Co-firing high sulfur coal with refuse derived fuels. Final report

摘要

This project was designed to evaluate the combustion performance of and emissions from a fluidized bed combustor during the combustion of mixtures of high sulfur and/or high chlorine coals and municipal solid waste (MSW). The project included four major tasks, which were as follows: (1) Selection, acquisition, and characterization of raw materials for fuels and the determination of combustion profiles of combination fuels using thermal analytical techniques; (2) Studies of the mechanisms for the formation of chlorinated organics during the combustion of MSW using a tube furnace; (3) Investigation of the effect of sulfur species on the formation of chlorinated organics; and (4) Examination of the combustion performance of combination fuels in a laboratory scale fluidized bed combustor. Several kinds of coals and the major combustible components of the MSW, including PVC, newspaper, and cellulose were tested in this project. Coals with a wide range of sulfur and chlorine contents were used. TGA/MS/FTIR analyses were performed on the raw materials and their blends. The possible mechanism for the formation of chlorinated organics during combustion was investigated by conducting a series of experiments in a tube furnace. The effect of sulfur dioxide on the formation of molecular chlorine during combustion processes was examined in this study.