Co-firing: Analysis of fuel systems for the co-firing of biomass in 20 existing plants in Europe

New types of solid biofuels are penetrating into the fuel markets. Solid biofuels are initially being utilised in existing power plants. At the moment the typical method is co-firing or co-combustion. Especially, handling and feeding of new fuel types into the boiler is often problematic because the variation in particle size, flow and handling properties, heat value, density, chemical composition and ash behaviour. The lack of available design parameters or planning instructions for handling operations of the new fuels is obvious. It is therefore necessary to develop and promote the co-firing of biomass in different existing plants and new power plants. This presupposes in most cases retrofits to FB or grate boilers and a separate gasifier connected to the main boiler or new boilers. Demonstration plants, the development of facilities and equipment aas well as the research work are most important in this field.