Co-firing animal waste, sludge, residue wood, peat and forest fuels in a 50MWth CFB boiler ash transformation, availability and process improvements

Sammanfattning: The direct variable costs for heat and electricity production based on solid biomass fuel combustion is approximately 3-5 times lower than the costs in a fossil fuel-oil based boiler in Sweden. In addition waste derived biomass fuels are typically much cheaper than biomass not classified as waste. The introduction of the waste derived fuels; wastewater treatment sludge, demolition wood, and animal waste in a 50MWth circulating fluidized bed (CFB) biomass boiler located in Perstorp, Sweden, led to rapid deposit buildup in superheaters, heavy ash accumulation in economizers and failing boiler tubes and vortex finders that forced frequent boiler shutdowns. This in turn increased the use of expensive oil (fossil fuel) in backup boilers and the CO2 footprint of the on-site energy conversion system. This work aims to increase the general mechanistic understanding of combustion systems using complex fuels, and includes: A mapping of the boiler failure and preventive maintenance statistics; elemental composition analysis of ash, deposits and fuel fractions; flue-gas composition measurements; chemical speciation analysis; an attempt to describe the overall ash transformation reactions and mass balance throughout the combustion process. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was used to analyze the elemental composition of ash and deposits. The SEM-EDS results were used together with data from X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis, thermodynamic phase data, and equilibrium calculations in an attempt to quantify the crystalline phases and the overall ash transformation of the process. Based on the findings concerning ash transformation and the failure statistics, it has been possible to identify generic key parameters regarding boiler design and process parameters, enabling major improvements of the CFB boiler availability, a lower overall energy conversion cost and a reduced CO2 footprint.