Predicting gaseous emissions from small-scale combustion of agricultural biomass fuels

• A prediction model of gaseous emissions from biomass combustion was developed.
• Gibbs energy minimization for chemical equilibrium characterization was applied.
• The model was validated and calibrated with data from literature.
• The model simulated the combustion of four dedicated energy crops.
• CO, CO2, NOx, SO2 and HCl predictions were accurate.

A prediction model of gaseous emissions (CO, CO2, NOx, SO2 and HCl) from small-scale combustion of agricultural biomass fuels was developed in order to rapidly assess their potential to be burned in accordance to current environmental threshold values. The model was established based on calculation of thermodynamic equilibrium of reactive multicomponent systems using Gibbs free energy minimization. Since this method has been widely used to estimate the composition of the syngas from wood gasification, the model was first validated by comparing its prediction results with those of similar models from the literature. The model was then used to evaluate the main gas emissions from the combustion of four dedicated energy crops (short-rotation willow, reed canary grass, switchgrass and miscanthus) previously burned in a 29-kW boiler. The prediction values revealed good agreement with the experimental results. The model was particularly effective in estimating the influence of harvest season on SO2 emissions.