1. Introduction
The strategic objective fixed by the directive of the Polish government is to obtain until the year 2010, 7.5% of the total energy consumption from renewable sources and 14% until 2020. An important part of this program is the development of biomass combustion technologies.
In view of increase in demand for waste utilization and combustion of recovery fuels, materials of this kind are more often burned together with coal in steam generators, which may be the lowest cost option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Because of their organic origin, these fuels (wood, bark, straw, sewage sludge, municipal waste, bone meal, etc.) are termed "biomass", although it includes not only the strictly natural components but also, for example, plastics. The waste fuels also contain mineral matter, generally in proportions strongly different than for coal.
Blending of coal with biomass containing different mineral matter compositions may create various problems, which not only make the boiler operation difficult but can also make the co-firing biomass with coal in conventional power systems unprofitable. This paper presents an attempt to evaluate the influence of biomass co-combustion on boiler furnace walls slugging.
Slagging in coal (pulverized fuel or stoker) furnaces is a very complex phenomenon depending on chemical and mineralogical composition of fly ash as well as on conditions (temperature and velocity distribution, reducing or oxidizing atmosphere and many others) in the furnace [1,2].It is obvious that an increasing amount of low-temperature melting components in fuel ash accelerates and aggravates this process. The transformation of inorganic components in connection with chemical reactions occurring in the flame can lead to the formation of chemical compounds and their complexes with extremely low melting point and/or very high adhesion force during the sintering process. For example, eutectic mixture CaS04-CaS melts by 850 ℃. Even lower melting points (401 ℃ for Na2S2O7, 325 ℃ for K2S2O7, 552 ℃ for Na3K3Fe2(SO4)6, 625 ℃ for Na2S04-NaCl and 640 ℃ for Na2S-FeS) can be expected by combustion of fuels with high sodium and potassium content.