Biomass for Energy and Industry, 10th European Conference and Technology Exhibition

June 811 1998, Wrzburg (Germany)

COMBUSTION EFFICIENCY IN BIOMASS FURNACES WITH

FLUE GAS CONDENSATION
P. Neuenschwander2, J. Good2, and Th. Nussbaumer1,2
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, CH - 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
2
Verenum Research, Langmauerstr. 109, CH - 8006 Zurich, Switzerland, Fax: +41 1 364 1421, Email: verenum@access.ch
1

ABSTRACT: The flue gas condensation can increase the conversion efficiency of heat plants significantly, particularly for fuels with high water content. The ideal recoverable heat depends on ambient conditions. Therefore the ambient conditions have to be taken into consideration for the determination of the
efficiency of a particular heat plant. Especially for the planning of heat plants an accurate method has t o
be used. For the monitoring of heat plants a simplified method can be used. The procedures for an accurate
as well as for a simplified efficiency determination are described in this paper.
Keywords: Flue gas condensation, heat plant, furnace, efficiency,

1.

INTRODUCTION

The flue gas from wood combustion contains significant

amounts of steam (10% 20% vol.). The fraction of
steam in the flue gas is especially high if fresh cut wood
is burned. The condensation of the steam releases latent
energy which can be transferred in a condenser to a heating circuit or to the combustion air. The efficiency of
heating systems can increase up to 20% due to the earning of the latent energy.
Besides the benefit in efficiency the flue gas condensation can reduce the emission of large particles. Particles
>10 m are separated almost completely [1].
Due to condensation, the flue gas leaves the condenser
saturated with steam. The steam is condensing after the
chimney due to the mixing with colder ambient air. Due
to aesthetic reasons, visible steam from flue gas is often
not accepted and measures to prevent visible condensation have to be taken therefore.

2.

IMPACTS ON THE EFFICIENCY

The impacts of flue gas condensation on the conversion

efficiency can be divided into two groups. A first group
describes all the parameters which do not depend on the
plant design and operation:
fuel composition,
fuel humidity,
fuel temperature,
ambient air temperature,
ambient air humidity,
ambient pressure, and altitude.
And a second group with the parameters depending o n
plant technique and heating system:
excess air ratio,
burn out quality,
boiler losses, boiler room losses
flue gas temperature,
temperature of the condensed water,
return temperature,

technique of combustion air preheating and humidification and

the auxiliary units.
Therefore different efficiencies have to be defined:
overall efficiency of plant and distribution PD,
plant efficiency P with condenser (and steam prevention unit if installed), and
efficiency of the furnace F.
2.1 Ideal Heat Recovery
The maximum heat is gained at an excess air ratio of 1
and with complete combustion. The boiler has to be insulated ideally and the flue gas, the condensed water as
well as the ashes have to be released at ambient temperature. No energy for auxiliary units has to be used.
The amount of maximum ideal heat recovery does not depend on the wood humidity, while it changes slightly
due to the different chemical energy of different wood
compositions. Changing ambient temperature and pressure change the usable heat slightly, while air humidity
does not change it significantly.
Since the ideal amount of heat is not constant, the efficiency of each heat plant has to be judged in regard of its
own ambient conditions. However, if the efficiencies of
various heat plants are compared, the humidity of the
burned wood has to be taken into account for the judgements due to the flue gas temperature which is always
above ambient temperature.
2.2 Effective Heat Recovery
Furnaces are usually operated with an excess air ratio
1.5 to allow a complete combustion. Due to the difference between flue gas and ambient temperature and due t o
the air humidity which is usually below saturation, flue
gas losses increase with increasing excess air ratio.
State of the art furnaces operate with nearly complete
combustion. Typically, the carbon oxide emissions are
significantly below 300 ppm. Additionally, the flue gas
could also contain hydrocarbons or particles from carbon and the ashes can contain an unburned fraction.

However, experimental results show that losses of

chemical energy in the flue gas and the ashes are negligible for well designed and operated furnaces [2,3].
The boiler losses of the furnace are approximately 2% of
the fuel energy. It depends on plant technique whether i t
is possible to regain a certain part of the boiler losses,
e.g. for the preheating of the combustion air. Therefore
it is reasonable to take the boiler room losses Q LR into
consideration for the calculation of the heat plant efficiency. However, the boiler losses Q LB influence the
furnace efficiency [2].
The flue gas and the condensed water are released at a
temperature above ambient temperature. This temperature level depends on plant design and on return temperature of the heat distribution system. Therefore these
losses do not belong to the furnace, they belong to the
heat plant. The efficiency of furnaces F can be calculated after [2]. To determine the efficiency of the heat
plant, it is necessary to measure the temperature of the
flue gas before it passes the apparatus for the prevention
of steam condensation outside the chimney (Fig. 1).
Condensation
Prevention

Heat

Condenser

Fuel

Condenser

Condenser

EFFICIENCY OF THE HEAT PLANT

3.1 Mass Flows and Energy Flows

The calculation of the mass flows and the energy flows i s
made with reference to 1 kilogram of dry and ash free
wood. Inert solid material has no impact on the energy
balance if it is released as ashes at the same temperature
as it is fed into the furnace. For the modelling the following is assumed therefore:
All combustion products are released with the flue
gas.
The wood is fed into the furnace at ambient temperature.
All minerals and metals pass the furnace inertly and
they are released as ashes at ambient temperature.

hF

Boiler Room
Cold
Combustion

QHP

QLR

Condensed Water

Condensed Water

hCA

hFGi +hUHV
Furnace
Boiler

Cond.

Condensation
Prevention

hFGo
+h LChem

Heating

Pre Heating

Primary and Secondary Combustion Air

3.

Flue Gas

PauxB
Auxiliary Air

Furnace

Combustion Air

Boiler Room

for the transport of the water of the distribution system,

they use auxiliary power PauxD.

Figure 1: Heat plant with flue gas condensation and

apparatus for the prevention of steam
condensation outside the chimney.
2.3 Auxiliary Energy
Auxiliary energy is needed for the operation of the primary heating system itself and for the operation of the
steam condensation prevention devices. The amount of
auxiliary energy for the heating system depends mainly
on the excess air ratio due to the fans for the combustion
air and the flue gas systems. Compared to the heat, typically 2% to 3% electrical power are used as primary auxiliary power PauxB.
The system to prevent condensation in the atmosphere
needs additional electrical power PauxC. The requested
power for steam prevention increases with decreasing
ambient temperature level for which the system shall
still prevent condensation outside the chimney. Condensation prevention needs one to five times the amount
of electrical power of the primary heating system.
The energy of the auxiliary units of the heating system
is usually not lost for the heating system, while the auxiliary energy for the condensation prevention is nearly
completely lost.
2.4 Heat Distribution
At the transport to the user, heat is lost to the soil from
the heat distribution system Q LD . Pumps are necessary

hC

PauxC

Figure 2: Energy flows in a heat plant with flue gas

condensation and apparatus for the prevention
of steam condensation outside the chimney.
The energy balance is made with the method of cold
combustion ( h FGi at Tamb see Sections 3.1 and 3.2).
Efficiency of the heat plant:
P,UHV =

Q
HP

hUHV + PauxB + PauxC

Overall efficiency of the heat plant and of the heat distribution system:
PD,UHV =

Q
HP QLD
h UHV + PauxB + PauxC + PauxD

Heat flow rate from the heat plant:

Q
HP = hUHV + PauxB + hFGi (hFGo + hLChem ) QLR hC

3.2 Chemical Energy of the Wood

It is assumed, that the wood is fed after cold burning i n
the furnace at ambient temperature, and that the energy
due to chemical reaction is introduced additionally. With
this procedure the determination of the enthalpy of all
the various chemical components can be avoided.
The chemical energy of wood fuel F can be calculated
from its chemical composition with the method of [4].
The information about the wood composition of differ-

ent trees can be found in [5]. It is known from experience

that the relation between carbon, nitrogen and oxygen
can be described with reasonable accuracy as CH 1.44O 0.66.
Considering this assumption the upper heating value
h UHV is 19.9*10 6 J/kg Fdry and the lower heating value
h L H V is 18.5*106 J/kg Fdry .
The wood is delivered in the furnace with a certain content of water. The water brings also sensible energy into
the system.
3.3 Enthalpy of the Combustion Air and of the Wood
after Cold Combustion
Depending on the excess air ratio, the temperature and
the humidity of the combustion air CA and on the humidity of the wood, the flue gas from cold combustion
contains the following enthalpy:

m
hFGi = FGst c pmFG + ( 1) CAst c pmCA Tamb +

m
m
F
F

CA + m
WComb
x CAm
c pmW Tamb + hV + ucmW Tamb J / kgFdry
F
m

FG m
CAst + 0.46m
F
m
=
= 5.92 + 0.46
F
F
m
m
144424443

of the condensed water and of the flue gas are assumed for
the modelling.
hC =

To determine the enthalpy of the flue gas and the condensed water accurately, a special Mollier diagram for
flue gas is necessary. This diagram depends on the excess air ratio, the pressure in the condenser and on the
wood composition. The pressure in the condenser
changes the amount of water which the flue gas can carry
as steam. This pressure depends on altitude, on weather
and on differential pressure due to flue gas fans.
Mollier diagrams for flue gas from wood have been calculated by the authors.
4.

kgFGdry

kgFdry

for CH1.44O0.66

The enthalpy of humid air can be determined with e.g.

the Mollier diagram.
To use more energy from the flue gas, the combustion air
is often preheated and sometimes humidified. The preheating and the humidification have positive impacts o n
the efficiency. However, these improvements are often
not realised due to the high investment costs.

kgFdry

FG
m
(x FG x sFG ) c mW TFGo
F
m

SIMPLIFIED DETERMINATION OF THE

EFFICIENCY

Often a quick determination of the efficiency is necessary. Therefore simplified procedures are requested. A
method with an equation and a method with a diagram are
proposed.
4.1 Estimation of the Efficiency with a few Plant
Parameters with a Simplified Model
With the method of cold combustion the same gas enters and leaves the system. Only the temperature and the
amount of liquid water are different. Therefore the losses
of the flue gas and the condensate compared to ambient
conditions are determined.

3.4 Enthalpy of the Flue Gas and the Condensate

The gas from the furnace contains flue gas and steam.
The amount of dry flue gas FG depends on the excess air
ratio. The steam consists of the water from the hydrogen
combustion, the water from the wood humidity, and the
water from the combustion air.
After the condenser, one fraction of the water is still vapour, the rest is liquid. A small part of the liquid is carried with the flue gas as small droplets through the
chimney. The rest is collected in the condenser.
Due to the small droplets which are carried with the flue
gas, energy balances based on the measured mass of water which has been collected in the condenser are not accurate. However, for the energy balance itself it is not
important if the liquid water is transported with the flue
gas or if it is completely collected in the condenser.
Therefore it is assumed for the following considerations
that all the liquid is collected in the condenser.
The saturated flue gas carries the following enthalpy
flow:

The coefficients for heat capacity and vaporisation can

be set constant due to the small possible range of the
flue gas temperature in case of flue gas condensation.
However, the mass fraction of water which the flue gas
can carry as steam depends very much on saturation pressure of the water and considerably on the pressure of the
flue gas. The molecular weight of the flue gas and therefore the excess air ratio has also an impact on the mass
fraction of saturated vapour. An equation from [6] which
is valid between 0 and 70C is used for the calculation of
the saturation pressure in the following equation:

m
hFGo = FGst c pmFG + ( 1) CAst c pmCA TFGo

F
m
mF

x sFG =

+ x sFG

FG
m
c pmW TFGo + hV
F
m

m
m
hLFG = FGst c pmFG + ( 1) CAst c pmCA +
F
F
m
m
FG

m
x sFG c pmW + (x FG x sFG ) c mW (TFGo Tamb )
F
m

FG
FGSt
m

m
+
x sFG
x sFGamb h v
F
F
m
m

kgFdry

Due to the flue gas temperature below the dew point, the
condenser releases water. Identical release temperatures

MW

MFG
e

MFG =

p : [mbar ]
T : [C]

1
p
19.016

4064.95
T + 236.25

MFGst + ( 1) MCA

= 28.97 +

2.47

for CH1.44 O 0.66

9' 385' 066
2.07
9' 201' 605

(TFGo Tamb ) +
hLFG = 4' 107 0.62 + u + 0.59 +1.45x CA

pFG
pFG
p amb

1
1
1
4064.95
4064.95
4064.95

19.016
19
.
016

19
.
016

Tamb + 236.25
TFGo + 236.25
TFGo + 236.25

e
e
e

h UHV + PauxB h LFG h LR h LChem

h UHV + PauxB h LFG h LR h LChem
UHVP =
LHVP =
h UHV + PauxB + PauxC
h LHV + PauxB + PauxC

4.2 Estimation of the Efficiency with a few Plant

Parameters from Diagram
Diagrams of efficiency can be drawn if the ambient pressure, temperature and humidity is set to certain values
and if a certain wood type is assumed.

plants have to be made with the method presented i n

Chapter 3. The simplified efficiency equations and diagrams of the Chapter 4. can be used for the monitoring
of the heat plant efficiency.
REFERENCES

p=1013 mbar Tamb=0 C amb=1 CH1.44O0.66

UHV

=1
0.95

=2
=3

0.9

u=0
u=0.33

0.85

u=0.66

0.8

u=1.0

0.75

u=1.33

0.7

0.65

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

[C]

FG

Figure 3: Efficiency of wood combustion with reference

to the upper heating value. Complete combustion of the wood. =1, =1.5, =2, =2.5, =3
p=1013 mbar T

LHV 1.35

=0 C

amb

u=1.33
1.3

=3

1.25
u=1.0

=3
1.2

=1 CH

amb

1.44

0.66

=1

=3

1.15

=1

u=0.33
1.1

=3

1.05

=3

u=0

=1

0.95

0.9

0.85

10

NOMENCLATURE
cp m
cm W
h

h
hV
M
m
Paux
p

=1
=1

u=0.66

[1] Jakobsen, H.H. (1991). Flue Gas Condensation of Chip Fired

Boiler at G rding District Heating Plant. Danish Institute of
Forest Technology. Fredriksberg.
[2] Good, J. and Nussbaumer, Th. (1993). Wirkungsgradbestimmung bei Holzfeuerungen. Bundesamt fr Energie, Bern.
[3] Good, J. and Nussbaumer, Th. (1996). Bestimmung Nennwrmeleistung Holzfeuerung Spital Uster. Verenum. Zrich.
[4] Boie, W. (1957). Vom Brennstoff zum Rauchgas; Feuerungstechnisches Rechnen mit Brennstoffkenngrssen und seine
Vereinfachungen mit Mitteln der Statistik. Teubnen, Leipzig.
[5] Bossel, U. and Gunold, B. (1982). Wrme aus Holz, Holzheizung in Theorie und Praxis. C. F. Mller, Karlsruhe.
[6] Wexeler, A. (1976). Vapour pressure formulation for water
in the range 0 to 100C. A revision. J. Res. Nat. Bur. Stand. 80
A (1976) 775 785.

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

TFG [C]

Figure 4: Efficiency of wood combustion with reference

to the lower heating value. Complete combustion of the wood. =1, =1.5, =2, =2.5, =3
hLHV = hUHV (u + 0.54) hv ; hv = 2.5016106 [J / kgF ]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The presented investigation was supported by the Swiss
Federal Office of Energy.
5 . CONCLUSIONS
The conversion efficiency of heat plants with flue gas
condensation depends strongly on the wood humidity,
on the excess air ratio and on the achievable flue gas
temperature. The flue gas temperature depends on return
temperature and on plant design. However, besides operating conditions and plant technique the impacts of ambient conditions have also to be taken into consideration. Due to these impacts the planning of heat plants
has to take into consideration, e.g. the altitude. Therefore the planning, judgement and the comparison of heat

Specific heat capacity of gas

Specific heat capacity of water
Enthalpy
Enthalpy flow rate
Latent heat of vaporisation
Molecular weight
Mass flow rate
Auxiliary power
Pressure
Heat flow rate
Temperature
Relative wood humidity
Water content, mass fraction
Excess air ratio
Efficiency

T
u
x

Indices:
amb
ambient
CA
Combustion air
FGo
Flue gas out
HP
Heat plant
LChem Losses of chemical energy
LR
Losses boiler room
PD
Plant and distribution
st
Stoichiometric

C
FGi
F
LHV
LD
P
s
UHV

J/(kg K)
J/(kg K)
J/kgFdry
J/(kgFdry s)
J/kg
kg/kmol
kgdry/s
W/kg Fdry
mbar
W/(kg Fdry s)
C
kgWater/kgdryWood
kg/kgdryGas

Condensate
Flue gas in at Tamb
Wood fuel
Lower heating value
Losses distribution
Plant
Saturated
Upper heating value