Three-dimensional CFD simulation of a large-scale grate-fired biomass furnace

Abstract

Moving grate boilers are widely used in the combustion of solid biomass at industrial scale for heat and power production. This type of systems allows to use wide range of fuels, including those with a high moisture and ash content. However, biomass boilers present several associated problems, such as e pollutant missions or ageing phenomena that can reduce the efficiency of the boilers or damage them such as fouling, slagging or corrosion. CFD tools can be used to study biomass combustion systems providing information useful to optimize the operation and design of the boilers. In this work, an Eulerian fixed-bed biomass combustion model coupled with the CFD commercial code ANSYS-Fluent will be used to carry out the simulation of a large-scale moving grate biomass furnace. New procedures have to be developed to adapt the model operation to the characteristics of this case. The numerical results are compared with experimental data from literature. The new procedures provide a solution of the bed morphology, which is validated against the experimental data.