Combustion characteristics of wheat straw in a fixed bed

Combustion of wheat straw was investigated in a fixed-bed reactor for two air flow rates, 1,151 and 2,125 kg/m(2)h. Measured temperatures, mass loss, and gas composition were used to evaluate the combustion characteristics in terms of ignition front speed, burning rate, and quality of combustion in general. At lower value of air flow rate difference between the ignition rate and burning rate was significant, which can be easily noticed by the measurement results. At higher value of air flow rate, there was still a small difference between the ignition and burning rate, while the content of oxygen in the flue gas was 10%, which leads to the conclusion that a change in the method of delivering the combustion air is necessary.