A continuation of 20 years of EU-Funded research on fuel characterization, ash and deposit formation, and corrosion
Dokumenttyp:
Report / Forschungsbericht
Autor(en):
Frandsen, F.; Fendt, S.; Spliethoff, H.
Abstract:
Heating and cooling are responsible for approximately half of EU’s final energy demand, while
biomass is currently responsible for more than 90% of all renewable heat. The goal is to increase
share of biomass-based technologies, in the European heat market, from 11% in 2007 to about 25%
in 2020 [RHC-Platform, 2014]. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) from biomass is a suitable
technology for medium- and large-scale units, where many utility and industrial applications can be
found, especially in Scandinavia. The main challenge for efficient CHP and high temperature steam
production from biomass are ash-related problems. Corrosion due to the difficult ash composition of
biomass limits both steam temperature and efficiency. By solving these issues, large-scale boilers
offer a huge potential for efficiency increase and emission reduction, during CHP generation at costcompetitive
and environmental friendly conditions. In order to reach these goals, and to enable a
secure and nearly carbon neutral heat and power generation, recently, the Biofficiency proposal, was
granted under Horizon2020, aiming to:
• Develop next generation, biomass-fired CHP plant, increasing the steam temperatures up to
600°C, at medium to large scale (10 to 200 MWth).
• Increase the efficiency of CHP plants by elevated steam temperatures through solving and
understanding of ash-related problems – slagging, fouling and corrosion.
• Reduce emissions – i.e. CO2, particulates, CO, NOX, and SO2 – by efficiency gain, reduction of
impurities and by intelligent plant design.
• Broaden the feedstocks for pulverized fuel (PF) and fluidized bed (FB) power plants, using
pre-treatment methods with focus on the reduction of harmful, inorganic elements: Cl, S and the
alkali metals.
• Prevent power plant damage due to high-temperature Cl-induced corrosion.
• Reduce costs for utilities due to increased efficiency, lowered emissions and fuel consumption,
decreased number of outages and maintenance due to handling of ash-related problems.
• Optimize biomass blending (e.g. wood & sewage sludge) in order to reduce slagging, fouling
and corrosion propensities by the adjustment of ash chemistry, enabling new ash utilisation
options.
• Develop better furnace materials.
• Widen ash utilization and nutrient recirculation, by detailed ash analysis in terms of chemistry
and physical properties.
When preparing the proposal, a state-of-the-art note on the above issues was written, and this paper
contains a brief outline of the previous EU-based activities on these issues, which led to the outline
and formulation of the Biofficiency proposal. A complete review of 20 years of EU-funded research
on fuel characterization, ash and deposit formation, corrosion, ash utilization is out of the scope, since
it would require a substantial number of pages and details, but the paper serves more like a resume of
the activities and, perhaps, a forerunner for a more detailed peer-view paper on this issue.