BFB boiler for high-moisture biomass - South America
Complete BFB boiler design for a biomass facility in South America, handling high-moisture fuels with custom combustion and heat transfer engineering.
Project Details
Technology
Bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) boiler
Industry
Biomass power generation
Location
South America
Fuel
Local high-moisture biomass
Design moisture
57% (peaks to 63%)
Operating since
2017
Services Provided
- Combustion system design
- Thermal and process engineering
- Fuel analysis and handling
- ASME Section I pressure part design
- Fluidized bed sizing (bubble caps, sparge pipes, membrane panel walls)
- Performance modeling and heat balance
- Emissions compliance engineering
- Commissioning support
The Challenge
High-moisture biomass - above 55% moisture content - burns poorly in stoker-fired boilers. Incomplete combustion generates excessive CO emissions, and the energy penalty from evaporating water in the fuel reduces steam output below useful levels. The customer's existing system could not maintain stable combustion at these moisture levels.
The project required a system capable of reliably combusting fuel at 57% moisture content, with seasonal peaks reaching 63%, while meeting performance requirements for superheated steam temperature, steam pressure, and regulatory emissions limits for CO, NOₓ, and particulate matter.
Beyond combustion performance, the boiler needed to be designed for the specific fuel properties of the available local biomass - variable particle size, fluctuating moisture, and seasonal supply variation. A generic catalog boiler would not work. The system had to be engineered from first principles around the fuel.
Custom BFB Design Built Around the Fuel.
CPE collaborated with the customer to develop a bubbling fluidized bed boiler engineered specifically for this fuel and application. The design addressed both the high-moisture combustion challenge and the long-term operational requirements of a grid-connected power plant.
Fluidized bed combustion
Fuel-specific thermal design
Superheater performance
Pressure part engineering
Emissions engineering
Commissioning support
Every Performance Target Exceeded.
The boiler has operated reliably since 2017, consistently exceeding design specifications for efficiency, steam output, moisture tolerance, and emissions compliance.
65%
Sustained moisture content
Stable, long-term operation at 65% moisture - with peaks to 70% - without auxiliary fuel.
+4.7%
Above design efficiency
Thermal efficiency exceeded design targets by 4.7 percentage points at design moisture content.
+15%
Above design steam output
Steam production 15% higher than original rated capacity at operating conditions.
Full compliance
Emissions requirements met
CO, NOₓ, and particulate matter emissions within all regulatory limits from initial operation.
Since 2017
Continuous reliable operation
The boiler has operated reliably for over eight years with ongoing CPE support.
Eight years and counting.
CPE has continued to support this customer's boiler operations since the original project. The engineers who designed the system remain available for performance optimization, operational questions, and future modifications.
Have a combustion challenge?
Whether it's high-moisture fuel, emissions compliance, or system optimization - we've solved it before.