Implementation of Adaptive Control Framework for Biomass Boilers to Increase Thermal Efficiency

Biomass boiler systems are key renewable energy technologies used in industrial and institutional applications, but they can suffer from poor system performance because of product moisture, excess-air issues, deficiencies in excess-air control and unchecked blowdowns during performance. The design and implementation needs of an adaptive control framework for energy savings by optimizing thermal efficiency and fuel consumption in a biomass boiler system is discussed. These methods and strategies for assessing boiler efficiency, sensor-based monitoring, embedded data acquisition, combustion control methods and adaptive controls that are applicable to low-cost applications are discussed. Special mention is made of the indirect heat loss method since it allows the operator to detect individual losses based on measurable parameters like flue-gas temperature, oxygen level, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, humidity and steam flow rate. Alongside that, the paper introduces a practical approach with an ESP32-based acquisition unit and a web dashboard for real-time monitoring, taking the difficulty of interpreting the output of low- cost sensors into account. Progress of the current prototype includes the development of dashboard as well as testing with various gases with the MQ135 sensor, humidity sensor, and flowrate sensor; future testing will involve progressively more accurate gas sensors. The review shows that with adaptive air-fuel regulation and real time estimation of efficiency, operating stability, fuel waste avoidance and cost effectiveness for the small and medium biomass boiler can be achieved.