Ash melting and slagging and residual K ion content in biomass pellet combustion

ABSTRACT

Combustion of biomass pellets is an effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. However, the alkali metal content (represented by K) in ash directly affects its slagging behavior, which can corrode the reactor and shorten its service life. In this study, the ash fusion slag and residual K ion contents were investigated at different combustion times (2, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 60 min) and temperatures (600, 700, 800, 900 and 1000°C). At the same combustion temperature, the residual content of K ions in ash decreases as the combustion time increases; at the same combustion time, the residual content of K ions decreases as the combustion temperature increases. The addition of 5% CaO promotes K precipitation, but at 10% CaO addition, the K precipitation rate is less than that at 5% CaO addition, indicating that the addition of CaO is beneficial to K ion precipitation only within a certain range. Adding CaO also generates high-melting-substances, such as CaSiO₃ and calcite, which improve the overall slag resistance of the fuel.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomass forming pellets
• carbon neutrality
• slagging resistance
• ash melting
• residual content of ions

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Author contributors

Bin Guan: Validation, Conceptualization, Investigation, Visualization, Writing original draft, Writing – review & editing. Jiaqi Liu: Validation, Conceptualization. Ming Xia: Validation, Investigation, Conceptualization. Caimei Ma:Validation, Investigation, Conceptualization. Min Yan: Provide straw raw materials, Analysis, Interpretation. Jiangbing Li: Validation, Investigation, Supervision, Resources. Jinli Zhang: Validation, Investigation, Supervision.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Science and Technology Project of Bingtuan 13th Division [No.2022B6]; Science and Technology Innovation Talents Program of Shihezi University [No. ZG010603]; Science and Technology Planning Project of Bingtuan [No. 2023AB032].

Notes on contributors

Bin Guan

Bin Guan is a M.Eng. degree at Shihezi University. His main research fields are biomass conversion.

Jiaqi Liu

Jiaqi Liu is a M.Eng. degree at Shihezi University. His main research fields are biomass conversion.

Ming Xia

Ming Xia is an associate professor at Xinjiang Shihezi Vocational Technical College. Her main research fields are biomass conversion.

Caimei Ma

Caimei Ma is an associate professor at Xinjiang Shihezi Vocational Technical College. Her main research fields are biomass conversion.

Min Yan

Min Yan is a technical department manager at Xinjiang Jintai Advanced Material Technologies Co. Ltd. His main research fields are energy and chemical engineering.

Jiangbing Li

Jiangbing Li is an associate professor at Shihezi University. His main research fields are biomass catalytic conversion.

Jinli Zhang

Jinli Zhang is a Cheung Kong Scholar Professor at Tianjin University and a distinguished professor at Shihezi University. His main research fields are new energy and energy-saving technology.