Title: Emissions and performance from a biomass boiler for different solid biomass fuels

Authors: S. Oberweis; T.T. Al-Shemmeri

Addresses: Centre of Excellence for Biomass, Staffordshire University, Beaconside, Stafford, ST18 0AD, UK. ' Centre of Excellence for Biomass, Staffordshire University, Beaconside, Stafford, ST18 0AD, UK

Abstract: During biomass combustion, a number of physical and chemical processes occur in time and space during the combustion. The processes include: drying and preheating of the fuel, pyrolytic release of volatile matter, glowing combustion char, etc. In general the combustion of biomass produces, next to energy, ash, carbon dioxide and monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter. This paper investigates characteristics of different biomass samples, such as the moisture, ash and fixed carbon content and the volatile matter. The paper tries to find a correlation for fuels from the North-West European region with their higher heating values. These correlations are compared to previous publications. Furthermore, the paper presents a performance and emissions evaluation for 40 kW biomass boiler. The results show that biomass is a valuable option for energy generation and the reduction of GHG gases.

Keywords: biomass boilers; biomass combustion; performance; moisture; ash; fixed carbon content; volatile matter; energy generation; greenhouse gases; GHG emissions; solid fuels; biofuels.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRET.2012.049528

International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology, 2012 Vol.3 No.4, pp.323 - 340

Received: 21 Mar 2011
Accepted: 12 Dec 2011
Published online: 29 Oct 2014 *

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