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INFUB - 11th European Conference on Industrial Furnaces and Boilers, INFUB-11
INFUB - 11th European Conference on Industrial Furnaces and Boilers, INFUB-11
CFD Modeling of Combustion in Biomass Furnace
CFD Modeling of Combustion in Biomass Furnace
João Silvaaa*,The 15th
José International
Teixeira b Symposium on District
c Heating and dCooling e
b, Senhorinha Teixeirac, Simone Preziatid, João Cassianoe
João Silva *, José Teixeira , Senhorinha Teixeira , Simone Preziati , João Cassiano
Assessing the feasibility ofof Engineering,
using the heat demand-outdoor
a,b,c
University of Minho, School of Engineering, Azurém 4800-058, Portugal
a,b,c d,e
University of Minho,
EDPSchool
Produção, Azurém 4800-058, Portugal
Lisboa, Portugal
temperature function for aEDPlong-term district heat demand forecast
d,e
Produção, Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract
Abstract I. Andrića,b,c*, A. Pinaa, P. Ferrãoa, J. Fournierb., B. Lacarrièrec, O. Le Correc
Due to the need for the optimization of industrial furnaces Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is an
a
important Due
andto
IN+ Center for the need for
Innovation,
indispensable the for
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tool optimization
and of industrial
Policy Research
understanding - Instituto
for furnaces
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Técnico,
the mixing Fluid
Av. Roviscoflue
between Dynamics
Paisgases,
1, 1049-001 (CFD)
Lisbon,
combustion airisand
Portugal an
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important and indispensable Veolia Recherche
tool for & Innovation, 291
understanding for Avenue
instanceDreyfous
the Daniel, 78520
mixing between Limay, France
flue gases, combustion air and
the pollutant c formation.
Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes, France
the pollutantThisformation.
paper reports a computational fluid dynamics analysis of an industrial biomass boiler. The analysis
was carried Thisout paper
usingreports
a CFDa modelcomputational fluid dynamics
for the combustion of theanalysis
volatileof an industrial
gases biomass
released from boiler. The
the biomass analysis
combustion
was
in thecarried
grate. out using a CFD model for the combustion of the volatile gases released from the biomass combustion
inAbstract
the grate.
The results obtained for the temperature, velocity and concentration of species fields within the boiler are
now being Theusedresults obtained
to enable the for the temperature,
analysis velocity
and optimization andcombustion
of the concentration of species
process. fields the
Moreover, within the show
results boiler that
are
now
inside being
Districtthe used
furnace
heating to enable
the mixing
networks the analysis and
of the gases
are commonly optimization
withinthe
addressed of the
thecombustion combustion
literature as air
one could process.
of the be
most Moreover,
improved,
effective for the results
instance
solutions show that
through the
for decreasing the
inside the furnace
optimization
greenhouse gas the the
of emissions mixing
secondary
from the ofbuilding
air the gases
flow withThese
in sector.
relation the combustion
to the operating
systems airhigh
could
conditions
require beof improved,
investmentsthe boiler,
which arefor instance
which would
returned throughto the
lead the
through heat
optimization
lower Due toofthe
sales. pollutant thechanged
secondary
emissions. air flow
climate in relation
conditions to the operating
and building renovationconditions of the
policies, heat boiler,in which
demand would
the future leaddecrease,
could to the
lower pollutant
prolonging emissions.return period.
the investment
©The main
2017 Thescope of this
Authors. paper isby
Published to Elsevier
assess theLtd.
feasibility of using the heat demand – outdoor temperature function for heat demand
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
©forecast.
2017 The
Peer-review The district
Authors.
under of Alvalade,
Published
responsibility byof located
Elsevier
the in Lisbon
Ltd.
organizing (Portugal),
committee was used as a case study. The district is consisted of 665
of INFUB-11
INFUB-11.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of
buildings that
Peer-review vary
under in both construction
responsibility period and
of the organizing typology.
committee Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
of INFUB-11.
renovation
Keywords: scenarios
Biomass; were developed
Combustion; (shallow,
CFD; Modeling intermediate, deep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were
of Furnaces.
comparedBiomass;
Keywords: with results from a dynamic
Combustion; heat demand
CFD; Modeling model, previously developed and validated by the authors.
of Furnaces.
The results showed that when only weather change is considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications
1.(the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
Introduction
1.scenarios,
Introduction
the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
The Biomassofhas
value slope
beencoefficient increased
identified as a keyon average
option within the rangethe
for increasing of 3.8%
shareupoftorenewables
8% per decade, that corresponds
in electricity to the
production.
decrease
Biomassin the
hasnumber
been of heating
identified hours
as a of
key 22-139h
option during
for the heating
increasing theseason
share(depending
of on
renewables
Biomass is an interesting fuel source mainly because it does not lead to net increase of CO2 emissions as it onlythe combination
in electricityof weather
production.and
renovationis scenarios
Biomass an considered).
interesting fuel On the mainly
source other hand, function
because it intercept
does not increased
lead to forincrease
net 7.8-12.7%ofper
CO decade (depending
emissions as it on the
only
releases the quantity of CO2 that was absorbed during growth. However, biomass combustion is a complex process 2
coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters
releases the quantity of CO2 that was absorbed during growth. However, biomass combustion is a complex process for the scenarios considered, and
improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

* Corresponding
Peer-review author.
under Tel.: +351-913039996.
responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and
* Corresponding
E-mail
Cooling. author.
address: Tel.: +351-913039996.
a65374@alunos.uminho.pt
E-mail address: a65374@alunos.uminho.pt
1876-6102
Keywords:©Heat
2017demand;
The Authors. Published
Forecast; Climatebychange
Elsevier Ltd.
1876-6102
Peer-review©under
2017responsibility
The Authors. of
Published by Elsevier
the organizing Ltd. of INFUB-11.
committee
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of INFUB-11.

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of INFUB-11
10.1016/j.egypro.2017.07.179
666 João Silva et al. / Energy Procedia 120 (2017) 665–672
2 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

and it involves simultaneous fluid flow, chemical reactions and heat and mass transfer [1]. Therefore, for a thermal
power plant that uses biomass as fuel, it is necessary to control the efficiency of the combustion process.
Within the scope of combustion in biomass furnaces, in recent decades, CFD tools have been increasingly used
for optimizing the combustion process, and they become essential in the boiler design, operation troubleshooting and
they can also be helpful to analyze different working conditions and to estimate a multitude of variables inside the
whole domain [2].
Thunman et al. [3] simulated an existing 31 MW grate-fired boiler that produces hot water for the district heating
network of Trolhattan. A model for combustion of a fuel layer on a moving grate was developed and connected to a
CFD-calculation for combustion and gas flow in the free-room in the furnace. Acceptable results were obtained for
the gas flow and for the reactions of the main species in the whole furnace.
Larfeldt et al. [4] presented a numerical model for optimising the operation of 20 MW grate-fired boiler using
wood chips and the results of the simulation for two cases, with 40 and 60% fuel moisture respectively. The
numerical model includes the coupling between a fuel bed model and a CFD code for simulation of the flow and
gas-phase combustion inside the furnace. This approach has proved successful to integrate the bed model as an
interactive part of a general furnace model but the bed model requires considerable computing time. The simulation
results clearly indicate that the higher moisture content in the fuel bed leads to a decrease in the furnace temperature
value (about 200 K for the simulated cases). Thus, a longer combustion time of the fuel bed is required in order to
achieve the same level of complete combustion.
Scharler and Obernberger [5] performed a case study regarding the optimization of the geometry of the
combustion chambers and secondary air nozzles through CFD modeling. Results of the CFD calculations showed a
considerable potential for the optimization of the furnace geometry and secondary air nozzles regarding the mixing
of fuel and air.
Kaer [6] used a stand-alone code to provide boundary conditions for the CFD analysis of a 33 MW straw-fired
boiler. The author refers that due to poor mixing in the freeboard, high amounts of fly ash and of unburnt carbon are
formed during biomass combustion.
Yin et al [7] present a reliable baseline CFD model for the diagnosis and optimization of the grate boiler as well
as the design of new boilers. The results showed an acceptable agreement with the experimental data. However, on
a few measuring locations larger discrepancies are observed.
Porteiro et al [8] presented a CFD simulation of a domestic pellet boiler. The CFD analysis showed that the
interaction of the particles in the bed and the poor mixing of the gases in the furnace are the key factors that lead to
the high pollutants emission.
Rajh et al [9] presented a CFD modeling of waste wood combustion in a 13 MW grate-fired boiler in a Waste-to-
Energy plant and considers it appropriately accurate. CFD analysis reveals that the supply of secondary and tertiary
air needs to be optimized and improved in order to achieve a better plant efficiency.
The objective of this work is to develop a numerical model that characterizes the biomass combustion in the
boiler of the Thermal Power Plant of Mortágua for subsequent evaluation and optimization of the combustion
process. The fuel used in the plant is mostly forestry waste, resulting from the cleaning of existing forest bushes.
This numerical model has been developed using ANSYS Fluent® and the operation conditions determined in the
plant design were used (primary and secondary air flow rate and fuel flow rate). An empirical model was also used
that determines the volatiles released from the combustion of the biomass in the grate used as an input in ANSYS
Fluent® to simulate the combustion process inside the furnace.

Nomenclature

R ideal gas constant, J mole-1K-1

Ri,kin kinetics equations of the reaction
T temperature, K
 João Silva et al. / Energy Procedia 120 (2017) 665–672 667
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 3

2. Modeling of the Biomass Furnace

The simulation concerns an existing 34.6 MWth grate-fired boiler (Fig.1). The maximum reference flow of
biomass rate is 12.2 ton/h for the maximum load with a reference moisture of 40%. The main combustion
parameters are present in table 1. Currently, the fuel mix consists approximately of 80% of forestry waste (mostly
eucalyptus amongst other species) and wastes of primary processing of non-contaminated wood (20%). Moreover,
the boiler has in its walls 78 secondary air nozzles (39 of each side) and 4 holes for flue gas recycling located in the
opposite wall of the biomass feeding.

Table 1. Nominal operating conditions of the Thermal Power Plant

Operating Condition Value

Primary air 33,150 m3/h
Secondary air 13,250 m3/h
Excess air 40%
Fuel flow rate 12.2 ton/h
Stoichiometric ratio Air/Fuel 3.3

Modeling a grate-fired biomass boiler involves the simulation of the solid fuel combustion and simultaneously
with the gas phase reactions inside the combustion furnace above the fuel bed [2].
Usually the gas phase modeling is performed using commercial CFD software as these have strong built-in
capabilities for gas-phase modelling. However, in the case of the solid-fuel combustion, their capabilities are
limited. Consequently, functions featuring the volatilization of the solid biomass have been defined and
implemented into a separate in-house developed software. The results are used as input data in ANSYS Fluent®, as
boundary conditions (essentially volatile mass fractions, temperature and velocity).

Fig. 1. Boiler of the thermal power plant of Mortágua.

2.1. Biomass Conversion Modeling

In the fuel bed, where the biomass conversion takes place, several decomposition reactions and solid fuel
oxidation occur. According to the literature, the process of biomass combustion in the bed may be divided into four
successive or overlapping sub-processes: heating and evaporation of moisture, volatile release to the freeboard due
to thermal decomposition and char formation, volatiles combustion in the freeboard and char oxidation [1]. Volatile
668 João Silva et al. / Energy Procedia 120 (2017) 665–672
4 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

gases released from the biomass typically consist of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane and tar
which is assumed to be C6H6 as reported by other authors [8, 12]. However, this composition of the volatile depends
mainly on the type of fuel and the local conditions in which it was grown.
An empirical bed model developed by Neves et al. [10] was implemented in MATLAB® and it provides the inlet
conditions such as volatile mass fractions, total mass flow released from the bed and inlet temperature of the gases
to the freeboard simulation. The model describes the general trends of product distribution as a function of
temperature, which is made of elementary mass balances on the pyrolysis process applicable for carbon, oxygen and
hydrogen, energy balances and additional empirical relationships for model closure. Taking into account the
biomass composition (35% moisture, 31.82% carbon, 4.05% hydrogen, 27.1% oxygen, 2.03% ashes), it is therefore
possible to calculate the volatile mass fractions.
The oxygen's and nitrogen's unreacted mass fraction are added to the obtained mass fraction of the gases released
by the biomass into the furnace. The boiler's grate where the biomass is burned is divided in three sections, in which
the first two parts are the ones where air is supplied for the combustion, with the highest fraction for the second
section. The grate's third section is not supplied with air because all the fuel has been consumed and adding air
would be both wasteful and harmful to the combustion process.
It is assumed that the fuel moisture is completely evaporated in the first section of the grate and a certain amount
of volatiles is also released. Regarding the grate's second section, only volatile compounds are released except water
vapor. Table 2 provides the mass fraction of the released gases in the different sections of the grate.

Table 2. Mass fractions of the released gases in the grate

Grate Section O2 N2 CO CO2 H2 H2O CH4 C6H6

First section 0.138 0.462 0.064 0.023 0.002 0.160 0.009 0.140
Second section 0.202 0.677 0.032 0.012 0.001 - 0.005 0.070

The total gas mass flow provided by the bed to the freeboard and the temperature of the flue gases released are
0.355 kg/s and 500 ºC, respectively, in the first section of the grate and 0.727 kg/s and 800 ºC in the second section
of the grate.

2.2. CFD Modeling of the gas phase

ANSYS Fluent® version 16.2 was used to obtain the unsteady numerical solution. This is a computational tool
that uses the finite volume method, which requires a discretization of the domain into control volumes. Governing
equations were solved using the SIMPLE algorithm. To simulate the gas phase reactions within the full geometry of
a biomass furnace in CFD, models for turbulence and radiation need to be selected. The effect of turbulence on the
mean flow is accounted for by using the Realizable k-ɛ model. Radiative heat transfer was modelled by means of the
Discrete Ordinates Model (DOM). The set of chemical reactions to model the combustion process of the volatiles
released from the biomass in this work is presented in table 3. The kinetics equations of the chemical reactions are
also presented in table 3 where R is ideal gas constant and T is the temperature. For these chemical reactions the
Finite rate/Eddy Dissipation model is employed to account for turbulence-chemistry. This combined model
computes the effective reaction rate as the minimum of the Arrhenius finite rate and the Eddy dissipation rate.
Further details of these models that were considered in this work can be found in the ANSYS Fluent ® user’s guide
[9].
 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 5
João Silva et al. / Energy Procedia 120 (2017) 665–672 669

Table 3. Chemical reactions and kinetics [9, 12]

Homogenous reactions Kinetics

9   1.256 108 
C6 H 6  O2  6CO  3H 2O (1) R1,kin  1.3496 109 exp  C6 H 6 0.1O2 1.85 (5)
2 R T 
 

3   2 108 
CH 4  O2  CO  2H 2O (2) R2,kin  5.012 1011 exp  C6 H 6 0.7 O2 0.8 (6)

2  RT 

1   3.1107 
H 2  O2  H 2O (3) R3,kin  9.87 108 exp  H 2 O2  (7)

2  RT 

1   1.702 108 
CO  O2  CO2 (4) R4,kin  2.239 1012 exp  COO2 0.25H 2O0.5 (8)
2 R T 
 

The geometry of the boiler and the mesh have been implemented in the ANSYS platform. In terms of the
geometrical model, only 1/13 of the full boiler geometry was modelled (Fig. 2 (a)).

(a) (b)

Fig. 2. (a) Geometry; (b) Mesh.

Based on previous work [6] the heat exchangers were accounted for using source terms in the momentum and
energy equation. Great attention and time were given to obtain a high-quality and fine mesh because mesh always
affects the convergence and the CFD results. The mesh used in this work is hexahedron-dominant mesh and has
141,060 cells (Fig. 2 (b)).
670 João Silva et al. / Energy Procedia 120 (2017) 665–672
6 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

3. Results and Discussion

The general behaviour of the furnace can be understood through the main variables of the CFD results. These
results were obtained for the nominal operating conditions, described in the previous section, and were obtained
from an instant when a pseudo-steady state has been reached. The figures presented in this chapter show a view of
the relevant data in the central plane of the boiler geometry modelled.
Figure 3 shows the temperature profile (a) and the velocity (b) of the flue gases inside the boiler. The maximum
temperature reached is approximately 2655 ºC. This over predicted temperature peak is a consequence of the Finite
rate/Eddy dissipation model that was employed as the combustion model [7]. Therefore, the default value for A (A =
4) used in the Eddy dissipation model should be adjusted for the case in study because the computed temperature
peak is related to the constant A.
Inside the furnace the mixing between combustion air and the volatile released from the biomass is always very
important. As can be seen in Fig. 3 (a) due to the penetration of the lower secondary air injector in the right side
wall, there is a sudden increase in temperature due to the mixture of gases with air supplied by the nozzle.
Therefore, the configuration of the air jets is vital to improving the combustion process and the mixing. In this way,
the pollutant emission may be reduced due to the proper boiler design.
Furthermore, Fig. 3 (b) shows that in the zone of the heat exchangers, near the exit of the boiler, there is an
increase of the flue gases velocity. This increase in velocity is due to a vortex that is generated in this location and
problems may arise with the erosion of the tubes of the heat exchangers.

(a) (b)

Fig. 3. (a) Temperature; (b) Velocity of the flue gases inside the boiler.

Figure 4 presents the mass fraction of the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide inside the boiler. The carbon
monoxide is almost completely oxidised into carbon dioxide due to the supply of air by the secondary air nozzles. In
this way, little energy is lost due to incomplete combustion. Mention that incomplete combustion is related to the
design of the boiler and excess air ratio used in the combustion process. However, the mixing of the gases with the
combustion air could be improved if a nozzle was located in the left side wall at the same height as the first nozzle at
the right side wall.
 João Silva et al. / Energy Procedia 120 (2017) 665–672 671
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 7

(a) (b)

Fig. 4. (a) CO2 mass fraction; (b) CO mass fraction.

4. Conclusions

In this paper, a CFD analysis of a biomass furnace was carried out, and the method developed for modelling the
combustion in a biomass furnace was reported.
To study the performance of a biomass grate furnace, the domain is divided into two main areas: the bed and
freeboard. ANSYS Fluent® is used for the freeboard simulation and an empirical bed model is used to solve the
biomass thermal decomposition in the bed, determining the boundary conditions that are used on the CFD software.
The results show that CFD calculations represent an efficient tool for the optimisation of biomass combustion in
a furnace and the overall combustion mechanism reasonably predicts the emissions of carbon monoxide and carbon
dioxide inside the furnace. However, inside the furnace the mixing of the gases with the combustion air could be
improved through secondary air flow rates increases or tertiary air injections higher up in the furnace.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the management and staff of EDP for their collaboration and for providing technical
design data of the biomass power plant in this paper. This work was financed by FCT, under the Strategic Project
UID/SEM/04077/2013. Additionally, by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT within the Project
Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.

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