The technical performance and cost effectiveness of white wood pellets combustion in comparison to three types of coal namely U.S., Russian and Colombian coals are investigated in this study. Post-combustion Capture and Storage (CCS) namely with amine FG+, and Oxy-fuel with carbon capture and storage (Oxy-fuel) are applied to a 650 MW pulverised combustion (PC) plant. The impacts of the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) and carbon price (CP) policy and in accelerating the CCS deployment in the framework of GHG emissions mitigation, are also evaluated. The operational factors affecting CCS costs and emissions in the power generation plants are taken into consideration, hence, the Integrated Environmental Control Model (IECM 8.0.2) is employed for a systematic estimation of plant performance, costs and emissions of different scenarios of fuel and CCS technologies.. This study showed that the utilization of white wood pellets (WWP) in the electricity generation can annually avoid about 3M tonnes CO 2 emissions from a 650 MW power plant. However, this mitigation process had impact on the plant efficiency and the cost of electricity. Further, the BECCS using white wood pellets has showed a better efficiency and lower cost of electricity with the oxy-fuel technology than the post-combustion CCS technology. However, in order to booster the BECCS deployment with the WWP, an increase of the ROC for biomass power plants, or, an increase of the carbon price for the coal power plants is recommended. It was found that, the sensitivity of COE towards the ROC was higher than towards the carbon price variation. This result can be interpreted as the ROC has more positive impact than the carbon price, on the COE from the point of customers view without adding more burdens on the power generation companies.

The available data on intrinsic kinetic parameters of wood char combustion is limited in the literature. The intrinsic reactivity of porous char particles reflects the variance in the pore structure resulted from various compositions of parent biomass or coal fuels. In this study detailed kinetic models for calculating the intrinsic reaction rate and the Arrhenius parameters in two combustion zones are developed for the char combustion. The influence of the parent fuel composition and the thermal treatment on the char oxidative reactivity observed on the char surface area and particle density are explored through a mathematical model of the char service area and density. A higher reactivity of the wood pellets than coal and enhanced reactivity with the increasing pyrolysis temperature were observed as well.

HIGHLIGHTS Deposition tendencies of wood pellets are predicted by the ash stream compositions. Wood pellets have a low tendency for slagging and high tendency for fouling. Oxy-fuel combustion reduces slagging yet increases fouling tendencies of alkali sulphates. Oxy-fuel combustion can reduce the propensity of high-temperature corrosion problems. Ash behaviour of wood pellets is significantly changed when replacing air-fuel with oxy-fuel conditions.

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