An Efficient Numerical Model for Fast Simulation of the Combustion of Alternative Fuels in a Cement Rotary Kiln

This work proposes a one-dimensional numerical model of a cement production rotary kiln using combustion data of petroleum coke and Refused Derived Fuels from previously performed Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations, coupled with a black-box cyclone tower model. A 64 m long rotary kiln is discretized into one-dimensional slices in which both clinker and gas phases are solved numerically. This model aims at obtaining clinker and gas compositions, temperature, and several other variables along kiln length. A set of empirical parameters are obtained using metaheuristic optimization methods to improve model predictions of clinker outlet composition, greatly increasing accuracy of model. Six different measurements were used for partial validation of the model, obtaining a 5.66% weighted error in clinker outlet composition, which is reasonable given the high uncertainties of some parameters used in the model.