Computational modelling of biomass co-firing and slag formation under air/oxy-fuel combustion in furnaces

Biomass fuels are treated as CO2 neutral energy source which can be co-fired with coal to decrease the total costs of power production. Utilization of these fuels increases the possibilities of slagging and fouling risk. To better understand and thus improve the design for co-firing and slagging in wall-fired furnace, a computational model has been developed for predicting the co-firing scenario, emission level, slag formation mechanism under air/oxy-fuel conditions. It was predicted that 20% biomass can be co-fired with coal in industrial power plant. The pollutant emissions can be significantly reduced by using oxy-fuel combustion technique which provides equivalent heat transfer performance.