Co-combustion: A summary of technology

Abstract

Co-combustion of biomass or waste together with a base fuel in a boiler is a simple and economically suitable way to replace fossil fuels by biomass and to utilize waste. Co-combustion in a high-efficiency power station means utilization of biomass and waste with a higher thermal efficiency than what otherwise had been possible. Due to transport limitations, the additional fuel will only supply a minor part (less than a few hundreds MW fuel) of the energy in a plant. There are several options: co-combustion with coal in pulverized or fluidized bed boilers, combustion on added grates inserted in pulverized coal boilers, combustors for added fuel coupled in parallel to the steam circuit of a power plant, external gas producers delivering its gas to replace an oil, gas or pulverized fuel burner. Furthermore biomass can be used for reburning in order to reduce NO emissions or for afterburning to reduce N2O emissions in fluidized bed boilers. Combination of fuels can give rise to positive or negative synergy effects, of which the best known are the interactions between S, Cl, K, Al, and Si that may give rise to or prevent deposits on tubes or on catalyst surfaces, or that may have an influence on the formation of dioxins. With better knowledge of these effects the positive ones can be utilized and the negative ones can be avoided.