Fluidised Bed Biomass combustion

To achieve the UK’s ambitious target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 without compromising energy security, the UK’s conventional power plants must be operated in a flexible manner in terms of high efficiency, using alternative fuels (e.g. biomass) and integrating technologies for carbon abatement (e.g. Carbon Capture and Storage, CCS). Ultra-supercritical (USC) steam Rankine cycle power generation combined with Circulating Fluidised Bed (CFB) and Fluidized Bed (FB) combustion technology is the most viable alternative to the pulverised coal (PC)-based USC power generation. In addition, operating under USC/FB/CFB conditions has a number of advantages over USC/PC, particularly regarding fuel flexibility.

However, there are still many fundamental research and technical challenges facing the development of this technology. In particular, combustion issues related to safe and stable operation of CFB/FB boilers when burning a variety of solid fuels are not yet fully understood and there is a great need to develop novel materials that will be able to cope with adverse conditions associated with operation.

The specific project areas would include:

To understand how the combustion of a variety of fuels affects Emissions, bed material agglomeration, fouling and corrosion of boiler heat exchanger tubes.

Facilities at the University main campus and at the LCCC will be offered to suitably qualified students for study leading to a PhD in combinations of the following areas.

Combustion testing at pilot scale (250 kW Fluidised bed),
Deposition testing and experimentation at pilot plant scale,
Corrosion testing in lab scale furnaces,
Fundamental TGA decomposition studies,
Biomass characterisation
Fluidised bed modelling and CFD studies