Case: Design of a Convey System to remove pyrites from the coal mills

of Boiler at Lakvijaya Power Station

Background
The Lakvijaya Power Station is the largest power station in Sri Lanka, that has
capacity of supplying 900MW power to the national grid and it is about 50% of
the total power requirement of the country.
Boiler is the most basic energy transformation device among the three (Boiler,
Turbine and Generator) main devices in the power station. Its function is heating
feed water by utilizing the heat energy released by the coal combustion in the
furnace, generating the steam complying with the stipulated parameters and
sending the steam to turbine to work. The boiler mainly consists of boiler body
and auxiliary Systems.
Ash handling System is a major auxiliary system that consists of Bottom ash
handling, Fly ash handling and Pyrites Handling systems.

Pyrites Handling Systems

The function of the pyrites handling system is to collect, store and transport solid
wastes from outlet of the coal mills (function of the coal mill is to make fine coal
powders and forward to furnace for easy combustion). These pyrites will be
transported to ash disposal yard by trucks periodically.

Pyrites hopper of a Coal Mill

Problem Identification
During coal pulverization process in the mills, pyrites (solid waste of coal) are
continuously rejected to the hopper (capacity 0.5 m 3) which is installed beside
the mill and collected until hopper is full and discharged it by opening a
pneumatic gate to the floor and are being stacked manually by operation team
workers. Finally those pyrites are loaded to the truck using a skid loader and
transported to disposal area.
Following major demerits of that pyrite handling system are identified
1. Full time allocated operation team is required to collect the pyrites
2. Coal dust and pyrites are spreads out all over the area when it is
discharging from the hopper
3. It course contamination of the mill motors, oil stations, electrical panels
and fire water system and thereby is increasing maintenance workload
4. Coal dust is hazardous for human beings
5. It is very difficult to operate the skid loader in a small restricted space

Project outcome
Construct a suitable convening system to take away the pyrites in order to
avoid above problems

Design Requirements
Four coal mills are normally operated at once since fifth one is kept standby
for emergency. Pyrites discharging rate is varying according to the coal
quality and coal feeding rates. Normal discharging rate is around 0.20m 3 per
hours and temperature is around 700C when discharged from a coal mill.
Therefore, the basic design requirements are

System should be minimized the coal dust escaping

Capable of pyrites removing rate around 0.2 m3 per hours
Maximum pyrites size is around 1
Handling temperature 700C

Constraints

Solution should be done at very narrow and restricted area

Low cost and easy installation
It should not be disturbed to existing equipments
Long reliability at coal dust environment

Concepts
i.

Design and installation of conveyer belt for all five coal mill out let as a
commen belt and collect the pyrites at the end

ii.

Design and installation of separate conveyers for each mill and collect
pyrites by small truck

iii.

Design and installation of a screw conveyer which is movable and

used at all mill outlet and collect pyrites to a small truck(this is the
best solution)

Contamination oil cooling station of the coal mill

Contamination of Fire Water System

R.N.P Rajapaksha
Lakvijaya Power Station
Ceylon Electricity Board
July 14, 2015