STOCK GRAVIMETRIC FEEDERS

FOR

PULVERISED FUEL
Combustion Improvements

GREENBANK TEROTECH LIMITED

Greenbank Terotech Limited, Hartshorne Road, Woodville, Derbyshire, UK. DE11 7GT. Tel: +44 (0)870 607 8880 Fax: + 44 (0)870 607 8889 Email: info@greenbank.tv URL: www.greenbank.tv

SYSTEMS DIVISION POWER APPLICATIONS

Stock Equipment Corp have over 8000 feeders installed world-wide. The Gravimetric feeder shown above, has a number of benefits over drag chain feeders: Vastly improved coal / air ratio reducing excess air significantly Lower PF velocity to improve both mill classification and distribution, better tuning of low NOx burners. Improve combustion efficiencytypical coal savings of $ 200 K per annum. Improve flow through bunker outlet drag chains cause coal flow stoppages. Drag Chain Conversion Drag chains in the UK have typically large rectangular slot outlets, with the feeder outlet often a few feet from the centre line of the bunker. A typical arrangement solution is shown below.

The graph above shows how the density of coal can vary by well over 20 % with just 3 US coalsthe variations in size distribution and moisture of imported coals into the UK is vast. If a drag feeder is feeding dry coal of high densitythe control system uses the mill control load-line to apply a fixed volume of air to the mill. When the density of the coal becomes lower due to moisture, sizing or coal type, less coal is delivered at the same drag chain RPM.

The control system sees a reduction in MW and increases the feeder RPM to operate higher on the load-line, resulting in a large amount of excess air to that which is needed to deliver the pulverised coal from the mill to the burners. The graph above shows how a gravimetric and volumetric feeder cope with such variations.

GRAVIMETRIC FEEDERS FOR PULVERISED FUEL

A gravimetric feeder constantly monitors the weight of coal on the belt and adjusts belt speed to deliver a consistent known feed to the mill. The effect on low NOx burners of reducing PA and allowing for greater secondary / OFA air is dependent on many factors, although having more consistent coal / air ratio and PF velocities should allow better burner tuning and set-up. Material Handling Improvements
DRAG CHAIN 15.0% 2.5% 5.0% 22.5% FEEDING ERROR Due to density variations Heating value variations Due to volumetric variations Feeding error (Heat Input Basis) GRAVIMETRIC 0.5% 2.5% 0.0% 3.0%

GREENBANK TEROTECH LIMITED

Effect of Excess Mill Air on Combustion

SYSTEMS DIVISION POWER APPLICATIONS

Firstly, PF velocity through the classifier is much higher than necessary, which results in poorer classificationa small decrease in PA to a mill with a constant feed has shown an improvement of 5 % sizing at 75 microns. The follow-on effects of less transport air for the PF can be an improvement of up to 15 % distribution from burner to burner.

Wave effectvoids after leading drag at high drag chain speeds / poor flowing coal.

Plants with drag chains often have difficulty reaching load with wet poor flowing coal and may have to bring in extra mills / capacity to achieve power requirements. With many drag chains, which have full side skirts, coal preferentially flows from the back of the bunker which creates areas of dead coal. At prolonged use at low drag feeder speeds, coal in the front half of the bunker becomes dead and hangs-up.
Savings on a 600 MW boiler
400 Savings in Thousands of Dollar 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 0% 25% 50% Plant Utilization rate 75% 100%

Another flow problem with drag chains is the wave effect, when the drag chain bar is moving fast through a column of poor flowing coal, a void forms behind the bar leading edge. A different limiting factor on MW output can be availability and limits of mill primary air, which are pushed much harder due to the control system demanding much higher levels of PA than is actually required.
The stock gravimetric feeder is a continuous belt with no bar which does not experience the wave effect, with no snagging potential around the drag feeder bar. Coal is taken from the full slot of the bunker by design of angled skirts that are angled both outwards and upwards. The angled skirt design allows for coal to be taken incrementally along the whole length of the slot, which helps create mass flow of coal from the bunker outlet.

Unit size = 600 MW Net Heat Rate = 2520 cal/kWh (10,000 Btu/kWh) Average Heat Value = 7200 cal/kg (13,000 Btu/LB) Fuel Cost = $ 28 / ton Efficiency Gain with Gravimetric feeders = 0.75 % (based upon a 15 % reduction in excess air to the mill)