[Objective

]

To align with the national policy on low-carbon retrofitting of coal-fired power plants and tackle the dual challenges of cow dung pollution and underutilization of this resource in the animal husbandry sector of northern China

this study carried out a test on briquetted cow dung co-combustion in coal-fired power units

to explore a low-cost

easy-to-implement technical solution for both coal power decarbonization and livestock manure resource utilization. [Methods

]

This study selected a 350 MW coal-fired power plant in Inner Mongolia as the research subject and conducted briquetted cow dung co-combustion experiments adopting the “single-mill cofiring” technology

with no retrofitting required for the existing equipment. Under co-firing ratios

of 0～20%

this study systematically investigated the effects of co-combustion on the adaptability of the pulverizing system

combustion characteristics of the boiler

pollutant emission characteristics

and performance of the dust removal system. [Results

]

The results show that when the co-firing ratio exceeds the range of 10%～15%

the mill current

specific power consumption

and pressure difference across the mill exhibit significant variations

with a maximum increments of 3.96 A

0.64 kW·h/t

and 0.59 k Pa

respectively. Furthermore

the fineness of pulverized coal decreases

with the two screen residue indices(R

200

and R

90

) registering maximum increments of 1.95% and 6.53%

respectively. After co-firing briquetted cow dung

the boiler maintains stable combustion performance

with only slight fluctuations observed in furnace and flue gas temperatures. The CO mass concentration remains stable at 60.00 mg/m

3

the carbon content of ash shows negligible variations

and boiler thermal efficiency undergoes a marginal decline with a maximum reduction rate of 0.19 percentage point. This co-firing technology exerts no significant influence on pollutant emissions and the operating parameters of the dust removal system. Under the pure coal combustion condition

the NO

x

mass concentration at the SCR inlet is 264.86 mg/m

3

and the SO

2

mass concentration at the desulfurization inlet is 2 771.38 mg/m

3

. After co-firing

NO

x

generation shows a slight increase with a growth rate ranging from 3.94% to 8.19%(equivalent to an absolute increment of 10.45～21.69 mg/m

3

); SO

2

mass emissions experience a minimal reduction and remain essentially stable. Meanwhile

the current and voltage parameters of the electrostatic precipitator stay relatively stable

and the pressure difference across the bag filter section presents no obvious variation

with a maximum increment of only 72.87 Pa. [Conclusion

]

The findings demonstrate that u

tilizing the existing equipment of the unit enables the efficient co-combustion of cow manure

offering a replicable and scalable new technical paradigm for the resource utilization of livestock and poultry manure waste.