Improving the Methodology for Determining the Biomass/Coal Co-Combustion Ratio: Predictive Modeling of the 14 C Activity of Pure Biomass

Yinchen Wang, Zhongyang Luo (), Chunjiang Yu, Sheng Wang, Xiaohuan Wang and Peiliang Zhu
Additional contact information
Yinchen Wang: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Zhongyang Luo: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Chunjiang Yu: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Sheng Wang: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Xiaohuan Wang: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Peiliang Zhu: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-23

Abstract: Sampling and 14 C detection of biomass are now essential steps to ensure the accuracy of the 14 C method, but they require additional time and economic investment. When there are multiple types of biomass fuels, it is not possible to guarantee the uniformity of sampling. The 14 C activity of biomass fuels exhibits variability, and this value significantly impacts the precision of the 14 C method. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influencing factors of 14 C activity in biomass fuels. It also provides predicted values of 14 C activity for different types of biomass fuels for each year from 2020 to 2030. Additionally, this study discusses the potential blending ratio measurement errors that may arise due to the uncertainties of the predicted values. The reduction in the 14 C activity of biomass fuels can occur due to the utilization of fossil fuels, human activities, and the photosynthesis mode of C3 plants. This study presents a prediction method for determining the reduction factor. The other component of the prediction methodology involves determining the original 14 C activity of biomass fuels. The 14 C activity of the annual biomass is equal to the 14 CO 2 activity (the 14 C activity of CO 2 ) of the surrounding environment, and it experiences a decline of 0.355 pMC/year. The 14 C activity has ranges of five types of perennial biomass fuels, including wood chips and branches, bark, leaves, wasted furniture, and abandoned building wood, for the time period between 2020 and 2030, are 97.34~102.84, 96.35~106.27, 96.35~102.64, 111.00~118.60, and 111.32~129.47 pMC, respectively. Based on these, this study introduces a new formula for calculating blending ratios, which enhances the current methodology. The calculation errors of blending ratios caused by the uncertainties of the predicted values are generally negligible, with the exception of wasted furniture and construction wood. The annual decrease in the blending ratio calculation error, caused by the uncertainty associated with the predicted value, can be observed. This study aims to reduce the implementation time and economic cost of the 14 C method while ensuring the accuracy of biomass blending ratio detection.

Keywords: co-combustion; 14 C; blending ratio; 14 C activity of biomass; radiocarbon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/4/942/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/4/942/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:4:p:942-:d:1340579

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().