Abstract
Biomass represents a programmable renewable energy source that is useful for reducing issues related to the transfer from fossil fuels to the renewable energy era. The exploitation of biomass is strongly related to the development of power technologies that are designed to improve efficiency; however, at the same time, they have to be designed to improve the life cycle of the entire installation—especially in relation to maintenance operations. In this paper, a numerical analysis is proposed to assess the performance of a heat exchanger used for separating condensing tar from syngas generated by the gasification of lignocellulosic wood chips and pellets. The analysis included clean, fouled, and clogged conditions. Flow maldistribution characterized the inlet section of shell-and-tube configurations and was responsible for clogging phenomena. Starting from field detection, analyses of fouled and clogged conditions showed a reduction in the effectiveness of the heat exchanger, causing dangerous conditions for the internal combustion engine used to exploit the syngas flow.
Highlights
Negative environmental impacts from fossil fuels have encouraged researchers to look for greener energy sources
This work presents a numerical investigation of performance degradation due to tar deposits on a shell-and-tube heat exchanger installed in a small-scale biomass gasification plant
The condensing tar imposed a progressive obstruction of the flow passages and resulted in a modification of the heat exchanger performance during its operation
Summary
Negative environmental impacts from fossil fuels have encouraged researchers to look for greener energy sources. To overcome the disadvantages of conventional wet cleaning technologies, Thapa et al [17] developed a cleanup system consisting of a single-tube heat exchanger for syngas cooling followed by a dry biomass-based filter with wood shavings as filter media. The use of an indirect heat exchanger (no contact between hot syngas and chilled water) eliminates the need for wastewater treatment, while filter media can be reused as gasification feedstock. Even if syngas cleanup techniques based on indirect heat exchangers for promoting tar condensation appear promising, the accumulation of tar deposits on heat transfer surfaces can lead to extremely short maintenance intervals. This work presents a numerical investigation of performance degradation due to tar deposits on a shell-and-tube heat exchanger installed in a small-scale biomass gasification plant. Based on on-field fouling observations, different fouled heat exchanger models were developed to examine the progressive deterioration of heat transfer performance due to solid deposit build-up
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