Characterization of biomass combustion at high temperatures based on an upgraded single particle model.

Li, Jun; Paul, Manosh C.; Younger, Paul L.; Watson, Ian; Hossain, Mamdud; Welch, Stephen

Abstract

Biomass co-firing is becoming a promising solution to reduce CO2 emissions, due to its renewability and carbon neutrality. Biomass normally has high moisture and volatile contents, complicating its combustion behavior, which is significantly different from that of coal. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) combustion model of a single biomass particle is employed to study high-temperature rapid biomass combustion. The two-competing-rate model and kinetics/diffusion model are used to model biomass devolatilization reaction and char burnout process, respectively, in which the apparent kinetics used for those two models were from high temperatures and high heating rates tests. The particle size changes during the devolatilization and char burnout are also considered. The mass loss properties and temperature profile during the biomass devolatilization and combustion processes are predicted; and the timescales of particle heating up, drying, devolatilization, and char burnout are compared and discussed. Finally, the results shed light on the effects of particle size on the combustion behavior of biomass particle.

Citation

LI, J., PAUL, M.C., YOUNGER, P.L., WATSON, I., HOSSAIN, M. and WELCH, S. 2015. Characterization of biomass combustion at high temperatures based on an upgraded single particle model. Applied energy [online], 156, pages 749-755. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.04.027

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 8, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Apr 23, 2015
• Publication Date: Oct 15, 2015
• Deposit Date: Sep 25, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 25, 2016
• Journal: Applied Energy
• Print ISSN: 0306-2619
• Electronic ISSN: 1872-9118
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 156
• Pages: 749-755
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.04.027
• Keywords: Biomass; Combustion; High temperature; Single particle model
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1309