EEN-E3002 – Power Process Simulation

Learning Exercise II, 16.03.2022

EEN-E3002 – Guidance for solving LE 2: Modelling a biomass boiler

Introduction: Modelling solids and/or nonconventional compounds is required if we want to

model solid fuels. Solids (as defined in Aspen Plus) are chemicals that are found in the solid
physical state; one example would be chalk, calcium carbonate (CaCO3). If a solid is processed
its behaviour is also dependent on its physical properties as for instance particle size which
defines the volume/surface ratio and hence the reactive part of the particle. Solid fuels, however,
are a more complex structure of chemical functional groups, as such, simple description by a
singular chemical formula would not provide an accurate representation of the diverse reactive
surfaces found in the interlinked chemical structures. In this learning exercise, the interest is to
develop a general mass and energy balance for the solids boiler, and as such, we would model
the solids simply as nonconventional compounds.
To start the LE2: Open the simulation flowsheet (component list.apwz). The file can be
found on MyCourses in the Exercise section under Aspen Plus Exercise 2 folder.
First in the Aspen properties’ setup,
1. In the components list → Add two non-conventional compounds, name them Biomass
and Ash.
a. Use the “User Defined” icon to define your non-conventional compound.
b. Press Next to define both your Enthalpy and Density property models for the
Biomass component. From the drop-down menu, choose HCOALGEN and
DCOALIGT.

c. Refer to Aspen Help to see the different option code values, as it is now, the Boie
correlation is used for calculating the enthalpy of the component.
d. Do the same for the Ash component.
 EEN-E3002 – Power Process Simulation
Learning Exercise II, 16.03.2022

2. Change the Base property method from Ideal gas law to the PR-BM and the Free-water
method from STEAM-TA to IAPWS-95.

3. Press to let Aspen Plus perform property analysis. If completed successfully,

proceed to the simulation interface.

Second in the Aspen simulation interface,

4. Setup → Unit Sets →New→ Define your own Unit Set to your liking
5. Start by defining your biomass feed stream.
a. Change stream class in the simulation setup to MIXNC.

b. Add a material stream to the flowsheet, you could call it Biomass.

c. Define your non-conventional compound in the NC Solid tab of the stream input.
d. Keep in mind that in the component attribute tab, PROXONAL and ULTANAL
analysis are given on dry basis (except for Moisture in PROXONAL). All
information could be found in the additional material with the learning exercise.
e. All sulfur in SULFANAL tab could be assumed to be organic. It is on dry basis so
use the same value as used in ULTANAL.
6. Define your air stream as given in the learning exercise. (give a starting value of 4 kg/s).
7. Add an RYIELD and RGIBBs block to simulate the solid to flue gas chemical conversion,
and connect with both material and heat streams.
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Learning Exercise II, 16.03.2022

Note: The block Decomp and RGIBBs are connected with a Heat stream in order to
account for the heat of decomposition which is, in this way, subtracted from the heat of
combustion of the conventional compounds.
8. Use the excel sheet Fuel analysis from MyCourses to define the mass balance in the
RYIELD. Column F2:F8 has the mass balance for solid biomass decomposition.
9. Define Ash in the Comp.Attr. tab in the RYIELD, both PROXONAL and ULTANAL are
100% ash.

10. Setup your RGibbs reactor, you only need to define that no pressure change is needed.
List the potential product as following:

11. Press to let Aspen Plus run the simulation. If completed successfully, check the
stream results.
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Learning Exercise II, 16.03.2022

12. Note that the oxygen content is below the desired 5 mol% of wet flue gas. First, add an
adiabatic Flash2 separator to remove any non-vapor component. If you run the simulation
again, the non-conventional ash should be separated from the vapor phase into the
separator bottom outlet.
13. Now, you could start to adjust the oxygen content in the hotgas vapor stream to the
desired value. The Design-Spec block in the manipulator tab could perform this function.
(could also be accessed from the simulation tab on the left of the simulation interface,
under flowsheeting options folder.)

To control the O2 content in the fluegas outlet we need to control the air flow inlet.
Therefore use the block DesignSpec.
Flowsheeting Options → Design Specs → create “New”.
In the field “Variable” define a new variable e.g. “O2OUT”, activate “Streams” and in
“Reference” choose “Mole-Frac” → “HOTGAS2” which is the vapor out of the flash2
seperator → ”Mixed” → ”O2”.

Go to tab “Spec” → Spec=O2OUT→ Target = 0.05 → Tolerance = 0.001

Now to manipulate the air flow
Tab “Vary” → Type = StreamVar → Stream = Air → Substream = Mixed → Variable =
Mass-Flow → Units = kg/s → Lower Limit = 4 → Upper = 30. Optional, you could also
define the step size, 0.1 for example.
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Learning Exercise II, 16.03.2022

14. Now run the simulation again, the oxygen content in your hot gases vapor stream should
be around 5 mol% on wet basis.
15. At this point the hot gases temperature is higher than the flue gas temperature leaving
the boiler (850 °C). We add the block (HEATX) heat exchanger from the model pallet to
model the evaporator tubes. Add streams as shown below. Note: make sure you connect
the hot gases streams to the hot inlet.

16. Define the SATWATER at the desired pressure of your live steam and with a vapor
fraction of 0. Use a starting value of 5 kg/s of water.
17. Set your HEATX model for simple mass and energy balance calculation as shown below,
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Learning Exercise II, 16.03.2022

Note: There are several ways to control your energy balance calculation in this block,
Please review the “specification” options to get familiar with the possibilities.
18. Run the simulation. If the model converges without warnings or errors. You will notice that
the steam leaving the evaporator tubes is not saturated vapor. You would need then to
add another Design-Spec block to manipulate the SATWATER mass flow to achieve
saturated steam at the outlet stream.
a. First change the specification in HEATX block (EVAPTUBE) to “Cold stream outlet
vapor fraction” and set the value 1.
b. Setup a design spec where the stream FlueGas1 temperature is controlled to be
850 °C through the manipulation of the variable SATWATER mass flow.
At this point, the general mass and energy balance is simulated for your fluidized boiler
(excluding the fluidizing medium). This is sufficient to solve your LE2. Some additional
features to add to your boiler model are listed below
Use a Calculator block: Your model could solve for different biomass input flow, restricted only
by the boundary limits of your defined Design Spec blocks. However, in case, you want to use
a different biomass with different elemental and proximate analysis, you would need to readjust
the values in the yield block. Either revisit the excel file Fuel analysis and update the yield block
manually or setup a Calculator block in Aspen Plus, which would update the yield automatically
based on the new biomass input. The Calculator block, like many other Aspen Plus features,
uses a Fortran code. To setup the block:
a. Add the block from the Model pallete → Manipulators → Calculator
b. Populate your variables in the Define tab as shown in the figure below,
c. In the calculate tab, paste the fortran code
C FACT IS THE FACTOR TO CONVERT THE ULTIMATE ANALYSIS TO
C A WET BASIS.
FACT = (100 - WATER) / 100
H2O = WATER / 100
ASH = ULT(1) / 100 * FACT
C = ULT(2) / 100 * FACT
H = ULT(3) / 100 * FACT
N = ULT(4) / 100 * FACT
S = ULT(6) / 100 * FACT
O = ULT(7) / 100 * FACT
d. In the Sequence tab, set Execute = Before, Block type = Unit Operation and Block
name = DECOMP (or the name of your RYIELD block)
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Learning Exercise II, 16.03.2022

Use Custom Tables: Select custom tables from the customize tab in the top of the interface,
start a new table, define your parameters or variables/ or drag them into the table and place the
table on the flowsheet.
 EEN-E3002 – Power Process Simulation
Learning Exercise II, 16.03.2022

As you see from the figure, the table then is shown on your flowsheet (you could rename the
variables as done in this example), variables such as biomass input mass flow could be changed
from the table and then re-initialize and run your model. The other result values would be
updated without the need to access streams or blocks to extract them.
Use a Sensitivity Analysis: In order to test your model without running repeated runs that might
lead to errors or warnings, you could use a sensitivity analysis to identify what are the operating
limits of your model as constructed. (Ofcourse you could also use sensitivity analysis to review
different operating conditions for process design or optimization purposes).
a. From the simulation folders on the left of your interface, go to “Model Analysis Tools”,
select “Sensitivity” and start a new one.
b. In the first tab “Vary”, populate or drop in the variable you wish to change, in this example
the biomass inlet mass flow.
c. Then set the varying limits, Upper and lower boundaries (1 and 10 kg/s) as well as either
the number of points tested or the increment (1 kg/s) between points.
d. In the second tab “Define”, populate or drop in the variables you would wish to analyse,
in this example we use variables similar to those in Custom Table (also renamed).
e. In the third tab “Tabulate”, choose the variables you would like to include or simply select
the function “fill variables” and all variables under the “Define” will be inserted.
f. Run the simulation, most probably, you will get results with warnings. You will find out
that the warnings originate in the sensitivity block. If you check the status of the block,
you will find the message “WARNING WHILE EXECUTING SENSITIVITY BLOCK: 'S-1'
SOME ROWS COMPLETED WITH WARNINGS.” If you check the summary tab, you
could see the details of the sensitivity analysis

The rows with warning means that these specified conditions will receive warning if
simulated. In our specific case it is due to the limitation set by our design spec for both Air
and steam flow.
Finally, keep in mind, you could also draw a graph of the results from the Home tab of your
interface.