Joint project: Demonstration of methods for diagnosing, predicting and resolving non-nominal operating conditions in biomass-based utility systems – Sub-project: Development of methods, models and tools for diagnosis and prognosis with a focus on fuel-related faults

In view of current political, social and climatic developments, the short-term and sustainable decarbonisation of the entire energy and economic system is of fundamental importance. For energy supply, this means, among other things, that the planned use of natural gas as a bridging technology is no longer an option to the extent envisaged. Especially in applications where combustion processes are necessary due to the required temperature levels, heat pumps are currently not (yet) an option for substitution. Here, bioenergy in particular offers itself as a solution available in the short term. In the future, the high sustainability criteria applied here will primarily require the use of low-quality residual and waste materials for energy generation. On the one hand, this increases the risk of a fluctuating and inefficient combustion process and, on the other hand, the risk of increased wear and tear on the components, leading to more frequent downtimes. In addition, to our knowledge, there are no scientific publications dealing with the topic of predictive maintenance for conversion plants for biomass-based solid fuels. Against this background, different (nominal and non-nominal) conditions will be experimentally generated and analysed in real biomass conversion plants in the planned project. The data obtained in this way will form the basis for a signal-based and data-driven modelling of plant and process states. These models will subsequently be used to digitally and innovatively generate added value in plant operation as well as in plant maintenance and servicing by, among other things, enabling automated system diagnostics with the data obtained.