A comparative study of combustion properties of five energy crops and greek ligniteA comparative study of combustion properties of five energy crops and greek lignite Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2015-11-172012enSolid biofuels from energy crops are widely considered as an attractive alternative for power production in dedicated combustion or co-firing applications. The aim of this work is to present fuel and ash characterization along with thermogravimetric investigations of pyrolysis and combustion behavior for five crops (cardoon, miscanthus, paulownia, willow, poplar) compared with Greek lignite. Devolatilization is well modeled by three independent parallel reactions and reaches higher rates than lignite; char reactivity of woody biomass and miscanthus was high, while cardoon char resembled more closely resembling that of lignite. High potassium concentration and low melting temperatures were found for all biomass ashes; therefore, severe / high slagging or agglomeration potential is expected. Overall, cardoon appears to be the most problematic of the investigated biomass fuels, due to high ash content, low ash melting temperature, slower char combustion rate and risk of chlorine corrosion; co-firing with lignite appears to be a better option for this fuel. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Energy and Fuels262869–878 Karampinis Emmanouil Vamvouka Despoina Βαμβουκα Δεσποινα Sfakiotakis Stylianos Σφακιωτακης Στυλιανος Grammelis, P., (Panagiotis) Itskos, Grigorios Kakaras, E., (Emmanouil) American Chemical Society Biomass crops Biomass energy crops Energy farming Fuel crops energy crops biomass crops biomass energy crops energy farming fuel crops