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Combustion behaviors of wood pellet fuel and its co-firing with different coals

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Abstract

Biomass resources, which are carbon-neutral and sustainable, may help to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study was performed to examine the effects of wood pellet (WP) particle size, environmental conditions (stoichiometric ratio; SR), and blending ratio on the combustion characteristics of single fuels and blends using a thermogravimetric analyzer and drop tube furnace (DTF). The results indicate that WP demonstrated a higher mass reduction in the devolatilization region and a faster reaction rate compared with coal. Blends tested in the analyzer showed the expected profiles for devolatilization and char oxidation without the presence of non-additive effects. However, the DTF results showed that simultaneous reactive and non-reactive phenomena occurred with increasing biomass-blending ratios. When WP fuel containing fine particles (< 200 μm) was blended with coal under low SR conditions, early-stage oxygen deficiency was caused by rapid combustion. WP fuel containing coarse particles (> 600 μm) showed that unburned carbon (UBC) increased owing to slower reactivity. WP fuel containing particles of 400 μm or less in size demonstrated superior UBC performance, indicating that biomass-coal blends were significantly affected by blending ratio, particle size, and the surrounding environment.

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Abbreviations

V t :

Devolatilization exhausted at a particular time

V*:

Total devolatilization exhaust

E :

Activation energy

R :

Ideal gas constant

k 0 :

Pre-exponential factor

a :

Heating rate

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Science and Technology Support Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) [2017K1A3A9A01013746].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, 46241, Korea

    Lkhagvadorj Sh, Tae-Yong Jeong, Ki-Tae Jeon & Kyung-Won Park

  2. R&D Team, Doosan Heavy Industries, Changwon, Korea

    Byoung-Hwa Lee

  3. School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan Clean Coal Center, Pusan National University, Busan, 46241, Korea

    Chung-Hwan Jeon

Authors
  1. Lkhagvadorj Sh
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  2. Tae-Yong Jeong
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  3. Ki-Tae Jeon
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  4. Kyung-Won Park
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  5. Byoung-Hwa Lee
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  6. Chung-Hwan Jeon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chung-Hwan Jeon.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Jeong Park

Lkhagavdorj Sh (Shagdarsuren) received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology in 2008. He is currently an Integrated Ph.D. course student at Pusan National University.

Tae-Yong Jeong received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Pusan National University in 2010 and 2012, respectively. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Pusan National University.

Ki-Tae Jeon received his B.S. degree in Physics from Pusan National University in 2017. He received his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pusan National University in 2019.

Kyung-Won Park received his B.S. degree in Physics from Pusan National University in 2017. He received his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pusan National University in 2019.

Byoung-Hwa Lee received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Korea Maritime University in 2003. He received his Ph.D. degree from Pusan National University in 2011. He is currently a Principal Research Engineer at Boiler R&D Center in Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction.

Chung-Hwan Jeon received his B.S. (1985), M.S. (1987), and Ph.D. (1994) degrees from Pusan National University. He is currently a Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Pusan National University, and is currently serving as a Director of Pusan Clean Coal Center and CFB Research Center.

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Sh, L., Jeong, TY., Jeon, KT. et al. Combustion behaviors of wood pellet fuel and its co-firing with different coals. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 4545–4553 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0851-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0851-7

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