How to Improve Air Pollution–Control with CFD- Modeling

Related Vendors

Siemens Industry Software GmbH Digital Factory Division

With the recent significant progress in computing hardware capabilities, engineers at Fuel Tech, now take advantage of extensive use of CFD in order to develop flow distribution devices that successfully address these SCR-operation-related issues.

Development of the GSG: A Historical View

In 2003, Flow Tack, LLC, was formed as an engineering consulting company providing CFD and Experimental Fluid Dynamics (EFD) services as design tools for APC technologies including SCR, Static Mixers, Electro-Static Precipitators (ESP), Baghouses, and Flue Gas Desulphurization (FGD) units. The company was an early adopter of CFD and helped promote the use of this revolutionary tool in the APC marketplace. Among other benefits, CFD made it possible to look at the entire continuum of flow vectors. By looking at the full continuum Flow Tack engineers noticed recirculation being caused by typical SCR flow distribution devices that were not always evident in experimental models and it became obvious that such flow conditions were the cause of many particulate related SCR problems. CFD also made it inexpensive to try many different flow distribution device configurations in order to optimize the velocity profiles entering the catalyst, and thus reduce the potential for ash accumulations. The GSG design was aimed to minimize horizontal surfaces predisposed to ash build-up in order to provide a much denser grid of plates, resulting in a more uniformly distributed resistance and consequently, a better velocity profile into the catalyst.

Upon its invention, the GSG performance was verified using experimental fluid dynamics modeling on a 1-to-10 scale model. Improvements in the fabrication of the experimental models and technological advancements in CFD modeling, such as mesh refinement in areas of interest, eventually led to a set of modeling standards for both model types that provided sufficient agreement between results.

Since then, Flow Tack has gone from project to project, and with minor adjustments, found the optimized turning vane configurations for each project using this simulation process. In 2007, with the support of Star-CD 3.24, Flow Tack parameterized the successful instances of the GSG and applied for its patent. The technology has been further developed and fine-tuned using Star-CCM+ in the subsequent years.

(ID:43590575)