Energy Conversion and Management 63 (2012) 149–156

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Energy Conversion and Management

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An overview of CFD modelling of small-scale fixed-bed biomass pellet boilers

with preliminary results from a simplified approach
Joel Chaney, Hao Liu ⇑, Jinxing Li
Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The increasing global energy demand and mounting pressures for CO2 mitigation call for increased effi-
Available online 13 April 2012 cient utilization of biomass, particularly for heating domestic and commercial buildings. The authors of
the present paper are investigating the optimization of the combustion performance and NOx emissions
Keywords: of a 50 kW biomass pellet boiler fabricated by a UK manufacturer. The boiler has a number of adjustable
Biomass parameters including the ratio of air flow split between the primary and secondary supplies, the orien-
Combustion tation, height, direction and number of the secondary inlets. The optimization of these parameters pro-
CFD
vides opportunities to improve both the combustion efficiency and NOx emissions.
Fixed-bed
Pellet boiler
When used carefully in conjunction with experiments, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling
Simulation is a useful tool for rapidly and at minimum cost examining the combustion performance and emissions
Modelling from a boiler with multiple variable parameters. However, modelling combustion and emissions of a
small-scale biomass pellet boiler is not trivial and appropriate fixed-bed models that can be coupled with
the CFD code are required. This paper reviews previous approaches specifically relevant to simulating
fixed-bed biomass boilers. In the first part it considers approaches to modelling the heterogeneous solid
phase and coupling this with the gas phase. The essential components of the sub-models are then over-
viewed. Importantly, for the optimization process a model is required that has a good balance between
accuracy in predicting physical trends, with low computational run time.
Finally, a simple combustion model written within a FLUENT user defined function is described,
together with the preliminary modelling results obtained for modelling the combustion of wood pellets
in a 50 kW fixed-bed biomass pellet boiler.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction be a powerful tool within the optimization process, enabling fluid

In order to meet national targets on renewable energy and
emission levels, incentives are being introduced by the govern-
ment to encourage the uptake of biomass technology. However,
in order to qualify for the incentives, the biomass technology must
comply with certain limits with regard to emissions.
Fixed-bed pellets biomass systems are a popular option for
small scale systems. However many of the current biomass com-
bustion systems still need to be improved or modified to comply
with the legislation and qualify for the incentives. This can be an
expensive process making it more difficult for smaller businesses.
Operation conditions have been shown to significantly affect a
boilers performance [e.g. 1–3], and so optimization could provide
a means to notably improve existing systems [4] at a lower initial
outlay. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has the potential to
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 115 84 67674.
E-mail address: liu.hao@nottingham.ac.uk (H. Liu).
flows, heat transfer and emissions in a boiler system to be mod-
elled. It provides cost efficient aid for the optimization of existing
boilers as well as for future new designs.
This however is not trivial, and successful modelling of a small-
scale fixed-bed biomass boiler requires appropriate sub-models to
simulate all of the major relevant combustion, flow and heat/mass
transfer processes and their interactions. For instance these include
moisture evaporation, homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions,
turbulent flows, radiative and convective heat transfers. The com-
plexity of these models will affect, to different degrees, the compu-
tational time, and the accuracy of the modelling results.
This work provides a review of the literature regarding combus-
tion modelling of small-scale fixed-bed biomass boiler systems. In
particular, the focus is on biomass boilers where solid pellet fuel
enters a fixed-bed via an underfeed system and primary air is in-
jected beneath the fuel within this bed. A simple combustion mod-
el written within a FLUENT user defined function is described,
together with the preliminary modelling results obtained for mod-
elling the combustion of wood pellets in a 50 kW fixed-bed bio-
mass pellet boiler.

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2012.01.036
150 J. Chaney et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 63 (2012) 149–156
2. Approaches to modelling small-scale fixed-bed biomass
boilers using CFD
Modelling a fixed bed biomass boiler involves the simulations of
both the solid-fuel combustion within the pellet bed, and at the
same time the gas phase reactions within the combustion furnace.
Commercial CFD software packages (e.g. FLUENT) usually have
strong built-in capacities that facilitate gas phase modelling. How-
ever, in terms of modelling fixed-bed combustion their capabilities
are often limited. Three main approaches are commonly taken in
the solution to this problem.
A simple approach is to use inlet conditions for the top of the
fuel bed based on the experimental measurements [5]. This might
either be a uniform function for the whole of the fuel grate, or one
where the inlet combustion rate (i.e. the rate of release of volatiles)
is prescribed as a function of position on the boundary surface
(representing the top of the fuel bed). Inlet conditions can then
be calculated from overall heat and mass balances of the fuel com-
ponents and the primary air velocity [4].
A more complex method is to develop a separate sub-model
that calculates the temperature, species and velocity at the top of
the fuel bed. The CFD code can then be coupled with the bed
sub-model, and the radiative flux emitted by the flame and furnace
walls to the top fuel layer, fed back for the next iteration of the bed
model. Iterations are repeated until there is no substantial change
in either the gas species leaving the fuel bed or the incident radia-
tive heat flux. This approach has been adopted by a number of
authors (e.g. [2,4,6,7]). Models vary in their degrees of complexity.
The approach can be slow to converge and relies heavily on the
performance of the bed models. Furthermore, because of the com-
plexity of the reactions in the fuel bed, there are unknown param-
eters and a number of simplifying assumptions that have to be
made. To justify these assumptions sensitivity studies on the ef-
fects of the key parameters on the combustion rate need to be car-
ried out (e.g. the effects of moisture content, particle density, size,
shape, calorific value, bed porosity, heat and transfer parameters,
heat capacity of gases etc.).
The third type of approach, although not so common, is to de-
fine a user defined sub-routines (UDF) within the CFD code. This
code contains the essential details to characterize the solid and
gas phase interactions [8,9]. One simple method of doing this is
to define the solid biomass as a porous zone, and then write a
user-defined function in the CFD describing sources of moisture,
volatiles and energy to describe the drying, devolatisation and char
combustion processes respectively. A model with a UDF hooked to
the CFD code can be quicker to converge than the more detailed
separated bed-CFD coupled models described above.
The reliability of the CFD modelling results is, to a large degree,
a function of the modelling approach adopted and the accuracy of
the boundary conditions specified. Reliable boundary conditions
are however difficult to obtain for a variety of reasons. For exam-
ple, because of instabilities within the combustion bed, a non-con-
tinuous biomass feeding rate, irregular deposits formed on furnace
walls, blocking of air inlet holes, external pressure fluctuations
affecting air-flow rate [4] and inconsistencies with the fuel. In
addition, the turbulence models, mixing behaviour and reaction
kinetics selected will all affect the simulation results. For these rea-
sons, CFD modelling results must be treated cautiously and exper-
imental validations are always needed.
The modelling approach to be chosen indeed depends on the
purpose, application and the details required by the modelling.
The porous zone approach is particularly useful for situations
where overall trends in the boilers behaviour and performance
need to be evaluated, rather than where fine details of the bed
combustion have to be resolved. For example, Burnham-Slipper
[9] applied the porous bed approach in the simulation of wood
cookstoves to calculate their thermal efficiency and power output,
and Miltner et al. [8] were trying to maximize thermal output and
minimize gaseous emission (VOC’s, carbon monoxide and nitrogen
oxide) in a biomass furnace. The same principles of this approach
are adopted by the authors in this work. The next section reviews
the components of the different sub-models necessary for the exe-
cution of this approach.
2.1. Bed sub-models
In the literature it is generally assumed that the combustion
processes in the bed can be divided into four successive or overlap-
ping sub-processes (e.g. [10]): evaporation of moisture, volatile re-
lease/char formation and oxidation of the char particles. Volatile
combustion then occurs in the gas phase. For the porous zone ap-
proach, each of these processes needs to be described mathemati-
cally in an appropriate manor. A review of our current
understanding of these combustion processes, and an outline of
key sub-models specifically relevant to developing a UDF for com-
mercial CFD code, is now given.
2.1.1. Moisture evaporation
Biomass normally contains water either stored in its pores by
capillary forces or as water bound to the biomass structure by in-
ter-molecular forces [10]. Pellets are fed from the bottom of the
bed and begin their drying process as heat is rapidly transferred
to them though the bed. Moisture is evaporated before devolatisa-
tion occurs according to the simple mechanism:
biomass ! water vapour þ dry biomass
When the outer layers of the pellet are dry, and the temperature of
these layers increases sufficiently, only then can devolatisation be-
gin to occur.
There are different approaches for modelling the moisture evap-
oration from biomass particles in fixed beds. The most common is
that adopted by Yang et al. [11], Zhou et al. [10] and Zhang et al.
[7]. In this approach it is assumed that, for surface temperatures
below 100 °C, the rate of moisture evaporation is a function of
the gradient between the moisture concentration at the biomass
solid surface and the concentration in the air flow. At temperatures
above 100 °C, the rate is a function of the rate of heat absorbed by
the solid, and the latent heat of water. In another approach applied
by Porteiro et al. [2] the drying rate is estimated by writing the
heat transfer into a uniform sphere divided by a heat of evapora-
tion. On the other hand, Miltner et al. [8] assume that moisture
evaporation can be represented by a first-order reaction with an
Arrhenius reaction rate, the rate constants are estimated form
TGA measurements on a sample.
2.1.2. Volatile release and char formation
Compared with coal, biomass has a much higher volatile con-
tent, and on thermal decomposition these volatiles are released.
The products of pellet devolatisation include CO, CO2, H2, other
hydrocarbons and tars [7,11]. Devolatisation can be assumed to oc-
cur according to:
Biomass ! VolatilesðCm Hn ; CO;H2 ; CO2 ; O2 . . .Þ þ Char ð1Þ
Different assumptions are made by different researchers on the
mechanisms of formation, the rate of biomass decomposition, and
the final composition of the volatiles. This normally depends on
the objectives of the modelling and the available experimental data
for the particular situation.
Yang et al. [11] and Jurena and Hajek [12] treated the volatile
hydrocarbons as a single pseudo-product (CmHnOl), which main-
tains the species balance and has an energy of formation of that
is consistent with the overall energy of the reaction. Yang et al.
 J. Chaney et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 63 (2012) 149–156
[11] assumed that this oxidizes in the gas phase in two stages,
firstly to CO and H2 and then to CO2. Zhang et al. [7] assumed
the volatile gases to be a mixture with approximately constant
composition: 22.81% C2H4, 38.2% CO2 and 38.99% H2O. The
assumption was considered acceptable because it was identified
that, in their particular case, precise estimation of the volatile
products did not have a significant effect on the final modelling re-
sults. It should be noted that CO was not explicitly included in the
volatile mixture, rather it was considered as an intermediate prod-
uct in the decomposition of C2H4, and, again for reasons of simplic-
ity, tar was not modelled directly. Miltner et al. [8] took a similar
approach, but included CO and H2 explicitly in the volatiles and re-
placed C2H4 with pseudo-species CxHy (where x and y are calcu-
lated from mass balance). The proportional composition of these
species was taken from Adanez et al. [13], and adapted to fit the
ultimate and proximate analysis of the biomass fuel. Zhou et al.
[10] adopted a slightly more detailed approach by assuming vola-
tiles to decompose into both gas and condensable tar. The gas was
assumed to consist of CO, CO2, H2, CH4, and C2H6, and the tar was
represented as a hydrocarbon consisting of C, H, and O with a
molecular weight of 95 and an elemental analysis of CH1.84O0.96.
The relative proportions of these gaseous species and tar were
again determined from literature data. Porteiro et al. [2] also as-
sumed different masses of hydrocarbons were released, but mod-
elled them in a different way. Porteiro et al. [2] divided the
volatiles into two distinct groups: the light hydrocarbons, which
were represented by methane (CH4), and the heavy hydrocarbons,
which were represented as benzene (C6H6). Instead of assuming a
constant composition, the composition of the volatile gases was as-
sumed to be a function of temperature and obtained by using the
heating value of the species, the mass balance of the emitted spe-
cies and experimental correlations required for the closure of the
problem.
Biomass particles, in contrast to coal particles, normally main-
tain their shape and remain almost the same size throughout their
devolatisation [2,10]. This is because the lignin content works to
maintain the particles shape until much of the combustion has ta-
ken place, and thus it is often assumed that fragmentation does not
occur during combustion. An assumption of constant particle size
during the combustion process is therefore a reasonable first
approximation when modelling a fixed bed of biomass particles.
2.1.3. Char oxidation
Char is formed as volatiles are released from the biomass parti-
cles. The char is then oxidized to CO and CO2. This oxidation is
commonly modelled according to [7,8,10,11]:
   
1 1 2 walls, the kinetics of gas phase reactions will become more impor-
Cþ O2 ! 2 1  CO þ  1 CO2
/ / /
where / is stoichiometric ratio for char combustion given by:
1 þ 1=rc
/¼
1=r c þ 1=r c
rc the ratio of the formation rate of CO to the formation rate of CO2
and can be estimate by:
 
½CO b 2
rc ¼ ¼ a exp 
½CO2  Ts
Two sets of values for the constants in this expression are com-
monly used. For example, the values used by Yang et al. [11] are
a = 2500, b = 6420 (originally from [14]), whereas Zhou et al. [10]
and Miltner et al. [8] chose the values of a = 12, b = 3300 (originally
from [15]).
151
The char combustion rate is typically assumed to be controlled
by the rate of diffusion of oxygen to the char surface and the ki-
netic rate of reaction at the surface (e.g. [7,11,16]):
Poz
Rchar ¼
1=K r þ 1=K d
K
g
where Kr and Kd atm m2 s are the combustion kinetic rate and the diffu-
sion rate respectively, and Poz is in atmospheres (atm). Other authors
assume different forms of this same equation. Values for the diffu-
sion constant Kd have been calculated by considering the gas diffu-
sion of oxygen to the surface of the char particles, using Sherwood,
Schmidt numbers and the Colburn factor [8,10,17], where:
Sh  De
Kd ¼
dp
Sh is Sherwood number, De the diffusion coefficient and dp the par-
ticle diameter (see the references given for the details of the devel-
opment of this equation). Kr has been found using TGA
measurements, fitting a first order reaction in the oxygen partial
pressure at the particle surface, and zeroth order in carbon since
it exists in abundance [8–10]. Burnham-Slipper [9] applied a similar
approach writing the rate as a function of oxygen density at the sur-
face and in the free stream, but assumes that char combustion is
limited by oxygen diffusion through the species boundary layer
thus neglecting chemical kinetics and simplifying the problem.
2.2. Out-of-bed gas phase modelling
To simulate the gas phase reactions within the full geometry of
a biomass furnace in CFD, models for turbulence and radiation
need to be selected. To model the turbulent interactions within
the boiler, the standard k–e model is the most widely used (e.g.
[2,7]), although this has some weaknesses (see [4]). The realizable
k–e model has been developed to address these deficiencies and
has been applied by numerous authors (e.g. [4,6]). Kanus et al.
[18] compared the results of modelling studies of combustion pro-
cesses using three different turbulence models: the k–e , low Rey-
nolds number k–e, and the Reynolds-stress turbulence model. A
good agreement between modelling results and measured data
was found for all cases, especially the low-Reynolds k–e model.
Radiation heat transfer in biomass furnaces is often modelled using
the P1 radiation model [7] or the Discrete Ordinate model (DO) [8].
A typical approach for gas phase modelling is to assume that the
gas phase reactions are kinetically fast just above the fuel bed,
where the temperature is high and the reactions rapid [2], leading
to combustion that is only controlled by the mixing rate of oxidizer
and fuel. However in areas where the temperature is reduced,
away from the flame and for example around water pipes or cool
tant and need to be taken into account. This can be addressed by
employing an Arrhenius/finite rate approach, where the minimum
limiting value between kinetics and mixing is the factor that deter-
mines the rate of a reaction in a particular cell during the CFD sim-
ulation [2,4,11].
ð2Þ
Combustion reactions are highly complex, and are normally
simplified into a series of global reactions with CFD modelling. A
typical reactions scheme can be summarized in the form [11]:
x z y
Cx Hy Oz þ þ O2 ! xCO þ H2
2 2
ð3Þ 1
CO þ O2 ! CO2
2
1
H2 þ O2 ! H2 O
2
Kinetic rates for these gas phase reactions are given in many refer-
ences such as [8,10,11]. These gas phase reactions can be modelled
in CFD using a species transport approach [8].
152 J. Chaney et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 63 (2012) 149–156
3. Preliminary CFD modelling of a 50 kW biomass pellet boiler
The simulation in this preliminary study is based on commer-
cial CFD code (FLUENT). A user defined function (UDF) describing
the thermal decomposition of the pellets and their interaction with
the gas phase was written in C and linked to the CFD code. The Spe-
cies Model in FLUENT was then applied to describe the gas phase
reactions of these species. The objective was to develop as simple
as possible fuel bed sub-model that would generate meaningful
physical results of boiler gas emissions with minimum computa-
tional time.
3.1. Description of the boiler geometry and mesh
Fig. 1a shows a schematic diagram giving the dimensions of the
mesh. Note that this is slice through of half of the boiler; the y-axis
is the axis of symmetry. The overall dimensions are representative
of the actual biomass boiler, however, the position of the second-
ary air on the actual boiler is much closer to the fuel bed, and
has been located here for simplicity in this preliminary study. It
is worth to point out that within the combustion zone there is a
plate (80 mm radius) to deflect the combustion gases and cause
turbulence and mixing.
The fuel bed and boiler volume are defined as two separate
zones in FLUENT. Fig. 1b shows a portion of the 2D mesh that
was generated for the calculation. At this initial stage of the mod-
elling, a relatively course mesh has been employed to achieve rel-
atively fast convergence during the development of the
Fig. 1. (a) A schematic showing dimensions of the boiler; the position of the fuel feed, primary and secondary air inlets is shown. (b) A close up of the mesh within the fuel
bed; the rectangles (just visible) are solid zones within the fuel bed. Volatiles are released from a small volume around these zones, representing the devolatisation of discrete
pellets.
combustion model. Primary air is injected into the bed from be-
neath, as shown (see Fig. 1a), and secondary air enters from inlets
on the side of the bed. The axisymmetric formation in FLUENT was
applied, giving results for a 3D cylindrical boiler.
3.2. The combustion model
In the furnace model of Miltner et al. [8], a porous zone was
used to define the combustion bed zone. A user defined function
was then written in FLUENT defining a volatile source for each cell
in the zone. This approach was attempted in this work, however, it
was found that either the flame would not stabilise below the
flame deflection plate, or all of the volatiles would be burnt before
leaving the bed (depending on the conditions). Neither of these sit-
uations is in agreement with the experimental observations. In or-
der to more realistically model the behaviour of the bed, a number
of discrete devolatisation zones were assigned within the bed zone
(see Fig. 1b). The user defined function (with source terms for the
release of hydrocarbon species, moisture and energy) was assigned
to these regions (with the devolatisation rate per unit cell volume
calculated to ensure correct overall mass and energy balances).
The rate of char combustion (kg/s) within these cell zones is
fixed by the power output of the boiler, which is in turn controlled
by the fuel-feeding rate and lower calorific value of the fuel. Com-
plete combustion is assumed (leaving only ash). All mass loss pro-
cesses (moisture evaporation, devolatisation and char combustion)
are assumed to reach steady state rates for given conditions (air
flow rate, primary-to-secondary air ratio and the particular fuel
 J. Chaney et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 63 (2012) 149–156 153

Table 1 molecular level, and thus the rate of species mixing is used to
Proximate and ultimate analysis for the wood pellet fuel determine the rate of the reactions. The Eddy Dissipation turbu-
simulated.
lence interaction was therefore applied in FLUENT (i.e. the reaction
Proximate analysis Wt basis %, as received rate limited by the rate of mixing). The volatiles released were as-
Moisture 8.0 sumed to be oxidized in the gas phase according to a two step glo-
Ash 1.0 bal reaction scheme ([5]):
Volatile matter 73
Fixed carbon 18 C1:9316 H5:7543 O2:3750 þ 1:2169 O2 ! 1:9316 CO þ 2:8773 H2 O ð4Þ
Ultimate analysis Wt basis %, as received CO þ 0:5 O2 ! CO2 ð5Þ
Carbon 47.40
The devolatisation was assumed to occur in the top portion of the
Hydrogen 5.99
Nitrogen 0.13 bed and at a uniform rate for all the pellet zones.
Turbulence was modelled with the widely used k–e model and
radiation using the P1 radiation model. The model was used to
simulate different air staging situations as given in Table 2.
properties). The volatile release, moisture evaporation and char
combustion rates are then defined by the fuels volatile, moisture 4. Preliminary modelling results and discussion
and char fraction, respectively; see Table 1 for the Proximate and
Ultimate analysis of the biomass pellets simulated. Fig. 2 gives a The preliminary modelling results are shown in Figs. 3–6.
graphical representation of the model. Fig. 3a and b show that having discretised devolatisation zones
For simplicity, in this preliminary study the volatiles were con- for the pellets within the fuel bed produces a stable flame above
sidered to be a single pseudo-hydrocarbon species (C1.93H5.75O2.37), the bed; combustion is occurring in and above the bed as mixing
calculated from a mass balance using the ultimate and proximate occurs. The temperature profile in Fig. 2a predicts higher tempera-
analysis of the biomass. In later studies, a more detailed composi- tures as towards the outside of the bed, which occurs because more
tion of species will be considered, as previously discussed. Char air is available from the secondary air jets closer to the bed edge.
oxidation was considered to occur as described in Section 3.4, with Comparing Figs. 3a, 4a, 5a and 6a it can be observed that higher
the ratio of CO–CO2 calculated as a function of temperature from split ratios (higher primary air rate) produce hotter flames. This
Eq. (2). The energy released from volatile and char combustion is expected as a higher primary air flow rate will result in more
were found by mass and energy balances. complete combustion above the bed and more energy released in
The gas phase reactions were assumed kinetically fast com- the oxidation reactions and therefore a higher temperature. The
pared with the time required for the fuel and oxidiser to mix at a temperature profile in Fig. 6a (strong staging) shows an unex-

Fig. 2. A schematic of the combustion model. Moisture, volatiles, CO and CO2 are released from discrete zones within the fuel bed zone representing the discrete nature of
pellets.

Table 2
The four different air staging situations simulated.

Split ratio (fraction of primary air) 1 (Primary air only 0.8 (Weak staging) 0.6 (Standard conditions) 0.4 (Strong staging)
Mass flow primary (kg/s) 0.030 0.024 0.018 0.012
Mass flow secondary (kg/s) 0 0.006 0.012 0.018
Stoichiometry fuel bed zone 1.55 1.24 0.93 0.62
Overall stoichiometry 1.55 1.55 1.55 1.55
154 J. Chaney et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 63 (2012) 149–156

Fig. 3. Results close to the fuel bed for standard conditions, a split ratio of 0.6. (a) Contours of temperature, (b) profile of the release of wood volatiles, (c) vectors of velocity,
(d) profile of oxygen.

Fig. 4. Primary air only. Temperature and CO profiles for combustion with only primary air (split ratio = 1). (a) Temperature profile, (b) profile of CO.

pected hot region in the top region of the combustor, and this also
is observed for standard conditions (although note not for the case
of primary air only). The hot region is caused by the oxidation of CO
by air from the secondary jets. The model assumes the oxidation
rate is purely mixing dependent, and is not a function of tempera-
ture. Under these strong staging conditions, mixing of O2 and CO
(Eq. (5)) is occurring far from the bed high up in the combustor.
A more detailed picture of CO oxidation can be seen in Figs. 4b,
5b and 6b. Fig. 4b gives the mole fraction profile for primary air
only and it is clear that oxidation occurs very close to the bed. This
can be compared to weak staging in Fig. 5b, and strong staging in
Fig. 6b, where it can be seen that the greater the proportion of sec-
ondary air, the greater the combustion space required for oxidation
of CO. Indeed this is what is observed in real operation of the
boiler.
Fig. 3c gives vectors of the flow velocity showing a significant
eddy above the plate, which results in turbulent mixing. It is also
interesting to note there appears to be a large portion of the com-
 J. Chaney et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 63 (2012) 149–156 155

Fig. 5. Weak staging. Temperature and CO profiles for weak staging conditions (split ratio = 0.8). (a) Temperature profile, (b) profile of CO.

Fig. 6. Strong staging. Temperature and CO profiles for strong staging conditions (split ratio = 0.4). (a) Temperature profile, (b) profile of CO.

bustor volume where there appears to be insignificant mixing
occurring, and it is possible that this volume might be more effec-
tively made use of.
As mentioned in Section 3.1, the position of the secondary jets
in the simulated geometry is not as close to the bed as in the real
boiler; the jets are in fact an unrealistic distance away. The second-
ary air is therefore not able to completely mix with the combustion
gases until after the plate, and when it does oxidization reactions
occur in this region, releasing heat. A more realistic representation
of what should in fact occur can only be predicted with 3-D model-
ling and with the inclusion of reaction kinetics in the species trans-
port reactions. Indeed, further modelling has now shown this to be
the case.
The oxygen level at the exit was close to 6.8% on a dry basis for
each of the simulations (e.g. see Fig. 3d). The carbon monoxide pre-
dictions show a realistic trend: standard conditions predict a CO le-
vel of 208 ppm (mass weighted average at the outlet), strong
staging predicts 2045 ppm, and the weak staging simulation only
predicts 0.0012 ppm. Although the trend might be correct, i.e. the
higher the primary air rate the more complete the combustion,
the absolute values of CO emissions are not expected to be any-
where near real values. This is firstly because of the simplicity of
the modelling: only a simple mixing based gas phase reaction
model has been employed and only a single volatile species has
been assumed. Secondly, the incorrect location of the secondary
air jets is likely to have a significant influence on the predicted re-
sults. Two other factors that should be noted that are likely to af-
fect the temperature profiles and emission factors: firstly, in
order to simplify the problem the chemistry has only been de-
scribed by a two step global mechanism that does not account
for intermediate species or dissociation effects. This is likely to lead
to an over prediction of temperature; Secondly, the default values
for the constants A and B in the eddy-dissipation model were used.
There is no physical basis for the value of these constants for com-
bustion applications, and it has been suggested that default values
lead to mixing that may be too aggressive [4], which will in turn
affect the reaction and distribution of different species.
5. Conclusions and further work
An overview of the key literature relevant to modelling biomass
fixed-bed furnaces is given with a particular focus on the imple-
mentation of the porous zone approach in FLUENT. A simple model
is described in which a user defined function within FLUENT is
used to specify the release of combustion products from discrete
zones within the fuel bed by using source terms. The preliminary
modelling results presented show that the approach is promising,
although there are modifications to the geometry and refinements
to the model that are needed: the position of the secondary air in-
156 J. Chaney et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 63 (2012) 149–156
lets needs to be placed closer to the fuel bed, reaction kinetics
should be included in the species transport model and the benefits
of including more than one volatile species should be assessed. The
effect of different values for the constants A and B in the eddy-dis-
sipation model should be investigated, and parameters for the P1
radiation model should be checked. 3-D modelling and sensitivity
studies looking at the effect of different parameters, and examining
the validity of simplifying assumptions on the modelling results,
are also required, as are comparisons with experimental results.
A model for NOx also needs to be included. Once fully developed,
the model will be used as a tool in the optimization of a 50 kW boi-
ler in terms of air flow split between primary and secondary sup-
plies, and the orientation, direction, height and number of
secondary air inlets.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank The Carbon Trust for funding
(Project No. 089-051) and Ashwell Biomass Ltd., for use of their
boiler system and facilities.
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