Waste and Biomass as a substitute for coal in Electric Power generating plants

Abstract

Coal is important fuel for electric power generating plants, because coal can be supplied from a lot of countries inexpensively and stability. On the other hand, CO_2 release from coal is more than those from natural gas and oil. It is effective for the decrease of CO_2 release from coal fired electric power generating plants that the fuel such as waste and biomass is co-fired as substitute for a part of coal. It is possible to generate electricity from waste and biomass in efficiency as high as 40%. We conducted tests of both co-pulverizing and co-firing with a blend of wood and coal at the combustion test facility. Co-firing a few percents of wood with coal in pulverized coal fired power generating plant is possible with minimum installation of additional equipment.