Olive pruning and animal manure blends were burned in a fluidized bed system, in order to investigate their valorization for thermal energy production. Combustion performance was studied in terms of efficiency and emissions under various operating conditions. Both fuels burned mostly within the bed. The maximum temperature of animal manure was 50 °C lower than that of olive pruning, however efficiency was nearly 99%. CO emissions were low, SO2 emissions were negligible, whereas NOx emissions of blends exceeded legislation limits, when excess air ratio was over 1.4. Decreasing excess air from 50 to 30%, or reducing reactor loading, resulted in improved burnout. The optimum performance for the blends was achieved when the feed rate was 0.6 kg/h and excess air was 30%.
Keywords: Chemical engineering; Environmental science.