ABSTRACT
Opportunity fuels are those wastes or process byproducts that have significant energy content and could be used to provide energy to generate electricity but have not traditionally been used for that purpose. Burgeoning interest in the use of opportunity fuels to offset purchased traditional fossil fuels has focused on the combustion, material handling, and environmental permitting challenges associated with their exploitation. A number of industries have been taking advantage of opportunity fuels since long before that moniker was coined. Other industries are relative newcomers to the field. Some industry analysts have indicated the potential for as much as 100 GW of electric generation from opportunity fuels associated with distributed generation facilities. Although such estimates are not unfounded, a number of challenges are associated with a potential application of the use of opportunity fuels. These challenges include defining the fuel sufficiently for equipment vendors and regulatory agencies. Characteristics to be established are fuel particle size, shape, and propensity to bridge, agglomerate, stick to equipment surfaces, leach, or contain hazardous components. Other important considerations are the ease and cost of transporting the fuel (if required); its ability to be co-fired with other traditional or waste fuels; the ability to obtain performance guarantees from boiler/furnace/steam generator vendors with the desired opportunity material; and pollutant emissions from combustion, gasification, and handling. The answers to these issues, along with the typical design issues revolving around complex multifuel steam plants with on-site electric generation, must be obtained in the course of any feasibility analysis of opportunity fuels.
