Effective Strategies for Solid Fuel Combustion Optimization and Pollutant Control
A special issue of Fire (ISSN 2571-6255). This special issue belongs to the section "Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Simulation of Combustion and Fire".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 25
Special Issue Editors
Interests: laser diagnostics; solid/gas combustion; energy materials; wall-bounded/imping turbulence
Interests: clean biomass/coal combustion; syngas combustion and reaction kinetics; low NOx combustion; numerical simulation
Interests: high efficiency and clean utilization technology of solid fuels
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Solid fuel combustion—encompassing coal, biomass, municipal solid waste, and derived chars—remains central to heat and power production, industrial processing, and emerging negative emissions concepts. Yet, high conversion efficiency and stringent air-quality targets are often in tension due to complex, multiscale coupling among devolatilization, char oxidation/gasification, turbulent mixing, heat transfer, mineral transformations, and pollutant formation (NOx, SOx, PM, tar/soot, trace metals). Rapid advances in laser/optical diagnostics, high-fidelity simulations (RANS/LES/DNS with detailed/reduced chemistry), and data-driven methods (PINNs, digital twins) now enable mechanism-informed optimization and robust emission control across furnaces, boilers, and fluidized beds. This Special Issue brings together these strands to showcase strategies that deliver cleaner, more reliable, and cost-effective solid-fuel systems during the energy transition.
The aim is to curate contributions that (i) elucidate fundamental physicochemical pathways governing efficiency and emissions in solid-fuel flames and reactive flows, and (ii) translate this understanding into practical optimization and control methods. The scope aligns directly with Fire’s interests in combustion fundamentals, fire chemistry, diagnostics, suppression/mitigation of harmful products, and scalable modeling of reactive systems. We particularly welcome studies that bridge laboratory insights with pilot/industrial deployment and that provide actionable guidance for pollutant abatement and system design.
(1) Fuel preparation and co-firing strategies (biomass/coal/MSW), particle size/moisture effects, mixing and residence-time control. (2) Oxy-fuel, staged/low-NOx, MILD/flameless, pressurized, and circulating/fluidized-bed combustion; EGR and reburning. (3) Pollutant pathways and control: NOx/SOx formation and reduction, PM/soot/ash, slagging and fouling, trace species (e.g., Hg/Cl). (4) In situ/quantitative diagnostics (PLIF, LIBS, LII, PIV, Raman, TDLAS), tomography, and multi-modal data fusion. (5) Modeling and simulation: detailed/reduced chemistry, coal/biomass conversion models, coupled RANS/LES/DNS, uncertainty quantification. (6) Data-driven approaches: surrogate modeling, PINNs, Bayesian calibration, optimization and real-time control, digital twins. (7) Integration with carbon capture (oxy-combustion, chemical looping), techno-economic analysis, and life-cycle assessment. (8) Benchmark datasets, validation campaigns, and best-practice protocols bridging lab, pilot, and full-scale units.
Dr. Wenkun Zhu
Prof. Dr. Rui Sun
Dr. Zhuozhi Wang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- solid-fuel combustion
- biomass, coal, waste etc.
- pollutant formation and control
- low-NOx & oxy/MILD combustion
- sata-driven machine learning
- advanced diagnostics
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