Effect of biomass blending on coal ignition and burnout during oxy-fuel combustion

Oxy-fuel combustion is a GHG abatement technology in which coal is burned using a mixture of oxygen and recycled flue gas, to obtain a rich stream of CO2 ready for sequestration. An entrained flow reactor was used in this work to study the ignition and burnout of coals and blends with biomass under oxy-fuel conditions. Mixtures of CO2/O2 of different concentrations were used and compared with air as reference. A worsening of the ignition temperature was detected in CO2/O2 mixtures when the oxygen concentration was the same as that of the air. However, at an oxygen concentration of 30% or higher, an improvement in ignition was observed. The blending of biomass clearly improves the ignition properties of coal in air. The burnout of coals and blends with a mixture of 79%CO2–21%O2 is lower than in air, but an improvement is achieved when the oxygen concentration is 30 or 35%. The results of this work indicate that coal burnout can be improved by blending biomass in CO2/O2 mixtures.