Bagasse, an abundant form of agricultural waste obtained via sugarcane processing in Southeast Asia, is increasingly used as fuel in biomass plants. However, the ash generated via bagasse combustion, particularly at high alkali contents, can cause significant slagging and fouling in boilers and combustors. In this study, an aluminosilicate-based fuel additive was used to change the properties of ash and mitigate these problems. The ash generated from bagasse combustion exhibited a high potassium oxide content of 18.38 % and a relatively low alumina content, which is expected to result in ash with a low melting temperature. The potassium oxide and calcium oxide contents decreased significantly, whereas the alumina content increased as the additive blend ratio was increased. Four predictive indices, which were calculated from the chemical compositions of the ash, indicated that blending with the additive mitigates ash-related problems compared with those associated with the combustion of bagasse alone. Potassium sulfate was found to be the main mineral phase in the ash of the non-blended sample. Conversely, the additive-blended samples showed higher contents of kalsilite, lomonosovite, and mutinaite, which are minerals with high melting temperatures. Therefore, blending an aluminosilicate-based additive with bagasse can mitigate ash-related problems in boilers and combustors.

Keywords: Fuel additive, Bagasse, Aluminosilicate, Ash fusion.