Abstract
The co-combustion of pulverised coal and biomass is increasingly being used for environmental reasons, and a number of computational fluid dynamic investigations are being undertaken to understand the details of the combustion process. These investigations assume that the particle flow entering the burner is uniformly distributed across the burner mouth or inlet. In this paper, this assumption is examined for an industrial burner by numerically simulating the fuel particle flows in the tube leading to the burner mouth. While there is evidence of maldistribution of the particles at the burner mouth, it is concluded from the flame data that this effect does not significantly influence the combustion flame in the furnace for the cases investigated.
This investigation was carried out with financial support from the EPSRC (grant no. EP/F061188/1). We wish to thank Dr G. Riley for information on the RWE Combustion Test Facility.