Advances in Production Engineering & Management
Volume 20 | Number 4 | December 2025 | pp 434–444
https://doi.org/10.14743/apem2025.4.550
Synergistic effects of biomass and coal dust co-combustion on explosion safety
Ptak, S.
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A B S T R A C T
The growing share of renewable energy sources in recent years has been driven by the development of national legislation in various countries aiming to reduce carbon dioxide emissions originating from fossil fuels. Sustainable growth of national economies therefore requires the search for novel green technologies. Biomass has recently been used as a supplementary fuel to coal. The literature describes the synergetic effect in the technical context of combustion in the power engineering sector. In the presented research, five types of biomass dust were added to coal dust. The selected explosion indices were determined using a 20 L sphere apparatus, in accordance with EN 14034 standards. The results demonstrate the impact of biomass on the course of dust–air explosions. A synergetic effect was observed and explained. Certain types of biomass were found to be characterized by a higher explosion pressure rise (15-17 % or 0.88-1.28 bar) and higher maximum explosion pressure rates (16-148 % or 57-143 bar/s) than those obtained for the samples tested separately. The results indicate that the implementation of biomass for co-combustion always requires a revision of the existing process safety measures designed for coal combustion.
A R T I C L E I N F O
Keywords • Biomass; Coal dust; Co-combustion; Dust explosion; Synergistic effects; Explosion pressure; Renewable energy; Safety engineering
Corresponding author • Ptak, S.
Article history • Received 8 August 2025, Revised 1 December 2025, Accepted 7 December 2025
Published on-line • 31 December 2025
E X P O R T C I T A T I O N
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