*Bursary c£18,000 per annum
OPTIMISATION OF FLUIDISED BED COMBUSTION OF MIXTURES OF COAL AND HIGH MOISTURE CONTENT BIOMASS*
There is growing concern over the affects of the emission of so-called "greenhouse gases", particularly the carbon dioxide emitted from combustion processes so that the use of biomass for heat generation is attracting increasing attention. One of the main barriers to the more widespread application of the technology has been the difficulty of burning relatively cheap, poor quality, unprepared biomass materials. These unprepared potential fuels can have relatively low calorific values and high moisture contents so that the stability and efficiency of the combustion process can
be adversely affected. However fluidised bed combustion (FBC) has been shown to be capable of burning a variety of alternative fuels particularly if a conventional hydrocarbon fuel is used to support combustion. With recent increases in the price of oil and gas the use of coal as the support fuel is financially attractive so that co-firing of coal and biomass in both bubbling and circulating fluidised bed combustors can be an attractive option.
Nevertheless there is still a lack of information on the "optimum" conditions for co-firing of such mixtures and the necessary proportion of support fuel particularly when using unprepared high moisture content biomass. Consequently the project, which will be undertaken in collaboration with British Sugar, will investigate the fluidised bed combustion of blends of coal with several high moisture content biomass by-products arising from the sugar manufacturing process.
The Department of Engineering at the University of Glamorgan wishes to appoint a Research Student to work for three years on this project which is funded by the British Coal Utilisation Research Association. The successful applicant will be funded by means of a student bursary (including fees) and will be expected to register for a PhD. The project will involve laboratory and pilot scale studies as well as a series of trials on a large industrial scale fluidised bed combustor at one of British Sugar's manufacturing facilities.
Applicants are expected to have a good honours degree in mechanical or chemical engineering, or a closely related discipline. Applicants should send a CV in the first instance
*Closing date for applications is Friday 15 December 2006*
Further details of the project can be obtained from Dr D R Garwood
(drgarwoo@glam. ac.uk)
or Professor J ward ( jward@glam.ac. uk).
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