CFD modeling and experience of waste-to-energy plant burning waste wood

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is being increasingly used in industry for in-depth understanding of the fundamental mixing, combustion, heat transfer and pollutant formation in combustion processes and for design and optimization of Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plants. In this paper, CFD modeling of waste wood combustion in a 13 MW grate-fired boiler in a WtE plant is presented. As a validation effort, the temperature profiles at a number of ports in the furnace are measured and the experimental results are compared with the CFD predictions. In the simulation, a 1D model is developed to simulate the conversion of the waste wood in the fuel bed on the grate, which provides the appropriate inlet boundary condition for the freeboard 3D CFD simulation. The CFD analysis reveals the detailed mixing and combustion characteristics in the waste wood-fired furnace, pinpointing how to improve the design and operation in order to achieve better WtE efficiency. The results also show that neglecting buoyancy effects may lead to appreciable errors.