Dynamic modeling and simulation of a palm wastes boiler

A state-space dynamic model for a palm wastes boiler is being developed and simulated. The unique feature of this boiler is that it uses wastes in the form of fiber and shell from the palm oil processing as its fuels. Specific characteristics of oil palm waste boilers are non-uniform fuel feed, compositions, sizes and moisture content of the fuel. These features introduce additional dimensions to the difficulty of boiler control. The superheated steam produced is used to generate electricity, which drives numerous motors and other equipment for palm fruit processing thus causing severe interactions between the power plant and other parts of the mill. The main work of this paper is the development of a dynamic model and simulation of the boiler. The boiler unit can be divided into several sections for analysis viz., the furnace, superheater, drum, risers, and downcomer. A tenth-order, physical, linearized process model was developed. The linearized model consists of ten first-order simultaneous equations and is represented by a (10 x 10) state matrix and (4 x 10) input matrix in the state space form. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.