Development of mathematical model for co-firing pulverized coal and biomass in experimental furnace

Abstract

A comprehensive mathematical model for prediction of turbulent transport processes and reactions during co-combustion of pulverized fuels in furnace fired by 150 kW swirl stabilized-burner has been developed. Numerical simulations have been carried out by using an in-house developed computer code, with Euler-Lagrangian approach to the two-phase flow modelling and sub-models for individual phases during complex combustion process: evaporation, devolatilization, combustion of volatiles, and char combustion. For sub-model of coal devolatilization the approach of Merrick is adopted, while for biomass devolatilization the combination models of Merrick, and of Xu and Tomita are selected. Products of devolatilization of both the pulverized coal and biomass are considered to contain the primary gaseous volatiles and tar, which further decomposes to secondary gaseous volatiles and residual soot. The residual soot in tar and carbon in coal and biomass char are oxidized directly, with ash remaining. For volatiles combustion the finite rate/eddy break-up model is chosen, while for char oxidation the combined kinetic-diffusion model is used. The comprehensive combustion model is validated against available experimental data from the case-study cylindrical furnace. The agreement of the simulations with the data for the main species in the furnace is quite good, while some discrepancies from experimental values are found in the core zone. The presented model is a good basis for further research of co-combustion processes and is able to provide analysis of wide range of pulverized fuels, i. e. coal and biomass. At the same time, the model is relatively simple numerical tool for effective and practical use.