The Influence of Swirl Burner Geometry on the Sugar-Cane Bagasse Injection and Burning

Authors: Juan H. Sosa-Arnao, Daniel J. O. Ferreira, Caice G. Santos, Justo E. Alvarez, Leonardo P. Rangel, Song W. Park

Abstract:

A comprehensive CFD model is developed to represent heterogeneous combustion and two burner designs of supply sugar-cane bagasse into a furnace. The objective of this work is to compare the insertion and burning of a Brazilian south-eastern sugar-cane bagasse using a new swirl burner design against an actual geometry under operation. The new design allows control the particles penetration and scattering inside furnace by adjustment of axial/tangential contributions of air feed without change their mass flow. The model considers turbulence using RNG k-, combustion using EDM, radiation heat transfer using DTM with 16 ray directions and bagasse particle tracking represented by Schiller-Naumann model. The obtained results are favorable to use of new design swirl burner because its axial/tangential control promotes more penetration or more scattering than actual design and allows reproduce the actual design operation without change the overall mass flow supply.

Keywords: Comprehensive CFD model, sugar-cane bagasse combustion, swirl burner.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1106251

References:

[1] T. F. Dixon, A. P. Mann, F. Plaza, W. N. Gilfillan, “Development of advanced technology for biomass combustion - CFD as an essential tool”. Fuel, vol. 84, pp. 1303-1311, 2005.
[2] H. K. Versteeg, W. Malalasekera, “An introduction to computational fluid dynamics – the finite volume method”. Second edition. England, Pearson Education Limited, 2007.
[3] S. R. Turns, “An introduction to combustion: concepts and applications”. McGraw-Hill, New York, 2000.
[4] Modest, M. F.; “Radiative Heat Transfer”. Second Edition. Academic Press, 2003.
[5] Sosa-Arnao, J. H.; “Caldeiras aquatubulares de bagaço - Estudo do sistema de recuperação de energia”. PhD. Thesis, UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, Brazil, 2008.
[6] R. Saidur, E. A. Abdelaziz, A. Demirbas, M. S. Hossain, S. Mekhilef, “A review on biomass as a fuel for boilers”. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. vol. 15, pp. 2262-2289, 2011.
[7] K. S. Shanmukharadhya, K. G. Sudhakar, “Investigations of effect of bagasse pyrolysis kinects on combustion and boiler performance”. Journal of Energy Institute. vol 80, issue 1, pp. 40-47, 2007.