Simulation of co-firing process using coal and pelletized palm-based biomass

• 發表在: AIP Conference Proceedings
• 主要作者: 2-s2.0-85218691935
• 格式: Conference paper
• 語言: English
• 出版: American Institute of Physics 2025
• 在線閱讀: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85218691935&doi=10.1063%2f5.0248994&partnerID=40&md5=0af2897f01545ea8f8b11f3c9e968ad5

Co-firing process is a combustion process of two fuels, typically coal and biomass in the same boiler or any fired equipment, mainly for power and steam productions. The aim is to reduce the utilization of coal in the combustion because of its non-renewability. Since, the power demands are continuously showing increasing trend, a renewable source; biomass will be introduced to substitute a part of coal in this combustion process. In Malaysia, majority of coal stocks are imported from overseas and subjected to price fluctuations and availabilities. The objective of this study is to model a co-firing process that use different feed ratios of coal with empty fruit bunch (EFB) or palm kernel shell (PKS) with gas emissions analyzation. A case study of an existing coal-based power generation plant from Company A was simulated in Aspen Plus as a base model before introducing a pelletized biomass to be co-fired to generate the same power 300 MW. Plant's power production was the target with further analysis of clean emissions and raw material cost. The results show that pelletized PKS needs lesser amount of feed, which is at 60% of coal, it needs 41% compared to pelletized EFB, 42% to generate 300 MW of electricity. Sulfur oxides (SOx) emissions could be reduced with higher substitutions, which is 0.59 tonne/hr at 100% of coal and 0.38 and 0.39 tonnes/hr at 60% of coal form PKS and EFB respectively. Thus, PKS would be the best option to co-fire with coal. © 2025 Author(s).