Dual-fuel fluidized bed combustor prototype for residential heating: Steady-state and dynamic behavior.

Fluidized bed combustion of biogenic fuels can be recognized as an attractive option for an ecologically sustainable use of biofuels in residential applications. Nevertheless, biomass combustion in fluidized bed reactors presents some drawbacks that are mainly related to mixing/segregation of fuel particles/volatile matter during devolatilization inside the bed and in the freeboard or to bed agglomeration. A prototype of a 30-50 kWth fluidized bed boiler for residential heating has been designed to burn either a gaseous combustible or a solid biomass fuel or both fuels at the same time. The prototype has been equipped with a gas burner located in the wind-box to optimize the start-up stage of the boiler and with a fluidized bed characterized by a conical geometry ("Gulf Stream" circulation) to improve the mixing of the fuel particles during both devolatilization and char burn-out. The operation of the combustor adopting wood pellets as fuel has been investigated to evaluate their use in residential combustion applications. Steady-state thermally stable regimes of operation have been recognized analyzing both boiler temperatures and gaseous emissions. The optimization of the steady-state operation of the boiler in terms of gaseous emissions has been achieved by varying the nominal thermal power and air excess. An ad-hoc experimental campaign has been carried out to analyze the dynamic performance of the prototype as a response to changes of the demanded thermal power. On the basis of the experimental data, an interpretation of the dynamic behavior of the fluidized bed boiler has been proposed.