The interest in biomass cofiring is growing rapidly as countries recognize this as an option to rapidly introduce very large amounts of renewable electricity at low costs, however the options to cofire in existing power plants are limited. For new coal fired power plants that are now on the drawing table it is a challenge to include maximum cofiring abilities in the design. This in combination with very high steam conditions (over 700 °C of steam) and the capability to capture CO₂. The main issues are ash related.
 

This workshop presented some new concepts for coal fired power plants that can handle much larger percentages of biomass cofiring, e.g. using fluid bed combustion, pre-gasification or parallel combustion, but also other pulverized coal concepts may do this when properly designed. Evidently this relates to much more than just combustion but also includes gasification, torrefaction, and even other processes.

The full report with a summary of all presentations can be downloaded here.
 

Individual presentations: