities arising when using these gases, in order to modify existing geometries and to develop new generation combustion chambers for use with low calorific value gases. This paper describes the numerical activity carried out to analyze the combustion process occurring inside an existing microturbine annular combustor. A CFD study of the combustion process performed with different computational codes is introduced and some preliminary results are reported in the paper. A comparison of results obtained with the different codes is provided, for the reference case of methane combustion. A first evaluation of the pollutant emissions and a comparison with the available experimental data is also provided in the paper, showing in particular a good matching of experimental data on NOx emissions at different load conditions. Moreover, the carried out investigation concerns the case of operation with a syngas fuel derived from pyrolysis of biomass and finally the case of syngas and natural gas co-firing. This combustion condition is simulated with a simple reduced chemical kinetic scheme, in order to assess only the key issues rising with this fuel in comparison with the case of methane combustion. The analysis shows that in case of syngas operation the combustor internal temperature hot spots are reduced and the primary zone flame tends to stabilize closer to the injector, with possible implications on the emission release.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8332
Author(s):  
Chao Yu ◽  
Wenbao Zhang ◽  
Xiangyao Xue ◽  
Jiarun Lou ◽  
Guochao Lao

With the incremental power of construction machinery diesel engines, the power performance of diesel engines and the pollutant emissions from the exhaust gas have imposed increasingly stringent requirements on the intake cooling system of diesel engines. This paper compared the j/f evaluation factors for fin unit bodies of water-cooled intercooler (including straight fins and rectangular misaligned fins) by means of CFD simulation, and found that the rectangular misaligned fins had an 8% advantage in comprehensive performance. With the rectangular staggered fin intercooler, it was found that under the same conditions, the cooling efficiency of the dual-pass water-cooled intercooler is higher than that of the single-pass water-cooled intercooler, and the uniformity factor of the temperature difference field of the dual-pass water-cooled intercooler is 1.5% higher than that of the latter. The accuracy of the overall simulation of the intercooler is verified by the field test. The dual-pass and single-pass water-cooled intercooler both can maintain heat balance under working conditions, and its average air inlet temperature is 10 °C lower than that of the original air-cooled intercooler, which provides support for further reducing the engine air inlet temperature. The results provide a theoretical basis for the performance improvement of water-cooled intercoolers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shazia Perveen ◽  
Raziya Nadeem ◽  
Shaukat Ali ◽  
Yasir Jamil

Abstract Biochar caged zirconium ferrite (BC-ZrFe2O5) nanocomposites were fabricated and their adsorption capacity for Reactive Blue 19 (RB19) dye was evaluated in a fixed-bed column and batch sorption mode. The adsorption of dye onto BC-ZrFe2O5 NCs followed pseudo-second-order kinetics (R 2 = 0.998) and among isotherms, the experimental data was best fitted to Sips model as compared to Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms models. The influence of flow-rate (3–5 mL min−1), inlet RB19 dye concentration (20–100 mg L−1) and quantity of BC-ZrFe2O5 NCs (0.5–1.5 g) on fixed-bed sorption was elucidated by Box-Behnken experimental design. The saturation times (C t /C o  = 0.95) and breakthrough (C t /C o  = 0.05) were higher at lower flow-rates and higher dose of BC-ZrFe2O5 NCs. The saturation times decreased, but breakthrough was increased with the initial RB19 dye concentration. The treated volume was higher at low sorbent dose and influent concentration. Fractional bed utilization (FBU) increased with RB19 dye concentration and flow rates at low dose of BC-ZrFe2O5 NCs. Yan model was fitted best to breakthrough curves data as compared to Bohart-Adams and Thomas models. Results revealed that BC-ZrFe2O5 nanocomposite has promising adsorption efficiency and could be used for the adsorption of dyes from textile effluents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2027
Author(s):  
Md. Emdadul Hoque ◽  
Fazlur Rashid ◽  
Muhammad Aziz

Synthetic gas generated from the gasification of biomass feedstocks is one of the clean and sustainable energy sources. In this work, a fixed-bed downdraft gasifier was used to perform the gasification on a lab-scale of rice husk, sawdust, and coconut shell. The aim of this work is to find and compare the synthetic gas generation characteristics and prospects of sawdust and coconut shell with rice husk. A temperature range of 650–900 °C was used to conduct gasification of these three biomass feedstocks. The feed rate of rice husk, sawdust, and coconut shell was 3–5 kg/h, while the airflow rate was 2–3 m3/h. Experimental results show that the highest generated quantity of methane (vol.%) in synthetic gas was achieved by using coconut shell than sawdust and rice husk. It also shows that hydrogen production was higher in the gasification of coconut shell than sawdust and rice husk. In addition, emission generations in coconut shell gasification are lower than rice husk although emissions of rice husk gasification are even lower than fossil fuel. Rice husk, sawdust, and coconut shell are cost-effective biomass sources in Bangladesh. Therefore, the outcomes of this paper can be used to provide clean and economic energy sources for the near future.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 491-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeeshan Nawaz

AbstractThe catalytic dehydrogenation of iso-butane to iso-butylene is an equilibrium limited endothermic reaction and requires high temperature. The catalyst deactivates quickly, due to deposition of carbonaceous species and countered by periodic regeneration. The reaction-engineering constraints are tied up with operation and/or technology design features. CATOFIN® is a sophisticated commercialized technology for propane/iso-butane dehydrogenation using multiple adiabatic fixed-bed reactors having Cr2O3/Al2O3 as catalyst, that undergo cyclic operations (~18–30m); dehydrogenation, regeneration, evacuation, purging and reduction. It is always a concern, how to maintain CATOFIN® reactor at an optimum production, while overcoming gradual decrease of heat in catalyst bed and deactivation. A homogeneous one-dimensional dynamic reactor model for a commercial CATOFIN® fixed-bed iso-butane dehydrogenation reactor is developed in an equation oriented (EO) platform Aspen Custom Modeler (ACM), for operational optimization and process intensification. Both reaction and regeneration steps were modeled and results were validated. The model predicts the dynamic behavior and demonstrates the extent of catalyst utilization with operating conditions and time, coke formation and removal, etc. The model computes optimum catalyst bed temperature profiles, feed rate, pre-heating, rates for reaction and regeneration, fuel gas requirement, optimum catalyst amount, overall cycle time optimization, and suggest best operational philosophy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 407 ◽  
pp. 113-120
Author(s):  
Nat Thuchayapong ◽  
Nattawut Tharawadee

This research studies on the effect of additive (Dolomite) on Biomass powder (Cassava rhizome) which passes Torrefied process and fixed bed at 250 degrees Celsius for one hour and a half. The gasifier with up-draft type was used in this experiment. Air pressure was fixed at 0.1 Bar. The useful heat (Quseful) and Low heating valves (LHV) was investigated by using an Automatic Bomb Calorimeter. Moreover, the dolomite was varied 0, 10 and 15% by weight mixed with Cassava rhizome achieved with Torrefied process. When Low heating valves (LHV) slightly decreases from 21.96±0.22 MJ/kg to 18.15±0.50 MJ/kg, Quseful heat from the burning from gasifier sharply increase when it is mixed with dolomite from 753.34±39.18 to 1,003.97±33.49KJ respectively. The loading of dolomite has significance affecting the useful heat. The present study reveals that low heating valves (LHV) decreases and Quseful heat increase result from dolomite which gives a clean gas product and the Tar molecule can be easily broken. The CO2 gas from the combustion process was absorbed by CaO, which is the main component in dolomite. The cost of mixing 8.9% of Dolomite with Cassava rhizome is the optimum ratio for the biomass combustion process.


Author(s):  
Li Yabing ◽  
Zhang Han ◽  
Xiao Jianjun

A dynamic film model is developed in the parallel CFD code GASFLOW-MPI for passive containment cooling system (PCCS) utilized in nuclear power plant like AP1000 and CAP1400. GASFLOW-MPI is a widely validated parallel CDF code and has been applied to containment thermal hydraulics safety analysis for different types of reactors. The essential issue for PCCS is the heat removal capability. Research shows that film evaporation contributes most to the heat removal capability for PCCS. In this study, the film evaporation model is validated with separate effect test conducted on the EFFE facility by Pisa University. The test region is a rectangle gap with 0.1m width, 2m length, and 0.6m depth. The water film flowing from the top of the gap is heated by a heating plate with constant temperature and cooled by countercurrent air flow at the same time. The test region model is built and analyzed, through which the total thermal power and evaporation rate are obtained to compare with experimental data. Numerical result shows good agreement with the experimental data. Besides, the influence of air velocity, wall temperature and gap widths are discussed in our study. Result shows that, the film evaporation has a positive correlation with air velocity, wall temperature and gap width. This study can be fundamental for our further numerical study on PCCS.


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