Abstract
The use of biofuel has been increasing in Europe over the last years, and the reason for that is acceptable cost and the least negative impact on the environment. However, NO x and emissions of fine particulates are important, and biofuel is still a disadvantage compared to oil and natural gas fired systems. Usually, flue gas is filtered in multicyclones or fibre filters before discharge into the atmosphere. Yet, in the case of fine particulates, the filters of such type do not show high effectiveness, thus electrostatic precipitators are used. In this comparative study on biofuel (wood pellets), the collection efficiency of solid particles from a class 3 boiler (50 kW) and from a gasification unit (100 kW) was investigated. Although releases of solid particles from modern boilers are low, a combination of such a boiler with an electrostatic precipitator may reduce the releases of particles to the minimum, and the collection efficiency of the electrostatic precipitator obtained during the investigation was ~98-99%. There is a big difference in particle concentrations comparing the systems with flue gas and producer gas. As the working conditions in the test section with producer gas were harder, it led to lower efficiency of the electrostatic precipitator (~75%).
Highlights
During the last decades, biofuel has been started to be widely used in many countries for various types of heating appliances
Flue gas enters the electrostatic precipitators (ESPs), where the solid particles are captured and cleaned flue gas is exhausted into the atmosphere
The processed hot producer gas of about 1100°C from the plasma unit was supplied to the water-cooled gas cooler, where the temperature of the gas was decreased, and the gas with a temperature of ~160°C entered the electrostatic precipitator
Summary
Biofuel has been started to be widely used in many countries for various types of heating appliances. Biofuel is a renewable energy source that makes the least negative impact on the environment in comparison with some other types of fuel [1]. During combustion of any liquid or solid fuel, particles are formed from the ash contained in the fuel. This is valid for biofuels where the ash content varies from a fraction of a percent to more than ten percent by weight in the dry substance. One of the main disadvantages using biofuel in comparison with some other types of fuels (gaseous, liquid) are the emissions of solid particles, which especially increase in the ambient air during the heating season. Solid particles can penetrate into the internal organs of human and can cause serious illnesses [3]
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