The Study Of Cyclone Furnace in PC-Fired Thermal Power Plant

Kiron Cherian Mathew,Akram Ahamed

VIT University Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India

HIGHLIGHTS

Concept of Cyclone Furnace

Improved efficiency of Cyclone furnace using coal-dust gasification in oxy-fuel
combustion
Better design of cyclone furnace for improved efficiency

ARTIC LE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: This paper presents a study of the concept of coal burning in cyclone furnace
Oxy-fuel Combustion and the coal-dust gasification under conditions of oxy-fuel combustion. The
principal factors and determinants of operation and performance of such
Gasification combustion chambers were presented. Possible variants of integration of this
Two-Chambered combustion chamber with a pulverized-fuel boiler were discussed. The Two-
PC-Fired Boiler Chambered design of the cyclone furnace allows for division of the process of
heating,drying and devolatization of fuel from processes of gasification and
CFD combustion of carbon residue were also discussed here.
Coal-fired

Introduction
The challenges that have to be faced by contemporary energy sector that utilizes solid fuels, with
particular focus on fossil fuels (black coal and brow coal), are not reduced only to limitation of
CO2 emissions, but also have to concern the problem of flexibility of production entities since
growing share of renewable sources causes suppression of coal energy sources from the
National Energy System in the subapical area. The processes of fossil fuel combustion have been
used for decades for the generation of electricity and heat and numerous technologies have been
developed over this period in order to minimize the negative effect of power generation to the
environment that is associated.
Cyclone furnace is a type of coal combustor commonly used in large industrial boilers. During
coal combustion in a furnace, volatile components burn without much difficulty. Heavier, less
volatile constituents of coal require much higher temperatures and a continuing supply of oxygen.
Cyclone furnaces are able to provide a thorough mixing of coal particles and air with
sufficient turbulence to provide fresh air to surfaces of the coal particles. Cyclone furnaces were
originally designed to take advantage of four things:1)Lower fuel preparation time and costs
2)Smaller more compact furnaces 3)Less fly ash and convective pass slagging 4)Flexibility in fuel
types. Cyclone burners are typically used in industrial steam-generating boilers. They were first
introduced by Babcock & Wilcox in 1942 as a means of utilizing coal grades that weren't suitable
for conventional furnaces. A cyclone burner has three main parts: a burner area at the back end,
which ignites the coal by using oil or gas; a barrel area where the coal and air are mixed in a
swirling action and ignited by the oil or gas fired burners and a re-entrant throat where the fire
from the ignited coal is forced into the furnace area of the boiler. A cyclone furnace consists of a
horizontal cylindrical barrel attached through the side of a boiler furnace. The cyclone barrel is
constructed with water cooled, tangential oriented, tube construction. Inside the cyclone barrel are
short, densely spaced, pin studs welded to the outside of the tubes. The studs are coated with a
refractory material, usually silica or aluminium based, that allows the cyclone to operate at a high
enough temperature to keep the slag in a molten state and allow removal through the tap. Crushed
coal and a small amount of primary air enter from the front of the cyclone into the burner. In the
main cyclone burner, secondary air is introduced tangentially, causing a circulating gas flow
pattern. The products, flue gas and un-combusted fuel, then leave the burner and pass over the
boiler tubes. Tertiary air is then released further downstream to complete combustion of the
remaining fuel, greatly reducing NOx formation. A layer of molten slag coats the burner and flows
through traps at the bottom of the burners, reducing the amount of slag that would otherwise form
on the boiler tubes. Cyclone Furnaces can handle a wide range of fuels. Low volatile bituminous
coals, lignite coal, mineral rich anthracitic coal, wood chips, petroleum coke, and old tires can and
have all been used in cyclones.
One drawback of coal dust combustion in a burner flame is that regardless of the size, ground coal
gains remain in the volume of the combustion chamber for a substantially limited duration 2-3
sec, which results from the flame and flue gas velocity, whereas cyclone furnaces do not have
such limitations. In a strong eddy stream of a coal dust, oxygen, recirculated flue gas and or
overheated water steam, time of coal grains remaining in the furnace is much elongated. Tiny coal
grains are burned in the eddy core, whereas bigger grains, rejected with the centrifugal force on
the combustion chamber walls are burned in a layer of liquid slag flowing down on the walls,
regardless of the time of flue gas remaining in the cyclone and flow rate to the chamber connected
to the furnace. With this organization of combustion, it is possible to reach a high degree of fuel
burning and a high degree of ash capture (60-90%) which, in the liquid form, is supplied from the
lower part of pre-combustion chamber and granulated as an effect of fast cooling in the slag tank.
A pulverized coal-fired boiler is a type industrial boiler that generates thermal energy by
burning pulverized coal, which is basically powdered coal, that is blown into the firebox.
The basic idea PC firing system is to use the whole volume of the furnace for the combustion of
solid fuels. Coal is reduced to the size of a fine grain, then mixed with air and burned in the flue
gas flow. The powdered coal from the pulverizer is directly blown to a burner in the boiler. The
burner mixes the powdered coal in the air suspension with additional pre-heated combustion air
and forces it out of a nozzle. Under operating conditions, there is enough heat in the combustion
zone to ignite all the incoming flue. Generally grate firing is used. Coal contains mineral matter
which is converted to ash during combustion. The ash is removed as bottom ash and fly ash. The
bottom ash is removed at the furnace bottom. This type of boiler dominates the electric power
industry, providing steam to drive large turbines. Pulverized coal provides the thermal energy
which produces about 50% of the world's electric supply.
As per Robert Zarzyckia , Zbigniew Bisb, a parameter that determines fuel grain combustion and
gasification processes is concentration of oxygen supplied through a system of driving nozzles.
Changing the values of this concentration leads to maximization of CO content in the gas that
leaves the cyclone pre-combustion chamber. Depending on the required power the application of
cyclone furnaces, it may allow to shut down the oil burners and stabilize the low boiler load
through the afterburning of flue gases generated in the cyclone furnace. It is also possible to use
the facility for ash vitrification during cheaper night pricing period[1].
From we can see that through changes in the mass flow rate of the coal dust supplied to the
cyclone furnace, it is possible to obtain the convenient conditions for its combustion[3]. As stated
by ,BMF combustion in the cyclone furnace is reliable, with rational temperature distribution
inside furnace hearth and compared to the fluidized bed combustors, the cyclone furnace is simple
in configuration and easy to operate, but there is no bed materials[5]. High ash fusion coals can be
successfully burnt in cyclone furnace with preheating the secondary air up to a temperature of
450C[10]. Higher amount of xed carbon in the fuel decrease the fuel conversion and fuels with
smaller particle size gives higher fuel conversion according to [13]. Hot gases, perhaps not
completely burned, would be discharged from the cyclones into the existing furnace, which in
principle would only have to be slightly modified to be retained as the steam generator[17].
The pressurized cyclone combustor gives complete combustion based on the CO emission with
minimum height.[22]. Non-slagging,coal-fired,cyclone combustors can be successfully operated
fuel rich to give reasonable carbon burnout and low NOx emission[25] from the results of
Conclusion

1. Pulverized-fuel boilers represent a substantial part of power-generating units within the

National Energy System in Poland. The most of those boilers are currently characterized by
minimum load at roughly 40% MCR and load change of 4% per minute but the future
goals are set at l5% and 20%, respectively.
2. Changing oxygen concentration allows for control of the location of fuel
devolatilization, combustion and gasification.
3. The combustible gases supplied to the chamber of the pulverized coal-fired boiler can be used
to stabilize coal dust combustion process at low boiler load. They can replace the operation of
the dust burners or ignition burners at low load while opening up the opportunities for
maintaining the boiler in the hot reserve state and ensuring lower levels of the minimum load
in the pulverized coal-fired boiler.
4. The tests of BMF gasification by air in the cyclone gasifier are reliable with the energy self-
sufficiency, and the equipments are simple and easy to operate. In the tests, ER obviously
affects gasification temperature, and the gasification performances of BMF by the two
contradictory factors. Higher ER leads to higher gasification temperature and contributes to
high H2-content, but too high ER lowers fuel gas content and degrades fuel gas quality.
5. Intensive mixing and sufficient residence time can be achieved in the cyclone combustion
process, which leads to good performance such as lower CO and C content in flue gases
and fly ash, being 0.015% and 0.22%, respectively.
6. The cyclone barrel exit gas temperature declines as the operation load falls, and the
thickness of solid slag layer decreases as the operation load rises. There is a load range for
the cyclone barrel to meet the judgment criterion of adaptability. The adaptability is affected
by the thickness of refractory lining and coal slag temperature of critical viscosity
significantly, while the effects of other factors are relatively small.
7. Slag-tap vertical cyclone combustion technology is a promising solution for reducing the
particulate matter emission of CWS fueled power plants. Temperature distribution is
extremely important for CWS combustion and melting of the fly ash in a cyclone furnace
8. The results indicate that most of ash forming compounds do not vaporise at least not from
particles that are separated in the gasifier and by the multi-cyclone and therefore they do not
significantly go into gas phase. Therefore the alkali content of the producer gas is mainly
attached to the carryover particles carried out of the cyclone. As long as the fIy ash is not
melting on the blade surfaces, the corrosion problems can control by operating at low surface
temperature.
9. Rear-installed cyclone furnaces have an obvious effect of increasing combustion efficiency for
lignite fluidized bed boilers. Combustion efficiency for boilers of such types may be as high
as 95%.
10. The vent air ratio of the tiny-oil ignition cyclone burner is smaller than 50% to ensure that
there is enough air in the fuel-rich stream for the coal ignition. The separation efficiency is
large enough to ensure the fuel-rich stream and the fuel-lean stream can be formed, which is
favorable for the coal burnout and the NOx reduction of the fuel-rich/-lean combustion.
11. High ash fusion coals give efficiency of about 92% in cyclone combustor with low excess
air.

12. The gasification tests indicate that a higher amount of fixed carbon in the fuel decrease
the fuel conversion and fuels with smaller particle size gives higher fuel conversion.

13. The non-uniform distribution of gassolid flowoccursmainly acrossthethreecyclonesonone

side.Themiddlecyclones onbothsideshavehigherparticlevelocities.Conversely,the solidvolume
fractions,solidfluxesandsolidcirculatingrates ofthemiddlecyclonesarelowerthanthoseoftheother
four cyclones.

14. The inlet configuration influenced the pressure, velocity and turbulent kinetic energy
distribution in the cyclone and the reversed flow characteristics, leading to different particle
trajectory, separation efficiency and pressure drop. The separator with double declining inlets
had the minimum pressure drop among the three types of square separator and had similar
efficiency to the separator with double normal inlets. The separator with single normal inlet
had the best separation efficiency and the maximum pressure drop.

15. In case of flowing gas not recirculated, about 10-15% of unburnt carbon is present.

16. Gaseous components in the flue gas are directly affected by the fuel chemical
composition; for example, the concentration of SO 2 and HCl were decreased in the flue gas
by pellet substitution. The fuel oxygen content may improve the combustion which can be
detected as lower CO concentration in the flue gas.

17. The kinetic parameters for pyrolysis of ramie residue were obtained by thermogravimetric
analysis. The apparent activation energy was in the range of 200258 kJ/mol when the
conversion varied from 0.2 to 0.75. The fuel gas produced from RR pyrolysis in the cyclone
furnace with the energy self-sufficiency was also studied. ER was a crucial factor affecting
reaction temperature and fuel gas quality. The higher ER resulted in a higher reaction
temperature. However, the LHV of the gas gradually decreased with the increasing ER. The
optimal value of ER for the content of fuel gas was 0.25. Under the operating conditions, the
yields of tar, char and gas were 3.7319.88%, 4.9036.43% and 40.53 90.33%, respectively;
the LHV of fuel gas was between 3350 and 4776 kJ/N m3; carbon conversion efficiency
ranged from 44.13% to 95.29%.

18. For the cases of strongly swirling flows, there is no recirculation zone in axial velocity
profiles.The gas and particle tangential velocity profiles of both strongly and weakly swirling
flows have the Rankine-vortex structure, but the solid-body rotation zone for strongly swirling
flows is much larger than that for weakly swirling flows.The axial gas and particle
fluctuations are at first stronger and finally slightly smaller than the tangential ones. The USM
model can better predict the Rankine vortex structure of tangential velocity profiles in.
 19. Using hot producer gas in dual-fuel mode enhanced the system performance and increased
the PCC efficiency. An LPG displacement of 70% with producer gas was achieved at
minimum turbine speeds, and an LPG displacement of about 46% was achieved at maximum
turbine speeds

20. coal dust combustion can be performed at low mass flow rates, which causes that the
cyclone furnace can be maintained in a state of hot reserve, thus generating hot flue gas and
combustible gases with low CO contents (ca. 30%). Furthermore, at elevated fuel flow rates,
coal dust gasification can be easily performed, with the CO concentrations at the outlet from
the chamber PC2 reaching 80% and high content of volatile matter (ca. 13%). The
combustible gases supplied to the chamber of the pulverized coal-fired boiler can be used to
stabilize coal dust combustion process at low boiler load. They can replace the operation of
the dust burners or ignition burners at low load while opening up the opportunities for
maintaining the boiler in the hot reserve state and ensuring lower levels of the minimum
load in the pulverized coal-fired boiler.

21. Redesign of the inlets improves particle retention and overall performance in the
combustor.

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