Boiler coal combustion

Operation perspective

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Scope of presentation

Definitions & brief introduction of coal

Types of solid fuel firing/furnace
PF Coal Combustion methods
Coal Combustion control & efficiency
Combustion tuning

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 Definitions

Coal : Coal is the general descriptive term applied to a group of solid

fossil fuels, black or brown in color, that consist predominantly of altered
plant material and usually occur as seam within other consolidated
strata. From geological point of view coal may be classified as a
sedimentary rock consisting essentially of organic components and only
minor proportion of mineral constituents.
Ignition : the energy released by source of ignition excite the fuel
molecules to convert/release vapour from fuel. Ignition always takes
place in the vapour state.
Combustion : it is the controlled generation of useful heat by the rapid
chemical combination of oxygen with the combustible elements of a fuel.
Burners : burners undertake the task of delivering fuel and air in a
proper proportion, facilitate ignition energy to the fuel air mixture stream,
sustain the ignition and provide a stable flame during the operation,
complete the task of combustion & delivering heat to the intended
purpose.

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 Flame :Flame is a zone of intense chemical reaction with liberation
of heat and light.

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Types of fuel

Coal
Lignite / Brown coal Carbon < 50%, H2O ~30-60% -
Sub-bituminous - Carbon ~ 50-60%, H2O ~ < 40% -
Bituminous Carbon ~ 60-75%, H2O ~ 10-20% -
Anthracite Carbon ~ > 75%, H2O ~ < 10%

Liquid
Fuel Oils LDO (S ~ 1.5%, KV ~ 2.5-15 cSt, 10840 Kcal/kg)
HFO (S ~ 2- 4%, KV > 180 cSt, 10200 Kcal/kg)
Gaseous
Natural Gas (10000 Kcal/Kg),
LNG (13000 Kcal/kg),
Naphtha (11380 Kcal/kg)

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coalification

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Grades of coal

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 Coal analysis

1. Proximate analysis:
Determination of TM, FC, VM, Ash content and
heat value
Used for characterizing the coal for its use
2. Ultimate analysis:
Elemental analysis of carbon, Hydrogen,
Nitrogen, Sulfur and other elements
contained in fuel
It is derived from the proximate analysis of coal
Used in determining the quantity of air required
for combustion and the volume and composition
of the combustion gases for furnace design

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Ash Fusion Temperature

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Types of solid fuel firing

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Grate, FBC and PF firing

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FBC

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PF coal combustion methods

The pulverized coal burning method generally employed is classified

into two types:
(1) according to the burner arrangement and
(2) according to the method of pulverized coal feed (direct/indirect).

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BASIC PROCESSES OF COAL
COMBUSTION
- evaluation and combustion of volatile matter,
- char combustion

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STRUCTURE OF PULVERIZED COAL FLAME

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Clean & Dirty air/coal flow test required when

Slag formation around certain burners of the same pulverizer

CO imbalance at the furnace exit
Temperature imbalance at the furnace exit
Large O2 spread at AH inlet to maintain equal steam temperature.
High content of combustibles in fly ash.
Poor flame appearance

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Boiler furnace task

The most important task of the boiler furnace is to

provide conditions for proper combustion of fuel
which is achieved by:
1. Fuel supply of the boiler furnace at the required rate
and keeping it in the furnace by the time sufficient for
burnt out.
2. Air supply of the boiler furnace at the required rate and
proper mixing with the fuel.

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 Layer HH
Layer H Coal burner
HFO burner Layer GH
Layer G Coal burner
Layer FG
Layer F Coal burner
HFO burner Layer EF
Layer E Coal burner
Layer DE
Layer D Coal burner
HFO burner Layer CD
Layer C Coal burner

Layer BC
Layer B Coal burner

LDO burner Layer AB

Layer A Coal burner
Layer AA

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Burner

Coal burner
Tilting impeller less burner .
4 burners per layer, total 4x8=32 burners.
PM burner mainly utilize its turning and specific flow
speed in pipe to redistribute pulverized coal concentration,
the structure shown in figure
Due to burning coal with high volatilize and low ignition
point, therefore, the choice of the burner emphasis on
improving the combustion efficiency.

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 Tilting angle:
Up and down:
primary air nozzle : 20
Secondary air nozzle: 30
Left and right: OFA : 12
Single burner heat power: 78.27MW
Secondary air ratio: 68.7%
Primary air ratio: 26.3%
Primary air speed: 28m/s
Secondary air speed: 48m/s
Primary air temperature: 80
Secondary air temperature: 347.8
Leaking air to furnace: ~5%
Spacing between 2 burners 1025.4mm

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 2nd corner 3rd corner

OFA

SA

1st corner
4th corner
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Combustion

When fuel and oxidizer composition in the mixture

(fuel and oxidizer) results from the equation of
stoichiometry we say that the mixture is stoichiometric.

If combustion of a stoichiometric mixture is

complete in flue gas cannot be neither fuel nor
oxygen.

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FBC

COMPOSION AND TEMPERATURE OF FLUIDIZED BED

Composition of fluidized bed:
- inert material (sand and ash),
- dolomite/calcite ( and products of desulfurization),
- 2-6% of coal.
Temperature of fluidized bed: 800 900 oC
Optimal temperature wth respect desulfurization: 850 oC

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Coal

Coal is formed from plants by chemical and geological processes

that occur over millions of years. Layers of plant debris are
deposited in wet or swampy regions under conditions that prevent
exposure to air and complete decay as the debris accumulates.
Bacterial action, pressure and temperature act on the organic matter
over time to form coal. The geochemical process that transforms
plant debris to coal is called coalification. The first product of this
process, peat, often contains partially decomposed stems, twigs,
and bark

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Coal Burner

Plasma
Flame Igniter

Muffle

Pulverized Coal & Air

Mixture
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 Boiler Tuning and Combustion
Diagnostics
Boiler tuning typically involves a wide
variety of activities associated with
improving the overall performance
of a boiler and its emissions. Since tuning
has different meanings to different people,
it is appropriate to list
some of these activities and to identify
those where combustion diagnostics plays
an important role.

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Boiler tuning on a coal-fired unit often involves:
Optimizing boiler efficiency:
Reducing excess air and dry flue gas losses
Reducing ash carbon content (or LOI) and CO emissions
Improving burner zone combustion conditions:
Adjusting burner and pulverizer settings for good flame characteristics and carbon
burnout
Modifying the fuel and air flow to each burner to achieve uniform combustion
Instrumentation calibration and relocation (if necessary) to obtain measurements
most representative of boiler combustion conditions
Adjusting boiler combustion controls to optimize dynamic load response without
compromising stability at steady operating conditions
Operational adjustments to improve thermal performance:
Adjusting soot blowing cycles to improve heat absorption and reduce tube erosion
Repair of soot blowers and operational adjustments to improve ash deposit
removal
Combustion uniformity improvements to reduce local hot spots, slagging and
fouling
Minimizing thermal losses and casing air in leakage.
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Modification of boiler firing practices to improve unit availability and reliability:
Improving combustion conditions to accommodate a wider range of coal
quality without slagging and fouling derates
The dictionary definition of the word tune is to adjust for maximum
performance. Tuning (or adjusting)
boiler operations for maximum performance quite often includes adjustments to
the combustion process which has wide ranging impacts on fuel use efficiency,
thermal performance, emissions, and availability/reliability (as noted above).

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Several of the more common causes of non-uniform combustion include:
Uneven coal flow distribution:
Boiler Monitoring for Combustion Optimization and Fouling Prevention
30
THERMAL POWER GENERATION Best Practices and Future
Technologies
- Coal pipe orifices
- Riffle box configuration
- Biased pulverizer coal flow
Uneven air flow distribution:
- Air register/damper settings
- Wind box design
- Air register/drive motor malfunction
Air heater seal leakage or partial pluggage
Furnace air in leakage ahead of the plant O2 probes

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Combustion tuning
The initial coal flow deviation reflects the difference (in per cent) between the highest (or lowest) coal flow of any
pipe and the average of all pipes leaving a pulverizer. The final coal flow deviation after orifice adjustments met o
exceeded the industry standard of 10% in almost all cases. It should be noted that burner zone combustion
uniformity is important not only to optimize boiler efficiency, but also to achieve good thermal performance,
availability and reliability. In fact, many slagging and fouling
episodes are triggered by localized regions of high fuel flow or reduced air flow. Therefore, calculations of slaggin
indices under oxidizing conditions at gas temperatures associated with normal O2 levels may indicate acceptab
operating conditions when portions of the boiler are actually operating beyond the slagging threshold.
Since the furnace exit gas temperature is typically inversely proportional to the O2 level, low O2 operation can re
in local gas temperatures that approach or exceed the ash fusion temperature. Thus, achieving uniform combust
is essential to minimizing slagging and fouling, improving thermal performance with more uniform
ash deposition/heat distribution and minimizing coal quality impacts on availability and reliability. Achieving unifo
combustion typically involves combustion diagnostics to improve both the fuel and air-side balance. The general
approach to boiler combustion tuning is summarized below:
Measure coal fineness, primary air and coal flow distribution.
Optimize mill performance
Improve coal fineness
Characterize air in leakage between furnace and economizer exit
Balance coal flow to individual burners
Balance air flow
Adjust secondary air dampers to achieve uniform air/fuel ratio at each burner
Reduce air infiltration
Improve instrumentation/placement
Bias mills between elevations O2, NOx and LOI optimization
Adjust OFA dampers and burner/OFA tilt position for good carbon burn out

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Some of the tests to achieve optimum combustion are:
Fuel line clean air tests
Fuel line fineness and distribution
Primary airflow measurement
Representative Fly ash Sampling
Secondary airflow measurement
Over fire airflow measurement
Total boiler air in leakage tests from the furnace to the
stack
Furnace water-cooled probe traverses for oxygen
stratifications, CO and temperatures.

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Four controllable heat rate factors are directly related with furnace performance
and furnace flue gas uniformity.
These are: superheater temperature, reheater temperature, desuperheating
spray water flow to the superheater, and desuperheating spray water flow to the
reheater. Balancing of the fuel and air to each burner has much to do with
furnace combustion efficiency, and the completeness of combustion at the
furnace exit. The residence time of the products of combustion from the burners
to the superheater flue gas inlet is about one or two seconds. Not very long for
furnace mixing of fuel rich and air rich lanes of combustion products.

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The purpose of the Boosted Over-Fire Air is to provide proper staging of air
and fuel to the furnace. This staging allows for NOx reduction in the burner
belt zone as well as the O.F.A. system allowing oxygen to provide carbon
char burn-out prior to exiting the furnace. This will result in an overall NOx
reduction as well as improved levels of carbon loss or LOI.
The concept of the eight OFA nozzles (two on each water wall) is to utilize
the upper furnace for carbon char burnout. This upper furnace zone is where
the flame temperatures are cooled to below the threshold thermal NOx
formation temperature of about 2,800F. This is shown on the diagram,
Figure 37

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 The NOx formation graph above shows the peak NOx production at a
slightly oxidizing environment. The principal purpose of the FBOFA
system, is to stage combustion, so that most combustion is completed in
the burner belt, at a low furnace stoichiometry. The heat energy is
released in the burner belt and radiant heat transferred to the water walls,
the upper furnace products of combustion will be reduced in temperature
to below 2,800F. It is at this point that the high momentum over fire air is
injected to complete combustion of the carbon char. This final stage of
the combustion process is to be completed below 2,800F and therefore
below the threshold temperature for thermal NOx production.

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LNB, SCR SNCR

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SO2 control

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Pm control

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