JOULE JOR3-CT98-0276 Co-firing of biomass, coal waste and coal in mining sites for electricity generation

Contacts




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Electricity : JOULE/THERMIE Programme : Solid Biofuels : Thermochemical Conversion

	Type of Project	Shared Cost
	Contract No	JOR3-CT98-0276
	EC Contribution	375,000 ECU
	Start Date	29/05/1998
	Duration	36 Months

Co-firing of biomass, coal waste and coal in mining sites for electricity generation

Objectives

Co-firing biomass with coal in an existing coal plant is a way to use biomass with a substantial efficiency and replace coal at limited cost. Biomass could be a major alternative for locally mined coal given the expected large potential, together with the environmental benefits of cleaner biomass, and employment in coal mining areas, including advantages such as:

• no new generating capacity is needed
• reduction of CO₂ and SO₂ emissions
• utilisation of local resources such forest residues
• generation of local employment

Within this framework, the objective of the project is to carry out a study to determine the possibilities of co-firing of biomass (mostly forestry and sawdust residues) with coal and coal waste from mining sites in Narcea I, 65 MW_e coal fuelled plant sited in Tineo (Asturias - Spain). The main relevance of the project is to increase sharing of renewable in the energy system, to reduce fossil fuel use and to reduce environmental impact while at the same time using local resources with major benefits for the local economy.

Technical Approach

Within the development of the project, some tests at different scales will be carried out. At lab-scale, an entrained-flow reactor will be used in order to get an extensive characterisation of coal, biomass and coal-waste combustion. This facility has been designed to some of the relevant parameters in a power-plant boiler (temperature up to 1500 ºC, residence time up to 3 seconds), in order to simulate the particle combustion histories. On the other hand, a close control of the test variables can be achieved (co-flow gas composition, temperature profile, residence time), allowing a systematic investigation of the combustion behaviour of solid fuels. At semi-industrial scale, combustion tests (thermal input about 300 kW) in a furnace specially adapted to co-fire coal and biomass/mining waste will be carried out. The flexibility of this test rig allows the implementation of a wide variety of combustion methods. Finally a minimum of one trial will be carried out at Narcea I, a pulverised coal power plant of 65 MW_e.

Expected Results

As result of the project, the possibilities from a techno-economic point of view of co-firing biomass with coal and mining-waste in an existing pulverised coal power plant will be established. The possibility of implementing this criterion of co-firing (including the modelling) in existing coal power plants with this technology around Europe will be studied. There are 5 power plants in Europe for which it may be possible to extrapolate the results of this project, since they have the same pulverised coal system.

Contacts

Coordinator

• Francisco Javier ALONSO MARTINEZ / Union Fenosa Ingeniera SA UFISA / SPAIN

Participant

• Andre FAAIJ / Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development Department of Science, Technology & Society / NETHERLANDS
• Luis GUTIERREZ GALIANO / Union Eléctrica Fenosa SA Central Termica de Narcea / SPAIN
• Herminio SASTRE ANDRES / Universidad de Oviedo Departamento de Ingenieria Quimica y / SPAIN
• Javier BALLESTER CASTANER / Universidad de Zaragoza Centro Politécnico Superior de / SPAIN