CFD simulation of industrial-sized biomass furnace

Abstract

In this study, a CFD model is developed to simulate a large-scale grate fired biomass furnace. The model is constructed with the open source software package OpenFOAM, which consists two separate solvers, a packed bed solver and a freeboard solver. The packed bed solver treats the fuel bed as a porous medium and resolves all the time and length scales involved for the fuel-bed conversion. The freeboard solver is established in a similar way to the packed bed solver. In addition, a detailed skeletal kinetic mechanism is implemented in the freeboard simulation to better predicting NO formation. The proposed model is validated against experimental data measured in a 10 MWgrate furnace. © 2016 ETA-Florence Renewable Energies.