Morphological, Thermogravimetric and Combustion Studies for Reliable and High-Efficiency Energy Conversion from Oil Palm Residues in a Fluidized-Bed Combustor
The major goals pursued in this Project are as follows:
1. To study the behavior of binary mixtures (with oil palm residues and bed materials) fluidized in a conical bed to obtain a suitable fluidization regime of the conical FBC, and also to determine major hydrodynamic characteristics of the mixtures with the aim to quantify the range of operating variables of the combustor for firing selected biomass fuels.
2. To examine physical, chemical and combustion properties of Thai oil palm residues.
3. To investigate a feasibility of reliable operation of the combustor by selecting an appropriate alternative bed material(s) ensuring stable bed fluidization and preventing bed agglomeration during the combustion of oil palm residues in the proposed combustion technique.
4. To investigate combustion and emission performance of the combustor when firing selected biomass fuels in the conical FBC under variable operating conditions, mainly focusing formation and decomposition of major pollutants (CO, CxHy, CO2 and NO) in the reactor.
5. To determine optimal operating conditions (variables) ensuring highest combustion efficiency and lowest emissions of the conical FBC when firing Thai oil palm residues.
6. To study the chemical interaction between fuel ash and bed material(s) via investigation of the time-domain behavior of bed material particles morphological characteristics and elemental composition (by using SEM/EDX technique) of the particles and, eventually, the durability of the selected bed material(s) as the function of potassium content in the fuel ash
