Quantitative evaluation of minerals in fly ashes of biomass, coal and biomass-coal mixture derived from circulating fluidised bed combustion technology

The chemical and mineralogical composition of fly ash samples collected from laboratory scale circulating fluidised bed (CFB) combustion facility have been investigated. Three fly ashes were collected from the second cyclone in a 50 kW laboratory scale boiler, after the combustion of different solid fuels. Characterisation of the fly ash samples was conducted by means of X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Quantitative analysis of the crystalline (mineral) and amorphous phases in each ash sample was carried out using the Rietveld-based Siroquant system, with an added spike of ZnO to evaluate the amorphous content. SiO2 is the dominant oxide in the fly ashes, with CaO, Al2O3 and Fe2O3 also present in significant proportions. XRD results show that all three fly ashes contain quartz, anhydrite, hematite, illite and amorphous phases. The minerals calcite, feldspar, lime and periclase are present in ashes derived from Polish coal and/or woodchips. Ash from FBC combustion of a Greek lignite contains abundant illite, whereas illite is present only in minor proportions in the other ash samples.