John Sweeten

CO-FIRING COAL, FEEDLOT, AND LITTER BIOMASS (CFB AND LFB) FUELS IN PULVERIZED FUEL AND FIXED BED BURNERS

Intensive animal feeding operations create large amounts of animal waste that must be safely disposed of in order to avoid environmental degradation. Cattle feedlots and chicken houses are two examples. In feedlots, cattle are confined to small pens and fed a high calorie grain diet in preparation for slaughter. In chicken houses, thousands of chickens are kept in close proximity. In both of these operations, millions of tons of manure are produced every year. In this project a co-firing technology is proposed which would use manure that cannot be used for fertilizer, for power generation. Since the animal manure has economic uses as both a fertilizer and as a fuel, it is properly referred to as feedlot biomass (FB) for cow manure, or litter biomass (LB) for chicken manure. The biomass will be used a as a fuel by mixing it with coal in a 90:10 blend and firing it in existing coal fired combustion devices. This technique is known as co-firing, and the high temperatures produced by the coal will allow the biomass to be completely combusted. Therefore, it is the goal of the current research to develop an animal biomass cofiring technology. A cofiring technology is being developed by performing: (1) studies on fundamental fuel characteristics, (2) small scale boiler burner experiments, (3) gasifier experiments, (4) computer simulations, and (5) an economic analysis. The fundamental fuel studies reveal that biomass is not as high a quality fuel as coal. The biomass fuels are higher in ash, higher in moisture, higher in nitrogen and sulfur (which can cause air pollution), and lower in heat content than coal. Additionally, experiments indicate that the biomass fuels have higher gas content, release gases more readily than coal, and less homogeneous. Small-scale boiler experiments revealed that the biomass blends can be successfully fired, and NO{sub x} pollutant emissions produced will be similar to or lower than pollutant emissions when firing coal. This is a surprising result as the levels of N are higher in the biomass fuel than in coal. Further experiments showed that biomass is twice or more effective than coal when used in a reburning process to reduce NO{sub x} emissions. Since crushing costs of biomass fuels may be prohibitive, stoker firing may be cost effective; in order simulate such a firing, future work will investigate the performance of a gasifier when fired with larger sized coal and biomass. It will be a fixed bed gasifier, and will evaluate blends, coal, and biomass. Computer simulations were performed using the PCGC-2 code supplied by BYU and modified by A&M with three mixture fractions for handling animal based biomass fuels in order to include an improved moisture model for handling wet fuels and phosphorus oxidation. Finally the results of the economic analysis show that considerable savings can be achieved with the use of biomass. In the case of higher ash and moisture biomass, the fuel cost savings will be reduced, due to increased transportation costs. A spreadsheet program was created to analyze the fuel savings for a variety of different moisture levels, ash levels, and power plant operating parameters.

Utilization of Latent Heat Derived From Vaporized Wastewater in High Moisture Dairy Manure Combustion Schemes

Many dairies require manure and wastewater storage and treatment structures such as anaerobic lagoons to handle the large amounts of manure resulting from their feeding operations. When storage and treatment structures are not maintained properly, the possibility of nutrient leaching or movement in the runoff to nearby water sources amplifies. Moreover, when nearby farmland becomes overloaded with nutrients from continuous application of manure, the possibility of nutrient loss to surface and groundwater also increases. This paper deals with the utilization of controlled combustion technologies to reduce the required capacities of these storage and treatment structures. It is possible to install a direct combustion system on a dairy that will utilize and burn separated dairy biomass (DB) solids in order to vaporize part of the wastewater originating from the flushing system. The outputs of such a system would be dry gaseous products of combustion, relatively clean water or steam, and dry ash. It was found that such a direct combustion system, if properly designed, has the potential to reduce the mass of flushed waste from a dairy by 15%. If the latent heat of the steam produced in the fire-tube boiler of the system is utilized to preheat the combustion air, the mass of flushed waste can be reduced by an additional 3 to 4%. Moreover, it was found that there may be enough latent heat from the steam to also dry the separated dairy biomass solids before they are fired in the main burner. If the separated solids can be reduced to below 47% moisture, then they can be fired without any preheating of the combustion air.

RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY USING BIOMASS FROM DAIRY AND BEEF ANIMAL PRODUCTION

The Texas Panhandle is regarded as the Cattle Feeding Capital of the World, producing 42% of the fed beef cattle in the United States within a 200-mile radius of Amarillo generating more than 5 million tons of feedlot manure/year. Apart from feedlots, the Bosque River Region in Erath County, just north of Waco, Texas with about 110,000 dairy cattle in over 250 dairies, produces 1.8 million tons of manure biomass (excreted plus bedding) per year. While the feedlot manure has been used extensively for irrigated and dry land crop production, most dairies, as well as other concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), the dairy farms utilize large lagoon areas to store wet animal biomass. Water runoff from these lagoons has been held responsible for the increased concentration of phosphorus and other contaminates in the Bosque River which drains into Lake Waco - the primary source of potable water for Wacos 108,500 people. The concentrated animal feeding operations may lead to land, water, and air pollution if waste handling systems and storage and treatment structures are not properly managed. Manure-based biomass (MBB) has the potential to be a source of green energy at large coal-fired power plants and on smaller-scale combustion systemsmorexa0» at or near confined animal feeding operations. Although MBB particularly cattle biomass (CB) is a low quality fuel with an inferior heat value compared to coal and other fossil fuels, the concentration of it at large animal feeding operations can make it a viable source of fuel. The overall objective of this interdisciplinary proposal is to develop environmentally benign technologies to convert low-value inventories of dairy and beef cattle biomass into renewable energy. Current research expands the suite of technologies by which cattle biomass (CB: manure, and premature mortalities) could serve as a renewable alternative to fossil fuel. The work falls into two broad categories of research and development. Category 1 - Renewable Energy Conversion. This category addressed mostly in volume I involves developing. Thermo-chemical conversion technologies including cofiring with coal, reburn to reduce nitrogen oxide (NO, N2O, NOx, etc.) and Hg emissions and gasification to produce low-BTU gas for on-site power production in order to extract energy from waste streams or renewable resources. Category 2 - Biomass Resource Technology. This category, addressed mostly in Volume II, deals with the efficient and cost-effective use of CB as a renewable energy source (e.g. through and via aqueous-phase, anaerobic digestion or biological gasification). The investigators formed an industrial advisory panel consisting fuel producers (feedlots and dairy farms) and fuel users (utilities), periodically met with them, and presented the research results; apart from serving as dissemination forum, the PIs used their critique to red-direct the research within the scope of the tasks. The final report for the 5 to 7 year project performed by an interdisciplinary team of 9 professors is arranged in three volumes: Vol. I (edited by Kalyan Annamalai) addressing thermo-chemical conversion and direct combustion under Category 1 and Vol. II and Vol. III ( edited by J M Sweeten) addressing biomass resource Technology under Category 2. Various tasks and sub-tasks addressed in Volume I were performed by the Department of Mechanical Engineering (a part of TEES; see Volume I), while other tasks and sub-tasks addressed in Volume II and IIII were conducted by Texas AgriLife Research at Amarillo; the TAMU Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department (BAEN) College Station; and West Texas A and M University (WTAMU) (Volumes II and III). The three volume report covers the following results: fuel properties of low ash and high ash CB (particularly DB) and MB (mortality biomass) and coals, non-intrusive visible infrared (NVIR) spectroscopy techniques for ash determination, dairy energy use surveys at 14 dairies in Texas and California, cofiring of low quality CB with high quality coal, emission results and ash fouling behavior, using CB as reburn fuel for NOx and Hg reduction, gasification of fuels to produce low quality gases, modeling of reburn, pilot scale test results, synthesis of engineering characterization, geographical mapping, a transportation cost study to determine potential handling and transportation systems for co-firing with coal at regional coal-fired power plants, software analyses for the design of off-site manure, pre-processing and storage systems for a typical dairy farm or beef cattle feedlot, recursive production functions/systems models for both cattle feedlots, systems modeling, stocks and flows of energy involved in the CAFO system, feedback from an Industry Advisory Committee (IAC) to the investigators on project direction and task emphasis and economics of using CB as cofiring and reburn fuel.«xa0less

CO-FIRING COAL: FEEDLOT AND LITTER BIOMASS (CFB AND CLB) FUELS IN PULVERIZED FUEL AND FIXED BED BURNERS

Intensive animal feeding operations create large amounts of animal waste that must be safely disposed of in order to avoid environmental degradation. Cattle feedlots and chicken houses are two examples. In feedlots, cattle are confined to small pens and fed a high calorie grain-diet diet in preparation for slaughter. In chicken houses, thousands of chickens are kept in close proximity. In both of these operations, millions of tons of manure are produced every year. The manure could be used as a fuel by mixing it with coal in a 90:10 blend and firing it in an existing coal suspension fired combustion systems. This technique is known as co-firing, and the high temperatures produced by the coal will allow the biomass to be completely combusted. Reburn is a process where a small percentage of fuel called reburn fuel is injected above the NO{sub x} producing, conventional coal fired burners in order to reduce NO{sub x}. The manure could also be used as reburn fuel for reducing NO{sub x} in coal fired plants. An alternate approach of using animal waste is to adopt the gasification process using a fixed bed gasifier and then use the gases for firing in gas turbine combustors. In this report, the cattle manure is referred to as feedlot biomass (FB) and chicken manure as litter biomass (LB). The report generates data on FB and LB fuel characteristics. Co-firing, reburn, and gasification tests of coal, FB, LB, coal: FB blends, and coal: LB blends and modeling on cofiring, reburn systems and economics of use of FB and LB have also been conducted. The biomass fuels are higher in ash, lower in heat content, higher in moisture, and higher in nitrogen and sulfur (which can cause air pollution) compared to coal. Small-scale cofiring experiments revealed that the biomass blends can be successfully fired, and NO{sub x} emissions will be similar to or lower than pollutant emissions when firing coal. Further experiments showed that biomass is twice or more effective than coal when used in a reburning process. Computer simulations for coal: LB blends were performed by modifying an existing computer code to include the drying and phosphorus (P) oxidation models. The gasification studies revealed that there is bed agglomeration in the case of chicken litter biomass due to its higher alkaline oxide content in the ash. Finally, the results of the economic analysis show that considerable fuel cost savings can be achieved with the use of biomass. In the case of higher ash and moisture biomass, the fuel cost savings is reduced.

Combustion of Cattle Biomass as a Supplementary Fuel in a Small Scale Boiler Burner Facility for NO

Combustion of cattle biomass (CB) as a supplementary fuel has been proposed for reducing emissions of NOx , Hg, SO2 , and nonrenewable CO2 in large coal-fired power plants. It has benefits to power industries for lowering coal consumption and fuel costs and to animal industries for disposing burdensome agricultural wastes from large animal feeding operations. In order to develop environmentally friendly thermo-chemical energy conversion technologies that can utilize CB for NOx and Hg reductions in existing coal-fired power plants, co-firing and reburning experiments involving CB and coal were performed in a small-scale 30 kWt (100,000 Btu/h) downward fired boiler burner facility. The co-firing results are mainly presented and discussed. Preliminary reburn results are also reported. The results show that the pulverized CB can serve as a supplementary fuel for the coal-fired boilers, and combustion of the CB with coals shows reductions in NOx and Hg emissions. It is believed that 1) most of the fuel-nitrogen in the CB existed in forms of NH3 or urea which led the high NOx reductions and 2) burning the CB containing high chlorine (Cl) produced large amounts of Cl species (mainly HCl) which oxidized the elemental Hg in the flue gas, hence the Hg emissions were reduced. The equivalence ratio (φ), an inverse value of the stoichiometric ratio, was considered as a key parameter to achieve high NOx reductions. Higher NOx and Hg reductions were measured under fuel-rich conditions (φ > 1.0). It appeared that the effect of the unburned carbon (UBC) was much stronger on the Hg reductions than that of Cl.Copyright

CO-FIRING COAL: FEEDLOT AND LITTER BIOMASS FUELS

The following are proposed activities for quarter 2 (9/15/00-12/14/00): (1) Conduct TGA and fuel characterization studies--Task 1; (2) Perform re-burn experiments--Task 2; (3) Fabricate fixed bed gasifier/combustor--Task 3; and (4) Modify the 3D combustion modeling code for feedlot and litter fuels--Task 4. The following were achieved During Quarter 2 (9/15/00-12/14/00): (1) The chicken litter has been obtained from Sanderson farms in Denton, after being treated with a cyclonic dryer. The litter was then placed into steel barrels and shipped to California to be pulverized in preparation for firing. Litter samples have also been sent for ultimate/proximate laboratory analyses.--Task 1; (2) Reburn-experiments have been conducted on coal, as a base case for comparison to litter biomass. Results will be reported along with litter biomass as reburn fuel in the next report--Task 2; (3) Student has not yet been hired to perform task 3. Plans are ahead to hire him or her during quarter No. 3; and (4) Conducted a general mixture fraction model for possible incorporation in the code.