Ilmenite as alternative bed material for the combustion of coal and biomass blends in a fluidised bed combustor to improve combustion performance and reduce agglomeration tendency

Co-firing coal and biomass has the potential to reduce GHG emissions. However, high levels of alkali alkaline metals in ash can bring additional issues operation coal-fired boilers. This study investigates effects ilmenite as bed material on CO NOx emissions combustion efficiency a blend, agglomeration tendency with pilot-scale (30 kWth) bubbling fluidised combustor. The experiments were carried out at 900 °C using bituminous blended wheat straw pellets 40 wt% fuel silica sand baseline material. Samples agglomerates collected from combustor cyclone characterised by SEM-EDS, XRD, XRF. results revealed that could level excess air required achieve complete due lower less loss compared sand. increased Furthermore, characterisation obtained showed hinder K-rich molten substance attachment material, leading significantly smaller hence towards defluidisation comparison