Wood/coal cofiring in industrial stoker boilers
Realizing that a significant reduction in the global emissions of fossil carbon dioxide may require the installation of a wide variety of control technologies, options for large and small boilers are receiving attention. With over 1,500 coal-fired stoker boilers in the US, biomass co-firing is of interest, which would also open markets for waste wood which is presently landfilled at significant costs ranging from $20--200/ton. While much cofiring occurs inside the fence, where industrial firms burn wastes in their site boilers, other opportunities exist. Emphasis has been placed on stoker boilers in the northeastern US, where abundant supplies of urban wood waste are generally known to exist. Broken pallets form a significant fraction of this waste. In 1997, the cofiring of a volumetric mixture of 30% ground broken pallet material and 70% coal was demonstrated successfully at the traveling-grate stoker boilerplant of the Pittsburgh Brewing Company. Fourteen test periods, with various wood/coal mixtures blended on site, and two extended test periods, using wood/coal mixtures blended at the coal terminal and transported by truck to the brewery, were conducted. The 30% wood/70% coal fuel was conveyed through the feed system without difficulty, and combusted properly on the grate while meeting opacity requirements with low SO{sub 2} and NO{sub x} emissions. Efforts are underway to commercialize a wood/coal blend at the brewery, to identify specific urban wood supplies in the Pittsburgh region and to conduct a demonstration at a spreader stoker.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20003322
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-990608--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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