Biomass ash-bed material interactions leading to agglomeration in FBC

In (bubbling) fluidized-bed combustion and gasification of biomass, several potential problems are associated with the inorganic components of the fuel. A major problem area is defluidization due to bed agglomeration. The most common found process leading to defluidization in commercial-scale installations is "coating-induced" agglomeration. During reactor operation, a coating is formed on the surface of bed material grains and at certain critical conditions (e.g., coating thickness or temperature) sintering of the coatings initiates the agglomeration. In an experimental approach, this work describes a fundamental study on the mechanisms of defluidization. For the studied process of bed defluidization due to sintering of grain-coating layers, it was found that the onset of the process depends on (a) a critical coating thickness, (b) on the fluidization velocity when it is below approximately four times the minimum fluidization velocity, and (c) on the viscosity (stickiness) of the outside of the grains (coating).