On the properties of washed straw

The removal of troublesome elements in biomass to reduce slagging and fouling in furnaces and other thermal conversion systems was tested by washing (leaching) the fuel with water. Rice straw and wheat straw were washed by various techniques and analyzed for composition and ash fusibility. Potassium, sodium, and chlorine were easily. removed in both tap and distilled water. Total ash was reduced by about 10% in rice straw and up to 68% in wheal straw, although washing was more effective in increasing ash fusion temperatures for rice straw than for wheat straw due to the higher initial silica concentrations in rice straw. Untreated straw ash which fused below 1000 degrees C was observed to become more refractory at higher temperatures when washed. Scanning electron microscopy of untreated and treated rice straw ashed at 1000 degrees C revealed all untreated ash particles to be fused and glassy, while treated particles remained unfused, were heavily depleted in most elements other than Si, and displayed structures characteristic of original cellular morphology. The fusion temperatures of the straw ash were consistent with predicted temperatures from alkali oxide-silica phase systems based on the observed concentrations of elements in the ash. A simple attempt at simulating a possible full scale washing process was carried out by spraying the surface of a bed of straw with water for an arbitrary time of 1 min. This proved less effective in removing alkali metals and chlorine than soaking the samples in water, flushing water through them in a more controlled manner, or leaving the straw exposed in the field to natural precipitation. Electrical conductivity measurements of leachate revealed that extraction was mostly complete after application of 0.04 l g(-1), equivalent to 24 mm of precipitation over uniformly spread rice straw. Full scale furnace experiments have not yet been conducted, and issues involving the practical application of the technique require further investigation, but these results suggest that fouling rates should decline for treated fuels compared to untreated fuels in conventional and advanced biomass power systems. (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.