Process analysis in thermal process engineering with high-performance computing using the example of grate firing

Biomass as a renewable energy source continues to grow in popularity to reduce fossil fuel consumption for environmental and economic benefits. In the present contribution, the combustion chamber of a 16 MW geothermal steam super-heater, which is part of the Enel Green Power "Cornia 2" power plant, is being investigated with high-performance computing methods. For this purpose, the extended discrete element method (XDEM) developed at the University of Luxembourg is used in a high-performance computing environment, which includes both the moving wooden bed and the combustion chamber above it. The XDEM simulation platform is based on a hybrid four-way coupling between the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). In this approach, particles are treated as discrete elements that are coupled by heat, mass, and momentum transfer to the surrounding gas as a continuous phase. For individual wood particles, besides the equations of motion, the differential conservation equations for mass, heat, and momentum are solved, which describe the thermodynamic state during thermal conversion. The consistency of the numerical results with the actual system performance is discussed in this paper to determine the potentials and limitations of the approach.