Combustion of wood pellets in a low-power multi-fuel automatically stoked heating boiler

This paper presents a test stand equipped, among others, with two boilers intended for the combustion of solid fuels. The first is a single-fuel boiler designed to burn wood pellets only. The second is a multi-fuel boiler intended for the combustion of mainly hard coal (basic fuel) with the grain size of 0.005-0.025 m. Wood pellets can also be fired in this boiler, which in such a case are treated as a substitute fuel. There is a developed and verified algorithm for the control of the multi-fuel boiler operation in a wide range of loads for the basic fuel. However, for the substitute fuel (wood pellets) there are no documented and confirmed results of such testing. The paper presents selected results of testing performed during the combustion of wood pellets in a multi-fuel automatically stoked boiler. Several measuring series were carried out, for which optimal operating conditions were indicated. These conditions may serve as the basis for the development of the boiler operation control algorithm. A detailed analysis was carried out of the flue gas temperatures obtained at the outlet of the boiler combustion chamber and of the contents of carbon monoxide and oxygen in the boiler flue gases.