Project Leader:	Professor Dr-Ing Alfons Kather
Research Assistant:	G Garbe, R Gehlsen-Lorenzen, Dipl-Ing R Meyer-Kruskopf, Dipl-Ing S Wegerich
Duration:	01.11.2002 - 31.03.2005

In the domain of coal characterization the so-called drop tube furnace is an established test facility for the examination of coal combustion behaviour. The drop tube furnace consist of a heated ceramic tube. Through this tube flows an air/nitrogen mixture. The adjustable oxygen content and the high temperatures inside the tube generate an environment that corresponds to that of a full scale furnace, with the exception, that inside the tube the boundary conditions (oxygen content, gas and wall temperature) are well known. The coal is fed into the reactor and burnout is measured for different residence times. From the resuts it is possible to predict the combustion behaviour of the coal in a furnace.

Regarding the combustion of biomass dust there is still a great need of research. Especially in the following areas:

• Examination of the ash fouling behaviour in steam generators,
• Influence of the biomass on the combustion at biomass co-combustion in coal fired steam generators and
• Formation of polutants by combustion of pulverized biomass.

In order to make these studies possible, a test facility for the characterization of solid fuels was installed at the Institute of Energy Systems at the Hamburg University of Technology. The solid fuels are, besides the most important fuel coal, biomass as well.