Soft-Sensor for the on-line estimation of the flue gas mass flow in biomass boilers with additional monitoring of the heat exchanger fouling

Niederwieser H, Zemann C, Gölles M, Reichhartinger M.

Published 2020

Citation: Niederwieser H, Zemann C, Gölles M, Reichhartinger M. Soft-Sensor for the On-Line Estimation of the Flue Gas Mass Flow in Biomass Boilers with Additional Monitoring of the Heat Exchanger Fouling. In Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition 2020 (eEUBCE 2020). 2020. p. 280 - 284

Abstract

The flue gas mass flow is one of the fundamental quantities of the combustion process in biomass boilers. Since it directly relates to the enthalpy flow entering the heat exchanger, its knowledge is highly advantageous for a sophisticated load control of the biomass boiler. It also includes information regarding the primary and secondary air mass flows as well as the mass flows of potentially occurring leakage air and thermally decomposed fuel. However, in practical application it is not possible to obtain a reliable measurement of the flue gas mass flow. For this reason, this work presents a soft-sensor for the on-line estimation of the flue gas mass flow in biomass boilers. The approach is robust against fouling of the relevant boiler components and is based on standard measurements which are typically available in biomass boilers. In addition, the soft-sensor offers the possibility of monitoring the degree of heat exchanger fouling.