Numerical investigation of Solid Recovered Fuels’ co-firing with brown coal in large scale boilers – Evaluation of different co-combustion modes

In the current work the co-combustion of Solid Recovered Fuels’ (SRFs’) with brown coal in large scale pulverised coal boilers under different operational conditions is numerically investigated. In order to overcome the difficulty of the complex, inhomogeneous nature of waste recovered fuels, SRF is modelled as a mixture of two different fractions, the biogenic and the plastic one. For each fraction different combustion mechanisms are presented, whilst for the first time the proposed combustion mechanism of the plastic fraction is incorporated in a commercial CFD code and validated against available experimental data. A 600 MWe brown coal boiler is simulated as a reference and its operational characteristics are compared with parameterised scenarios of SRF co-firing conditions. Based on the numerical results, the optimum co-firing concepts regarding the more efficient operation of the boiler (hot spots and fuel’s burnout) are identified, decreasing the environmental impact of the boiler’s emissions.