Professional Documents
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Introduction effort also called upon and applied his personal religious con-
Power plant owners and operators, especially those with coal- victions and beliefs to develop the best solution at the least cost.
fired capacity, are facing both significant opportunities and chal- In anticipation of more stringent Title I regulations, Duke
lenges. The move to deregulate the U.S. power industry pre- Power and Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) reworked the tangen-
sents an opportunity for existing coal-fired power plants be- tially-fired Marshall Unit 3 with a low NOx combustion system
cause of their low fuel cost, and many are forecasting near-term that will maximize NOx reductions thereby minimizing the costs
growth of this type of generation. The associated open market, of future technology for NOx control.
however, will force all power generators to control capital ex-
penditures, reduce operating and maintenance (O&M) costs, and
maximize overall plant efficiency to remain competitive. NOx Formation and Control
At the same time, plant operators and owners are facing the NOx formation during the combustion process occurs mainly
need to meet significantly tighter nitrogen oxides (NOx) regu- through the oxidation of nitrogen in the combustion air (ther-
lations as a result of the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of mal NO x) and nitrogen bound in the fuel matrix (fuel NO x).
1990. Lower NO x emissions require both increased capital and Thermal NO x formation during the combustion process is eas-
operating costs that produce a negative impact on overall plant ily understood and has been adequately described by the
efficiency. Zeldovich mechanism. It is suppressed by reducing flame tem-
The winners in this race are those that drive costs down by peratures and limiting oxygen concentration. Fuel NOx forma-
selecting technologies that meet the emissions requirements at tion is a more complex process involving local concentration of
minimal capital and operating costs. Most technologies apply oxygen and nitrogen and is reduced by minimizing the avail-
some type of air staging, for the reduction of NOx emissions as ability of oxygen during the early stages of the combustion pro-
required by the Title IV Phases I and II of the CAAA with rea- cess. Separated Overfire Air (SOFA) provides staging of the
sonable operating and capital costs. The anticipated further re- combustion air controlling the mixing process of fuel and air
duction in NO x emissions levels as a result of Title I (ozone and the peak temperatures. The effectiveness of the NO x con-
non-attainment) requirements further increases the pressure on trol process is dependant on the coal burned, with lower NOx
the utility boiler owners and operators. Depending on where emissions from coals with lower nitrogen contents and lower
the final regulations are set, the use of more costly technologies ratios of fixed carbon to volatile matter (i.e., higher reactivity).
such as Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) may be required. Combustion zone geometry is particularly important, with higher
At Duke Power Co., a building block approach has been ap- heat release rates and shorter residence times all contributing to
plied to the NO x strategy. The Duke project manager for his higher NOx levels.
Figure 1 Side view of Duke Power Station Unit 3. Figure 2 Existing unit windbox arrangement.
Existing Firing
Pattern (Base)
Rear Wall
2 ft Above Existing
Burner Windbox
8
7
6
5
CO 4
% vol. 3
2
1
0.5
Option 4 Option 5 Option 6 0.1
0
Pre-Modification
ful in achieving its NO x emissions goals. During unit start-up 0.50 Low NOx Conversion
the unit was limited for its first week of operation to less than
0.40
560 MW from increased opacity due to oil coating of the elec-
trostatic precipitator. The NOx levels during this operation were 0.30
consistently under 0.19 lbs/106 Btu fired without any operational 0.20
side effects.
The unit was able to reach full load (730 MW) with all pul- 0.10
verizers in service within a week or so of start-up (following 0.00
cleaning of the precipitator). NOx levels, depending on the de- 0 200 400 600 800
gree of opening of the SOFA ports, ranged from 0.23 lbs/106 NOx Emissions, lbs/MBtu
Btu to 0.39 lbs/106 Btu. Figure 7 summarizes the NOx emis- Figure 7 NOx emissions as a function of boiler load following
sions as a function of boiler load with the use of the SOFA ports low NOx system installation.
References
1. Kitto, J. B. et.al., Low cost integrated NOx solutions Evalu- 2. Kokkinos, A. et. al., B&Ws low NOx burner operating ex-
ating unit economics, presented at the EPRI-DOE-EPA Combined perience, presented at the EPRI-DOE-EPA Combined Utility Air
Utility Air Pollutant Control Symposium 1999, Atlanta, GA, Au- Pollutant Control Symposium 1999, Atlanta, GA, August 1999.
gust 1999.
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