Reduction of fuel side costs due to biomass co-combustion

The feasibility and influence of co-combustion of woody biomass on the fuel side costs is discussed for three hard coal power plants located in Berlin, Germany. Fuel side costs are defined as the costs resulting from flue gas cleaning and by-products. To have reliable data, co-firing tests were conducted in two power plants (i.e., slag tap furnace and circulating fluidising bed combustion). The amount of wood which was co-fired varied at levels below 11% of the fuel heat input. Wood chips originating from landscape management were used. The analyses show that co-combustion of woody biomass can lower the fuel side costs and that the co-combustion at a level below 10% of the thermal capacity is technically feasible without major problems. Furthermore, a flexible spreadsheet tool was developed for the calculation of fuel side costs and suggestions for operational improvements were made. For example, the adaptation of the Ca/S ratio (mass ratio of calcium in limestone to sulphur in the fuel) in one plant could reduce the fuel side costs up to 135 k€ yr(-1) (0.09 €M Wh(-1)).