PRODUCTION OF NEW BIOMASS/WASTE-CONTAINING SOLID FUELS

Akers, David J. ; Shirey, Glenn A. ; Zitron, Zalman ; Maney, Charles Q.

National Energy Technology Laboratory (U.S.)

关键词: Biomass;    Combustion;    Economics;    01 Coal, Lignite, And Peat;    Boilers;   

DOI  :  10.2172/806994
RP-ID  :  AC26-99FT40159--02
RP-ID  :  AC26-99FT40159
RP-ID  :  806994

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

CQ Inc. and its team members (ALSTOM Power Inc., Bliss Industries, McFadden Machine Company, and industry advisors from coal-burning utilities, equipment manufacturers, and the pellet fuels industry) addressed the objectives of the Department of Energy and industry to produce economical, new solid fuels from coal, biomass, and waste materials that reduce emissions from coal-fired boilers. This project builds on the team's commercial experience in composite fuels for energy production. The electric utility industry is interested in the use of biomass and wastes as fuel to reduce both emissions and fuel costs. In addition to these benefits, utilities also recognize the business advantage of consuming the waste byproducts of customers both to retain customers and to improve the public image of the industry. Unfortunately, biomass and waste byproducts can be troublesome fuels because of low bulk density, high moisture content, variable composition, handling and feeding problems, and inadequate information about combustion and emissions characteristics. Current methods of co-firing biomass and wastes either use a separate fuel receiving, storage, and boiler feed system, or mass burn the biomass by simply mixing it with coal on the storage pile. For biomass or biomass-containing composite fuels to be extensively used in the U.S., especially in the steam market, a lower cost method of producing these fuels must be developed that includes both moisture reduction and pelletization or agglomeration for necessary fuel density and ease of handling. Further, this method of fuel production must be applicable to a variety of combinations of biomass, wastes, and coal; economically competitive with current fuels; and provide environmental benefits compared with coal. Notable accomplishments from the work performed in Phase I of this project include the development of three standard fuel formulations from mixtures of coal fines, biomass, and waste materials that can be used in existing boilers, evaluation of these composite fuels to determine their applicability to the major combustor types, development of preliminary designs and economic projections for commercial facilities producing up to 200,000 tons per year of biomass/waste-containing fuels, and the development of dewatering technologies to reduce the moisture content of high-moisture biomass and waste materials during the pelletization process.