ENK5-1999-00004 Combustion Behaviour of Clean Fuels in Power Generation - BIOFLAM

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Summary Information



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EESD (Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development) : Thermochemical Conversion

Proposal No:	ENK5-1999-00004
Date Prepared:	February 2004
Source:	European Bio-Energy Projects (EUR 20808)

Activities

The BIOFLAM project compromises of four work packages, which concentrate on:

• Fuel Preparation (WP1),
• Fuel Conversion (WP2),
• Full-scale Experiments (WP3)
• Evaluation and Dissemination of Results (WP4).

In WP1 the assessment of the grinding behaviour of blends of secondary and primary fuel in conventional coal pulverising systems is the primary task. WP2 concerns the development of the characterisation methods for secondary fuels. Power generators and boiler manufacturers co-operate on a European level in WP3 to gather full-scale power plant experience. The critical assessment of the results and the possible application in industry is the major item of WP4.

Results

During the second year of the BIOFLAM project, extensive work on the grinding behaviour of blends of coal and secondary fuels on full and laboratory scale were carried out. Although these results are not yet fully analysed it can be stated at this point that, in general, standard tests and standard equipment can be used to determine the grinding characteristics of blends.

Also the results from full scale grinding experiments indicate that for many of the selected bio-fuels standard equipment can be used without major problems. The other main task of the second year was the evaluation of standard coal procedures to determine the combustion properties of pure bio-fuels and their blends with coal. Due to the great variety of selected fuels, and also the number of different test methods involved, the evaluation of the results requires very careful consideration.

Basic analysis methods must be taken into account like proximate and ultimate analysis together with TGA analysis, and also methods like plug flow reactor measurements where the severe environment of a real pf flame is simulated. Although the experiments for this part are still on going, a general approach of characterising blends of coal with biofuels becomes clearer.

Due to the deviating combustion behaviour of many of the biofuels compared to coal, an approach has to be chosen which definitely includes methods which are tailored to simulate the heating rate and the time-temperature history a blend is exposed to in a real pf combustion application. Together with basic analysis methods it seems to be possible to get precise information to predict the combustion behaviour of blends of biofuels and coals.

Expected impact

The aim of the project is to provide reliable methods to characterise the preparation and combustion performance of blends of coal and secondary fuels. This includes a detailed understanding of the fundamental processes, which are to be considered when using nonstandard fuels together with coal.

Besides the direct assumptions, which can be obtained from the numerous experimental investigations, the collected data can be used for the further development of mathematical models, which can be used to predict the behaviour of an unknown fuel before application on industrial scale.