29/03/2024, 12:41 CFD analysis of the effects of co-firing biomass with coal - ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

Volume 51, Issue 8, August 2010, Pages 1694-1701

CFD analysis of the effects of co-firing biomass with

coal
Chaouki Ghenai a , Isam Janajreh b

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2009.11.045
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Abstract

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of the effects of co-firing biomass with coal is presented in
this study. Coal/biomass co-firing is a complex problem that involves gas and particle phases, along with the
effect of the turbulence on the chemical reactions. The CFD analysis includes the prediction of volatile
evolution and char burnout from the co-pulverized coal/biomass particles along with the simulation of the
combustion chemistry occurring in the gas phase. The mathematical models consist of models for turbulent
flow (RNG k–ε model); gas phase combustion (two-mixture fractions/PDF model); particles dispersion by
turbulent flow (stochastic tracking model); coal/biomass particles devolatilization (two competing rates
Kobayashi model); heterogeneous char reaction (kinetics/diffusion-limited rate model); and radiation (P-1
radiation model). The coal used is a Canadian high sulfur bituminous coal. The coal was blended with 5–20%
wheat straw (thermal basis) for co-firing. The effect of the percentage of biomass blended with coal on the
flow field, gas and particle temperature distribution, particles trajectories and gas emissions (CO2 and NOx)
are presented. One important result is the reduction of NOx and CO2 emissions when using co-combustion.
This reduction depends on the proportion of biomass (wheat straw) blended with coal.

Introduction

Biomass co-firing within the existing infrastructure of pulverized coal utility boilers is viewed as a practical
near-term means of encouraging renewable energy while minimizing capital requirements and maintaining
the high efficiency of pulverized coal boilers [1], [2]. The wide dispersion of pulverized coal boilers
translates into significant opportunities for biomass utilization even at levels of only 5–20% of thermal

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29/03/2024, 12:41 CFD analysis of the effects of co-firing biomass with coal - ScienceDirect

input. Co-combustion of biomass with coal offers many advantages: it is the fastest way to increase the use
of renewable biomass for electric power generation; it utilizes biomass at higher efficiency in coal-fired
plants compared to direct biomass-fired plants; it saves capital cost by utilizing existing plant
infrastructure; and it offers environmental advantages, such as reduced carbon dioxide CO2, sulfur dioxide
SO2, and NOx emissions [3]. Co-combustion of biomass with coal has the potential to contribute towards the
CO2 reductions through substitution of non-renewable fossil fuel derived carbon emissions with renewable
biomass. For the nitrogen oxides, co-combustion of coal and biomass will reduce NOx emissions due to a
combination of reduced fuel bound nitrogen, especially in biomass fuels, and the modified combustion
conditions reducing thermal NOx formation. For sulfur oxides SOx, its emission will be directly related to
sulfur content of the fuel. In many cases, due to the low sulfur content of most biomass fuels, co-
combustion with coal will lead to a reduction of SOx emissions.

In this study, co-pulverized coal/biomass particles are burned inside a furnace with static mixers. Static
mixers are placed inside the furnace for efficient turbulent flow mixing. Mixing is accomplished by
controlled vortex structures generated by a series of protrusions or “tabs”. A tab produces a pair of counter-
rotating stream-wise vortices. These vortices tend to persist in the flow and are responsible for transporting
high velocity fluid from the core of the jet into the surrounding fluid and vice versa [4].

Co-pulverized coal/biomass particles combustion modeling is a complex problem that involves gas and
particle phases along with the effect of the turbulence on the chemical reactions. In addition to solving
transport equations for the continuous phase (gas), a discrete second phase (spherical particles) is
simulated in the Lagrangian frame of reference. Reaction is modeled by two-mixture fractions/PDF
approach. One mixture fraction is used for the fuel (char) and the second for the volatiles. Discrete phase
modeling is used for the prediction of particle trajectories and heat and mass to and from particles.

There are few modeling studies on coal/biomass co-firing in the literature probably due to the fact that co-
firing is a developing technology still in the testing phase. Abbas et al. [5] developed a mathematical model
for coal/biomass blend combustion based on the k–ε turbulence model, a turbulence decay model for
volatile combustion and a diffusive radiation model. A single step model was used for the pulverized fuel
devolatilization, and a kinetic and diffusion model was used for the char reactions. In order to account for
the variability in the properties of the volatiles from each type of fuel, they used two mixtures fractions to
track coal- and straw-off gas gases separately. The coal-off gas and straw-off gas fractions were calculated
using hybrid differencing scheme. The authors compared the results wit the experiments on co-firing coal
and sawdust and found good agreement between experiments and the model results. They predicted an
earlier devolatilization of coal particles due to early ignition of sawdust volatiles in the near burner region.
Similar predictions were obtained by Dhanaplan et al. [6]. The increased devolatilization rate led to lower
NO formation (40% reduction) when sawdust was introduced through the middle of the annular coal jet. A
full-scale coal and straw–fired utility boiler was modeled by Kaer et al. [7]. The authors used a commercial
CFD code (CFX4.2) with an extended particle formulation model. They showed a marked difference in the
combustion behavior (temperature and species concentrations) due in part to the large volumetric
concentrations of straw near burner mouth. Devolatilization and burnout of the larger straw particles
occurred further away from the burner mouth, which changed the combustion behavior. In addition the
trajectories of the chopped straw were quite different from those of the coal particles.

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Sami et al. [8] review the literature on co-firing of coal with biomass including organic matter, municipal
and waste materials. Experimental results of large variety of fuel blends and conditions are presented.
Numerical studies are also discussed in this paper. Issues related to successful implementation of coal
biomass blend combustion are identified. Some typical biomass fuels used in biomass/coal co-firing studies
are: cattle manure [9], sawdust and sewage sludge [5], [10], switch grass [11], wood chips [12], and straw
[10].

Despite progress made to date on both experimental and modeling studies of coal/biomass co-firing, a wide
range of research and development program is needed before co-combustion can be considered
commercially proven for all biomass and combustion technologies. More detailed investigations covering
different fuel types, fuel mixtures, combustors types and combustion conditions are needed. The results of
the numerical prediction of coal/biomass combustion are presented in this paper. The coal used is a
Canadian high sulfur bituminous coal. The biomass is wheat straw, and it is blended with coal with a
proportion of 10% and 20% (thermal basis).

Section snippets

Continuous gas phase (gas flow)

The equations that apply to carrier or continuous phase are the standard equations of fluid dynamics: the
conservation of mass, momentum, energy and species concentration. Such equations are Eulerian equations
and yield variables such as velocity, temperature, pressure and species concentrations at every point in the
computational domain. For the turbulent gas flow, the k–ε turbulence model (RNG) is used. The equations
for the turbulent kinetic energy k and the dissipation rate of the turbulent …

Numerical method

The governing equations are solved sequentially (segregated from one another). In this method a control
volume-based technique is used. The finite volume method is used for the discretization process. For a given
variable, the unknown value in each cell is computed using a relation that includes both existing and
unknown value from neighboring cells (implicit form). Therefore each unknown will appear in more than
one equation in the system, and these equations must be solved simultaneously to…

Results

Table 1, Table 2 show the proximate and ultimate analysis of the fuels used in this study. The fuel
composition used for this numerical investigation is the same used by Pedersen et al. [13] in their
experimental study. The coal is a Canadian high sulfur bituminous coal with a lower heating value of
29.2 MJ/kg. Wheat straw was blended with coal with a proportion of 10% and 20% (thermal basis).

Fig. 2 presents the predicted velocity vectors of the gas phase for coal combustion. The velocity…

Conclusions

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29/03/2024, 12:41 CFD analysis of the effects of co-firing biomass with coal - ScienceDirect

A numerical investigation of co-combustion of biomass (wheat straw) with coal is presented in this study.
The coal used in this study is a Canadian high sulfur bituminous coal. The wheat straw was blended with
the coal with a proportion of 10% and 20% thermal basis. The velocity vectors show the presence of four re-
circulation zones produced by the four tabs placed inside the furnace. These vortices will help to mix
efficiently the coal or coal/biomass particles and consequently to increase the …

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T. Abbas et al.
The influence of burner injection made on pulverized coal and biosolid co-fired flames
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M. Sami et al.
Co-firing of coal and biomass fuel blends
Prog Energy Combust Sci (2001)

Freeman MC, Chister DC, James RA, Ekmann JM, Walbert GF. In: Results of pilot-scale biomass co-firing for
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Martin K. Jet mixing enhancement by tabs, NASA Glenn Research Center, combustion and fluids, CF-020-1....

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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