• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 2017

Co-firing of renewable fuel in coal fired boilers is an attractive option to mitigate $CO_2$ emissions, since it is a relatively low cost option for efficiently converting renewable fuel to electricity by adding biomass as partial substitute of coal. However, it would cause reducing plant efficiency and operational flexibility, and increasing operation and capital cost associated with handling and firing equipment of renewable fuels. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of biomass co-firing on $CO_2$ emission and capital/operating cost. Wood pellet, PKS (palm kernel shell), EFB (empty fruit bunch) and sludge are considered as renewable fuels for co-firing with coal. Several approaches by the co-firing ratio are chosen from previous plant demonstrations and commercial co-firing operation, and they are evaluated and discussed for $CO_2$ reduction and cost estimation.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.525-529
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• 2016

Biomass co-firing to existing thermal power plants is one of the most economical and efficient way to reduce $CO_2$ emission from the plant. There are several methods of co-firing and it can be categorized into (1) Parallel co-firing, (2) Indirect co-firing, and (3) Direct co-firing. Parallel co-firing is the most expensive way to high-ratio co-firing because it requires biomass dedicated boiler. Direct co-firing is widely used because it does not need high capital cost compared with the other two methods. Regarding the direct co-firing, it can be classified into three methods- Method 1 does not need retrofit of the facilities because it uses existing coal mills for pulverizing biomass fuels. In this case high-ratio co-firing cannot be achieved because of poor grindability of biomass fuels. Method 2 needs biomass-dedicated mills and revision of fuel streams for the combustion system, and Method 3 needs additional retrofit of the boiler as well as biomass mills. It can achieve highest share of the biomass co-firing compared with other two methods. In Korea, many coal power plants have been adopting Method 1 for coping with RPS(Renewable portfolio standards). Higher co-firing ratio (> 5% thermal share) has not been considered in Korean power plants due to policy of limitation in biomass co-firing for securing REC(Renewable Energy Certificate). On the other hand, higher-share co-firing of biomass is widely used in Europe and US using biomass dedicated mills, following their policy to enhance utilization of renewable energy in those countries. Technical problems which can be caused by increasing share of the biomass in coal power plants are summarized and discussed in this report. $CO_2$ abatement will become more and more critical issues for coal power plants since Paris agreement(2015) and demand of higher share of biomass in the coal power plants will be rapidly increased in Korea as well. Torrefaction of the biomass can be one of the best options because torrefied biomass has higher heating value and grindability than other biomass fuels. Perspective of the biomass torrefaction for co-firing is discussed, and economic feasibility of biomass torrefaction will be crucial for implementation of this technology.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2014

The capital city of Himalayan Country Nepal, Kathmandu Valley is surrounded by consecutive high mountains, which limits the air distribution and mixing effects significantly. It in turn generates steady air flow pattern over a year except in monsoon season. The air shed in the Valley is easily trapped by the surrounded mountains and the inversion layer formulated as the cap. The $PM_{10}$ concentration was noticeably higher than the standard level (120 ${\mu}g/m^3$) in urban and suburban area of Kathmandu valley for all seasons except monsoon period. The Valley area experiences similar wind patterns (W, WWS, and S) for a year but the Easterly wind prevails only during the monsoon period. There was low and calm wind blows during the winter season. Because of this air flow structure, the air emission from various sources is accumulated within the valley air, high level of air pollution is frequently recorded with other air polluted cities over the world. In this Valley area, brick kilns are recognized as the major air pollution source followed by vehicles. Mostly Bull Trench Kiln (BKT), Hoffman Kiln and Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSBK) are in operation for brick firing in Kathmandu valley where the fuels such as crushed coal, saw dust, and natural gas are used for processing bricks in this study. Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts (TRACI) was used for screening and quantifying the potential impacts of air emission from firing fuels. The total Environmental Performance Score (EPS) was estimated and the EPS of coal was approximately 2.5 times higher than those of natural gas and saw dust. It is concluded that the crushed coal has more negative impact to the environment and human health than other fuel sources. Concerning the human health and environment point of view, alternative environment friendly firing fuel need to be used for brick industry in the kiln and the air pollution control devices also need to be applied for minimizing the air emissions from the kilns.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2014

The vast stores of biomass available in the worldwide have the potential to displace significant amounts of petroleum fuels. Fast pyrolysis of biomass is one of several paths by which we can convert biomass to higher value products. The wood pyrolysis oil (WPO) has been regarded as an alternative fuel for petroleum fuels to be used in diesel engine. However, the use of WPO in a diesel engine requires modifications due to low energy density, high water contents, high acidity, high viscosity, and low cetane number of the WPO. One possible method by which the shortcomings may be circumvented is to co-fire WPO with other petroleum fuels. WPO has poor miscibility with light petroleum fuel oils; the most suitable candidates fuels for direct fuel mixing are methanol or ethanol. Early mixing with methanol or ethanol has the added benefit of significantly improving the storage and handling properties of the WPO. For separate injection co-firing, a WPO-ethanol blended fuel can be fired through diesel pilot injection in a dual-injection dieel engine. In this study, the performance and emission characteristics of a dual-injection diesel engine fuelled with diesel (pilot injection) and WPO-ethanol blend (main injection) were experimentally investigated. Results showed that although stable engine operation was possible with separate injection co-firing, the fuel conversion efficiency was slightly decreased due to high water contents of WPO compare to diesel combustion.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.8-17
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• 2014

The aims of this research were to evaluate effects of biomass co-firing to pulverized coal power plants and the variation of co-firing ratios on the plant efficiency related to power consumption of auxiliary system and flue gas characteristics such as production and component by process simulation based on the existing pulverized coal power plant. In this study, four kinds of biomass are selected as renewable fuel candidates for co-firing: wood pellet(WP), palm kernel shell(PKS), empty fruit bunch(EFB) and walnut shell(WS). Process simulation for various biomass fuels and co-firing ratios was performed using a commercial software. Gas side including combustion system and flue gas treatment system was considering with combination of water and steam side which contains turbines, condenser, feed water heaters and pumps. As a result, walnut shell might be the most suitable as co-firing fuel among four biomass since when 10% of walnut shell was co-fired with 90% of coal on thermal basis, flue gas production and power consumption of auxiliary systems were the smallest than those of other biomass co-firing while net plant efficiency was relatively higher than those of other biomass co-firing. However, with increasing walnut shell co-firing ratios, boiler efficiency and net plant efficiency were expected to decrease rather than coal combustion without biomass co-firing.

• Clean Technology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.323-331
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• 2018

The results of an experimental investigation on the co-firing characteristics and slagging behavior of dried and hydrothermal carbonization sewage sludge, sub-bituminous coal, and wood pellet in a fluidized bed were presented. Combustion tests were conducted in a lab-scale bubbling fluidized bed system at the uniform fuel-air equivalence ratio, air flow rate, and initial bed temperature to measure bed temperature distribution and combustion gas composition. 4 different fuel blending cases were prepared by mixing sewage sludge fuels with coal and wood pellet with the ratio of 50 : 50 by the heating value. $NO_x$ was mostly NO than $NO_2$ and measured in the range of 400 to 600 ppm in all cases. $SO_2$ was considered to be affected mostly by the sulfur content of the sewage sludge fuels. The cases of hydrothermal carbonization sewage sludge mixture showed slightly less $SO_2$ emission but higher fuel-N conversion than the dried sewage sludge mixing cases. The result of fly ash composition analysis implied that the sewage sludge fuels would increase the possibility of slagging/fouling considering the contents of alkali species, such as Na, K, P. Between the two different sewage sludge fuels, dried sewage sludge fuel was expected to have the more severe impact on slagging/fouling behavior than hydrothermal carbonization sewage sludge fuel.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.43-48
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• 1998

A short-cut equation for the calculation of the air ratio in the case of firing gases containing incombustibles has been derived on the basis of mass balances. The new equation requires the oxygen concentration and the amount of carbon dioxide in the combustion gas, theoretical oxygen and air requirements, and the content of incombustibles other than carbon dioxide in the fuel for the air ratio calculation. By using the equation, a theoretically correct calculation of the air ratio has been enabled.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2013.06a
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• pp.19-20
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• 2013

The cofiring of renewable fuel in coal fired boilers is an attractive option to mitigate $CO_2$ emissions, since it is relatively low cost option for efficiently converting renewable fuel to electricity by adding biomass as partial substitute of coal. However, it would lead to reduce plant efficiency and flexibility in operation, and increase operation cost and capital cost associated with renewable fuels handling and firing equipment. The aim of this study is to investigate reduction of carbon dioxide at varying percentage of biomass in fuel blend to the boiler biomass, and estimate operation and capital cost. Wood pellet, PKS (palm kernel shell), EFB (empty fruit bunch) and sludge are considered as a renewable fuels for a cofiring with coal. Several approaches by the cofiring ratio are chosen from past plant demonstrations and commercial cofiring operation, and they are evaluated and discussed for CO2 reduction and cost estimation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2015

This paper presents the results of field demonstration for fuel switching to bio-fuel oil in 4 commercial heavy oil fired power plants. The 100% fuel switching field demonstration was successfully carried out in two tangential-firing boilers at a capacity of 75 and 100 MWe respectively without major equipment retrofit, and also 25% bio-fuel oil blending for two opposite firing boilers at a capacity of 350 and 400 MWe respectively. Despite the low density and heating value, the bio fuel was successfully replaced heavy fuel oil at the full load by only adjusting operational parameters. Incase of bio fuel oil combustion, heat absorption of radiative heat transfer section was reduced while convection section has opposite trend. In pollutants emission, a major reductionin SOx as well as 10-20% reduction in NOx were achieved by the fuels witching. On the other hand, boiler efficiency was slightly underestimated.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.47-53
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• 2020

The amount of food waste and its water content depends on both the season and region. In particular, the water content typically varies between 73.8 wt.% and 83.3 wt.%, depending on the proportion of vegetables. Current food waste drying technologies are capable of reducing the water content to less than 10 wt.%, while increasing the heating value. Ongoing studies aim to utilize dried food waste as fuel. Food waste can be used to produce solid refuse fuel (SRF) by mixing it with various solid fuels or other types of waste. The analysis of specimens is very important when considering the direct combustion of food waste or its co-firing with solid fuels. In this study, the weight reduction of specimens after burning them in a small combustor, and compared with the results of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The concentration of various chemicals was also measured to define the characteristics of waste generation. Performed proximate analysis, elemental analysis, TGA, combustion experiment, the heating value, and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG).