Raili Taipale

Co-Firing of Sewage Sludge with Bark in A Bench-Scale Bubbling Fluidized BED — A Study of Deposits and Emissions

It has been shown that addition of either sulfur and/or aluminosilicates such as kaolinite may reduce alkali induced deposit formation when firing biomass fuels. Sewage sludge is a fuel containing substantial amounts of sulfur and aluminosilicates, such as zeolites. In this work different amounts of sewage sludge (0, 2, 4, 6 and 8%en) were co-fired with bark in a bench-scale BFB. SO2 and HCl emissions were measured and deposits were sampled during 3 hrs with an air-cooled probe with a surface temperature of 500°C at two different locations with flue gas temperatures of 850°C and 650°C, respectively. The test results showed that an increase of the share of sewage sludge to the fuel mixture increased theformation of HCl and simultaneously decreased the Cl-content in the deposits. Usually this is considered to be a sign of sulfation of alkali chlorides. However, the increase of HCl canalso be caused by AI-silicates capturing alkali, thus releasing Cl as HCl to the gas phase. AIthough, sulfur increased in the fuel input with an increased share of sewage sludge, this was not reflected in the gaseous emissions as may be expected. Up to 4%en sewage sludge was fired together with bark without increasing the sulfur content in theemissions. At higher shares of sewage sludge the sulfur emissions increased linearly with an increase of sewage sludge. The amount of water soluble potassium fed into the boiler remained relatively constant in the different tests. This potassium is usually released as volatile salts. Nevertheless, the amount found in deposits decreased with an increase in sludge feeding. In this paper it was shown that interaction of potassium with AI-silicates in the bed is a probable cause for the decrease of potassium in the deposits, while both the sulfation of potassium chlorides and possibly also, the alkali capture by AI-silicates can weaken the deposition of Cl.

Bromine and Chlorine in Aerosols and Fly Ash when Co-Firing Solid Recovered Fuel, Spruce Bark and Paper Mill Sludge in a 80MWth BFB Boiler

Aerosol and fly ash sampling was carried out at a 80MWth bubbling fluidised bed (BFB) boiler plant co-firing solid recovered fuel (SRF), spruce bark and paper mill wastewater sludge in two experimental conditions. The SRF-Bark ratio in the fuel mix was kept constant at 50%–50% on dry mass basis in both experiments but two sludge proportions were used: 15% and 4% on dry mass basis. Aerosol samples were collected from the superheater region of the boiler furnace and fly ash from the electrostatic precipitator (ESP). Na, K, Cl and S were found to be in mainly water soluble compounds in the aerosols sampled by means of a Dekati type Low Pressure Impactor (DLPI). Bromine was found in several weight percentages in aerosols and it was amongst the main elements in some of the samples collected. Bromine is assumed to mainly originate from flame retarded plastics and textiles in the SRF. According to the measurements, the fate of Br seems to be analogous to the other main halogen, Cl, and its conversion from fuel to aerosols was high, indicating a strong tendency to form bromine salts.