Chemical fractionation for the characterisation of fly ashes from co-combustion of biofuels using different methods for alkali reduction

Journal article, 2009

a b s t r a c t Chemical fractionation, SEM–EDX and XRD was used for characterisation of fly ashes from different cocombustion tests in a 12MW circulating fluidized bed boiler. The fuels combusted were wood pellets as base fuel and straw pellets as co-fuel in order to reach a fuel blend with high alkali and chlorine concentrations. This fuel blend causes severe problems with both agglomeration of bed material if silica sand is used and with deposits in the convection section of the boiler. Counter measures to handle this situation and avoiding expensive shut downs, tests with alternative bed materials and additives were performed. Three different bed materials were used; silica sand, Olivine sand and blast furnace slag (BFS) and different additives were introduced to the furnace of the boiler; Kaolin, Zeolites and Sulphur with silica sand as bed material. The results of the study are that BFS gives the lowest alkali load in the convection pass compared with Silica and Olivine sand. In addition less alkali and chlorine was found in the fly ashes in the BFS case. The Olivine sand however gave a higher alkali load in the convection section and the chemical fractionation showed that the main part of the alkali in the fly ashes was soluble, thus found as KCl which was confirmed by the SEM–EDX and XRD. The comparison of the different additives gave that addition of Kaolin and Zeolites containing aluminium- silicates captured 80% of the alkali in the fly ash as insoluble alkali–aluminium-silikates and reduced the KCl load on the convection section. Addition of sulphur reduced the KCl load in the flue gas even more but the K2SO4 concentration was increased and KCl was found in the fly ashes anyhow. The chemical fractionation showed that 65% of the alkali in the fly ashes of the Sulphur case was soluble.