With sustainable energy being the key to reaching climate neutrality, the utilization of non-wooden biomass is a necessity. This article compares the emissions and efficiency of combusting a number of types of agrobiomass and wood pellets. A comparison was made on a moving grate pellet burner mounted in a boiler, where flue gas had a vertical flow via two pass heat exchangers with turbulization elements. Tests were conducted on wood pellets (ENPlus), miscanthus straw pellets, sunflower husk pellets, and corn stover pellets. During combustion, both wood and miscanthus pellets met the PN-EN 303-5:2012 emission and efficiency requirements. Corn stover pellets met the requirement on the nominal capacity. Sunflower husk pellets are characterized by excessive CO and particulate matter emissions. Sunflower husk pellets were the most problematic fuel from the point of view of the results of this research. During combustion of the miscanthus straw pellets there was a need to decrease the nominal heating capacity due to ash sintering.

Wood pellets play an important role among biomass materials used as fuel. At the same time, today’s economic, environmental, political and social realities, as well as other circumstances related to fuels used for heat generation, mean that there is demand for increasingly efficient and environmentally friendly combustion sources. As is well known, each combustion source has a different efficiency due to its intended use, design, principle of operation and the type and composition of the fuel burned. The amount of pollutants emitted into the environment during combustion also largely depends on these factors. The aim of this study was to compare the flue gas emissions and efficiency of two pellet burners of different design, burning certified A1 wood pellets from different suppliers. The emission requirements were met during the combustion of wood pellets in a boiler with the two burners tested (one with a moving grate and an overfed burner). The analyses and studies carried out aim to improve the capability of managing the efficiency and environmental performance of the heat source (i.e., a boiler or a burner) and the fuel (type of wood pellets). This is done in the context of demonstrating a better combustion source when selecting the right burner and fuel in terms of efficiency and emissions. In this paper, comparisons of flue gas emissions are presented along with characteristics in the form of graphs, as well as thermal and combustion efficiencies for the corresponding solid fuel used in the form of wood pellets. After comparing the emissions, it was found that the statistical averages of CO, NOx, dust and VOCs were similar for combustion at full power using the burners tested. Taking into account the pollution levels at combustion, it can be said that the difference in CO emissions at full and minimum combustion is lower for the experimental burner compared with the moving grate burner (reference burner). In summary, it can be concluded that the experimental overfed burner under consideration can be successfully used as a solid fuel boiler to burn wood pellets.

E3S Web of Conferences, open access proceedings in environment, energy and earth sciences

The energy obtained from biomass in the global balance of energy carriers is the largest source among all RES. It should be borne in mind that the share of biomass as an energy carrier in the total balance is as much as 14%. The basic sources of renewable energy used in Poland are the wind power...

Small combustion installations (SCIs) burning solid fuels remain a major source of particulate matter (PM) emissions responsible for winter smog episodes in many European regions. This study aimed to develop and validate low-cost, micro-scale electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) suitable for retrofitting residential SCIs, and to quantify their PM removal performance under both controlled laboratory conditions and real-life field operation. Two ESP variants were designed and prototyped: (i) a tubular in-line ESP for installation at the boiler flue outlet and (ii) a disk (chimney-bypass) ESP mounted at the chimney outlet, with low energy demand. PM concentrations upstream and downstream of the ESPs were measured using standardized gravimetric, isokinetic sampling with recalculation to reference conditions, and the overall dedusting efficiency was determined from inlet/outlet concentrations. Laboratory testing showed that the micro-scale ESPs can achieve high dedusting efficiencies of approximately 90% under stabilized nominal-load operation. Field trials of the disk ESP in households and small residential buildings confirmed robust performance, with dedusting efficiencies of 70–82% under unsupervised user operation. In most cases, outlet PM concentrations were reduced below applicable Ecodesign thresholds. The results confirm that micro-scale ESPs are a technically feasible and effective “end-of-pipe” option for reducing short-stack PM emissions from solid-fuel heating, offering immediate air quality benefits where appliance replacement or fuel switching is limited by cost or practical constraints. This paper discusses the latest advancements in reducing PM emissions from SCIs. It introduces a prototype design for two types of micro-scale electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) that can be integrated into SCIs that burn solid fuels. The proposed technical solution utilizes an electrostatic method to effectively remove PM from flue gases. An established industrial technology has been adapted to meet the specific technical, economic, and safety needs of residential applications. The paper compares two design variants with a novel self-cleaning mechanism through laboratory testing and presents results from field trials. Findings confirm ESPs can substantially reduce PM emissions from SCIs.