Biomass fuel is defined as land or sea based material such as wood, dried vegetation, crop residues and aquatic plants, biomass fuel can also include household waste. Biomass boilers are designed to burn this combustible material, the energy generated by the combustion process heats water inside the boiler. The hot water and steam produced is then used to transfer the heat energy to consumers, typically via electricity generation or heating systems. The cooled water or the condensed steam returns to the boiler where it is re-heated within the boiler’s closed loop system.
Bio fuel boilers produce relatively clean smoke emissions compared to traditional coal fired plants. The emissions pass through a series of filters, including electrostatic precipitators, wet scrubbers and filter bags. At this point the exhaust gas is emitted to the atmosphere via a chimney stack which can be up to 5 metres in diameter for an industrial system.
A major advantage of DDP over opacity measurements is that the signal is almost independent of the mean transmission value. As a result, maintenance periods can be extended because the instrument can tolerate higher levels of optical contamination and greater optical misalignment before the measurement sensitivity is adversely affected. This can help reduce costs and downtime.
