Greenhouse gases (GHG), NOx and SOx reduction through biomass utilisation

Environmental issues such as air pollution have been given serious attention these days. Public seems to be more aware of the effects of air pollution after experiencing haze in 1997. Carbon dioxide (C02) is one of the green house gases (GHG) that traps the heat of the sun in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. Excessive usage of fossil fuels can caused the increase in C02 emission level land this has forced the relevant authorities to find a much cleaner fuel such as biomass. A large-scale.demonstration plant under the EC-ASEAN Cogen Programme is a good reference on how biomass could reduce the GHG without interruption to its process. The company uses wood wastes as fuel for its cogeneration plant to replace diesel oil and fuel oil for power and heat. The cogeneration plant capacity is 1.5 MW of electricity and thermal heat. of 11 MW. The fuel is fed to the combustion chamber with an automatic controlled feeding system to generate 16 tonnes per hour of superheated steam at 22 bar. The steam is supplied to a backpressure turbine and part of the exhaust steam is supplied as process heat to a kiln drying plant and the rest to a condensing turbine. The GHG emission mitigation potential from this cogeneration plant is 15,632 tonnes Of C02 equivalent per year. Moreover, it is also expected to reduce the annual NOx and S0x emission level by 89.5 % and 98.3 %. Therefore, this paper will describe how biomass utilisation through cogeneration could reduce GHG, NOx and S0x emission level. (author)