Applied Energy 93 (2012) 606613

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Effects of biomass particle size during coring under air-red and oxyfuel conditions
Melissa L. Holtmeyer, Benjamin M. Kumfer, Richard L. Axelbaum
Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization, Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering Department, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 20 July 2011
Received in revised form 4 November 2011
Accepted 12 November 2011
Available online 4 January 2012
Keywords:
Coal combustion
NOx
Biomass
Coring
Oxy-fuel
Oxy-combustion

a b s t r a c t
Carbon capture and storage (CCS), when applied to biomass coring systems, can remove atmospheric CO2 since the CO2 that is consumed by the biomass during growth is not released back into
the atmosphere. Biomass coring can also potentially contribute to meeting renewable portfolio
standards (RPS), and result in reduced pollutant emissions, including sulfur oxides (SOx) and mercury. However, biomass fuels are widely variable in composition, particle size, and nitrogen content,
which can make utilization of these fuels challenging. In this work, a numerical study was conducted for coring of pulverized coal and sawdust under air-red and oxyfuel conditions to investigate the effects of coring on ame length and nitric oxide (NO) formation. Previous experiments
have shown an increase in nitrogen conversion to NO when coring under both air-red and oxyfuel combustion, despite the fact that the sawdust cored had less fuel-bound nitrogen. Computational uid dynamics (CFD) is used to determine the cause of the increased NO conversion and to
identify differences between air-red and oxyfuel cored ames. The simulations reveal that cored
ames have longer volatile-ame regions (the ame envelope), and this length is inuenced by the
increased volatile fraction and particle size associated with the biomass. Flame length theory for
turbulent, non-premixed gaseous diffusion ames was found to be useful in interpreting the
observed results in both air-red and oxyfuel combustion. Large biomass particles that are not
entrained in the near-burner region breakthrough the ame envelope, and this was shown to be
detrimental to controlling NO formation. During oxy-coring combustion, particle breakthrough
occurs at smaller diameter, leading to increased nitrogen conversion to NO when compared to
air-red conditions. This is a direct result of a decreased ame envelope length and elevated oxygen
concentrations.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Carbon dioxide emissions are at unprecedented levels and are
putting the public welfare at risk through climate change. An approach to large-scale power generation is needed to signicantly
limit emissions and even remove atmospheric CO2, while attempting to minimize disruption to the existing power infrastructure. A
diverse power generation portfolio including both advanced fossil
fuel and renewable energies is needed to reduce atmospheric
CO2 to below 1990 levels [1]. Oxyfuel combustion with carbon capture and storage (CCS) and biomass coring, individually and in
combination, are both approaches to coal-red power that can
contribute to this plan.
Oxyfuel combustion enables CCS by burning fuels with a combination of oxygen and recycled ue gas instead of air. The ue gas is
primarily composed of carbon dioxide and water vapor. The water
is condensed out to create a concentrated CO2 stream for geological
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: axelbaum@wustl.edu (R.L. Axelbaum).
0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.11.042

storage. Oxyfuel combustion combined with geological storage is a

near-zero emission technology that can be applied to both existing
and new coal-red power plants [2].
Biomass coring could reduce the overall CO2 emissions of the
U.S. utilities sector by 100 million tons per year by displacing fossil
fuel combustion with the near carbon-neutral combustion of biomass [3]. Another important challenge with respect to electricity
generation that can be addressed with biomass is renewable portfolio standards (RPS). Recognizing that many regions do not possess sufcient solar or wind resources to meet RPS targets,
biomass coring with coal may play an important role in future
power generation. Coring can also reduce formation of pollutants
such as SOx and Hg, while the impact on NOx formation is variable
[4]. Furthermore, by combining oxyfuel combustion and biomass
coring with CCS, oxy-coring can be a potentially carbon negative
technology since biomass consumes CO2 as it grows. Accordingly,
this approach has been identied as a technology that can be utilized to stabilize atmospheric CO2 emissions [5]. Biomass coring
is presently occurring around the world, while oxyfuel combustion
is being demonstrated at the pilot-scale level, with plans for

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M.L. Holtmeyer et al. / Applied Energy 93 (2012) 606613

full-scale demonstrations. At this time, little is known about the

impacts of oxy-coring on combustion performance and NOx formation. This work provides an understanding of ame structure
and NO formation during coring under both air-red and oxyfuel
combustion conditions.
The chemical composition and physical appearance of biomass
fuels can vary signicantly from coal, and the biomass itself can
consist of several different botanic fractions with wide variations
in composition [6,7]. Furthermore, biomass fuels prepared for
coring typically have a larger particle size than coal, which can alter ame structure and combustion performance when coring. As
a consequence, NO formation, which is a complex function of mixing, temperature, uid mechanics, and chemistry [8], can also be
inuenced. The relationship between particle size and NOx formation has been investigated for coal combustion [911], as well as
for biomass coring when the biomass is used as a reburn fuel
[12,13]. Coring studies conducted with biomass fuels having
varying nitrogen content have shown that NOx formation does
not scale with fuel-bound nitrogen [13,14]. Damstedt et al.
[15,16] rst showed that large biomass particles penetrate through
the near burner internal recirculation zone leading to volatile release further downstream and a longer fuel-rich zone. The release
of volatile-nitrogen was also delayed, which in this case, led to an
in-ame reburn effect reducing NO to N2.
This work aims to understand changes in ame structure, as
well as the effects on NO formation, when coring biomass in
air-red and oxyfuel conditions through a systematic study focused on biomass particle size, volatility and nitrogen content.
Experimental results have been previously reported by this group
[14]. In the present work, the dependence of ame structure and
NO formation on biomass particle size and coring ratio is explored numerically, to provide a detailed analysis of the ame
structure and a better understanding the observed experimental
results.

2. Summary of experimental ndings

In a previous work, experiments were conducted in a cylindrical, horizontally-red 30 kWth combustor with a 14 cm
ID  78 cm combustion section, followed by a 37 cm ID  120 cm
burnout section [14,17]. The secondary oxidizer was introduced
tangentially, creating a swirling ow to assist in ame stabilization. Pulverized coal and sawdust (wood waste) were fed to the
combustor using separate volumetric screw feeders (K-Tron and
Schenk AccuRate) and were entrained into the primary oxidizer
(PO) stream using an eductor. The two feeder outlets and the eductor were contained within an enclosure maintained at atmospheric
pressure to prevent air ingress, and the gas owing into the fuel inlet of the eductor was controlled and measured. Under oxyfuel
conditions, ue gases were not recycled; rather, industrial grade
CO2 was used in a once-through fashion to determine the effects
of N2 replacement with CO2. The CO2 was mixed with O2 before
entering the burner, at a ratio of 30 vol.% O2/70 vol.% CO2.
Subbituminous Powder River Basin (PRB) coal and sawdust obtained from a local sawmill were utilized in this study. Sieve, proximate, and ultimate analyses are provided in Tables 1 and 2. Some
variation in the coal particle size distribution was observed over
the course of experiments as indicated in the table. As obtained
from the sawmill, the bulk sawdust contained 21 wt.% moisture,
which led to feeding difculties; however, after reducing the moisture content to 16 wt.% by exposing the sawdust to laboratory
room air, successful feeding was achieved.
Skeen et al. [14] experimentally investigated the effects of varying coring ratio on NO emissions during air-red and oxyfuel
combustion. In all experiments, conditions were set such that the

Table 1
Ultimate and proximate analyses.
PRB coal

Sawdust

HHV (MJ/kg) (DAF)

29.7

20.2

Proximate analysis (wt.%) (dry)

Ash
Volatile matter
Fixed carbon

7.5
43.4
49.1

0.6
84.5
14.9

Ultimate analysis (wt.%) (dry)

Carbon
Hydrogen
Oxygen
Nitrogen
Sulfur

69.51
4.61
17.02
0.97
0.4

49.28
5.79
44.14
0.15
0.05

Table 2
Particle size.

Sieve analysis (wt.%) retained

18 Mesh
30 Mesh
40 Mesh
50 Mesh
70 Mesh
100 Mesh
200 Mesh

PRB coal

Sawdust

0
<0.1

<0.1

1.93.2
1829

0
2.3

36.3

81.3
94.7

thermal input was 30 kW and the exhaust gas oxygen concentration was maintained at 3 vol.% O2. From this work, N conversion
to NO increased with coring ratio, resulting in higher than expected NO emissions based on fuel nitrogen content, during both
air-red and oxyfuel combustion. For a 40% coring ratio, N conversion increased by 14% and 32% for air-red and oxyfuel combustion, respectively, compared to the base case of coal only. Since the
sawdust has less fuel-bound nitrogen, one might expect a decrease
in NO emissions. Only when biomass particle size was reduced by
sieving with a 50 mesh sieve was a reduction in NO observed under
air-red conditions. With reduced biomass particle size and 40%
coring ratio, NO emissions decreased by 15%.
During oxyfuel conditions, NO was reduced over the air-red
case, largely due to the elimination of the thermal-NOx mechanism.
However, unlike the air-red case, the NO emissions remained
constant under oxyfuel even when coring the sieved biomass
with reduced particle size. A goal of this work is to use computational uid dynamics (CFD) to understand these trends with a focus on the effects of biomass particle size and the biomass fuelfraction on ame structure.
3. Numerical methods
ANSYS FLUENT version 13.0 was used for this study. This program allows for user-dened modications to the sub-models to
include both coal and biomass combustion tracking. Transport
equations were solved for the continuous phase in the Eulerian
frame of reference, while simulating the discrete phase in the
Lagrangian frame. Second-order upwind algorithms were used to
solve the continuity, momentum, and species equations. Coal and
biomass reactions were modeled using the species transport submodel. The nite-rate/eddy dissipation model, wherein both the
Arrhenius and eddy-dissipation reaction rates are calculated, was
applied for turbulent chemical reactions. The SST kx turbulence
model was implemented because of its abilities to capture the
behavior of swirling ows. The computational domain was a
two-dimensional axisymmetric computational mesh with 40,000
quadrilateral mesh elements. Mesh independence was checked

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M.L. Holtmeyer et al. / Applied Energy 93 (2012) 606613

Table 3
Inlet ow rates for air-red and oxyfuel combustion.
Inlet
3

Primary (m /h)
Secondary (m3/h)

Air

Oxyfuel: 30% O2/70% CO2

4.4
29

4.4
18.1

by computing solutions on several meshes including coarse,

adapted, and ne meshes.
All discrete particles were assumed spherical. Therefore, the
drag force term was based only on the equivalent spherical particle
diameter for both coal and biomass. Intra-particle heat and mass
transfer were not included in the discrete phase particle model.
These effects are thought to be of secondary importance [18].
Boundary conditions were specied based on those of the
experiments. The primary oxidizer (PO) inlet was specied as a
mass-ow inlet with the fuel injection specied to maintain
30 kW thermal input for both coal-only and coring cases. The secondary oxidizer (SO) inlet was specied as a velocity-inlet with axial and swirl components, while ensuring that the overall mass
ow of air or O2/CO2 was maintained. Table 3 shows the ow rate
specications for air-red and oxyfuel combustion. The walls of the
combustion chamber were maintained at 1000 K.
The numerical model was used to examine trends during coring in both air-red and oxyfuel combustion conditions. The
numerical results have shown reasonable agreement with the
experimental results for NO reported in Skeen et al. [14], which
will be discussed later, and with centerline temperature measurements for coal-only ames in air-red conditions.
3.1. Radiation model
The Discrete Ordinates radiation model was implemented for
both oxy- and air-red combustion. When coal or biomass are
combusted in an environment of O2 and recycled ue gas, the contribution to the total radiation from the gases increases [19], which
can potentially affect ignition, stability, temperature, and pollutant
formation. Carbon dioxide and H2O are radiatively active, and at
the higher concentrations associated with oxyfuel conditions, they
can alter the radiative properties of the gas. Consequently, for oxyfuel combustion, modications to the absorption coefcient were
made using a user-dened function.
An Exponential Wide Band Model (EWBM) [20] is used as a
user-dened function to the discrete ordinates radiation model in
ANSYS Fluent to predict the radiative properties of gas mixtures
containing: H2O, CO2, CO, CH4, NO, and SO2. The EWBM uses the
integrated ban intensity, line-width to spacing parameter, and
the bandwidth parameter to describe the total gas band absorptance and to capture the transitions between vibrational and rotational energy states, which provide the greatest contribution to the
absorption coefcient.
Particle radiation can be a major contributor to radiation heat
transfer during solid fuel combustion originating from either coal
particles (coal, char, ash) or soot. However, the focus of this work
is on the volatile ame envelope. In this zone, particles are undergoing devolatilization, where temperatures and particle radiation
are low compared to the downstream. Therefore, particle radiation
effects are neglected.
3.2. Coal devolatilization
Coal particle devolatilization rate was modeled by the Chemical
Percolation Devolatilization (CPD) model [21]. Detailed mechanisms of bridge breaking and rearranging with the coal lattice
structure, tar evolution, light gas release, and cross-linking were

included. The input parameters for the CPD sub-model were estimated using a chemical structure correlation, with 13C NMR
parameters, based on the ultimate and proximate analysis of the
parent coal.
The chemical properties of the volatile matter species were
approximated from the ultimate and proximate analyses [22].
Three global homogeneous reactions were modeled to capture
the gaseous volatile reaction, including a global mechanism for volatile oxidation, the conversion of CO to CO2, and the oxidation of
hydrogen to water vapor.

v ol xO2 ! aCO bH2 cN2

1
CO O2 ! CO2
2

1
H2 O2 ! H2 O
2

3.3. Coal char combustion

For solid particle (char) surface oxidation, a multiple-surfacereaction char model was employed. The following three reactions
were assumed to occur as the gas-phase oxidizer diffuses to the
particle surface and into the pores.

1
Cs O2 ! CO
2

Cs CO2 ! 2CO

Cs H2 O2 ! CO H2

Once near the surface, the gas is adsorbed and reaction occurs.
Global kinetics for the char reaction rate, represented as Arrhenius
expressions, were based on the activation energies, reaction orders,
and pre-exponential factors assumed in [23]. Since the heterogeneous reactions can be either controlled by chemical reaction or
diffusion, a model of diffusive transport of oxidizer through a porous particle is included.
3.4. Biomass devolatilization
The rate of devolatilization of biomass particles was described
using a single-rate kinetic model,

dmp
kmp  1  fv ;0 1  fw;0 mp;0 
dt

where mp, k, fv,0, fw,0, and mp,0 are the mass of the particle, the kinetic rate, the mass fraction of volatiles initially present in the particle, the mass fraction of evaporating species initially present in the
particle, and the initial mass of the particle, respectively. The kinetic
rate, k, was dened by an Arrhenius relationship. The kinetic rate
parameters for sawdust were derived from thermogravimetric analysis using a Hi-Res TGA (TA Instruments Inc.). The pre-exponential
factor, A, and the activation energy, E, were found to be 2.0E+06 s1
and 1.8E+07 J/kmol, respectively. Determination techniques according to [24] for the activation energy and [25] for the pre-exponential
factor were used to develop the Arrhenius form of the equation. Albeit this model is notably simple, an understanding and comparison
of the basic trends between air-red and oxyfuel combustion conditions are desired, and the model is sufciently detailed to address
this.
The sawdust discrete phase fuel injection was composed of two
components: volatile-matter species and combusting (char) particle. The composition of the sawdust volatiles was approximated
from the ultimate and proximate analyses, similar to the coal

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M.L. Holtmeyer et al. / Applied Energy 93 (2012) 606613

volatile species. The homogeneous volatile reaction was set up in a

manner similar to that of the coal volatile oxidation.
3.5. Biomass char combustion
It has been shown that during sawdust char oxidation the rates
of chemical reaction and gas diffusion through pores are comparable [26]. Therefore, a kinetics/diffusion-limited surface combustion
model was chosen based on Baum and Street [27] and Field [28]. In
this model the rates of diffusion of oxidizer and the kinetics of the
chemical reaction on the surface are calculated, to determine
the limiting process. The particle diameter remains constant but
the density can change based on combustion conditions.
3.6. NOx model
As NOx is a trace species, its presence does not signicantly affect the calculation of the combustion solution or evolution of
other species within the CFD model. Therefore, the post-processing
NOx model in ANSYS Fluent 13.0 was used. The model for homogeneous NOx formation is divided into two computations for fuel and
thermal NO, which included turbulent interactions for both oxygen
and temperature. Prompt NO was not considered in this work since
its total contribution is expected to be small, approximately 5%
[29].
Fuel-bound nitrogen can either be released during devolatilization (referred to volatile-N), or can remain the in char to react further downstream (referred to as char-N). Nitrogen partitioning in
coal particles is based on the methods in [9,30], where 40% is volatile-N and the rest is char-N. Upon being released from the particle, volatile-N reacts with the surrounding gas to form nitrogen
intermediates, including NH3 and HCN. The location of release
and the local conditions will determine which species are formed.
For this work, volatile-N is assumed to evolve as 60% NH3 and 40%
HCN [31]. Char particles can either produce or consume NO on the
surface. NO production from char-N is assumed to form from HCN
intermediates [32]. The intermediate species can react with oxygen
to form NO. Some NO maybe be reduced downstream through
reactions with other intermediates or hydrocarbon species.
Biomass particle nitrogen partitioning, which is based on the
methods of Jiachun et al. [33], is assumed to be 70% volatile-N
and 30% char-N. Both volatile-N and char-N is assumed to react
to form NH3 intermediates.
Thermal-NO is formed from N2 that enters with the combustion
air by breaking the N2 bond, which is favored at high temperature
[34]. The mechanism assumed for formation is the Zeldovich
mechanism using the partial equilibrium approach for radical O
and OH concentrations.

Fig. 1. Temperature contours (K) for 30 kW (a) 20% coring ame with bulk
sawdust, (b) coal only. (c) Volatile reaction with oxygen (kg mol/m3 s) for coal
ame. Arrows denote ame envelope length.

ame envelope and indicate the increase in size of the cored

ame.
Damstedt et al. [16] attributed longer ame zones observed
during experiment when coring straw to the denser knee particles that could not be entrained in the near burner zone. These particles differ from coal particles in both fuel composition and
particle size. To understand what is controlling the increase in
ame envelope length during coring, simulations were run to
compare two cored ames with different particle size distributions under air-red conditions. Fig. 2a is a 20% bulk sawdust cored ame, as was previously shown, while, Fig. 2b is a 20%
cored ame with sawdust that has the same particle size distribution as that of coal.
By coring sawdust that has the same particle size distribution
as that of coal, the effects of fuel composition can be separated
from particle size effects. The ame envelope lengths for the two
ames shown in Fig. 2 are nearly identical. This comparison shows
that the increase in ame envelope length observed when coring
sawdust is due to changes in the fuel composition, specically the
increase in volatile fraction. From Table 1, sawdust has approximately double the volatile matter as that of the coal. To further
investigate this, the results are interpreted in light of combustion
theory for gaseous non-premixed turbulent jet ames.
According to Delichatsios [35], ame length for gaseous nonpremixed turbulent jet ames can be expressed as

Lf  afs 1

8


1/2

where fs is stoichiometric mixture fraction and a  L dj(qe/q1) . L

is dimensionless ame length, dj is initial jet diameter, and qe/q1 is

4. Numerical results and discussion

4.1. Coring impacts on ame length
Current coal-red systems have been optimized to produce stable, low emission ames. The impacts of adding biomass are demonstrated in Fig. 1 for 20% coring of sawdust during air-red
conditions. The high temperature zone in the coring ame, shown
in Fig. 1a, is noticeably longer than that in the coal ame, shown in
Fig. 1b. Burning particles were also experimentally observed further downstream during coring.
For this study, the ame length is dened as the high temperature zone that is controlled by the volatile reaction with oxygen,
which is shown in Fig. 1c. This will be referred to as the ame envelope. Black arrows on temperature contours denote the end of the

Fig. 2. Temperature contours (K) for 20% coring ames with (a) bulk sawdust and
(b) sawdust with the same particle size distribution as coal. Arrows denote ame
envelope length.

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M.L. Holtmeyer et al. / Applied Energy 93 (2012) 606613

the ratio of nozzle uid to ambient gas density. For ames in the
momentum-controlled regime, the value for the dimensionless
ame length is constant [35]. The stoichiometric mixture fraction
is dened as


1
Y F;O W O v O
fs  1
Y O;O W F v F

where Yi,O is mass fraction for fuel (F) and oxidizer (O) at the inlet,
Wi is molecular weight, and vi is stoichiometric coefcient. Substituting Eqs. (9) into (8), ame length can be dened in terms of
the mass fractions of fuel and oxidizer,



Y F;O
Lf  a b
1
Y O;O

10

where b is (WOvO/WFvF). From this equation it is clear that ame

length is linearly dependent on fuel stream mass fraction. For coal
and cored ames, the gaseous fuel can be considered the volatiles that have been released, and the ame length refers to the
length of the ame envelope. For coal-only ames the volatile mass
fraction in the primary is 0.21 and for the 20% coring ames it is
0.27, which is a 29% increase. Similarly, according to Eq. (10), the
ame length increases by 29%. Therefore, presuming that all of
the volatiles are released within the ame envelope, an increase
in ame envelope length would be expected during coring based
on the increase in volatile fraction.
Since the mean size of the biomass particles is usually larger
than that of coal, the effects of particle size on the ame envelope
length were investigated by systematically varying biomass particle size using monodisperse particle size distributions. As will be
seen, the choice of a monodisperse size distribution allows for a
convenient interpretation of the effects of particle size.
4.2. Particle size impacts on ame envelope length

Fig. 4. Centerline temperatures for 20% coring ames with sawdust of varying
particle sizes including the same particle size distribution as coal (solid line),
600 lm monodisperse (- - -), and 1 mm monodisperse (--).

the ame envelope length decreases. In this case volatiles are released farther downstream, thereby decreasing the volatile fraction
in the near burner region. Consistent with the theory presented in
Section 4.1, a decrease in volatile fraction in the near burner region
results in a decreased ame envelope length. This may have a signicant impact on NOx formation, as will be shown later.
As shown in Fig. 4, the location of devolatilization of the monodisperse biomass particles is very pronounced along the centerline.
The 600 lm and 1 mm particles are too large to be entrained by the
recirculation zone at the exit of the primary and penetrate through
along the centerline.
Fig. 4 also demonstrates that if volatile release occurs within the
ame envelope, then the location of peak temperature remains
nearly the same. This can be also seen in Fig. 3 by comparing
the centerline temperature for the case of a distributed sawdust

Fig. 3 compares the changes to the ame structure for three

30 kW cored ames in air-red conditions. Fig. 3a is a ame
where the sawdust has the same particle size distribution as coal.
Fig. 3b is a ame with a monodisperse particle size distribution of
600 lm sawdust particles and Fig. 3c is a ame with a monodisperse particle size distribution of 1 mm sawdust particles. All
ames consist of 20% biomass by weight.
Locations of decreased centerline temperatures within the
ame envelope in Fig. 3b and downstream of the ame envelope
in Fig. 3c correspond to the endothermic devolatilization of the
sawdust particles. When comparing Fig. 3a to Fig. 3b, the ame
envelope length is similar even though the biomass particle size
distribution has changed dramatically. Fig. 3c shows that when
the 1 mm biomass particles breakthrough the ame envelope,

Fig. 3. Temperature contours (K) for 20% coring ames with (a) sawdust with the
same particle size distribution as coal, (b) sawdust with a monodisperse particle
size distribution diameter of 600 lm, and (c) sawdust with a monodisperse particle
size distribution diameter of 1 mm.

Fig. 5. (a) Theoretical particle size distribution of sawdust to truncate and (b)
centerline temperatures for 20% coring ame.

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M.L. Holtmeyer et al. / Applied Energy 93 (2012) 606613

Fig. 7. Temperature contours (K) for coring ames with bulk sawdust for varying
coring ratios including (a) 20% coring and (b) 40% coring.

Fig. 6. Contours of NO mole fraction for (a) coal ame and 20% coring ames with
(b) sawdust with the same particle size distribution as coal, (c) sawdust with a
monodisperse particle size distribution diameter of 600 lm, and (d) sawdust with a
monodisperse particle size diameter of 1 mm.

particle size distribution, with that of a uniform size of 600 lm. On

the other hand, for the 1 mm biomass particle case, volatile release
occurs beyond the ame envelope, and the ame envelope length
is shorter and the peak temperature has shifted closer to the
burner.
By utilizing the endothermicity associated with volatile release,
biomass particle size may be selected in order to strategically decrease the peak temperature. For example, Fig. 5a shows how the
centerline peak temperature can be truncated by selecting the biomass size distribution shown in Fig. 5b. This size distribution was
selected so that the region of devolatilization associated with large
biomass particles aligned with the region of peak centerline temperature. In this conguration the biomass particles have large
axial momentum, thus devolatilization occurs along the centerline.
Alternative trajectories for the biomass particles are possible with
proper burner design, and thus, this approach can serve as a method of controlling peak temperatures in select region of the ame.
4.3. NO formation
Fig. 6 shows mole fraction contours for NO in coal-only and
coring ames. Net NO formation during coring is a consequence
of the combined effects of production and destruction. The initial
zone of production is due to volatile-N reaction with oxygen in
the primary, fuel-carrying stream. Downstream of this initial production zone, where the NO mole fraction is negligible, corresponds to NO destruction. At this location in the combustion
chamber, high concentrations of volatile species are released
resulting in a fuel-rich, oxygen-depleted zone. NO that has previously formed can interact with these and other nitrogen containing
species to reduce to N2. NO production is also occurring along the
outside of these zones near the walls due to char-N and thermalNO formation during air-red conditions.
Fig. 6a shows NO mole fraction contours in a coal ame. High
concentrations of NO are produced early in the combustion chamber primarily due to the early formation of HCN from volatile-N.
NO production also occurs outside the zone of NO destruction pri-

marily due to char-N conversion and thermal-NO. Fig. 6b shows

that when 20% of the fuel is substituted with sawdust having the
same particle size distribution as coal, NO production decreases
and the zone of NO destruction enlarges leading to a 30% decrease
in NO emissions when compared to the coal-only case. When
increasing the particle size, as in Fig. 6c, the size of the initial production zone slightly decreases, but the destruction zone is more
distributed since the biomass particles are devolatilizing later,
resulting in only a 14% decrease in NO emissions over the coal-only
case. For 1 mm size sawdust particles, NO emissions are nearly the
same as the coal-only case due to late devolatilization outside the
ame envelope into regions of higher oxygen and temperature as
shown in Fig. 6d. At the extremes shown in Fig. 6b and d, small biomass particles enhance NO destruction, while large biomass particles can produce NO downstream of the regions of destruction.

4.4. Coring ratio

The previous analysis of biomass particle size was completed
using a 20% coring ratio, which is similar to that currently used
in selected industrial boilers [36], but as RPS continue to require
higher percentages of renewable power and regulations become
more stringent, burning larger percentages of biomass may be
desirable. In the following, the effects of increasing the coring ratio to 40% are assessed.
Fig. 7 shows the effects of the increased coring ratio on ame
envelope length in air-red conditions when coring bulk sawdust.
As shown in Fig. 7b, with the higher percentage of sawdust, the
ame envelope length increases over that of the 20% coring case
shown in Fig. 7a. As expected from Section 4.1, the ame envelope
length increases with higher coring ratio due to the larger amount
of volatiles. The volatile mass fraction in the primary for 40% coring is 0.38, compared to 0.27 for the 20% coring case, an increase
of 40%. As anticipated, from Eq. (10) the ame length increases
about 40% as well.
With increased coring ratios, there is a greater fraction of biomass particles in the ame envelope and thus the envelope ame
length increases. Also, there are a greater number of large biomass
particles that penetrate the ame envelope and devolatilize in the
high temperature zone. As such, a longer, extended region of low
temperature along the centerline is maintained. These changes in
ame envelope length and particle breakthrough during high cor-

Table 4
Summary of NO emissions from air-red combustion conditions.
Fuel

Fuel feed
rate (kg/h)

N content
(wt.%)

Experiment
[14] NO (ng/J)

Predicted
NO (ng/J)

Increase in experimental
N conversion to NO (%)

Coal
10 wt.% Coring
40 wt.% Coring

4.7
4.8
6.0

0.98
0.90
0.64

92
89
89

90
90
83

3
14

612

M.L. Holtmeyer et al. / Applied Energy 93 (2012) 606613

ing ratios also impact NO formation. A summary of NO emissions

from air-red conditions for both experimental [14] and predicted
results with varying coring ratios for bulk sawdust is shown in
Table 4.
The N Content listed in Table 4 is the overall fuel-bound nitrogen content of the fuel mixture, which decreases during coring. In
order to maintain the same thermal input for all ames, the overall
fuel input is higher for the coring cases since the heating value of
the sawdust is lower than that of the coal. Given the much lower
nitrogen content of the sawdust, one might expect that the NO
concentration in the exhaust would be less when coring. Nonetheless, the NO emissions remained nearly constant. Consequently,
the conversion of N to NO is found to increase with coring ratio.
Aside from the impacts of particle size on NO formation, the ratio
of NH3/HCN released from biomass devolatilization is generally
higher than that of coal, which may also lead to increased conversion [37,38].
With ANSYS Fluent one is able to evaluate the contribution of
thermal NO individually. Analysis of the numerical results indicates that changes in thermal-NO during coring do not signicantly contribute to the increases in N conversion during airred conditions.

4.5. Oxy-coring combustion

The effects of biomass particle size are investigated in oxyfuel
conditions with an oxidizer composition of 30 vol.% O2/70 vol.%
CO2. The thermal input is maintained at 30 kW and the exhaust
O2 at 3 vol.% for all ames. These constraints impact the primary
oxidizer (PO) and secondary oxidizer (SO) inlet conditions, and
thus, the ame structure. Table 3 shows a 17% decrease in SO inlet
ow rate when the PO ow rate is maintained equal to that of airred conditions. The impact of the O2/CO2 environment and reduced ow rates can be seen by comparing the temperature contours for air-red conditions (Fig. 8a) with those of oxyfuel
conditions (Fig. 8b). Both cases include 20% coring with sawdust
that consists of 600 lm monodisperse particles.
The ame envelope length in the oxy-coring ame is shorter
compared to air-red conditions. This is a result of the reduced
SO ow rate and increased oxygen concentrations. Flame envelope
length, as calculated in Eq. (10), is inversely proportional to oxygen

Fig. 8. Temperature contours (K) for 20% coring during (a) air-red and (b) oxyfuel
combustion conditions.

concentration. Therefore, for a similar volatile mass fraction, one

would expect a shorter ame envelope under oxyfuel combustion
conditions. Other studies have also demonstrated reduced ame
lengths under oxyfuel combustion conditions [39,40].
Sawdust particle breakthrough also impacts the ame envelope
length during oxyfuel combustion. Under air-red conditions particle breakthrough is not observed until the monodisperse particle
size reaches 1 mm in diameter. For oxyfuel conditions, particle
breakthrough is observed for a particle size of 600 lm. Therefore,
biomass particles can more easily breakthrough the oxyfuel combustion ame envelope and this will lead to devolatilization in regions of higher temperature and oxygen concentrations, which was
previously shown to increase net NO formation. Table 5 summarizes NO emissions for oxyfuel combustion for both experimental
and predicted results with varying coring ratios utilizing bulk
sawdust.
Comparing the experimental results in Tables 4 and 5, decreased NO emissions are observed for all oxyfuel combustion
cases, which can be attributed to the elimination of thermal-NOx
since N2 is eliminated from the oxidizer. The numerical results
for NO emissions are consistently lower than that of the experimental measurements; however, the trends are reproduced. Studies were also performed with a higher coring ratio and, similar to
the air-red cases, as the coring ratio increases the NO emissions
remain relatively constant. Increased nitrogen conversion to NO is
not only a result of the shorter ame envelope, but also due to increased particle breakthrough, when compared to air-red conditions. When coring higher percentages of biomass, a greater
quantity of large particles devolatilizes outside of the ame envelope leading to greater NO conversions.

5. Conclusions
Coring of biomass can help regions meet RPS, while reducing
emissions of CO2, SOx and Hg. However, the variability of biomass
makes these fuels a challenge to work with. Three characteristics of
biomass were varied in this study: volatile fraction, particle size
and nitrogen content. The effects of these variables on ame structure and the resulting impacts on NO formation in air-red and
oxyfuel conditions.
The ame envelope length, which is the high temperature region controlled by the reaction of volatiles with oxygen, was inuenced by both the volatile fraction and particle size. The coring
ames had longer ame envelope lengths when compared to
coal-only ames due to the increased volatile fraction associated
with biomass. Shorter ames were predicted during oxyfuel combustion. By systematically varying biomass particle size using
monodisperse particle size distributions, particle breakthrough of
large biomass particles was shown to impact ame envelope
length and centerline peak temperatures. Furthermore, biomass
particle size distribution has been shown to be potentially useful
in controlling peak temperatures in selected regions by utilizing
the endothermicity associated with volatile release and the large
inertia of the particles to direct the particles to the location of
interest. Large biomass particle breakthrough also resulted in increased nitrogen conversion to NO, which is consistent with earlier

Table 5
Summary of NO emissions from oxyfuel combustion conditions.
Fuel

Fuel feed
rate (kg/h)

N content
(wt.%)

Experiment
[14] NO (ng/J)

Predicted
NO (ng/J)

Increase in experimental
N conversion to NO (%)

Coal
10 wt.% Coring
40 wt.% Coring

4.9
4.8
6.0

0.97
0.90
0.64

59
60
62

43
44
46

14
32.5

M.L. Holtmeyer et al. / Applied Energy 93 (2012) 606613

experimental results. Impacts on ame envelope length and NO

formation were magnied at higher coring ratios.
Nitrogen oxide formation during oxyfuel combustion combined
with biomass coring was also evaluated. Limits on trace species
during CCS have yet to be determined, so the impacts of biomass
on NO formation must be understood. When oxyfuel combustion
ames were compared to air-red ames, the ame envelope
length was shorter due to elevated oxygen concentrations and decreased ow rates. This resulting change in ame structure was
shown to be detrimental to NO formation. Due to the smaller ame
length, the breakthrough of large biomass particles occurred at
smaller particle diameters (600 lm compared to 1 mm for air-red
conditions). Therefore, a larger number of particles released their
volatiles and volatile-N in areas of higher temperature and oxygen
concentrations, leading to increased nitrogen conversion to NO.
However, overall NO formation during oxyfuel combustion is reduced compared to air-red conditions due to the elimination of
the thermal-NOx mechanism.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support of the
Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization at Washington University in
St. Louis. M.L.H. was supported in part by a U.S. EPA STAR Fellowship. The authors would also like to thank the following organizations: Ameren, for providing coal and fuel analyses and ANSYS for
providing the UDF for oxyfuel combustion radiation.
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