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Optimum Installation of Heat Recovery Devices in Biomass Boiler

Chapter in Computer Aided Chemical Engineering · January 2020

DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-823377-1.50257-3

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Sauro Pierucci, Flavio Manenti, Giulia Bozzano, Davide Manca (Eds.)
Proceedings of the 30 th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering
(ESCAPE30), May 24-27, 2020, Milano, Italy. © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823377-1.50257-3

Optimum Installation of Heat Recovery Devices in

Biomass Boiler
Somchart Chantasiriwan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani 12121,
Thailand
[email protected]

Abstract
Biomass boiler uses thermal energy from the combustion of biomass fuel and air to
produce superheated steam from feed water. Biomass fuel usually has a high moisture
content, which leads to low boiler efficiency. The boiler efficiency can be increased by
using heat recovery devices to decrease the temperature of flue gas before it is exhaust-
ed from the boiler. Three heat recovery devices found in a typical installation of biomass
boiler are economizer, air heater, and flue gas dryer. Economizer increases feed water
temperature, air heater increases air temperature before combustion, and flue gas dryer
decreases the moisture content of fuel. Limited available thermal energy of flue gas
means that a decision must made in selecting the sizes of these devices. The main
objective of this paper is to use a biomass boiler model, in which the boiler consists of
as a furnace and a set of heat exchangers, to determine the optimum sizes of
economizer, air heater, and flue gas dryer that minimize the total cost of installing them
in biomass boiler system.
Keywords: Heat exchangers, Biomass drying, Energy system, Modelling

1. Introduction
Biomass fuels are usually characterized by high-moisture content. Combustion of a
moist fuel in a biomass boiler results in low boiler efficiency because a large amount of
thermal energy released from fuel combustion is required for the evaporation of
moisture in the fuel. Drying of fuel requires an energy source. A high-temperature
source like flue gas seems to be ideal for this purpose. Flue gas dryer is a heat recovery
device that may be installed in a boiler to decrease flue gas temperature and increase
boiler efficiency. Other heat recovery devices that are normally installed in a boiler are
economizer and air heater. Thermal energy from flue gas increases feed water
temperature in economizer and air temperature in air heater. All three heat recovery
devices can effectively increase boiler efficiency. However, since all three devices
require thermal energy from flue gas, there are limits to their sizes if they are installed
together in a biomass boiler.
Studies of integrating flue gas dryer into biomass boiler system have been carried out by
several investigators. Andersson et al. (2006) evaluated different methods of drying
biomass in a pulp mill, and found that flue gas dryer was the most attractive. Sosa-
Arnao and Nebra (2009) analyzed different energy recovery configurations in boilers
fired by bagasse, and showed that the configuration consisting of economizer, air heater,
and flue gas dryer had the lowest optimized cost. Li et al. (2012) compared energy
saving resulting from the integration of flue gas dryer in a power plant that used pine
 S. Chantasiriwan

chips as fuel and the cost of drying, and concluded that 3 - 4 years of operation was
expected to give a return on the investment. Gebreegziabher et al. (2014) proposed a
multi-stage process for biomass drying that combines hot air dryer, superheated steam
dryer, and flue gas dryer. Liu (2017) determined the limit for the cost of flue gas dryer
under which the integration of the dryer was economically justified. Although some
previous works have considered the economic aspect of the integration of flue gas dryer
and the comparison between flue gas dryer and other dryers, none of the previous works
have considered the constraint of flue gas dryer installation in presence of economizer
and air heater and the optimum installation of these devices.
In this paper, a model of biomass boiler is used to determine the optimum installation of
heat recovery devices in biomass boiler. The boiler is required to generate superheated
steam at specified flow rate, pressure, and temperature. It is shown that, under the
constraint that boiler efficiency is fixed, there are the optimum sizes of economizer, air
heater, and flue gas dryer that minimize the total cost of installing these devices.

2. Biomass boiler system

Analysis of a thermal energy system usually requires a boiler model. A widely used
model is the black-box model. This model considers only the inputs to the boiler, which
are feed water, fuel, and air, and the outputs, which are superheated steam and flue gas.
Using this model requires that either boiler efficiency or flue gas temperature is known.
Although the black-box model is sufficient in an analysis that does not consider effects
of heating surface areas, it is insufficient for the current investigation. A more suitable
model must take into account components of the boiler. An illustration of biomass
boiler system with flue gas dryer is shown in Fig. 1. Solid lines denote fuel, air, and flue
gas, whereas and dashed lines denote feed water and steam. The main components of
the system are furnace (F), evaporator (EV), steam drum (SD), superheater (SH), boiler
bank (BB), economizer (EC), air heater (AH), and flue gas dryer (FD).
Combustion of fuel in F results in thermal energy that is used to evaporate water in EV
and increase steam temperature in SH from the saturated steam temperature (Tv) to Ts.
Flue gas leaving F at Tg1 flows successively SH, BB, EC, AH, and FD, and its
temperature is reduced, respectively, to Tg2, Tg3, Tg4, Tg5, and Tg6. Heat transfer from flue
gas causes the increase of feed water temperature from Twi to Twe in EC, the increase of
air temperature from Tai to Tae in AH, the increase of fuel temperature from Tai to Tf, and
the reduction of fuel moisture content from xMi to xM in FD. Subcooled feed water at a
mass flow rate mw from EC and saturated steam at mass flow rates ms1 and ms2 from EV
and BB enter SD, which returns saturated liquid water at the same mass flow rates to
EV and BB, and sends saturated steam at a mass flow rate ms to SH. Water evaporation
in EV is due to radiative heat transfer from flue gas in F, whereas water evaporation in
BB is due to convective heat transfer from flue gas. In order to maintain the
concentration of dissolved solids in feed water at a safe level, it is assumed that some of
the feed water is blowdown water. It should be noted that, in an actual operation, the
inputs to SD from EV and BB are mixtures of saturated steam and saturated liquid
water, which are separated in SD. In other words, most saturated liquid water is
recirculated through SD. In this simplified model, the recirculated saturated liquid water
is ignored, and inputs to SD from EV and BB are assumed to be saturated steam.
Mathematical models for F, EV, SD, SH, BB, EC, and AH are provided by
Chantasiriwan (2019).
Optimum installation of heat recovery devices in biomass boiler


Superheated
steam (ps, Ts)
Tg6
SH

Flue gas
Tg2
(mg, Tg1)
ms

FD F EV ms1 ms2 BB
Fuel xM, Tf SD
(mfi, xMi, Tai)
Blowdown
Tae Twe Tg3
(mbd, Tv)

AH EC
Tg4
Tg5

Air Feed water

(ma, Tai) (ps, mw, Twi)

Figure 1. Bagasse boiler model.

The model of FD is shown in Fig. 2. Assume that fuel is divided into 2 parts with mass
fractions y and (1 – y). The mass fraction y of fuel is completely dried in FD, as reported
in Eq. (1).
mg c pg Tg 5  Tg 6 (1)
y
> @ >
m fi ^ 1  xMi c pf  xMi c pw Tg 6  Ta  xMi c pw Tr  Tg 6  'ir  c pv Tg 6  Tr @`
where cpg, cpf, cpw, and cpv are specific heat capacities of flue gas, fuel, water, and vapor,
Tr is the reference temperature (25qC), and 'ir is the latent heat of evaporation at the
reference temperature. The dried fuel is then mixed with the rest of the fuel. The mass
flow rate, the moisture content, and the temperature of fuel at the dryer outlet are
determined from Eqs. (2) – (4).
mf m fi  ym fi xMi (2)
1  y xMi m fi (3)
xM
mf
 S. Chantasiriwan

Tf
> @
m fi ^c pf 1  xMi yTg 6  1  y Ta  c pw 1  y xMiTa ` (4)
>
m f c pf 1  xM  c pw xM @

mg + mfi – mf, Tg6

Fuel
FD
mfi, Ta, xMi mf, Tf, xM

Flue gas mg, Tg5

Figure 2. Flue gas dryer model.

Heating surface areas of F are Av and At, whereas ASH, ABB, AEC, and AAH are,
respectively, heating surface areas of SH, BB, EC, and AH. Unlike these heat exchang-
ers, which are characterized by heating surface areas, FD is characterized by the amount
of moisture removed from fuel (M) in kg/h, which is determined from Eq. (5).
M 3600 yxMi m fi (5)

3. Optimization procedure
The 25 primary variables in this boiler system are Av, At, ASH, ABB, AEC, AAH, M, ps, Ts,
ms, ms2, mfi, ma, xMi, xM, Tai, Tae, Twi, Twe, Tg1, Tg2, Tg3, Tg4, Tg5, and Tg6. The other
variables are secondary variables, which may be expressed in terms of primary
variables. The system is governed by 12 energy and heat transfer equations. Therefore,
the values of 13 primary variables must be specified values so that the solution of the
system can be found. Known variables are Av, At, ASH, ABB, AEC, AAH, M, ps, mfi, ma, xMi,
Tai, and Twi in a boiler system analysis. In a boiler design for the minimum installation
cost of heat recovery devices, however, AEC, AAH, and M are unknown, and must be
determined for given design conditions, which include a fixed value of boiler efficiency.
Boiler efficiency (K) is defined in Eq. (6).
ms hs  h fw (6)
K
m f HHV

where ms is the mass flow rate of steam, hs is the enthalpy of superheated steam at
pressure ps and temperature Ts, hfw is the enthalpy of feed water, mf is the mass flow rate
of fuel, and HHV is the fuel higher heating value. This design requires the specified
values of ms and Ts. The other known variables are Av, At, ABB, AEC, M, ps, ma, xMi, Tai,
and Twi. In order to find the minimum installation cost, only AEC and M are allowed to
vary. As a result, heating surface area AAH becomes a function of AEC and M. It is
assumed that the nominal unit installation costs of economizer and air heater are,
respectively, 120 $/m2, and 100 $/m2. Furthermore, the unit installation cost of flue gas
Optimum installation of heat recovery devices in biomass boiler


dryer is assumed to be 50 $/(kg/h). Therefore, the total installation cost of heat recovery
devices is determined from Eq. (7).
Ctotal 120 AEC  100 AAH  50M (7)

The minimum value of Ctotal corresponds to the optimum values of AEC and M.

4. Results and discussion

The fuel for the boiler system is bagasse of which composition is provided by Rein
(2017). The boiler design parameters are ps = 4.5 MPa, Ts = 500qC, and ms = 100 kg/s.
The fuel moisture content is 52%. The inlet air and fuel temperatures are 30qC. The
inlet feed water temperature is 120qC.
By fixing K at 70%, it is found that AAH decreases as either AEC or M increases. Further-
more, Ctotal varies with only AEC and M. The minimum value of Ctotal may be found by
using a line-search method. First, the optimum value of AEC that yields the minimum
installation cost at a specified value of M (Cmin,M) is determined. Figure 3 shows
variations of Ctotal with AEC for four values of M. Cmin,M is found to be $1.144 u 106,
$1.128 u 106, $1.124 u 106, and $1.132 u 106 for M = 0, 2000, 4000, and 6000 kg/h,
respectively. Next, Cmin,M is plotted as a function of M as shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen
that the minimum installation cost (Cmin) of $1.125 u 106 results from the optimum
value of 3550 kg/h for M. The corresponding values of AEC and AAH are, respectively,
4685 m2 and 3844 m2. Therefore, the installation of flue gas dryer in addition to
economizer and air heater results in 1.7% less total installation cost than the installation
of only economizer and air heater. It should be noted that this result is obtained for the
value of 50 $/(kg/h) for the unit cost of flue gas dryer. The minimum installation cost is
quite sensitive to the unit cost of flue gas dryer. When the unit cost reaches 61 $/(kg/h),
the installation of flue gas dryer is not justified because Cmin is equal to Cmin,0, and the
installation of flue gas dyer increases the total installation cost.

Figure 3. Variations of total installation cost (Ctotal) with the economizer surface area(AEC)
and the amount of removed moisture (M).
  S. Chantasiriwan

Figure 4. Variation of minimum installation cost at a fixed M value (Cmin,M) with M.

5. Conclusion
Three heat recovery devices that may be installed in a biomass boiler are economizer,
air heater, and flue gas dryer. They decrease flue gas temperature, and increase boiler
efficiency. Since all three devices require thermal energy from high-temperature flue
gas that results from combustion of biomass fuel, there are limits to the sizes of these
devices under given boiler operating conditions if they are installed together. For a fixed
value of 70% for the boiler efficiency, a boiler model can be used to demonstrate that
there are the optimum sizes of these devices that result in the minimum installation cost.
Simulation results indicate that the optimum installation of economizer, air heater, and
flue gas dryer can reduce the installation cost by 1.7% compared with a non-optimum
installation, in which there are only economizer and air heater. Cost reduction increases
with decreasing unit cost of dryer.

References
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with a pulp mill, Energy, 31, 1384-1394.
S. Chantasiriwan, 2019, Effects of heating surface areas on the performance of bagasse boiler,
Chemical Engineering Transactions, 74, 139-144.
T. Gebreegziabher, A. O. Oyedun, Z. Yu, W. Maojian, Z. Yi, L. Jin, C. W. Hui, 2014, Biomass
drying for an integrated power plant: Effective utilization of waste heat, Computer Aided
Chemical Engineering, 33, 1555-1560.
H. Li, Q. Chen, X. Zhang, K. N. Finney, V. N. Sharifi, J. Swithenbank, 2012, Evaluation of a
biomass drying process using waste heat from process industries: A case study, Applied
Thermal Engineering, 35, 71-80.
M. Liu, X. Zhang, X. Han, G. Li, J. Yan, 2017, Using pre-drying technology to improve the
exergetic efficiency of bioenergy utilization process with combustion: A case study of a power
plant, Applied Thermal Engineering, 127, 1416-1426.
P. Rein, 2017, Cane Sugar Engineering, 2nd Ed., Verlag, Berlin.
J. H. Sosa-Arnao, S. A. Nebra, 2009, Bagasse dryer role in the energy recovery of water tube
boilers, Drying Technology, 27, 587-594.

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