AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Emission Characterization from Residential Scale Boilers Using Grass as Fuel
SRIRAAM RAMANATHAN CHANDRASEKARAN, Philip K. Hopke, Michael Newtown, Arthur Hurlbut, Clarkson University
Abstract Number: 151 Working Group: Combustion
Abstract Biomass combustion is gaining interest as a replacement for fossil fuels because woody fuels are a renewable resource and can be cost-effective as the price of fossil fuel rises. Although, biomass combustion reduces the dependency on fossil fuel and is cost effective, the potential adverse health effects associated with this source of both gaseous and particulate emissions. Although most research concentrates on wood as a fuel, there is an interest in alternative, fast growing plants like grasses. Grasses have several advantages over other feedstocks. The energy content from grass pellets is similar to wood pellets and is a rapidly renewable resource with multiple harvests per year. Grasses can be grown on marginal farmlands that would otherwise not be used. The composition of grasses is generally not very suitable for combustion because its ash content, nitrogen, potassium and chlorine concentrations are higher than wood. Because of the mineral composition of these grass ash, it tends to melt in the boiler leading to damage to the appliance and potential problems with burning the fuel. These problems could potentially be addressed using soil management techniques or by using an advanced staged combustion units. The objective of the study was to characterize the emissions from six different residential scale appliances using grass and wood pellets as fuel at low and high load conditions. The emissions in the stack were drawn through an in-stack PM$_10 and PM$_2.5 cyclone into a dilution sampling system conforming to EPA’s conditional test method CTM-039. Criteria pollutants including PM$_2.5, NO$_x, SO$_2 and CO were continuously monitored. Particles size distributions in the range from 5.6 to 560 nm were obtained using a Fast Mobility Particle Sizer (FMPS). Quartz, PUF, and Teflon filters were collected to analyze the organic carbon, semi volatiles and elemental composition of PM$_2.5.