• Clean Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.73-79
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• 2017

Recently usage of biomass is increased in pulverized coal power plants for reduction of $CO_2$ emission. Many problems arise when thermal share of the biomass is increased, and milling of the biomasses is one of the most important problems due to their low grindability when existing coal pulverizer is used. Grindability of coal can be measured through the HGI (Hardgrove grindability index) equipment as a standard, but method of measuring biomass grindability has not been established yet. In this study, grinding experiment of coal and biomass was performed using a lab-scale ball mill. One type of coal (Adaro coal) and six biomasses (wood pellet (WP), empty fruit bunch (EFB), palm kernel shell (PKS), walnut shell (WS), torrefied wood chip (TBC) and torrefied wood pellet (TWP)) were used in the experiment. Particle size distributions of the fuels were measured after being milled in various pulverization times. Pulverization characteristics were evaluated by portion of particles under the diameter of $75{\mu}m$. As a result, about 70% of the TBC and TWP were observed to be pulverized to sizes of under $75{\mu}m$, which implies that they can be used as alternative biomass fuels without modification of the existing mill. Other biomass was observed to have low grindability compared with torrefied biomass. Power consumption of the mill for various fuels was measured as well, and the results show that lower power was consumed for torrefied biomasses. This result can be used for characterization of biomass as an alternative fuel for pulverized coal power plants.