Fluidized bed co-combustion of hydrothermally treated paper sludge with two coals of different rank

Abstract Fluidized bed co-combustion of raw paper sludge (Raw-PS) and hydrothermally treated paper sludge (HTT-PS) with either low (Lo-Coal) or high reactivity coal (Hi-Coal) was investigated. The paper sludge was treated in a pilot-scale hydrothermal reactor at 197 °C and 1.9 MPa for 30 min. South African bituminous and Thai subbituminous coals were selected as representative of Lo-Coal and Hi-Coal, respectively. A 110-mm bubbling fluidized bed combustor was used in this study. During the steady combustion tests the nominal temperature was 858 °C, the fluidization velocity was 0.5 m/s, and the excess air was varied as 20%, 40%, and 60%. Both single fuel combustion and co-combustion were tested. Co-combustion tests were conducted by feeding the sludge at mixing ratios of 30% and 50% (mass basis) with coal. The main focus of this study was on NO x emissions and unburned carbon performance. Results showed that at 30% mixing ratio using HTT-PS instead of Raw-PS could reduce NO x emission by 3–6% and 9–17% in the case of Lo-Coal and Hi-Coal, respectively, and the loss of unburned carbon could be decreased by 15–18% and 36–53% for Lo-Coal and Hi-Coal, respectively. The particle size distribution of fly ash of all samples was similar regardless of the excess air variation. On the whole, the hydrothermally treated paper sludge showed better performance for co-combustion with coal and would be a better choice compared to the original raw paper sludge.