Experimental studies on combustion of composite biomass pellets in fluidized bed

This work presents studies on the combustion of Composite Biomass Pellets (CBP_S) in fluidized bed using bauxite particles as the bed material. Prior to the combustion experiment, cold-flow characterization and thermogravimetric analysis are performed to investigate the effect of air velocity and combustion mechanism of CBP_S. The cold-state test shows that CBPs and bauxite particles fluidize well in the fluidized bed. However, because of the presence of large CBPs, optimization of the fluidization velocity is rather challenging. CBPs can gather at the bottom of the fluidized bed at lower gas velocities. On the contrary, when the velocity is too high, they accumulate in the upper section of the fluidized bed. The suitable fluidization velocity for the system in this study was found to be between 1.5-2.0m/s. At the same time, it is found that the critical fluidization velocity and the pressure fluctuation of the two-component system increase with the increase of CBPs mass concentration. The thermogravimetric experiment verifies that the combustion of CBPs is a first-order reaction, and it is divided into three stages: (i) dehydration, (ii) release and combustion of the volatile and (iii) the coke combustion. The combustion of CBPs is mainly based on the stage of volatile combustion, and its activation energy is greater than that of char combustion. During the combustion test, CBP_S are burned at a 10kg/h feed rate, while the excess air is varied from 25% to 100%. Temperatures of the bed and flue gas concentrations (O₂, CO, SO₂ and NO) are recorded. CBPs can be burnt stably, and the temperature of dense phase is maintained at 765-780°C. With the increase of the air velocity, the main combustion region has a tendency to move up. While the combustion is stable, O₂ and CO₂ concentrations are maintained at about 7%, and 12%, respectively. The concentration of SO₂ in the flue gas after the initial stage of combustion is nearly zero. Furthermore, NO concentration is found to be closely related to O₂: the NO reaches its peak value after initial stage and later decreases with the continued depletion of O₂. Towards the end of combustion, NO increases with the increase of O₂.