Research Surrounding The Co-Combustion Of Coal And Biomass

1. Introduction

Research surrounding the co-combustion of coal and biomass is important because it provides a more environmentally focused method of power generation that can be used throughout the world. This subject was chosen to bring light to the topic of co-combustion of coal and biomass and to examine recent work performed in this particular area.

One of the best ways to curb hazardous emissions is to introduce biomass and waste as replacements for fossil fuels in the power generation process. This method is becoming more popular, because biomass is considered to be a renewable energy source. Biomass consists of corn cobs, straw, rice husks, short rotation herbaceous crops, woody crops, sawdust, coconut coir, alfalfa stems, various types

It is a fuel blending practice common to the solid fuels community. Three general techniques make up the cofiring technology family: blending the biomass and coal in the fuel handling system and feeding that blend to the boiler; preparing the biomass fuel separately from coal, and injecting it into the boiler without impacting the conventional coal delivery system; and gasifying the biomass with subsequent combustion of the producer gas in either a boiler or a combined cycle combustion turbine generating plant [3].

Co-firing is viewed as the most cost effective approach to biomass utilization by the electric utility industry. It was introduced to reduce CO2 emissions and to provide a broader base of biofuel supplies by developing infrastructural support for fuel supply and delivery. State and Federal efforts have also been put in place to promote the use of biomass fuels for electricity generation by providing tax incentives for producing power from biomass

They also determined that the cost of retrofitting an existing coal-fired power plant to a co-combustion plant could be considerably lower than building a new-dedicated biomass or waste-fired plant. It was also concluded that using biomass in boilers offered many advantages including mitigating CO2, NOx, SOx and CO emissions. It also increased flame temperature [2].

Larry Baxter investigated the cofiring of biomass with coal and determined that it provides the most cost effective means of reducing net CO2 emissions from coal-based power plants and among the most efficient and inexpensive use of biomass. He researched over 100 successful field demonstrations in 16 different countries and covered nearly every major type of biomass available. He showed that among countries actively working to improve global climate change through mitigation strategies that cofiring was ranked the lowest risk and least expensive of all strategies that were investigated