Investigation of the pollutant emission characteristics of blends of biomass and coal gangue in a fluidized bed

The composite fuel of coal gangue and biomass is expected to increase the utilization rate of solid waste and compensate for the disadvantages of separate fuels. However, the NO and SO2 emissions from this composite fuel during the combustion process are a concern, but there are few studies on it. In this paper, corn cobs and wheat straws, typical agricultural biomass discarded in North China, and coal gangue from the mine in Xilingol, China, were selected for co-combustion in a fluidized bed. The emission characteristics of NO and SO2 were studied by changing the ratio of biomass to coal gangue and the combustion temperature. Studies had shown that: to a certain extent, mixing biomass, and coal gangue can reduce the NO and SO2 emissions, and mixing 20% of biomasses had the best effect on NO and SO2 emissions reduction. The SO2 emission reduction effect of wheat straws was better than that of corn cobs, and the NO emission reduction effect of corn cobs was better than that of wheat straws. The NO emissions of wheat straws and corn cobs added to the coal gangue were 6.45% and 7.93% less than those of coal gangue alone. The SO2 emissions of wheat straws and corn cobs added to the coal gangue were 27.45% and 25.94% less than those of coal gangue alone. Both NO and SO2 emissions decreased with the growth of the biomass rate; NO and SO2 emissions increased with the growth of the combustion temperature.