CO-COMBUSTION: BURNING BIOMASS, FOSSIL FUELS TOGETHER SIMPLIFIES WASTE DISPOSAL, CUTS FUEL COST.

Despite the availability of relatively inexpensive premium fuels, there are still many good reasons to consider one or more types of biomass as an industrial energy source, especially in a co-combustion mode with fossil fuels. In this report, biomass refers to wood, woodwaste, agricultural wastes, municipal refuse, sewage sludge, and cellosic-type industrial wastes. Burning biomass, fossil fuels together simplifies waste disposal, cuts fuel cost. There are few technical barriers to the application of co-combustion. All the major boiler/firing-system vendors have equipment offerings, most of them commonly referred to as multifuel boilers. Dutch ovens, flat and sloping pinhole grates, spreader stokers, traveling grates, mass-burn furnaces, and suspension and semi-suspension-fired boilers are all used in this application. Some of them are described. A list of power plants burning biomass in the USA is given in an appendix.