Numerical Evaluation of the Petroleum Coke and Biomass Co-combustion in Rotary Cement Kilns

The partial substitution of petroleum coke with alternative solid fuels, such as biomass, is advantageous for mitigating greenhouse gases and energy consumption in cement production. This study evaluates the effect of using two alternative biomass-type fuels, olive pomace powder and crushed almond shells, on the cement rotary kiln’s combustion performance by comparing the two particles’ co-combustion behavior to the case of combustion of petroleum coke alone using the Ansys Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. According to the results, the maximal temperatures achieved by the co-combustion of olive pomace and almond shells are lower than the temperature of coke combustion alone. However, on the other hand, it has noticed a difference in combustion behavior in terms of the char particle fractions.