Fuel 203 (2017) 981–988

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Fuel
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel

Full Length Article

Novel method for the determination of unknown biomass fuel properties

based on results of an online monitoring in a 300 kW CFB pilot plant
Daniel Bernhardt ⇑, Michael Beckmann
Institute of Process Engineering and Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Dresden, George-Bähr-Strabe 3b, 01069 Dresden, Germany

h i g h l i g h t s

Determination of partly unknown fuel properties on the basis of online measured process data.

Online-balancing of biomass combustion in a circulating fluidized bed combustion facility.

Elemental and structural composition of natural biomasses.

Calculation of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and extractive content.

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

Article history: In this paper, a new method is presented that allows the determination of partly unknown fuel proper-
Received 27 September 2016 ties. On the basis of process data that was measured online (mass flows, flue gas composition and tem-
Received in revised form 26 February 2017 perature values), mass, elemental balances and statistic correlations, it is possible to determine the
Accepted 22 March 2017
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and water content, as well as the heating value of the supplied feedstock.
Available online 19 April 2017
The method further allows calculating the content of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and extractives, as
well as the nitrogen and sulphur content by using additional knowledge of the chemical biomass compo-
Keywords:
sition and statistical relationships between the main components. The validation of the method is carried
Biomass properties
Circulating fluidized bed combustion
out with results of biomass combustion tests in a 300 kWth circulating fluidized bed combustion facility.
Fuel characterization It is shown that the fuel properties of three types of biomasses, which were determined by the new
Online combustion analysis method, are in good agreement with the fuel properties determined by standardized fuel analysis
methods.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The flexible use of a wide spectrum of solid biofuels in gasifica-
tion and combustion systems imposes high demands on the flexi-
bility of the plant technology. This applies especially to energy
crops, as well as residues and by-products of biomass utilisation.
Depending on the origin of these feedstocks the chemical compo-
sition varies widely, which results in fluctuating fuel properties
that are also different from woody biomass (e.g. higher contents
of ash, fuel-N and fuel-S, lower heating value, higher slagging
and corrosion risk). Therefore, solid biofuels are generally consid-
ered to be difficult fuels. Furthermore, because of limited availabil-
ity due to productional and seasonal factors, these feedstocks
accrue only in relatively small material flows as compared to fossil
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: daniel.bernhardt@tu-dresden.de (D. Bernhardt).
fuels. However, the total amount of these fuels can have a signifi-
cant potential for energy use (e.g. [1]).
In order to efficiently use different solid biofuels in power
plants, information about the fuel input is required to adjust the
process control on the changing fuel qualities. A similar situation
can be found in waste incineration plants where highly heteroge-
neous fuels are used as well.
As a solution, the online-balancing-method was developed by
Horeni and Beckmann [2]. It is based on mass and energy balances,
additional process measurement data and fuel specific correlations
that allow the determination of unknown fuel properties (e.g. heat-
ing value, water content, elemental composition), as well as the
mass flow of the supplied waste. It is widely used in different Ger-
man waste incineration plants (e.g. Coburg, Frankfurt, Kassel, Suhl)
and can therefore be seen as state of the art.
In biomass utilization no similar comprehensive method for the
identification of unknown biomass fuel properties is known.
Although Lange [3] has developed an approach that allows the cal-

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2017.03.071
0016-2361/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
982 D. Bernhardt, M. Beckmann / Fuel 203 (2017) 981–988
culation of the heating value on the base of the CO2max value for
biomass combustion in a bubbling fluidized bed, the determination
of the biomass composition is not possible with this approach.
In this paper, a new approach is presented which uses the basics
of the online-balancing- method and is adapted to the biomass
specific fuel properties. The method considers the statistical distri-
bution of solid biomass composition and allows the calculation of
heating value, water content and elemental composition (C, H, O,
N and S). In addition, the structural composition (cellulose, hemi-
cellulose, lignin and extractives) of the input material is estimated
simultaneously.
2. Feedstocks and fuel range
The term biomass initially includes all living plants and ani-
mals, their residues, by-products and waste materials. Typically
solid biomass of plant origin is used as input material in biomass
power pants. According to DIN EN ISO 17225-1 [4] these feedstocks
are classified into five main categories: woody biomass, herba-
ceous biomass, fruit biomass, aquatic biomass and biomass blends
and mixtures. In contrast to this origin and source based classifica-
tion system, it is also generally possible to distinguish biomass on
the basis of its composition and fuel properties, as it is known from
fossil fuels (e.g. [5]). As discussed in [6] this fuel property based
classification approach is both unusual and also not compatible
with the other well-established system.
2.1. Chemical biomass composition
The organic composition of the discussed biomasses consists of
three macromolecular main components, cellulose, hemicellulose
and lignin, and a group of various components called extractives.
These macromolecules form the main parts of the cell wall and
are therefore called structural components. The inorganic matter
consists of fluids (mainly water) and mineral matter.
A comprehensive collection of analysis data about biomass
compositions can be found in [7] containing a total dataset of 93
biomasses. The matrix scatter plot in Fig. 1 shows the distribution
of the structural components and extractives of 88 biomasses. For
the identification of eventually existing dependencies between the
components, a linear regression was performed and the Pearson
correlation coefficient was calculated.
The three macromolecules (an average of 92 wt% daf) have the
largest share of dry and ash free (daf) organic fuel substance. The
remaining part is formed by the extractive group. Furthermore,
the composition varied in wide ranges and similar compositions
within the defined main groups are not detectable. In addition, it
can be assumed that there is a negative linear relationship between
hemicellulose and cellulose, due to the relatively high correlation
coefficient of r = 0.8133. No significant dependencies between
the other main components are identified.
The chemical structure of the three macromolecules is well
known. The polysaccharide cellulose is generally represented by
the structural formula (C6H10O5)n. Hemicellulose is composed of
various pentoses (xylose, arabinose) and hexoses (glucose, man-
nose, galactose) which are linked together. Due to the frequent
occurrence, xylan is usually indicated as the main representative,
with the structural formula (C5H8O4)n [7,8]. Lignin is composed
of aromatic monomers forming a three-dimensional polymeric
network. The exact structure depends on the biomass which allows
no direct specification of a structural and molecular formula. To be
able to describe the chemical structure Faravelli 2010 et al. [9] use
the reference units Lig-C, Lig-H, Lig-O as pseudo components. The
authors’ data shows that Lig-C has the largest share of the lignin
structure, which is represented by the structural formula C17H17O5.
The extractives consist of a group of various components (e. g.
oils, fats, resins, proteins, amino acids, DNA, etc.) which can be sep-
arated from the biomass matrix by using different solvents. A sum-
mary of corresponding methods can be found in [10]. Due to the
considerable amount of components included in this group and
the general low contents in biomasses, only little information
about the composition and distribution of the extractives is avail-
able. However, several authors [11,12] assume that the extractives
consist of about 90 wt% daf of proteins, which are also composed of
amino acids (AA). For the three biomasses wheat straw, rice straw
and corn cob, Ren and Zhao [12] provide information about the
amino acid composition. Accordingly, 99 wt% daf of these amino
acids consist of 16 sulphur-free components. The residual is made
up by the two sulphur-containing components methionine and
cysteine.
2.2. Fuel chemical properties
As discussed in the previous section, the main macromolecules
only consist of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Fig. 2 shows the
mass-specific ratios of these elements for the macromolecules
and different biomasses.
Basically, biomasses range between the main structural com-
ponents and most of them can be found on a straight line. The
main reason for any deviations from that line is the fact that
the oxygen content is not measured independently, but rather
represented as its difference from that of the other elements.
Secondly, other components and contaminants may be part of
the organic biomass substance leading to different C, H and O
contents.
Amongst other elements, nitrogen and sulphur are important
concerning pollutants emissions; Fig. 3 shows the distribution of
both elements for various solid fuels. In biomasses nitrogen and
sulphur are mostly contained in the extractives, especially in the
proteins and amino acids (see Section 2.1).
It is obvious that both elemental contents vary within the bio-
masses, especially the N-content. A linear relationship between
both elements probably exists, which can be attributed to the
amino acid composition. Deviations from this trend suggest that
the elements do not solely exist organically bound but may also
be present as sulphate or nitrate.
3. Identification of unknown fuel properties
The following method is developed for a 300 kWth circulating
fluidized bed combustor (CFBC) which is schematically shown in
Fig. 4. In general, the procedure described below can also be
applied to other firing systems while the respective process tech-
nology has to be taken into consideration.
For the monitoring and controlling of the combustion system
the following process data is continuously collected and recorded
by a process computer:

fuel mass flow: m _ fuel ,

mass flow of reaction gas (primary, secondary and siphon air):
m _ sa , and m
_ pa , m _ si;rg ,

mass flow of cooling water: m _ cw ,

temperature of reaction gas (in this case air): #pa , #sa and #siph ,

inlet and outlet temperature of cooling water: #in cw and #cw
out

temperatures of combustion chamber, downcomer and siphon:
#cc , #dc , and #si ,

axial pressure distribution in combustion chamber: Dpcc ,

dry flue gas composition: wO2 , wCO2 , wH2O (vol%) and yCO , yNO and
ySO2 (mg/Nm3).
 D. Bernhardt, M. Beckmann / Fuel 203 (2017) 981–988 983

80 80
Correlation coefficient Correlation coefficient

Hemicellulose [wt.-% daf]

r = -0.81335 r = -0.23854
60 60

Lignin [wt.-% daf]

40 40

20 20

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80
Cellulose [wt.-% daf] Cellulose [wt.-% daf]

Correlation coefficient Correlation coefficient

60 r = 0.097795 60 r = -0.17703
Extractives [wt.-% daf]

Lignin [wt.-% daf]

40 40

20 20

0 0
0 20 40 60 0 20 40 60
Cellulose [wt.-% daf] Hemicellulose [wt.-% daf]

Correlation coefficient 60 Correlation coefficient

60 r = -0.30579 r = -0.4462
Extractives [wt.-% daf]
Extractives [wt.-% daf]

40
40

20
20

0
0
0 20 40 60 0 10 20 30 40 50

Hemicellulose [wt.-% daf] Lignin [wt.-% daf]

Woody biomass Herbaceous biomass Fruit biomass Biomass blends & mixtures

Fig. 1. Distribution of structural components and extractives in biomasses (data from [7]).

0.2 Woody
Own Data 2 .4 Herbaceous
0.18 Vassilev 2010 Fruits
Structural components Agricultural residue
Sulfur content [wt.-% daf]

0.16 2.0 Food residue

Fermentation residue
0.14
Cellulose/ 1.6 Lignite
[kg/kg]

0.12 Hemicellulose Bituminous coal

RDF
0.1 1.2
Coal
C

0.08 Lignin
/ H

0.8
0.06

0.04 Linear regression Biomass

0.4
0.02 H / C = 0.057087 O/ C + 0.072748
0
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 0 1 2 3 4 5

/ [kg/kg]
Nitrogen content [wt.-% daf]
O C

Fig. 3. Total sulphur and nitrogen content of different solid biofuels in comparison
Fig. 2. Mass-specific hydrogen-carbon ratio as function of the oxygen-carbon ratio
to fossil fuels and refuse derived fuels (RDF).
for the macromolecules and different biomasses (own and literature data).

Based on this measured data the mass and energy balances can online measured data is used, the approach is called online-
be formulated for the input and output flows which allow the cal- balancing-method. Due to the low levels of nitrogen and sulphur
culation of C, H, O, water content and the heating value. Since in the fuel and non-measurable process sinks (e.g. denitrification
984 D. Bernhardt, M. Beckmann / Fuel 203 (2017) 981–988

Thermal main process CFBC Flue gas cleaning

Cyclone 2 Air cooled
heat exchanger Cartridge filter

+ 13 m Cyclone 1 Induced
draft fan
Flue
cc,11 gas
p11,u
cc,10
Water cooled Activated carbon
p10,u heat exchanger filter
Fly ash
cc,9
p9,u
cc,8
flue gas measurement
p8,u O2, CO2, H2O, CO,

cc,7 NO, SO2 , AG

p7,u
cc,6
p6,u
Secondary air

msa,3 sa,3
cc,5 mfuel
p5,u Fuel
msa,2 sa,2 madd
cc,4
p4,u Additive
cc,3
msa,1 sa,1
p3,u
out
cc,2
cw,Aus
p2,u
out
±0m BK,1
mcw, cw,Ein Cooling water
p1,u

si
Bed ash
pa
msi,rg
Siphon air
mpa
Primary air

Fig. 4. Schematic drawing of the 300 kWth CFBC.

and desulfurization) it is not possible to determine the contents of
both elements with the online-balancing-method. Therefore, a dif-
ferent approach is used which is referred to as ‘‘structural analysis”
and is explained in the Section 3.2.
To investigate the impact of variable biomass fuel properties on
burnout and pollutant emissions (NO and SO2), combustion tests
were carried out in this CFBC at unstaged process conditions.
Detailed information about the used feedstock, the experimental
procedure and the results can be found in [13]. The measured data
from the experiments were used for the development of the
online-balancing and structural analysis models.
3.1. The Online-Balancing-Method
The mass flow of carbon that is supplied with the fuel m _ C;fuel
leaves the process with the wet flue gas m _ fg;wet mainly as carbon
monoxide (nCO;fg;wet ) and carbon dioxide (nCO2 ;fg;wet )1, and also as
mass flow of unburnt carbon containing fly ash m _ fa . (carbon content
in fly ash2 nC;fa ). A continuous measurement of nC;fa is not possible,
however that value can be derived from the ash balance and a dis-
continuous ash sampling during the process. Based on the experi-
mental investigations it was discovered that almost all of the
supplied ash mass flow was found in cyclone 2 and the cartridge fil-
ter (see Fig. 4) The average carbon content was approximately
nC;fa  2wt%. If no information about the fuel ash content is avail-
able, a value of nash;fuel ¼ 10 wt% can be used which was determined
as the average value of numerous biomass fuel analysis.

Initially, the CFBC is divided into balancing units which are con-
m _ fuel
_ fa ¼ nash;fuel  m ð2Þ
nected by material and energy streams. Based on the measured
values, the system is divided into the thermal main process and
the flue gas cleaning part. Since all input and output variables of
the thermal main process are known or can be directly calculated, 3.1.2. Hydrogen (H)
it is only necessary to balance this part. In real combustion plants it
is also often necessary to include other parts because of missing
process variables. 2  MH 2  MH
In order to calculate the unknown fuel composition, the mass nH;fuel þ nH2 O;fuel  ¼
M H2 O M H2 O
balances for the main elements C, H and O are formulated in rela-

_ fg;wet
m _ rg;wet
m
tion to the molar masses Mi and the mass flows of the input and  nH2 O;fg   nH2 O;rg  ð3Þ
output materials m _ i . The resulting equations are rearranged m_ fuel m_ fuel
according to the unknown quantities nC;fuel , nH;fuel , nO;fuel und nH2 O;fuel . The hydrogen that is supplied with the fuel consists of the
organic hydrogen nH;fuel and hydrogen bound in the fuel water
3.1.1. Carbon (C) nH2 O;fuel . In addition, hydrogen is supplied with the water content


_ fg;wet
m nCO;fg;wet nCO2 ;fg;wet m_ fa 1
Due to the typical good fuel burn out in CFBC other C-containing flue gas species
nC;fuel ¼  MC  þ þ nC;fa  ð1Þ
m_ fuel MCO MCO2 _ fuel
m (e.g. methane and tar) can be neglected in this case.
2
It is assumed that the unburnt organic fly ash consists of 100 wt% carbon.
 D. Bernhardt, M. Beckmann / Fuel 203 (2017) 981–988 985

_ rg;wet . The hydrogen

nH2 O;rg of the different reaction gas streams m
leaves the balance part with the flue gas mass flow m
contains water nH2 O;fg .
3.1.3. Oxygen (O)
The heat loss of the firing system consists of the total heat flows
_ fg;wet which transferred through the walls of the firing system. Considering
each part of the system (j = combustion chamber, connection pipe,
cyclone, downcomer and siphon) it is calculated with the heat
transfer approach.

_ fg;wet

 X
5
nO;fuel þ nH2 O;fuel 
Mo
¼
m
 nO2 fg;wet þ nH2 O;fg 
MO
þ nCO;fg 
MO
þ nCO2 ;fg 
2  MO
Q_ loss ¼ kj  Aj  ð#j  #1 Þ ð12Þ
M H2 O _ fuel
m M H2 O MCO M CO

 j¼1
m_ rg;wet MO

_ fuel
 nO2 rg;wet þ nH2 O;rg  ð4Þ
m M H2 O
The heat transfer coefficient kj and the transfer surface Aj are
The oxygen balance is formulated analogous to the carbon and determined by the wall construction. The temperatures #j are
hydrogen balance, considering the supplied fuel, the reaction gas available as measured values. If Eqs. (7)–(12) are inserted in Eq.
flows and the CFBC leaving flue gas flow. (6), the resulting equation can be directly solved for the unknown
The three element balances (Eqs. (1), (3) and (4)?) result in a heating value of the fuel hu;fuel .
system of equations with four variables nC;fuel , nH;fuel , nO;fuel und
nH2 O;fuel . To solve the underdetermined system of equations, another 3.2. Structural analysis
equation is required. In case of waste feedstocks a constant mass
n
ratio of nC;fuel  7:5 is used [14]. Since this assumption is not suitable The calculation of the fuel-N and fuel-S content is based on the
H;fuel

for biomasses, the linear correlation between the H/C- und chemical composition of solid biomasses. The basic idea is that
O/C-ratio (see Fig. 2) is used instead. A statistic evaluation of each macromolecule and the extractives can be represented by
in-house fuel data and literature data results in Eq. (5). an average elemental composition and an average heating value,
that can either be derived from the structural formula (theoretical
nH;fuel =nC;fuel ¼ 0:0571  nO;fuel =nC;fuel þ 0:0727: ð5Þ composition) or from the fuel analysis (experimental composition).
The heating value of the supplied fuel hu;fuel is calculated Table 1 contains the elemental composition of the underlying
through the energy balance of the thermal main process (see model components.
Fig. 4). The three macromolecules are represented by the structural
formulas mentioned in Section 2.1. For hemicellulose and lignin
H_ fuel þ H_ rg ¼ H_ fg þ H_ fa þ Q_ cw þ Q_ loss ð6Þ the model components xylan and the Lig-C molecule are used.
The extractive group, mainly consisting of proteins, is approxi-
The enthalpy and energy flows in Eq. (6) are calculated with
mated by 16 sulphur free and 2 sulphur containing amino acids.
Eqs. (7)–(11) as follows:
Based on the data given by [12] only a small variation in the com-
position of the 18 amino acids was observed, so that an average

Enthalpy flow of the fuel
composition is indicated.
h_ fuel ¼ m
_ fuel  ½hu;fuel þ cp;fuel  ð#fuel  #0 Þ ð7Þ If the mass fractions of the model components nj;fuel . (j = cellu-
lose, hemicellulose, lignin and sulphur free and sulphur containing

Enthalpy flow of the reaction gases (1 primary air, 3 secondary amino acids) are known, the resulting elemental composition ni;fuel

air, 1 siphon air (i = C,H,O,N,S) and the heating value hu;fuel can be calculated by a
X
5 linear combination (Eqs. (13) and (14)).
H_ rg ¼ _ rg;j  cp;rg;j  ð#rg;j  #0 Þ
m ð8Þ X
j¼1
ni;fuel ¼ nj;fuel  ni;j;fuel ð13Þ


X

Enthalpy flow of the flue gas hu;fuel ¼ nj;fuel  hu;j;fuel ð14Þ

H_ fg ¼ m
_ fg  cp;fg  ð#fg  #0 Þ ð9Þ In this case the elemental composition (nC;fuel;OB , nH;fuel;OB , nO;fuel;OB )
and the heating value hu;j;fuel;OB are known from online-balancing

Enthalpy flow of the fly ash and nj;fuel has to be determined. This objective is formulated as an
optimization problem (Eq. (15)) by using the least square method.
H_ fa ¼ m
_ fa  ½hu;fa þ cp;fa  ð#fg  #0 Þ ð10Þ
Since the online-balancing-method assumed that nN;fuel ¼ 0 and
nS;fuel ¼ 0 the elemental composition is normalized to the nitrogen

Energy flow to cooling water
and sulphur free reference state.
Q_ cw ¼ m
_ cw  cp;fa  ð#out in
cw  #cw Þ ð11Þ

Table 1
Elemental composition and heating value of the model components.

Structural component nC,fuel [wt%] nH,fuel [wt%] nO,fuel [wt%] nN,fuel [wt%] nS,fuel [wt%] hu,fuel [MJ/kg]
Macro molecules
Cellulose (Cel) 44.4455 6.2165 49.3380 0.0000 0.0000 15.9758
C6H10O5
Hemicellulose (HCel) 45.4556 6.1034 48.4410 0.0000 0.0000 16.3180
C5H8O4
Lignin (Lig) 67.7639 5.6868 26.5493 0.0000 0.0000 26.0543
C17H17O5
Extractives (Amino Acids (AA) representing proteins)
S-free AA (AA, S-free) 44.4756 7.3882 34.9393 13.1969 0.0000 19.4730
S-containing AA (AA, S-containing) 38.9555 7.2330 22.0557 9.6544 22.1014 20.8952
986 D. Bernhardt, M. Beckmann / Fuel 203 (2017) 981–988

(a) Wood chips (b)

Switchgrass
1,0 1,0
[kgi / kgfuel]
20 20

Heating value hu,fuel [MJ/kg]

[kgi / kgfuel]

Heating value hu,fuel [MJ/kg]

0,8 0,8
16 16

0,6
i,fuel

0,6

i,fuel
12 12
Mass fraction

Mass fraction
0,4 8 0,4
8

0,2 4 0,2 4

0,0 0 0,0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time t [min] Time t [min]

(c) Grain residues

1,0
[kgi / kgfuel]

20

Heating value hu,fuel [MJ/kg]

0,8
16

0,6
i,fuel

12
Mass fraction

0,4
8

0,2 4

0,0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time t [min]

Fig. 5. Results of the online-balancing-method in comparison to laboratory measurement data.

X
O 100
ðni;fuel;OB  ni;fuel Þ þ ðhu;j;fuel;OB  hu;fuel Þ g
2  2
F ¼ minf ð15Þ
90
Chemical composition [wt.-% daf]

i¼C;H;O

80
In order to reduce the number of possible solutions the follow-
ing constraints were added: 70
The total organic substance only consists of the model
60
components.
50
nCel;fuel þ nHCel;fuel þ nLig;fuel þ nSfreeAA;fuel þ nScontainingAA;fuel ¼ 1 ð16Þ
40
The components (wt% daf) only occur within defined limits (see
Fig. 1). 30

12:20 wt% 6 nCel;fuel 6 63:21 wt% ð17Þ 20

10
6:57 wt% 6 nHCel;fuel 6 64:55 wt% ð18Þ
0
Calculated Measured Calculated Measured Calculated Measured
2:53 6 nLig;fuel 6 44:08 ð19Þ Wood chips Grain residues Switchgrass

Cellulose Hemicellulose Lignin Extractives

1:00 6 nSfreeAA;fuel þ nScontainingAA;fuel 6 25:60 ð20Þ
Between the hemicellulose and celluloseontent, there is an Fig. 6. Comparison of calculated and measured biomass composition.
approximately linear correlation (see Fig. 1).
nHCel;fuel ¼ 64:41  0:8921  nCel;fuel ð21Þ
Based on the results of [12] the ratio of the S-free to the S- was used which is part of the optimization toolbox implemented in
containing AA is assumed to be constant. MATLAB. The mathematical basics of the method are summarized
in [15].
ns  free  AA; fuel
¼ 84:49 ð22Þ Amongst other things, the result of an optimization problem is
ns  containing  AA; fuel affected by the choice of the initial values. In this case it is possible
For the numerical solution of the optimization problem, differ- that several local minima exist. To ensure that the global minimum
ent algorithms can be used. Because of comparably low computa- is found, a range of initial values is used that meets the constraints
tion times the SQP-algorithm (Sequential Quadratic Programming) of Eqs. (16)–(22).
 D. Bernhardt, M. Beckmann / Fuel 203 (2017) 981–988 987

Switchgrass
Wood chips

Mass fraction i,fuel [wt.-%] and

100
100

Mass fraction i,fuel [wt.-%] and

heating value hu [MJ/kg]

heating value hu [MJ/kg]
10 10

1
1
0. 1 0.1

0.01 0.01

10 -3 10-3
-4
10-4 10
C H O N S hu C H O N S hu

Grain residues
Mass fraction i,fuel [wt.-%] and

100 Calculated Measured

heating value hu [MJ/kg]

10

0.1

0.01

10-3

10-4
C H O N S hu

Fig. 7. Calculated elemental composition and heating value in comparison to laboratory results.

4. Results and discussion analysis. It is also possible to use fuel analysis results instead.
Fig. 6 shows the calculated composition in comparison to labora-
4.1. Results of the online-balancing-method tory results.
In particular, the lignin and extractive contents vary within the
As part of the experimental investigations presented in [13], the considered biomasses which agree well with the calculated results.
combustion behaviour of wood (chips), switchgrass and grain resi- Although differences between the hemicellulose and cellulose con-
dues was investigated under unstaged process conditions. Fig. 5 tent are apparent, the holocellulose content (sum of both compo-
shows the comparison between the fuel composition and the nents) differs only slightly.
heating value calculated by the online-balancing-method and the Fig. 7 shows the calculated elemental composition and the heat-
measured3 fuel analysis results. ing value in comparison to the laboratory results.
Unlike the laboratory results, the online-balancing-method pro- The excellent agreement between the carbon, hydrogen and
vides information about the time dependent trend of the actual oxygen content is not surprising since they were part of the objec-
supplied feedstock. This becomes particularly obvious when the tive function (Eq. (15)) which had to be minimized.
fuels are compared to each other. For the wood chips higher oscil- The increasing trend of the fuel-N and fuel-S content (in the fol-
lations were calculated which can be explained by differences in lowing order: wood chips, switchgrass and grain residues) is cor-
the used fuel feeding system. Wood chips were supplied by a belt rectly calculated by the model. However, the absolute values are
scale providing a time-resolved mass flow signal. For technical rea- generally lower than the laboratory results. This applies in partic-
sons the other fuels were fed by a screw feeder which was cali- ular to the sulphur content which is typically low in this and other
brated on the respective feedstock but does not produce a time- biomasses.
resolved mass flow signal. These differences are caused by the assumed extractive compo-
In grain residues’ slightly higher water contents are calculated sition. Due to the lack of reliable quantitative information, the
than previously determined in the laboratory tests. This can be composition was approximated by amino acids constituting pro-
attributed to differences in the air humidity which was not consid- teins as main components of this group. An increase of the model
ered in the model. For all measurements a constant value was used. accuracy can be expected when relevant data is available.
Furthermore, the curves of the grain residues show peaks at
t = 53 min which are caused by a blockage of the fuel feeding
5. Conclusions
system.
In general it can be stated that the time averaged values are in
The flexible use of solid biofuels in heat and power plants with a
good agreement to the values measured in the laboratory.
middle or high thermal capacity requires a fuel specific process
management system, which can react to varying feedstocks. There-
4.2. Results of structural analysis fore, the knowledge of the fuel properties is essential.
In this paper a novel method was presented that allows the cal-
Based on the objective of work, the time averaged values of the culation of the elemental composition, the heating value and the
online-balancing-method were used as input for the structural chemical composition of solid biomass feedstock of plant origin.
It was developed for a 300 kWth CFBC but is in general transferable
3
The fuel properties were determined by biomass specific standard analysis to other firing systems (e.g. grate firing). In a first step the carbon,
methods. hydrogen, oxygen and water content as well as the heating value
988 D. Bernhardt, M. Beckmann / Fuel 203 (2017) 981–988
are calculated based on mass and energy balances and an addi-
tional correlation. In a second step these results are used to calcu-
late the chemical composition (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and
extractives) which further provides an assumption about the
organic nitrogen and sulphur content of the fuel.
The method validation was based on experimental results of
three different kinds of biomasses. The comparison showed a very
good agreement between calculated and measured values. Differ-
ences in the nitrogen and sulphur content are caused by the
assumed composition of the extractives. Further research on the
qualitative and quantitative determination of the composition will
help to improve the model accuracy.
Acknowledgements
This work was part of two research projects funded by the Fed-
eral Ministry of Economics and Technology of Germany (funding
number 17223 BG/1) and the Friedrich und Elisabeth Boysen Stif-
tung (BOY_108). The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial
support.
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