Distribution of temperature, H2O and atomic potassium during entrained flow biomass combustion - Coupling in situ TDLAS with modeling approaches and ash chemistry

Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) is employed for simultaneous detection of gas temperature, water vapor (H2O) and gas-phase atomic potassium, K(g), in an atmospheric, research-scale entrained flow reactor (EFR). In situ measurements are conducted at four different locations in the EFR core to study the progress of thermochemical conversion of softwood and Miscanthus powders with focus on the primary potassium reactions. In an initial validation step during propane flame operation, the measured axial EFR profiles of H2O density-weighted, path-averaged temperature, path-averaged H2O concentration and H2O column density are found in good agreement with 2D CFD simulations and standard flue gas analysis. During biomass conversion, temperature and H2O are significantly higher than for the propane flame, up to 1500 K and 9%, respectively, and K(g) concentrations between 0.2 and 270 ppbv are observed. Despite the large difference in initial potassium content between the fuels, the K(g) concentrations obtained at each EFR location are comparable, which highlights the importance of considering all major ash-forming elements in the fuel matrix. For both fuels, temperature and K(g) decrease with residence time, and in the lower part of the EFR, K(g) is in excellent agreement with thermodynamic equilibrium calculations evaluated at the TDLAS-measured temperatures and H2O concentrations. However, in the upper part of the EFR, where the measured H2O suggested a global equivalence ratio smaller than unity, K(g) is far below the predicted equilibrium values. This indicates that, in contrast to the organic compounds, potassium species rapidly undergo primary ash transformation reactions even if the fuel particles reside in an oxygen-deficient environment.