The combustion of low calorific value fuels (oil shale) by using fluidized bed combustor

The present work reports an experimental data for combustion of oil-shale in a fluidized bed combustor. The experimental set up was designed for the combustion of low calorific value fuel such as oil-shale to facilitate the variation of many parameters over a wide operating range. A cold run was firstly conducted to study the fluidization parameters. Fluidization experiment were made with different sized quartiz particles. Minimum fluidization velocities and other fluidization characteristics were determined at room temperature. Secondary a hot run was started, first studying the combustion of 'LPG' in a fluidized bed as a starting process, then studying the combustion if oil-shale with different flow rates. The experimetal results are promising and give rise to hopes that this valuable deposit can be used as a fuel source and can be burned sucessfully in a fluidized bed combustor. This study had prooved that utilization of oil-shale a fuel source is no more a complicated technical problem, this opens the way for power generation using fluidized bed combustors. (author). 17 refs., 32 figs., 3 tabs