Co-firing of pine chips with Turkish lignites in 750 kWth circulating fluidized bed combustion system.

Two Turkish lignites which have different sulfur levels (2–2.9% dry) and ash levels (17–25% dry) were combusted with a Turkish forest red pine chips in a 750 kW-thermal capacity circulating fluidized bed combustor (CFBC) system. The combustion temperature was held at 850±50 °C. Flue gas emissions were measured by Gasmet DX-4000 flue gas analyzer. Two lignites were combusted alone, and then limestone was added to lignites to reduce SO₂ emissions. Ca/S = 3 was used. 30% percent of red pine chips were added to the lignites for co-firing experiments without limestone in order to see the biomass effects. The results showed that with limestone addition SO₂ concentration was reduced below the limit values for all lignites. CO emissions are high at low excess air ratios, gets lower as the excess air ratio increases. During co-firing experiments the temperature in the freeboard was 100–150 °C higher as compared to coal combustion experiments.