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- Öhman, Marcus, et al.
(författare)
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Reasons for slagging during stemwood pellet combustion and some measures for prevention
- 2004
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Ingår i: Biomass and Bioenergy. - Oxford : Pergamon Press. - 0961-9534 .- 1873-2909. ; 27:6, s. 597-605
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ash related problems have more than occasionally been observed in pellet burners during the last years. These problems lead to reduced accessibility of the appliances and also bad publicity for the pellet market. The objectives of the present work were therefore to: (i) determine the critical levels of the problematic ash components in stemwood pellets regarding slagging, (ii) document the variations of these problematic elements in the outgoing pellets from two pellet-mills during one operational season, (iii) determine how frequently these elements exceed the critical levels, (iv) determine how different sub-processes in the pelletising process (especially the dryer) effect the slagging properties of the pellet, and if possible (v) suggest some measures for prevention. A significant number of wood pellets reported to be problematic and problem-free, regarding slagging in ordinary residential pellet burners, were collected from the Swedish market. The ash compositions of these fuels were analysed and the results compiled in a database. Partial Least-Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) and F-tests were used to statistically identify both the critical ash components and the critical levels of these components that separated the two reported classes. In addition, chemical equilibrium model calculations were used to interpret the findings. The variations of these elements in the in-going raw material and in the produced pellets were determined during one season in two pellet mills equipped with exhaust gas dryers. The results showed that the problematic wood-pellets had a significantly higher amount of Si, but also Al and Fe, in the fuel ash. The critical level of Si (given as SiO2) was about 20-25 wt% of the fuel ash, i.e. pellets with levels in or over this range resulted in slagging problems in residential burners. This critical Si content was exceeded once and twice for the analysed samples in the two studied pellet mills. In one of the studied mills, this was because of contamination by sand of the raw material during storage and handling, and in the other mill the reason was found to be contamination of the raw material by elutriated particles from the dryer fuel. The major conclusion of the work is that both raw materials and drying fuels/processes should be carefully treated to avoid mineral contamination, and an additional cyclone separator could potentially also be used to improve the pellet quality.
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