Cofiring of wood: Fuel handling and combustion

New types of solid biofuels are penetrating into the fuel market. Solid biofuels are initially being utilised in existing power plants. At the moment the typical method is cofiring or cocombustion. Especially, the handling and feeding of the new fuel types into the boiler is often problematic, because of 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 cofiring 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 and research work are most important in this field.