This paper presents results of grinding experiments and development of woody biomass mill for co-firing
in pulverised coal fired boilers. Woody biomass co-firing with coal is already realised since it can be easily
handled as a carbon–neutral fuel. Three steps have been carried out to understand the grinding and combustion
characteristics of woody biomass. A suitable mill type for woody biomass grinding has been
sought in laboratory-scale experiments. The selected industrial-scale mill has been modified to increase
the capacity.
The objective of this experimental study is to establish and demonstrate the woody biomass firing system
including mill and burner for pulverised coal fired boilers. Both, laboratory- and industrial-scale
measurements, provide good understanding of woody biomass grinding and firing performance. The
proper burner arrangement is found by use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to maintain high
burnout efficiency in the boiler. The study proves that the proposed mill and burner positioning is promising
to utilise woody biomass with high co-firing ratio. The combination of furnace experiments and CFD
modelling results in a satisfying specification of a co-firing system for woody biomass with pulverised
coal in sufficient ratio whilst reducing CO2 emissions