A detailed study of a multi-MW biomass combustor by numerical analysis: Evaluation of fuel characteristics impact

In the recent years the interest toward the use of biomass as a fuel for energy generation, together with the continuous tightening of regulations, has driven the improvement of accurate design techniques which are required to optimize the combustion process and simultaneously control pollutant emissions. In this paper the use of a 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics approach is analysed to this aim by means of an application to an existing 50MWth biomass fixed-bed combustion furnace fuelled by grape marc. This combustor is an interesting example of biomass utilization as it may integrate biomass with organic residual by an industrial process. Results have been compared to experimental data in terms of temperature showing a good agreement. Further comparisons have been done with literature available data for a similar power size biomass furnace showing reasonable similarities.