Case Study: Sundrop Fuels achieves validated, scalable high-temperature biomass reforming simulations with Altair's AcuSolve & OptiStruct

Applications of Acusolve and Optistruct in the High-Temperature Reformation of Biomass

Sundrop Fuels, a Longmont, CO biofuels company aiming to convert woody biomass into drop‑in transportation fuels, faced the multiphysics challenges of high‑temperature reforming: complex gas–solid flows, severe thermal stress, and tightly coupled chemistry. To tackle these issues Sundrop Fuels worked with Altair, leveraging Altair’s HyperWorks tools—notably AcuSolve (with AcuTrace and acuProj) and OptiStruct—for coupled CFD/FEA multiphysics simulation.

Altair implemented coupled workflows (AcuSolve for CFD with conjugate heat transfer, radiation and particle tracing, acuProj for temperature mapping, and OptiStruct for thermal stress) and integrated kinetic inputs to model separators, thermal‑stress rigs, and a laboratory bioreformer. Results closely matched experiments—heat fluxes of 186.87 vs 184.72 kW/m2 (unshielded) and 142.15 vs 140.38 kW/m2 (shielded)—predicted low steady‑state and transient stresses consistent with observed non‑failure, and reproduced surface stress distributions and crack locations. Altair’s solution delivered fast, accurate, scalable multiphysics validation that informed Sundrop Fuels’ design decisions.

Sundrop Fuels