Balanuta, VítorBaptista, PatriciaNeves da Fonseca Cardoso Carreira, Fernando PauloDuarte, GonçaloCasaca, Cláudia Sofia Séneca da Luz2025-03-312025-03-312024-09-06Balanuta, V., Baptista, P., Carreira, F., Duarte, G. O., & Casaca, C. S. S. L. (2024). Assessment of influential operational parameters in the mitigation of CO2 emissions in a power plant: case study in Portugal. Clean Technologies, 6(3), 1169-1180. https://doi.org/10.3390/cleantechnol6030057http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/21725The European decarbonization goals and requirement for energy independence are mostly relying on intermittent renewable energy sources for electrification. A numerical model was developed to simulate the operation of a steam generator, allowing a study of the potential impacts of retrofitting existing coal-fired power plants to operate with biomass or coal–biomass mixtures on combustion parameters and CO2 emissions. The results obtained using the operational parameters of the Sines power plant indicate that a mixture of 25% coal and 75% pine sawdust allow operation at λ = 1.8, demonstrating that a small amount of coal allows operation near the coal combustion parameters (λ = 1.9). These conditions have the drawback of a reduction of 8.7% in adiabatic flame temperature but a significant reduction of 57.5% in CO2 emissions, considering the biomass as carbon-neutral.engGreenhouse gas emissionsBiomassThermal power plantRetrofittingDecarbonizationresearch articlehttps://doi.org/10.3390/cleantechnol60300572571-8797