Combustion technology of the coal-water suspension creates a number of new possibilities to organize the combustion process fulfilling contemporary requirements, e.g. in the environment protection. Therefore the in-depth analysis is necessary to examine the technical application of coal as a fuel in the form of suspension. The research undertakes the complex investigations of the continuous coal-water suspension as well as cyclic combustion. The cyclic nature of fuel combustion results from the movement of the loose material in the flow contour of the circulating fluidized bed (CFB): combustion chamber, cyclone and downcomer. The experimental results proved that the cyclic change of oxygen concentration around fuel, led to the vital change of both combustion mechanisms and combustion kinetics. The mathematical model of the process of fuel combustion has been presented. Its original concept is based on the allowance for cyclic changes of concentrations of oxygen around the fuel. It enables the prognosis for change of the surface and the centre temperatures as well as mass loss of the fuel during combustion in air, in the fluidized bed and during the cyclic combustion.

The objective of this study was to investigate combustion characteristics of biomass (willow, Salix viminalis) burnt in air and O2/CO2mixtures in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB). Air and oxy-combustion characteristics of wooden biomass in CFB were supplemented by the thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses (TGA/DTA). The results of conducted CFB and TGA tests show that the composition of the oxidizing atmosphere strongly influences the combustion process of biomass fuels. Replacing N2in the combustion environment by CO2caused slight delay (higher ignition temperature and lower maximum mass loss rate) in the combustion of wooden biomass. The combustion process in O2/CO2mixtures at 30% and 40% O2is faster and shorter than that at lower O2concentrations.