EDEM Research Spotlight- BioChipFeeding: Wood Chip Feeding Technology of the Future for Small-scale Biomass Boilers
Altair Employee- RESEARCHER
- Michael Rackl et al.
- INSTITUTE
- Technical University of Munich, Germany
- DEPARTMENT
- Institute for Materials Handling, Material Flow, Logistics
- TIMELINE
- 10/2013 - 09/2015
Presently about 0.7 Mio small-scale biomass boilers are sold in Europe per year and until 2020 an increase to 1.6 Mio is expected whereas wood chip boilers are one main technology. With these wood chip boilers the fuel feeding systems applied are still a considerable weak point. They are responsible for 80 to 90% of unexpected plant shutdowns, increased emissions and reduced efficiencies. Moreover, at presently applied feeding concepts discharge from the bottom prevails which implies the disadvantages of massive constructions needed, increased wear of the equipment, complicated maintenance and high operation costs. The objective of BioChipFeeding was to develop a new wood chip feeding system for small-scale heating plants. A core component of the system is a gripper which enables feeding from above the pile of stored fuel. It will be equipped with sensors to screen the fuel quality regarding particle size and moisture content and thereby have the ability to create a rather constant fuel quality by producing appropriate fuel blends. Moreover, a new fuel feeding screw will be developed which allows for a constant transport of the wood chips into the furnace independently of shape and size. With this new technology the boiler performance shall be significantly improved due to a more even fuel supply with a constant quality. Reduced operation and maintenance costs should make it very attractive for users and therefore it will have a huge potential for application. SPONSOR - This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. FP7-SME-2013-1-606464. VIEW PROJECT PAGE INDUSTRY PARTNER - SMEs and 4 research institutions from Austria, Italy and Germany.
Mounting position of an agitator within the hopper of a wood chip feeding system
Fig. 2. Snapshots of the hopper at different points of simulation time
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