Influence of control on environmental and economical aspects of small-scale biomass boiler

Abstract

This paper describes some problems concerning control of small-scale biomass boilers. A commercially available boiler equipped with additional instrumentation has been used as an experimental platform for research purposes. In the paper are discussed grate sweeping effects on fluctuations in boiler operation that have been weakened by algorithm alternations. Another problem discussed in the paper is transient states generation during on/off control of the boiler heat output. These states cause decrease in overall efficiency of the boiler and they can be also source of increased emissions of gaseous pollutants in the flue gas. As a solution the on/off algorithm has been replaced by continuous linear controller that is able to control the transient states in a desired manner.