EXPERIENCE IN VARIOUS COALS FIRING WITH BALL TUBE MILL

Anantachin Jarukom, Assistant Power Plant Manager, Hiang Seng Fibre Container Co., Ltd., Town district, Samut-Sakhon 74000, Thailand Thunya Siltorn, Vice President, Engineering & Service, Union Energy Co., Ltd., Phrakhanong, Bangkok 10250, Thailand Chanchai Benjaniratn, Assistant Mill Manager, Hiang Seng Fibre Container Co., Ltd., Town district, Samut-Sakhon 74000, Thailand ABSTRACT - Instead of controlling fuel flow by coal feeder, constant coal inventory in Ball Tube Mill which was achieved by Power-Sonic Mill conditioning system has been used. The design was based on Australian coal, but trial had been made since 1986 with various Thai lignite to imported Australian, Chinese and Indonesian coal. The results indicated that imported coal have significant advantage in both reliability and economy. Indonesian coal was considered to be prime fuel because of its proper boiler turn down. As a result of close attention of operating and maintenance staff, especially to monitor and control fuel-air ratio, ball charge, stripping of Ball Tube Mill, etc., availability of the unit was eventually improved. Also, operating procedures for coal kind change without mills shut-down and optimization of Ball Tube Mills grinding performance were developed. In present day, the unit is continuously run on coal, even when coal kind being changed, Bunker C Oil is only needed when emptying mills before shut-down and during start-up. This is resulted in very economic energy cost for the customer. 1. INTRODUCTION

The unit is topping cycle co-generation, supplying electric power and process steam for paper manufacturing process. It is consisting of one pulverized coal fired boiler rated at 118 kg/cm2g, 541C, 149 t/h, one back pressure turbine of 24,500 kW and one condensing turbine of 3,500 kW. The process steam capacity is 90 t/h at 5.4 kg/cm2g, 195C. Boilers firing equipment are two double end 9 feet dia. by 11 feet long Ball Tube Mills (BTM) with two volumetric coal feeders, two crusher dryers and two external static classifiers per each mill, the number of burner per mill is two (fig.1). Each BTM is rated at 65 % MCR with turn down of 1:2, coal feeders sizing were ample for each BTM to operate with one feeder out of service. Firing equipment have been designed for wide range of fuel from Thai lignite to Imported coal (table 1 & 2). Four bunker C oil burners with 100 % MCR capacity located in center tube of each coal burner were also provided. BTM are cylindrical steel shell lined with hard face curved steel liners. The grinding elements are three parts of 32 mm. and one part of 38 mm. dia. forged steel balls. The grinding principle (fig.2) is that when mill shell rotating at design speed, grinding balls are carried up with mill liners to proper height and fall down. Coal is then pulverized by crushing, impact and attrition. Pulverized coal are swept by primary air through outlet boxes at both end to classifier, which only fine particles pass to burners, while coarse particles return to mill inlet boxes via return pipes. Crusher dryer is used to crush and pre-dry incoming coal, which is helpful to keep mill performance and reduce fire hazard when grinding high moisture, high volatile coal. 2. BTM AND COAL FEED RATE CONTROL

The most unique feature of BTM is relatively huge amount of coal stored in its grinding zone. When primary air flow increases, there is certain quantity of pulverized coal ready to be transported to furnace in additional to that of the previous state. The fuel flow to burners regulated by coal feeder speed adjustment is valid only in steady state. In order to control fuel flow more precisely in all condition, other methods are needed. One of commonly used control scheme is to vary primary air flow with demand from combustion control system, while keeping mill coal inventory constant by adjusting coal feeder speed. BTM inventory control system used in this unit is called Power-Sonic Mill conditioning system, which were developed by Riley Stoker Corporation. This particular control system measure two process variables from mill grinding process, which are

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Mill drive motor power input (kW) Sonic level or sound pressure level generated (dB)

The relationship between these two process variables and mill inventory (fig.3) can be described as follows : When empty mill is starting, power consumed is relatively low and sonic level is highest due to only metallic contact of balls and liners, as can be seen at the leftmost of the curve. After coal feeders starting, power required will be higher but sonic level decreases, which caused by coal particles filled in voids between charge balls. Once these voids are completely filled, power will reach its peak value. Filling more coal will be resulted in ball and coal level increased, thus reduces power consumption by shifting of virtual center of gravity toward mill rotation axis. Power-Sonic uses power input on the right side of the peak to compare with kW set point, while sonic signal used as an indicator to tell whether the mill operated on emptying side (left side of kW peak) or not. Deviation of measured kW from set point combined with sonic signal or so called Power-Sonic signal is used in feeder speed control. 3. FUELS

Thai lignite was from three mines, i.e., Phare lignite, World fuel & Lanna lignite, which were located in Li, Lampoon. Most of lignite delivered contained some lump of over 200 mm and contaminated with clay and foreign matter. Their gross calorific value were ranging from 3350 to 4990 kcal/kg, HGI vary in the range of 23 to 51 (table 1). Imported coal supplied from PRC, Australia and Indonesia, were unlike Thai lignite. These coal were produced by better process and contained less contamination. Coal characteristic were of wide variety from relatively low volatile Australian coal to high moisture, high volatile Indonesian coal (table 2). Originally, coal stock yard was open type. Front end loader and bulldozer have been used to load coal into crusher feeding hopper. The problem of very wet coal plugging at various points i.e., crusher feeding hopper, conveyor transfer station, bunker outlet chute, etc., caused by heavy rainfall were encountered in the first three years. In mid 1988 coal yard roof were built, this problem was satisfactorily solved. 4. OPERATING RESULTS

The unit was commissioning in mid 1986 at 55 % MCR due to paper machines load limit with lignite, then various coal was trial (table 3). Many mechanism for flame adjustment were tried such as coal spreader position, secondary air register opening, mill inventory and primary air velocity (varied by classifier exit temp. : CET and mill bypass dampers position). Mill inventory control kW set point was approximately 96 to 97 % of peak kW. At that time, lignite was the only fuel that two mills operation could be performed, but most of them gave flatten top kW curve, without peak. It was resulted that kW set needed to be trial and error. Flame stability was quite acceptable, but mill inlet / outlet boxes plugging at lignite flow more than 7 t/h were encountered. Also drying capacity was proved to be inadequate, the CET was less than 60C while the hot air dampers were fully opened. Chinese coal had no problem on drying capacity, but mill plugging was resulted as same as lignite. Overfine coal dust and fly ash re-entrain to combustion air was also observed, this problem was partially solved by decreasing amount of balls charged. Australian coal was the worst, despite of being close to design specification, flame stability was poor and ignitor support was needed most of the times, while Chinese coal and lignite needed ignitor support during soot blower and low load period. Major modification was taken place in mid 1988 by adding two bands of 2.25 m. height refractory around burners area on front wall to decrease radiant surface, since collected data indicated that furnace area was too large. Another was adding of tubular gas to air heater for further heating of hot primary air to achieve proper drying capacity. Mill inventory control set point was changed to 97 to 98 % of kW peak. Combustion condition after modification was remarkably improved for both Chinese coal and lignite, but Australian coal still the

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worst of all. Ignitor support for soot blower was only for wall and final superheater blowers. Mill plugging problem was drastically reduced. Indonesian coal was first burnt in March 1989, despite of low HGI, the result was quite satisfied. Chinese coal, Indonesian coal and lignite in used evidently had porous slag, which caused steam explosion when falling down to ash water trough and led to unit trip. To solve this problem, bottom ash conveyor was changed to DB intermediate grate type by the end of 1989. By then, preliminary evaluation showed that burning imported coal was more favorable, because fuel cost was not so much differed. Maintenance cost of imported coal was lower and had better unit reliability. Two mills operation on imported coal formally begun in April 1991, after commissioning of paper machine No. 4. Now mill inventory control set have been at 98 to 98.5 % of peak value, flame condition was good and ignitor support for soot blower was no longer needed. Indonesian coal was proved to be more appropriate because of better two mills turn down to 55 % MCR, while Chinese coal can do only to 65 % MCR. Due to higher value of HGI and heating value, thus promotes the choice of Indonesian coal as prime fuel. When Indonesian coal have been burnt, ball charge needed to be restored to at least 90 % of full charge to cope with low HGI and amount of balls have been maintained at this level by periodically ball charge. Also, coal spreaders have been fixed at nozzle tip flush position, flame adjustment then was done by variation of secondary air register, primary air velocity and opening of classifier vanes. Flame condition is very good and even Chinese coal can be efficiently burnt under this circumstance. Other interesting point is Indonesian Adaro or Enviro coal, which had high inherent moisture content. It gave lower actual peak kW, thus led to mill plugging. This problem solved by using of kW peak of another Indonesian coal with the same bulk density and surface moisture. It was also found that the first lot of this brand was the mixture of unintentionally mixed Enviro coal and Chinese coal caused by error in unloading and transportation. This resulted in constantly changing flame condition and required very close attention of operating crews. 5. MAINTENANCE

Significant wear parts of BTM are balls, which resulted in lower kW peak (fig.4) and lower grinding performance. To maintain performance, ball make up has been done by filling required amount of balls through ball charge hopper. Relationship between ball charge to kW peak and ball wear rate could be established by periodically use of the so called mill stripping operation, which done by decrease coal feed rate to minimum to find the peak power, then feeding increased to resume normal inventory without mill shutdown. The amount of balls needed to restore the original peak, wear ball peak and quantity of coal ground between stripping interval were used to calculate ball weight per kW change and ball wear rate. Once this data base was established, make up of ball charge could be done without mill stripping in the case that load condition is not permit. Even though mill liners also wear, annual inspection record shown that after 10 years of operation, liners wear were only 5 mm. (manufacturer predicted life time of liners are 100,000 operating hours or more). Another important maintenance item for BTM is to maintain proper ratio between large and small size balls to keep mill performance, which was recommended by Riley service engineer in 1988. This task was done by comparing measured ball bed depth with the value after initial filling or last sorting and filling. If the difference exceed predetermined value, ball sorting to reject 20 mm. dia. or smaller balls is needed, the refill then made of 38 mm. dia. balls. Regular interval for ball sorting in this unit is approximately 3 years. Other maintenance needed for BTM are preventive or periodical maintenance of mill support bearings, drive train and accessories, although crusher dryer hammers needed to be replaced every 3 to 5 years, average maintenance cost is only small percentage of annual maintenance cost.

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6.

EXPERIENCE GAIN

Coal kind change without mill shut-down is resulted from well collected long period operating data as well as former experience on using mixed lignite in 1986 to 1988 and mixed imported Chinese and Australian coal in 1988. This procedure have been adopted in late 1991and then became standard practice. The change simply begun with recording of coal bunker levels before new coal filled up, calculate the starting and duration time of mixing, then ignitors are placed in service just before mixing start. Flame condition during mixing is confirmed by visual inspection and necessary adjustment toward new coal properties made. When only new coal is confirmed to be burning, ignitors then are retracted and fine adjustment of flame condition will be done, this procedure normally takes 1 to 2 hours to accomplished, depended on coal feed rate. Mill inventory control kW set determined by comparing new coal properties to those of previously burnt, mill stripping to find actual kW peak then performed as soon as load condition is appropriate for such operation. When grinding coals of different properties with the same amount of ball charge, fineness and air to coal ratio of pulverized coal to burners will vary to certain degree. To burn these coals to the same efficiency under this condition, different set of parameters needed for various properties of coal have been established as follow : CET of 60 to 62C, fineness 70 to 75 % through ASTM No. 200 mesh sieve, low secondary air swirl for high moisture, high volatile Indonesian coal. CET of 63 to 65C, fineness 75 to 80 % through ASTM No. 200 mesh sieve, moderate secondary air swirl for low to medium moisture, high volatile Indonesian coal. CET of 68 to 72C, fineness 80 to 85 % through ASTM No. 200 mesh sieve, high secondary air swirl for low to medium moisture, medium volatile Chinese coal.

These parameters are guideline to help operators to begin the adjustment with various coal kind, after stable flame is maintained, then fine adjustment for efficient combustion of specific coal can be done. 7. CONCLUSION

Continuously burning wide variety of coals successfully with Ball Tube Mill without mill shut-down are largely resulted from simple operating principle and relatively low maintenance of this type of mill. There are no change or adjustment made to BTM itself prior to introduce new kind of coal. Only mill inventory needed to be changed for each kind of coal and it is simply done by gradually change of kW set point to the required value. The use of high price ignitor fuel and Bunker C oil are minimized as well as outage and derate time, thus resulted in very economic energy cost for the customer. 8. (1) (2) REFERENCES Riley Service Guide, 1977, Riley Stoker Corporation, Worcestor, MA The Riley Ball Tube Mill System, publication No. RSC-3 5/82 5M, 1982, Riley Stoker Corporation, Worcestor, MA

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Table 1 Proximate analysis of Lignite : % by weight, as received Coal kind HHV (kcal/kg) Moisture Surface Inherent Ash Volatile matter Fixed carbon Sulfur HGI (air dried) Design lignite 3,935 35.0 10.0 to 14.0 18.7 29.0 17.3 1.9 44 World fuel 3,788 to 3,835 35.71 to 35.97 8.60 to 19.41 16.56 to 27.11 5.46 to 6.72 28.63 to 29.19 28.67 to 29.63 1.66 23.2 to 31 Phare lignite 3,349 to 3,945 27.99 to 29.69 Lanna lignite 4,251 to 4,987 19.46 to 33.02 5.40 to 9.70 14.06 to 23.32 7.01 to 12.12 28.81 to 32.58 31.16 to 35.84 0.58 to 0.98 38 to 51

10.44 to 15.99 28,43 to 31.58 25.90 to 29.99 1.02 to 1.48 37

Table 2 Proximate analysis of Imported coal : % by weight, as received Coal kind HHV (kcal/kg) Moisture Surface Inherent Ash Volatile matter Fixed carbon Sulfur HGI (air dried) Coal kind HHV (kcal/kg) Moisture Surface Inherent Ash Volatile matter Fixed carbon Sulfur HGI (air dried) Coal kind HHV (kcal/kg) Moisture Surface Inherent Ash Volatile matter Fixed carbon Sulfur HGI (air dried) Design (AS) 5,878 15.0 CC1, Shenmu 5,992 to 6,563 9.94 to 13.0 4.38 to 5.20 4.74 to 8.62 7.52 to 7.95 27.67 to 31.13 48.35 to 54.44 0.52 to 0.66 51 to 55 IND3, Hensen 6,251 7.42 3.67 3.75 13.79 39.61 39.18 0.57 37 IND8, (Banpu) 5,924 12.14 4.72 7.42 9.65 35.44 42.77 2.68 48 AS, Blair athol 5,770 to 5,837 16.81 to 19.29 11.27 to 12.46 6.25 to 6.83 6.60 to 6.70 24.07 to 24.49 50.04 to 51.99 0.18 to 0.20 64 to 67 IND4, Mark rich 5,605 15.60 6.46 9.14 11.35 32.96 40.08 0.41 46 IND9, Banjar 6,221 8.07 3.74 4.33 13.02 40.00 38.91 0.67 46 IND1, Kitadin 5,496 18.45 8.50 9.95 6.26 36.93 38.36 0.59 53 IND5, Senakin 6,176 8.62 5.52 3.10 13.61 39.81 37.97 0.72 38 IND10, Satui 6,262 10.47 4.10 6.37 9.21 41.28 39.05 0.21 41 CC2, Pingshuo 6,413 7.16 3.70 3.46 12.41 31.28 49.16 0.95 56 IND6, Adaro1 5,316 to 5,887 9.73 to 24.39 5.77 to 8.70 3.96 to 15.69 1.78 to 15.10 37.73 to 38.29 36.09 to 36.92 0.16 to 0.84 42 to 49 CC3, Pingshou2 6,230 8.05 4.29 3.76 12.81 30.96 48.17 0.83 55

16.5 21.6 to 22.5 45.4 to 47.5 0.5 60 IND2, Arutmin 6,005 7.39 3.86 3.53 15.47 38.38 38.46 0.55 42 IND7, Adaro 5,236 25.17 6.03 19.14 1.36 37.69 35.77 0.14 44

AS : Australian coal, CC : Chinese coal, IND : Indonesian coal 1 : mixed with Chinese coal 2 : Very severe slag was resulted, due to high Fe2O3 in ash

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Table 3 Operation summary Coal kind World fuel Ignitor support Ball charge Result low load and 85 % Dark orange, soft & hazy flame, mill S/B plugging & inadequate drying capacity 1 Phare lignite Dec. 86 low load and 85 % Dull orange, soft & hazy flame, mill S/B plugging & inadequate drying capacity Shenmu, PRC Oct. 86 1 low load and 85 % Orange, hard flame, fly ash re-entrain Dec. 86 1 S/B in air & mill plugging Blair athol, Apr. 87 1 medium, low 70 % Dark orange, hazy flame, very unstable AS May 88 1 load and S/B at low load Lanna lignite Apr. 88 low load and 70 % Orange, soft flame, mill plugging & S/B inadequate drying capacity Tubular air heater and front wall refractory added in July ~ August 1988 Lanna lignite Sep. 88 wall blower & 70 % Yellow, soft & stable flame final SH S/B Phare lignite Oct. 88 wall blower & 70 % Orange, soft, long & fairly stable flame & World fuel mixed final SH S/B Blair athol & Nov. 88 1 wall blower & 70 % Yellow, hard & short flame, stability is Shenmu mixed final SH S/B acceptable Kitadin, IND Mar. 89 1 wall blower & 70 % Yellow, soft, long & stable flame Sep. 89 1 final SH S/B Shenmu, PRC May 89 1 wall blower & 70 % Bright yellow, short, intense & stable Nov. 89 1 final SH S/B flame Arutmin, IND Sep. 90 1 wall blower & 85 % Yellow, soft, long & stable flame, ball final SH S/B added to BTM due to low HGI 1 Pingshuo, Jan 91 wall blower & 85 % Bright yellow, short, very intense & PRC final SH S/B stable flame Pingshuo, Apr. 91, Nov. did not require 85 % Bright gold, short, very intense flame, PRC 91Aug. 92, excellent stability Aug. 93, Aug. 95 90 % Hensen, IND Aug. 91 did not require 85 % Bright yellow, relatively long & stable flame Mark rich, May 92 did not require 85 % Bright yellow, relatively long & stable IND Nov. 92 flame, Senakin, IND Feb. 93, Aug. 94, did not require 90 % Bright yellow to gold, medium to long Apr. 96, Feb. 97 flame, good stability Adaro, IND, Jun. 95 did not require 90 % Orange, fairly stable flame, but flame mixed condition constantly changed (Banpu), IND Jul. 95 did not require 90 % Bright yellow, relatively long & stable flame, precipitator severe spark Adaro, IND Oct. 95, did not require 90 % Yellow, stable flame, CET set 60C, Mar. 96 mill plugging due to low peak kW Banjar, IND Nov. 95 did not require 90 % Same as Senakin, narrower turn down range Satui, IND Mar. 96 did not require 90 % Same as Senakin Pingshuo, PRC Jun. 96 (table 2, CC3) did not require 90 % Bright gold, relatively long, intense flame, very severe slagging problem Time of use Jul. 86 1

AS 1

: Australia, IND : One mill operation.

: Indonesia,

PRC : People Republic of China Full ball charge is 23 tonnes of balls per mill.

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Hot air

Tempering air From Mill B 1 9 2 2 1

III IV

8
I II

10 5 6 7 4 Mill A 3 3 6 7 5 1. Coal bunker 2. Volumetric feeder 3. Crusher dryer 4. Ball Tube Mill 5. Classifier 6. Bypass damper 7. Return pipe 8. Burners 9. Primary air fan 10. Ball charge hopper

Figure 1. Firing equipment flow diagram

Figure 2. Ball tube mill working principle

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Peak kW High Sonic (dB) level

Normal operating range Set point

POWER (kW) Low kW level

Decrease

INVENTORY

Increase

Figure 3. Power consumption and inventory relationship

Original kW High POWER (kW)

Peak kW Set point

Low

Wear ball kW level Decrease INVENTORY Increase

Figure 4. Ball wear and power consumption relationship

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