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Predicting Melt Formation and Agglomeration in Fluidized Bed Combustors by Equilibrium Calculations

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Abstract

Thermal valorization of biomass or waste in a fluidized bed combustor may result in agglomeration of the bed material, coated with ash, potentially causing defluidization. In this paper, the causes of agglomeration for various fuels are critically reviewed, based on thermodynamic grounds. It is shown that even for phosphorus rich biomass types, in most cases the largest melt phase consists of alkali silicates: Ca phosphates are formed instead of Ca silicates, leading to lower melting points in the CaO–K2O–SiO2 system. Although thermodynamic optimization of the four main ash forming elements (K, Ca, Si and P) only provides an estimate of the amount of melt phase, it is shown that for various fuels the agglomeration behavior can be explained consistent with experimental findings from literature. As a consequence, for most biomass and waste types a similar thermodynamic estimation can be made to predict agglomeration problems and incorporate countermeasures in the design and operation of the fluidized bed combustor.

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Acknowledgments

The support of BMC Moerdijk (The Netherlands) to this research is gratefully acknowledged. The work of master student Benji Creemers contributed to this review paper. Thomas Suetens and Bart Blanpain are acknowledged for the help with the use of the FactSage program at the MTM department of KU Leuven.

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  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Willem de Croylaan 46, 3001, Leuven, Belgium

    P. Billen, J. Van Caneghem & C. Vandecasteele

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Billen, P., Van Caneghem, J. & Vandecasteele, C. Predicting Melt Formation and Agglomeration in Fluidized Bed Combustors by Equilibrium Calculations. Waste Biomass Valor 5, 879–892 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-013-9285-0

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