Prospects for Using Bark Waste Mixed with Coal When Burned in the BKZ‑75–39FB Boiler

Utilization of industrial wood waste, the volumes of which are annually increasing and becoming a serious environmental problem, by partial combustion in coal boilers is a promising direction on the way to the creation of resource-saving and environmentally sustainable energy. However, today one of the main obstacles to the widespread industrial implementation of this method is the lack of experimental data on the combustion of solid fuel mixtures consisting of industrial waste and coal. The paper presents the results of a thermal analysis of the combustion of a mixture consisting of bark and wood waste (BWW) and coal, as a result of which the main parameters (ignition and burnout temperatures, combustion index, maximum rate of mass loss, etc.) of combustion of the studied fuels were determined. The ignition temperature of bark and wood waste turned out to be lower than that of coal and amounted to 292 °C, the burnout temperature was 493 °C, therefore, when adding bark and wood waste to coal, it had a beneficial effect on the combustion process by reducing the main temperature characteristics of fuel combustion. To determine the main energy performance indicators of the BKZ-75–39FB boiler converted to combustion of a solid fuel mixture based on KDO and coal, a typical method for determining the main heat losses was used. The results of this study can be used in designing power plants for the combined combustion of coal and biomass or for converting existing coal boilers to the utilization of industrial wood waste.