VALORCOMP visits CIDAUT in the last meeting of 2019

The past 14th November 2019, VALORCOMP consortium met in CIDAUT facilities to monitor all its activities before the end of the year. As usual and close to the end of the project, representatives from the entire consortium attended the meeting: Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB, Principal Beneficiary), CIDAUT Foundation, University of Valladolid (UVa), Resíduos do Nordeste (RN) and Nertatec.

The Coordination commission started the meeting with the objective of evaluating common management aspects. The most significant data was the project request extension agreement until mid-2020 with the objective of disseminating the results of the project. For this purpose, two workshops were agreed, one in Valladolid (Spain) in March 2020 and the other in Mirandela (Portugal) organized by Residuos do Nordeste in April 2020. The project is scheduled to close in June 2020 at the facilities of IPB.

Within the Technical commission, the main objective of the meeting was to share the progress in each of the aspects compost use under study in the framework of the project. CIDAUT presented the results obtained in the pelletization and gasification tests in the pilot plant. Pelletization shows very satisfactory results. The gasification results are under evaluation, but a priori it seems that the low quality of the compost causes the gas obtained to have limited applications. Combustion test in updraft boiler are pending.

IPB presented the conclusions of the adsorption process modeling for CO2 separation using activated carbon from activity 2. The results of compost carbonization were also shown using two different techniques: hydrotreatment (HTC) and functional carbonization using TEOS and EDTA. Activity 2 concluded with the advances in the use of compost in construction materials and the results of temperature tests.

Within the framework of agronomic valorization in activity 3, the UVA presented the results of the technical-economic balance of the nutrient extraction process studied. On this activity, IPB showed a final review of the characterization of the leachates obtained in the Residuos do Nordeste plant to be used as fertilizer.

Nertatec presented the tools developed in activity 4. Two simple tools have been developed for the evaluation of compost quality as a fertilizer and as a fuel for energy use based on the characteristics of the compost. Work is being done on these tools in order to show them to the administrations and entities interested in the project workshops that will be held next year.

Finally to conclude the meeting it was made a visit to the combustion test facilities in CIDAUT. This experimental pilot plant will be used to carry out the combustion test for thermal valorization of compost. The purpose of the visit was to show VALORCOMP members the test capabilities of CIDAUT and the facilities for such test.

Dissemination activities on VULKANO H2020 project

Two new different diffusion actions have been carried out within VULKANO H2020 Project.

The first one was the assistance to the 9th European Combustion Meeting between 14th and 18th of April in Lisbon (Portugal). It was presented the poster entitled: “Natural Gas replacement by syngas in Resource Energy Intensive Industries (REII) burners: numerical CFD evaluation”. This poster gathered the theoretical study for the natural gas substitution by syngas as well as the burner modifications required to achieve the VULKANO objective of co-firing syngas from 10% to 40% of substitution. More than 180 posters in combustion topics were presented by 120 different authors speaking about topics such as: laminar flames, turbulent flames, reaction kinetics, gas turbines, etc.

The second one was the assistance to the 11th Mediterranean Combustion Symposium from 16th to 20th of June in Tenerife, Spain. There, the last part of VULKANO progress was presented in the paper entitled “CFD approach in natural gas hybrid burners adapted for syngas combustion in REII”. This paper goes one step further in the design of new hybrid burners to achieve 100% of natural gas substitution by renewable gases such as process-off-gases and bio-syngases. Both works have been carried out in close collaboration with the Institute of Power Engineering of Warsaw (Poland).

VULKANO project continues with the III General Assembly Meeting

The third General Assembly Meeting of VULKANO project took place in Warsaw on 4-5th July 2018 in presence of the Project Technical Advisor of the European Commission. The meeting gathered more than 30 members of 11 companies located in 6 different countries, in order to review the general status of the project after the first twenty four months of execution.

The project has satisfactorily achieved its objectives throughout this time, obtaining useful results:

  • Operating conditions of the two demo site furnaces (steel and ceramic sector) and the requirements from the new technology solutions to be implemented at the furnace have been defined.
  • Development of Phase Change Materials (PCM) high temperature (up to 900ºC). After the simulations and the laboratory tests, the production of new PCM has started as well as it pre-implementation in ceramic furnace.
  • Development of new refractories with the use of byproducts for the production of innovative materials. For steel furnace, materials based on alumina are used, while based on zirconia materials have been employed for the ceramic furnace.
  • Feasibility of the natural gas substitution by the different syngas sources and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of syngas/natural gas mixtures with adapted co-firing burners. Two different burners have been developed: dedicated burner for 100% of syngas combustion and hybrid burner for 0-100% of syngas / natural gas combustion.
  • Optimization of the furnace monitoring and control system through metaheuristics algorithms and implementation. Steel case: automatization of gasifier&co-firing system. Ceramic case: control of PCM system.
  • Presentation of a flexible holistic in-house predictive tool prioritizing the critical parameters for each sector with a video explicative.
  • Start the construction of the replica furnace.
  • Updated market analysis presentation.

With the results of the assessment, IEn as Task leader on WP5.2, 5.3 and 5.4, presented the co-firing CFD simulations, jointly undertaken by IEn and CIDAUT for the unmodified burners. It has been designed, simulated and experimentally tested two new burners: a hybrid one to operate between 0 to 100% of syngas substitution and a dedicated one to operate at 100% with syngas.

Furthermore, VULKANO project partners have already generated seven scientific publications and with an estimated number of 13 to 15 during 2019. CIDAUT has already presented one paper in ECOS Conference in Guimaraes entitled “Application of the CFD simulation to the evaluation of natural gas replacement by syngas in burners of the ceramic sector”.

More info: http://www.vulkano-h2020.eu/

Keywords: VULKANO, CFD, co-firing, syngas, furnaces

 

CIDAUT presents VULKANO in ECOS2018

ECOS 2018 is the 31st International Conference on Efficiency, Cost, Optimization, Simulation and Environmental Impact of Energy Systems which has been taken place in Guimarães between the 18th and the 21st of June.

Main topics discussed during the conference have been exergy as a process optimization, ORC, thermal recovery, fuel cells, energy storage, renewable energy, combustion, etc.

Under VULKANO Project CIDAUT’s paper entitled “Application of the CFD simulation to the evaluation of natural gas replacement by syngas in burners of the ceramic sector” has been presented.This paper gathers a wide evaluation of the alternatives in the reduction of fossil fuel consumption, such as natural gas, promoting its substitution by an alternative fuel (Co-firing). A revision of the types of syngas with potential for use has been carried out, as well as the evaluation of the physical properties of the mixtures from the combustion operation point of view. The feasibility study has taken into consideration parameters such as the low heat value, the Woobe index, adiabatic flame temperature, air preheating temperature, total flue flow and laminar flame velocity. The modifications for SG co-firing have been evaluated using CFD simulations to establish the proper design of the mix zone to ensure the mixture between the air, syngas and natural gas. Moreover, despite the initial objective was to replace 40% of natural gas energy by syngas in an industrial ceramic furnace, new dedicated burners for 100% of syngas substitution have been designed and simulated.

The Institute of Power Engineering (IEn), as partner of CIDAUT in VULKANO, also presented a paper entitled “CFD analysis of natural gas substitution by syngas in industrial furnaces” which evaluated the integration of new burners in the whole furnace system and simulating the real heating process in steel sector.

Furthermore, the VALORCOMP project partners have also been involved attending to different technical presentations in topics related with biomass, energy use and combustion, gasification, reaction engineering and CO2 mitigation.

More info about the conference in: http://www.ecos2018.org/

More info about VULKANO project: http://www.vulkano-h2020.eu/

Keywords: VULKANO, ECOS2018, CFD, Burner, VALORCOMP

VULKANO project continues with the First Review Meeting

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The first Review Meeting of VULKANO project took place in Zaragoza on 13-14th December 2017 with the presence of the Project Technical Advisor of the European Commission. The meeting gathered more than 30 members from the consortium in order to review the general status of the project after the first eighteen months of execution.

The project has satisfactorily achieved its objectives throughout this time, obtaining useful results:

  • Operating conditions of the two demo site furnaces (steel and ceramic sector) and the requirements from the new technology solutions to be implemented at the furnace have been defined.
  • Development of high temperature PCM. Laboratory tests have been carried out to compare the results obtained in simulations. Pre-implementation has been performed in a ceramic furnace.
  • Compositions of the new refractories blend have been reported. For steel furnace, materials based on alumina are used, while based on zirconia materials have been employed for the ceramic furnace.
  • Feasibility of the natural gas substitution by the different syngas sources has been analyzed and CFD simulation of syngas/natural gas mixtures with adapted co-firing burners has been performed.
  • The development and implementation of the furnace monitoring and control system has been updated.
  • Development and implementation of a flexible holistic in-house predictive tool prioritizing the critical parameters for each sector.
  • Technical documentation to start the construction of the replica furnace has been prepared.
  • An updated market analysis presentation has been carried out.

As Task leader on WP5.1 “Designing and validating of co-firing systems”, CIDAUT presented to the Project Technical Advisor the results obtained in the feasibility assessment of natural gas substitution by alternative fuels (co-firing) in furnaces. Several syngas streams were considered from biomass gasification and process off-gases from steal sector.

With the results of the assessment, IEn as Task leader on WP5.2, presented the co-firing CFD simulations, jointly undertaken by IEn and CIDAUT for the unmodified burners. A deployment plan to design new adapted burners for an optimal co-firing was also established.

More info: http://www.vulkano-h2020.eu/

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Keywords: VULKANO, co-firing, syngas, furnaces