Biomass CoFiring: A Renewable Alternative

• Cofiring is a near term, low-cost option for efficiently and cleanly converting biomass to electricity by adding biomass as a partial substitute fuel in high-efficiency coal boilers.
• Biomass co-firing is the practice of substituting a part of the fuel with biomass at coal thermal plants.
• Biomass co-firing stands for adding biomass as a partial substitute fuel in high efficiency coal boilers.
  • Coal and biomass are combusted together in boilers that have been designed to burn coal. For this purpose, the existing coal power plant has to be partly reconstructed and retrofitted.
  • Co-firing is an option to convert biomass to electricity, in an efficient and clean way, and to reduce GHG (Green house Gases) emissions of the power plant.
• Biomass co-firing is a globally accepted cost-effective method for decarbonising a coal fleet.
• India is a country where biomass is usually burnt on the field which reflects apathy towards resolving the problem of clean coal using a very simple solution that is readily available.

Significance of Biomass cofiring

• Biomass co-firing is an effective way to curb emissions from open burning of crop residue, it also decarbonises the process of electricity generation using coal.
  • Substituting 5-7 % of coal with biomass in coal-based power plants can save 38 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
• It can help cut emissions from combustion of fossil fuels, address India’s burgeoning problem of farm stubble burning to some extent, reduce waste burden while also creating jobs in rural areas.
• India has large biomass availability as well as rapid growth in coal-fired capacity.

Challenges of Biomass cofiring

• Substituting 5-7% of coal with biomass in coal-based power plants can save 38 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, but the existing infrastructure is not robust enough to turn this into reality.
• Around 95,000-96,000 tonnes of biomass pellets are required per day for co-firing, But India’s pellet manufacturing capacity is 7,000 tonnes per day at present despite a surplus 228 million tonnes of agricultural residue available in the country.
• This huge gap is due to the seasonal availability and unreliable supply of biomass pellets to the utility.
• It is challenging to store biomass pellets for long durations at the plant sites since they absorb moisture from air quickly, rendering them useless for co-firing.
• Only pellets with up to 14% of moisture can be used for combustion along with coal.