Demonstrating Fuel Design To Reduce Particulate Emissions and Control Slagging in Industrial-Scale Grate Combustion of Woody Biomass

Abstract

The demand for increased overall efficiency, improved fuel flexibility, and more stringent environmental legislations promotes the development of new fuel- and technology-related concepts for the bioenergy sector. Previous research has shown that careful consideration of the fuel ash composition and the adjustment of the same via various routes, i.e., fuel design, have the potential to alter the ash transformation reactions, leading to, e.g., a reduction of the formation of slag or entrained inorganic ash particles. The objective of the present work was, therefore, to demonstrate the use of fuel design as a primary measure to reduce the emission of PM1 during combustion of woody biomass in medium-scale grate-fired boilers while keeping the slag formation at a manageable level. This was achieved by designing fuel blends of woody biomass with carefully selected Scandinavian peats rich in Si, Ca, and S. The work includes results from three experimental campaigns, performed in three separate grate-fired boilers of different sizes, specifically 0.2 MWth, 2 MWth, and 4 MWth. In one of the campaigns, softwood-based stemwood pellets were copelletized with different additions of peat (5 and 15 wt %) before combustion. In the other campaigns, peat was added in a separate fuel feed to Salix chips (15 wt % peat) and softwood-based stemwood pellets (10 and 20 wt % peat). Particulate matter and bottom ashes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy for morphology and elemental composition as well as by powder X-ray diffraction for crystalline phase composition. The results show that the fuel design approach provided PM1 reduction for all fuel blends between 30 and 50%. The PM1 reduction could be achieved without causing operational problems due to slagging for any of the three commercial boilers used, although an expected increased slagging tendency was observed. Overall, this paper illustrates that fuel design can be implemented on an industrial scale by achieving the desired ash transformation reactions, in this case, leading to a reduction of fine particulate emissions by up to 50% without any operational disturbances due to slag formation on the grate. ; Bio4Energy