Mitigation of ash deposition, slagging and fouling in biomass fired power generation

Supervisors: Professor Mohamed Pourkashanian, Dr Kevin Hughes, Professor Lin Ma and Dr Janos Szuhanszki.

Switching from fossil fuel fired power generation to the combustion of sustainably produced biomass can achieve near zero CO2 emissions, thereby significantly contributing to the decarbonisation of the energy sector. However, burning biomass in power plants designed for coal firing poses a number of challenges, including increased slagging and fouling and corrosion potential, which can reduce overall efficiency and plant availability.

Making use of the state of the art 250kW Combustion Test Facility at the Pilot Scale Advanced Capture Technology (PACT) Facilities, this project will involve a thorough and innovative experimental programme to characterise the above phenomena and correlate the findings with computational fluid dynamics based modelling work as part of an integrated team.

A central aim of the project is to identify successful mitigation strategies and thereby enhance the commercial viability of biomass fired power generation.

For further information contact Professor Derek B Ingham (d.ingham@sheffield.ac.uk).