Black liquor combustion validated recovery boiler modeling, five-year report

The objective of this project was to develop a new computer model of a recovery boiler furnace using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code specifically tailored to the requirements for solving recovery boiler flows, and using improved submodels for black liquor combustion based on continued laboratory fundamental studies. The project originated in October 1990 and was scheduled to run for four years. At that time, there was considerable emphasis on developing accurate predictions of the physical carryover of macroscopic particles of partially burnt black liquor and smelt droplets out of the furnace, since this was seen as the main cause of boiler plugging. This placed a major emphasis on gas flow patterns within the furnace and on the mass loss rates and swelling and shrinking rates of burning black liquor drops. As work proceeded on developing the recovery boiler furnace model, it became apparent that some recovery boilers encounter serious plugging problems even when physical carryover was minimal. After the original four-year period was completed, the project was extended to address this issue. The objective of the extended project was to improve the utility of the models by including the black liquor chemistry relevant to air emissions predictions and aerosol formation, and by developing the knowledge base and computational tools to relate furnace model outputs to fouling and plugging of the convective sections of the boilers. The work done to date includes CFD model development and validation, acquisition of information on black liquor combustion fundamentals and development of improved burning models, char bed model development, and model application and simplification