Solid biomass ash related issues and adequate fuel characterization,
especially for fuels with similar thermochemical properties, are still
major challenges in combustion. As a consequence, the fuel switching
and the valorization of unconventional available fuels are hazardous.
An integrated strategy to characterize biomass fuels for ash related
issues is applied to four residual woody fuels, namely, a mesquite
wood mixture, rubberwood, an invader bush wood, and bamboo wood. The
characterization is performed with detailed analyses including (i)
ash composition, (ii) ash association forms by leaching, (iii) recently
reviewed predictive correlations, (iv) thermochemical equilibrium
computations to predict the ash phases formed as a function of the
combustion parameters and with the use of a state-of-the-art oxide
database, and (v) experimental testing in a 100 kWth circulating
fluidized bed pilot reactor (CFB100). The CFB100 testing allowed investigation
of the fuel ash cycle including fly ash recirculation, agglomeration
and fouling tendencies, and the use of halloysite and kaolin mineral
additives. Among the four fuels, bamboo evidenced the higher agglomeration
trend, which increased when reducing the additive. With respect to
the other fuels, rubberwood seems to have a slightly higher tendency
to initiate the coating-induced agglomeration mechanism. Concerning
fouling, the mesquite mixture wood is more prone to deposition, mainly
because of the formation of Ca-based deposits, while for the other
three fuels, ash partitioning shows that the majority of reactive
alkali metals fed to the pilot is accumulated in the bottom ash and
circulating material. The novel integrated strategy is successfully
applied for advanced solid biomass fuel characterization for combustion.
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