Burner Developments for the Wall Firing of Low

Volatile Coals
British Flame 1-Day Technical Meeting: 28
November 2007

Euan Cameron
Research and Development Centre
Doosan Babcock Energy
Burner Developments for Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Outline

• Background

• Aim of development

• Description of test facilities

• Summary of results

• Conclusions

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Background: Key Issues

• Difficulties associated with low volatile coals

– Ignition
– Combustion stability (over load range)
– Combustion efficiency
• Causes
– Lack of volatile material in the coal to support ignition
– Rate of volatile matter release
– High ignition temperature
– Low reactivity of remaining char
• Solutions
– Finer pf grading
– Longer furnace residence times
– Careful air admission
– Furnace refractory cover where appropriate

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 Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Background: Downshot firing system

Cyclone concentration of pf
and low primary air velocity
for rapid ignition

Recirculation of hot
flue gas stabilises
Primary combustion combustion
zone for early ignition
High secondary air velocity
and NO x control
for development of long
flame
Secondary combustion
zone, long residence time
Single point tertiary air
for burnout
injection for good mixing

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Background: Downshot firing system

• Cost
– High capital cost (10% to 15%) of downshot firing compared to wall fired systems

• Environmental
Downshot firing generally results in poorer emission levels
– High NOx emissions (order of 1000 to 1100 mg/Nm3 at 6% O2)
– Unburnt loss typically 2 to 4% GCV loss

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Background: Wall firing system

COMBUSTION AIR

PRIMARY AIR + FUEL

Burnout
Zone Low NOx Burner Design

Burner & OFA Low NOx

NOx
levels Reduction Zone Burners
In operation

Furnace
Configuration
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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Background: Downshot vs. Wall Fired Boilers

Typical 350MWe units

Generally a wall fired furnace is smaller

compared to a similarly rated downshot
furnace
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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Background: Previous Experience

• Wall firing low volatile coal

– Predominately in former Soviet Union with generally poor results
• Excessively high unburnt loss (typically 8 to 13% GCV loss)
• High NOx emissions (order of 1000 to 1300 mg/Nm3 at 6% O2)
• Poor stability and turndown performance

– Some testing in Germany

• Maximum of 30MWt
• A range of coals down to 8% (dry) volatile matter
• Stable flame achieved but requiring gas support or high primary air temperatures

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Background: Our Experience

Meta Anthracite
100
Dry, Mineral Matter Free

Anthracite
Pha Lai Semi Anthracite
Fixed Carbon %

Liaocheng
90 Yue Yang
Heze Low Volatile Bituminous
Wangqu

80 UK Site

Castle Peak’ B’
70
0 5 10 15 20 25
Dry, Mineral Matter Free Volatile Matter %

Downshot Firing Wall Firing

Wall Firing Capability Improvements
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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Aim of development

• Demonstrate combustion performance of a burner for wall firing of low volatile coals
– Testing of a full-scale burner in a single burner test facility
• Limit of coals that can be fired
• Turndown

• Extrapolate test results to full scale plant performance

– With regard to NOx and burnout

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Single Burner Test Facility

• 90 MW Thermal Input

• Capability to Fire a Wide Range of Fuels

– Coal
– Heavy Fuel Oil
– Natural Gas
– Orimulsion

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Single Burner Test Facility

• 17m long / 5.5m wide / 5.5m high water

jacketed furnace with partial refractory
lining

• Downstream boiler and economiser

• Full Emission monitoring

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BURNER DEVELOPMENTS FOR THE WALL-FIRING OF LOW VOLATILE COALS

Single Burner Testing

• Test burner
Advanced low NOx burner design modified to ‘suit’ low volatile coals.

• Test coals
Chinese low volatile coal (13% dmmf volatile matter)
UK low volatile coal (9% dmmf volatile matter)
UK low volatile coal (8% dmmf volatile matter)

• Test programme
Establish unsupported stable flame
Determine optimum firing setting with respect to NOx and burnout by varying:
– Secondary and tertiary air flows (high, medium or low)
– Secondary and tertiary swirl generation (high, medium or low)
– Economiser exit oxygen (2.5% to 5.0% O2)
– PA/Coal ratio (high, normal or low)
Determine turndown performance
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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Single Burner Test Results

• Successful ignition and combustion of coals with 13%, 9% and 8% volatile matter
content in a wall-fired burner without the use of a support fuel.

• Performance
13% dmmf Coal 9% dmmf Coal 8% dmmf Coal
NOx mg/Nm3 @ 6% O2 597 436 538
(vppm @ 3% O2) (350) (255) (315)
CO vppm @ 3% O2 245 640 275
Unburnt Loss % GCV 4.3 11.7 6.4
Turndown * % load 50 70 70
* Lowest load at which stable operation was demonstrated without oil support

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Pilot-Scale Test Facility

• 160 kW Thermal Input

• 5m Long, 0.5m Dia. Vertical, Refractory lined, Water-

Jacketed, Furnace

• Low NOx Burner, Downward Firing

• Internally air staged burner designed for bituminous

coals

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Pilot-Scale Test Facility

MAIN
P.F.
BURNER
PRIMARY AIR FEEDER
SECONDARY AND P.F. SUPPLY

• In-Furnace (Primary) NOx Reduction

AIR SUPPLY

Technologies START UP
FUEL (GAS)
P.F.
VENTURI
PRIMARY
AIR HEATER
AFTER AIR

– Air Staging, Overfire Air (OFA) Injection FLUE GAS TO

SUPPLY
GAS
PRIMARY
AIR BLOWER
ATMOSPHERE COOLING WATER

– Gas and Coal Reburn SUPPLY

COOLING WATER
NATURAL GAS
SUPPLY
RETURN

COMPRESSED FURNACE

• Post-Combustion (Secondary) NOx ID

FAN
AIR SUPPLY
FLUE GAS
SECONDARY
COOLER 1

Reduction Technologies NH3 SLIP

ANALYSER
AIR HEATER

SPRAY

– Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction NOxStar

COOLER
SECONDARY
AIR FAN

REACTOR 2 SCR

(SNCR) REACTOR ASH

BOX SPRAY COOLER
WATER SUPPLY
FROM MAINS
NOxStar

– Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) REACTOR 1

WATER TO DRAIN
NH 3 SLIP
ANALYSER

• Electro Static Precipitator (ESP) ESP

COMPRESSED
AIR SUPPLY
FLUE GAS
COOLER 2
SORBENT
INJECTION

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Pilot-Scale Testing

• Testing of a 2nd Chinese low volatile coal (7% dmmf volatile matter)

• Established the effect of the main operating variables on NOx under baseline and air
staging conditions

• Test programme considered the effects of:

– excess air
– primary zone stoichiometry
– primary zone residence time

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Pilot-Scale Test Results

• Single stage baseline

– NOx of 810mg/Nm3 @ 6%O2

• Two stage combustion

– primary zone stoichiometry of 1.0 => NOx of 644mg/Nm3 @ 6%O2
• 25% reduction
– primary zone stoichiometry of 0.9 => NOx of 477mg/Nm3 @ 6%O2
• Additional 25% reduction, 40% reduction overall

• Using low NOx burner technology with air staging gives significant NOx performance
improvements

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Extrapolation of test data to full-scale plant

• Engineering model
– Plant geometry
– Fuel quality and fineness
– Temperature
– Stoichiometry

• Model used to extrapolate demonstrated test rig performance data to modern plant
design

• Showed that NOx of <650 mg/Nm 3 and unburnt loss <2.0% GCV is achievable for this
type of fuel in commercial plant.

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Conclusions

• Firing of low volatile coals in wall fired burner successfully demonstrated

– Successful ignition and firing of coals with:

• 13% dmmf volatile matter
• 9% dmmf volatile matter
• 8% dmmf volatile matter
in a wall-fired burner without the use of a support fuel and/or high primary air
temperatures

– Appreciable NOx reductions (25%+) are achievable with air staging

– Extrapolation to full scale plant shows that acceptable performance will be achieved in
terms of NOx and unburned loss.

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

Commercial Application

• Wangqu Power Station (new build)

– 2 x 600MWe
– Once Through Supercritical wall fired
boilers with air staging
– Firing Chinese low volatile coal with 12
to 15% daf volatile matter
– Commercial operation in 2007
– NOx guarantee of
650mg/Nm3 @ 6%O2
– Best Performance being achieved
• NOx of 580mg/Nm3 @ 6%O2
• Unburnt loss of 1.2% GCV

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Burner Developments for the Wall-Firing of Low Volatile Coals

End of presentation

Any questions

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