A machine vision driven sensor for estimating the instantaneous feeding rate of pelletized fuels was developed and tested experimentally in combustion and gasification processes. The feeding rate was determined from images of the pellets sliding on a transfer chute into the reactor. From the images the apparent area and velocity of the pellets were extracted. Area was determined by a segmentation model created using a machine learning framework and velocities by image registration of two subsequent images. The measured weight of the pelletized fuel passed through the feeding system was in good agreement with the weight estimated by the sensor. The observed variations in the fuel feeding correlated with the variations in the gaseous species concentrations measured in the reactor core and in the exhaust. Since the developed sensor measures the ingoing fuel feeding rate prior to the reactor, its signal could therefore help improve process control. 

Industrial thermal plasma torches can heat a gas up to 5000–20,000 K, i.e., well above the temperature needed to replace the heat generated from the combustion of traditional fossil fuels (e.g., coal, oil, and natural gas) in large-scale process industry furnaces producing construction materials (e.g., iron, steel, lime, and cement). However, there is a risk for significant NOx emissions when air or N2 are used as plasma-forming gas since the temperature somewhere in the furnace always will be higher compared to the threshold NOx formation temperature of ∼1800 K. Torch NOx forms inside the high temperature region of the plasma torch (>5000 K) when air is used as gas. Process NOx forms instead when the hot gas (when air or nitrogen is used as plasma forming gas) from the plasma torch mixes with process air downstream the torch. By analysing the complex chemistry of both the torch- and process NOx formation with thermodynamic equilibrium and one-dimensional chemical kinetic calculations it was shown that adding H2 to the plasma-forming N2 gas significantly reduces the NOx emissions with more than 90 %. Verifying experiments with air, pure N2, and mixtures of H2 and N2 as plasma-forming gas were performed in a laboratory scale insulated laboratory furnace with different pre-heating temperatures of process air (293, 673, and 1073 K) which the plasma gas mixes with downstream the torch. Depending on the pre-heating temperature the NOx emissions were between 12,000–14,000 mg NO2/MJfuel when air was used as plasma forming gas. Substantial NOx emission reduction occurs both when N2 replaces air, where the NOx emissions was in the span of 8000–11,500 mg NO2/MJfuel and furthermore when H2 was mixed into the N2 gas stream. For the highest degree of H2 mixing (28.6 vol-%), the NOx emissions were between 450–1700 mg NO2/MJfuel depending on the pre-heat temperature of the process air, i.e., a reduction of 88–96 % and 85–94 %, respectively when air or N2 was used as plasma forming gas. The measured NOx emissions are then of the same order of magnitude as would be expected from the combustion of traditional fuels (coal, oil, biomass and pure H2). Finally, by analysing the aerodynamics in an axisymmetric furnace with an experimentally validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model using reduced chemistry for the NOx formation (19 species and 70 reactions), further guidelines into the process of NOx reduction from thermal plasma torches are given. 

Photofragmentation tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (PF-TDLAS) was used to simultaneously measure the concentrations of gas phase atomic potassium (K), potassium hydroxide (KOH) and potassium chloride (KCl) in the reactor core of a 140 kWth atmospheric entrained-flow gasifier (EFG). In two gasification experiments at air-to-fuel equivalence ratio of 0.5, the EFG was first run on forest residues (FR) and then on an 80/20 mixture of FR and wheat straw (FR/WS). Combustion at air-to-fuel equivalence ratio of 1.3 was investigated for comparison. A high K(g) absorbance was observed in gasification, requiring the photofragmentation signals from KOH(g) and KCl(g) to be recorded at a fixed detuning of 7.3 cm-1 from the center of the K(g) absorption profile. In combustion, the fragments recombined instantly after the UV pulse within around 10 μs, whereas in gasification, the K(g) fragment concentration first increased further for 30 μs after the UV pulse, before slowly decaying for up to hundreds of μs. According to 0D reaction kinetics simulations, this could be explained by a difference in recombination kinetics, which is dominated by oxygen reactions in combustion and by hydrogen reactions in gasification. The K species concentrations in the EFG were stable on average, but periodic short-term variations due to fuel feeding were observed, as well as a gradual increase in KOH(g) over the day as the reactor approached global equilibrium. A comparison of the average K species concentrations towards the end of each experiment showed a higher total K in the gas phase for FR/WS, with higher K(g) and KCl(g), but lower KOH(g), compared to the FR fuel. The measured values were in reasonable agreement with predictions by thermodynamic equilibrium calculations. © 2022 The Author(s). 

Methane is one of the main gas species produced during biomass gasification and may be a desired or undesired product. Syngas CH4 concentrations are typically >5 vol-% (when desired) and 1–3 vol-% even when efforts are made to minimize it, while thermochemical equilibrium calculations (TEC) predict complete CH4 decomposition. How CH4 is generated and sustained in the reactor core is not well understood. To investigate this, accurate quantification of the CH4 concentration during the process is a necessary first step. We present results from rapid in situ measurements of CH4, soot volume fraction, H2O and gas temperature in the reactor core of an atmospheric entrained-flow biomass gasifier, obtained using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) in the near-infrared (1.4 µm) and mid-infrared (3.1 µm) region. An 80/20 wt% mixture of forest residues and wheat straw was converted using oxygen-enriched air (O2>21 vol%) as oxidizer, while the global air-fuel equivalence ratio (AFR) was set to values between 0.3 and 0.7. Combustion at AFR 1.3 was performed as a reference. The results show that the CH4 concentration increased from 1 to 3 vol-% with decreasing AFR, and strongly correlated with soot production. In general, the TDLAS measurements are in good agreement with extractive diagnostics at the reactor outlet and TEC under fuel-lean conditions, but deviate significantly for lower AFR. Detailed 0D chemical reaction kinetics simulations suggest that the CH4 produced in the upper part of the reactor at temperatures >1700 K was fully decomposed, while the CH4 in the final syngas originated from the pyrolysis of fuel particles at temperatures below 1400 K in the lower section of the reactor core. It is shown that the process efficiency was significantly reduced due to the C and H atoms bound in methane and soot. © 2021 The Authors

The precise control of bio-based combustion is challenging due to the varying composition and moisture content of the fuels, difficulties in achieving stable fuel feeding, and complex underlying thermochemical processes. We present simultaneous online diagnostics of two combustion parameters, the equivalence ratio and fuel moisture content, in a pilot-scale environment. The parameters were evaluated by analysing the H2O and CO2 concentrations. These were measured using a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer (exhaust) and tuneable diode laser (TDL) absorption spectroscopy (combustion chamber) in pilot-scale diesel and pulverized biomass combustion. Liquid H2O was added into the combustion chamber to represent fuel moisture. The equivalence ratio of diesel and wood combustion was varied by adjusting the flows of combustion air in a staged manner or by using rapid periodic variations (on the order of seconds). The moisture fuel levels calculated using the measured fuel and water flow rates (flow method) and the FTIR and TDL H2O and CO2 concentrations agree within 3% (absolute) for both fuels. The TDL and FTIR equivalence ratios agreed quantitatively for both diesel and biomass combustion. However, close to stoichiometry, the TDL values for biomass are up to 15% lower than the FTIR values, indicating ongoing combustion at the location of the TDL measurements. © 2022 The Authors

This paper reports the first Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model developed for biomass pyrolysis oil spray combustion using Finite-Rate Chemistry (FRC) approach. To make the CFD calculations feasible, a reduced mechanism for modeling the combustion of biomass Fast Pyrolysis Oil (FPO) based on the POLIMI 1412 mechanism and a model for eugenol oxidation was developed. The reduced mechanism consisted of 200 reactions and 71 species. This level of complexity was found to be a good tradeoff between predictive power and computational cost such that the reduced model could be used in CFD modeling. The predictive power of the reduced mechanism was demonstrated via 0D (adiabatic, premixed, constant pressure reactor), 1D (laminar counterflow flame) and 3D (CFD of a methane-air flat-flame piloted FPO spray flame) calculations. Results from CFD were compared against experimental data from non-intrusive optical diagnostics. The reduced model was successfully used in CFD calculations—the computational cost was approximately 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of a simplified model. Using the reduced mechanism, the concentration of pollutants, minor combustion products, and flame radicals could be predicted—this is added capability compared to already existing models. The CFD model using the reduced mechanism showed quantitative predictive power for major combustion products, flame temperature, some pollutants and temperature, and qualitative predictive power for flame radicals and soot. © 2021 The Authors

A fast sensor for simultaneous high temperature (above 800 K) diagnostics of nitrogen oxide (NO) concentration and gas temperature (T) based on the spectral fitting of low-resolution NO UV absorption near 226 nm was applied in pilot-scale LKAB’s Experimental Combustion Furnace (ECF). The experiments were performed in plasma and/or fuel preheated air at temperatures up to 1550 K, which is about 200 K higher than the maximal temperature used for the validation of the developed UV NO sensor previously. The UV absorption NO and T measurements are compared with NO probe and temperature measurements via suction pyrometry and tuneable diode laser absorption (TDL) using H2O transitions at 1398 nm, respectively. The agreement between the NO UV and NO probe measurements was better than 15%. There is also a good agreement between the temperatures obtained using laser-based, optical, and suction pyrometer measurements. Comparison of the TDL H2O measurements with the calculated H2O concentrations demonstrated an excellent agreement and confirms the accuracy of TDL H2O measurements (better than 10%). The ability of the optical and laser techniques to resolve various variations in the process parameters is demonstrated.

Synthetic fuel production via gasification of residual biomass streams from the pulp and paper industry can be an opportunity for the mills to enable improved resource utilization and at the same time reduce the production of excess heat. This paper summarizes initial oxygen-blown gasification experiments with two bark residues from a European pulp and paper mill, i.e., a softwood bark and a hardwood bark. The gasification process was characterized by measuring syngas yields and process efficiency to find optimum operating conditions. In addition, impurities in the syngas and ash behavior were characterized. Maximum yields of CO and H2 were obtained from softwood bark and amounted to approximately 29 and 15 mol/kg fuel, respectively. Optimum cold gas efficiency was achieved at an oxygen stoichiometric ratio of λ = 0.40 and was approximately 76% and 70% for softwood bark and hardwood bark, respectively. Increased λ had a reducing effect on pollutants in the syngas, e.g., higher hydrocarbons, NH3, HCl, and soot. The situation for sulfur species was more complex. Evaluation of the bark ashes indicated that slag formation could start already from 800◦C. Furthermore, a non-intrusive laser diagnostics technique gave rapid feedback on the millisecond scale. Measured syngas temperature and water content were in good agreement with the applied reference methods. © 2021 by the authors. 

In this work, the combustion behavior of pulverized sponge iron (PSI), a practical-grade iron product that was proposed as a potential candidate in the metal fuel cycle, was observed directly using high-magnification shadowgraphy and other optical diagnostics techniques. The PSI was combusted in a laboratory-scale, McKenna flat-flame burner. Results suggest that, in agreement with theoretical models, PSI combusted heterogeneously, with most of the particle mass converting to an intact, solid oxide. However, in contrast with previous hypotheses, the formation of a microflame of combusting aerosol that was attached to the particle surface was observed. Results from quantitative shadowgraphy indicated near-instantaneous melting and complex behavior—we attempted to explain these based on the Fe–O phase diagram. The analysis of micron- and nano-sized combustion products confirmed that the PSI combusted heterogeneously and a gaseous sub-oxide was formed. Combustion under high excess oxygen was hypothesized to reduce the formation of these oxides.

Induration (or sintering) of iron-ore pellets requires high temperature (∼1300 °C), which today is generated by burning fuel oil in the firing zone of the straight-grate plant (SG) or coal in the rotary kiln of grate-kiln (GK) plants. In this study, ∼150 kWth combustion experiments were used to investigate the opportunity of totally replacing fuel oil with H2 or pyrolysis oil and replacing coal with wood pellets or black pellets powder. For SG plants, the fuel oil can probably be replaced with either H2 or pyrolysis oil without any major concerns, except for slightly or much higher NOx emissions in the case of pyrolysis oil and H2, respectively. For GK induration machines, it is probably challenging to replace coal entirely with biomass since the temperature profile will be different, and there is a risk for increased ash related operational problems. For both SG and GK plants, the slightly lower O2 concentration in the flue gas observed during biomass combustion (pyrolysis oil, wood pellets, and black pellets) may, however, be negative for the induration process, and this needs to be clarified in future research.