DEVELOPMENT OF A VALIDATED MODEL FOR USE IN MINIMIZING NOx EMISSIONS AND MAXIMIZING CARBON UTILIZATION WHEN CO-FIRING BIOMASS WITH COAL

This is the third Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FC26-00NT40895. A statement of the project objectives is included in the Introduction of this report. Three additional biomass co-firing test burns have been conducted. In the first test (Test 3), up to 20% by weight dry hardwood sawdust and dry switchgrass was injected through the center of the burner. In the second test (Test 4), 100% Pratt seam coal was burned in a repeat of the initial test condition of Test 1, to reconcile irregularities in the data from the first test. In the third test (Test 5), up to 20% by weight dry hardwood sawdust and dry switchgrass was injected through an external pipe directed toward the exit of the burner. Progress has continued in developing a modeling approach to synthesize the reaction time and temperature distributions that will be produced by computational fluid dynamic models of the pilot-scale combustion furnace and the char burnout and chemical reaction kinetics that will predict NOx emissions and unburned carbon levels in the furnace exhaust. Additional results of CFD modeling efforts have been received and Preparations are under way for continued pilot-scale combustion experiments. Finally, a presentation was made at a Biomass Cofiring Project Review Meeting held at the NETL in Pittsburgh, PA on June 20-21