Co-firing of pressed sugar beet pulp with coal in a laboratory-scale fluidised bed combustor

Agglomeration of the bed can be a problem when co-firing biomass because of the formation of “sticky” low melting point alkali metal silicate eutectics which result in subsequent adhesion of the ash and sand particles. Consequently, longer term co-firing tests were undertaken with a 50/50 blended fuel by mass. Problems of bed agglomeration were not observed over the duration of these tests and moreover, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies indicated that the levels of alkali metals in the ash were relatively low.