Biomass-coal Fuels Show Promise

University of Kentucky News

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 24, 2009) – University of Kentucky researchers have found that fuels engineered from biomass and coal fines can be burned to produce energy and fewer emissions without requiring modifications to conventional coal-fired stoker furnaces.

The researchers, led by Darrell Taulbee at UK’s Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER), developed briquettes of biomass and coal fines – small coal particles that often are discarded as waste. The biomass consisted of sawdust, processed sorghum and weeds taken from reclaimed surface mines and fallow fields in Eastern Kentucky.

They test-burned different types of biomass with coals of differing quality and found the engineered fuels reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by as much as 42 percent compared to regular stoker coal fuels, while emissions of sulfur dioxide were reduced by as much as 39 percent. Even fuels made of lower quality coal fines showed emission reductions of 14 percent for nitrogen oxides and 11 percent for sulfur dioxide.

Read the full story