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Applied Energy 87 (2010) 1418–1426

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Control of ash related problems in a large scale tangentially fired boiler using
CFD modelling
Hari Babu Vuthaluru *, Rupa Vuthaluru
Curtin University of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, GPO Box U198, Western Australia 6845, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The objective of this study is to develop a three-dimensional combustor model for predicting the perfor-
Received 2 May 2009 mance of full-scale tangential fired (TF) boiler and to determine the flow patterns of the gas and coal par-
Received in revised form 2 August 2009 ticles, with an emphasis on formation mechanism of gas flow deviations and uneven temperature on the
Accepted 22 August 2009
super-heaters, re-heaters and divisional super-heater sections of the furnace. The importance of these
Available online 17 September 2009
simulations is to identify the locations of optimum additive injection ports to achieve maximum impact
of additives in the combustion process to minimize the temperature deviation and reduce ash-related
Keywords:
issues. This study is a classic example of numerical investigation into the problem of turbulent reacting
CFD
Combustion
flows in large scale furnaces employed in thermal power plants for the remediation of ash deposition
Industrial furnaces problems. Present work also provides an investigation of the influence of number of tripped burners
Tangential fired boilers on the characteristics of the flow and thermal fields. Excellent agreement between the simulation results
Ash deposition and key boiler design values and available site operation records following full-scale trials indicate that
the calculations are reliable. The results obtained from the present work are directly relevant to coal-fired
utilities for not only demonstrating the effectiveness of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based tools
in combating operational issues but also provides an alternative to conventional remediation strategies.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction deviation by experiments and theoretical ways. Along with the


development of numerical techniques and their applications in
Efficient use of pulverised coal in boilers with tangential firing coal combustion, it has become possible to investigate the gas
system is crucial to the power generation in most countries, which temperature in a tangential coal-fired boiler [5]. In some cases it
was the main motivation for undertaking this research. Current replaces physical experiments with equivalent ‘numerical’ experi-
revitalisation and modernisation of pulverised coal-fired boilers ments. Numerical simulation techniques over the last decade have
mainly concerns modification of furnaces, restoration of the mill- grown from being promising, mainly as scientific tool, to a basic
ing system, installation of low-NOx burners and over fire air technology, which has become paramount importance and
(OFA) ports and effective utilisation of mineral additives. In most unavoidable in engineering practice.
cases, modifications are so complex that their impact on boiler per- The paper presents the principal steps and results of the numer-
formance cannot be predicted without proper state-of-art model- ical modelling of Paiton power station boiler equipped with tan-
ling tools. gential disposition of the burners. The Computational Fluid
Tangentially fired boiler is the most commonly used industrial Dynamics (CFD) approach is utilised for the creation of a
coal combustion system and thus gains much attention. With the three-dimensional model of the boiler furnace, including platen
development of comprehensive combustion models and their suc- super-heater sections in the upper part of the furnace. Standard
cessful applications in industrial coal-fired boilers, as surveyed in k–e model is employed for the description of turbulent flow. Coal
the literature [1–8], the complex phenomena in tangentially fired combustion is modeled by the mixture fraction/probability density
boilers, including gas–solid flow, combustion, heat transfer and function approach for the reaction chemistry, with equilibrium
NOx reduction, are widely studied using simulations. The gas tem- assumption applied for description of the system chemistry. Radi-
perature deviation is commonly considered to result from the after ative heat transfer is computed using P1 radiation model. The
swirl in furnace exit [4]. However, this aspect has not been well described case and other experiences with CFD stress the advanta-
demonstrated because it is difficult to study the gas temperature ges of numerical modelling and simulation over purely field data
study, such as the ability to quickly analyse a variety of design
* Corresponding author. options without modifying the object and the availability of signif-
E-mail address: h.vuthaluru@exchange.curtin.edu.au (H.B. Vuthaluru). icantly more data to interpret the results.

0306-2619/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2009.08.028
H.B. Vuthaluru, R. Vuthaluru / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 1418–1426 1419

In the present study, parameters which were investigated in- 610 MW. The boiler considered for the modelling studies is a sub-
clude temperatures achieved in various parts of the boiler, velocity critical one comprising of concentric firing system with tangential
of air and gases in the boiler during the combustion process, parti- firing burners. Twenty four burners are arranged in an array of six
cle residence time, and radiation distribution in the furnace. The burners positioned at different levels on four corners of the furnace
boiler geometry and operating conditions are described in the next walls. The specifications of the furnace geometry and original
section. This is followed by the description of the mathematical drawing are given in Table 1 and Fig. 1.
model. Then the results are presented and discussed following
the validation of model with plant trials. Finally, the paper ends
with a summary of the main conclusions and recommendations North
for future work.
2 3

2. Furnace geometry and operating conditions Nose

The furnace geometry of the simulated boiler can be seen in


Fig. 1 for which the dimensions are given in Table 1. As evident
from Table 1, the tangentially fired furnace is 61.64 m high, West
East
19.3 m wide and 18.7 m deep and with an installed capacity of

4
1

South

(a)

Fig. 1. Furnace geometry.

Table 1
Specifications of furnace geometry.

Parameter Value (m)


Furnace width 18.718
Furnace length 19.304
Furnace height 61.641
Bottom burners 21.25
Top burners 30.944

Table 2
Dimensions (in mm) and metal temperatures (in °C) of heat transfer sections of the
boiler. h – height; w – width; t – thickness; d – gap; MT – metal temperature.

Section No h w t d MT
Re-heater (RH) 37 13,600 3146 63.5 508 570–
580
Super-heater P1 (SH P1) 29 16,561 2549.5 53.9 635 570–
580
Divisional super-heater 6 16,561 4765.6 50.8 2540 525
(Div SH)
(b)
Divisional super-heater 6 16,561 4765.6 50.8 2540 525
(Div SH) Fig. 2. Burner specifications. (a) Directions for burner arrangement and other
sections; (b) Windbox elevation designations.
1420 H.B. Vuthaluru, R. Vuthaluru / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 1418–1426

Table 3 converged after more than 2000 iterations. Based on the cold flow
Coal specifications. calculations, the coal combustion simulations are then carried out.
Coal type Kideco (K) Berau (B) 50% K and
50% B blend
Proximate analysis
Total moisture (%ar) 25.20 26.50 25.72
Inherent moisture (% adb) 17.00 19.00 17.80
Ash content (% adb) 2.66 5.50 3.80
Volatile matter (% adb) 41.50 38.50 40.30
Fixed carbon (% adb) 38.84 37.00 38.10
Total sulphur (% adb) 0.08 0.94 0.43
Calorific value (kcal/kg, adb) 5.435 5.400 5.421
Calorific value (kcal/kg, ar) 4.898 4.900 4.899
Ultimate analysis (%daf)
C 70.27 74.18 71.83
H 4.90 4.58 4.77
N 1.16 1.50 1.30
TS 0.10 1.25 0.56
O 20.75 18.49 19.85

The three-dimensional geometry was created using GAMBIT – a


FLUENT pre-processor [9]. An isotropic view of the geometry and
grid system is shown in Fig. 1. The meshed-geometry contained
402,852 nodes with hexahedral cells in one zone and the remain-
ing zones with quadrilateral cells. In our study, the results are ob-
served to be grid independent as three different sizes indicated no
significant change in the flow patterns or trajectories. The furnace
geometry has been constructed using the specifications provided
by the utility. Table 2 presents information on super-heater and
re-heater sections of the boiler.
The burner arrangement, orientation, windbox elevation desig-
nations, details relevant to SOFA/CCOFA, burner tip, fuel air tip and
auxiliary air nozzle tip are shown in Fig. 2. The figure is mainly
used to construct the correct geometry of furnace to represent
the orientation of nose, hopper and furnace wall sections as per
the directions indicated in Fig. 2a. Fig. 2b is used for constructing
the various burner ports in four corners (1–4) along with Separated
Overfire Air Register (SOFA) at different levels A–D from the bot-
tom of the furnace as well as Close Coupled Overfire Air Compart-
ment (CCOFA) ports at levels A and B with specified tilt angles from
the plant operators. Following these SOFA/CCOFA ports, addition-
ally Fig. 2b also refers to auxiliary air ports at A–A, B–C, D–E, F–F,
Coal elevation ports at A–F and oil elevation ports at A–B, C–D,
E–F which helped to represent the whole furnace ports in the
geometry as per the specifications.

3. Model description

The mathematical model used here is based on the commercial


CFD code, FLUENT [9], where the gas flow is described by the time
averaged equations of global mass, momentum, enthalpy and spe-
cies mass fraction. The particle phase equations formulated in
Lagrangian form, and the coupling between phases is introduced
through particle sources of Eulerian gas-phase equations. The stan-
dard k–e turbulence model, single mixture fraction probability
density function (PDF), and the P1 radiation models are used in
the present simulations. Coal particles are injected into the furnace
from each PA (primary air inlet). To model the discrete phase cou-
pling to the continuous phase flow, 24 coal injections (for full load)
are defined at the 24 PA inlets.
The fuel composition inputs were determined using proximate
and ultimate analysis data provided for each coal. Table 3 summa-
rizes the proximate and ultimate analysis data (daf: dry-ash-free
basis), which was used to derive the elemental composition of
the volatile stream for the tested coals.
The combustion calculations begin by solving the gas flow field
equations assuming that the particles are absent. This simulation Fig. 3. Particle trajectories for different burners (Case 5, Corner 1).
H.B. Vuthaluru, R. Vuthaluru / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 1418–1426 1421

The combustion simulations are validated with some key global 4. Results and discussion
design parameters, including the total heat transfer rate in the fur-
nace, the average temperature and the average O2 mass fraction at The computational model has been applied to the furnace of
the furnace exit etc. According to present boiler design, the total 610 MW boiler fired with low ash coal, high volatile coal. The input
heat transfer in the furnace should be around 610 MW; the average data for simulations (including boiler operational conditions) have
temperature and O2 mass fraction should be around 1600 K and been selected in accordance with data related to the experimental
3.5%, respectively. The reported data from the simulation results tests done for the boiler considered. The properties and the lower
agree very well with the design parameters (with average temper- heating value of fuel mass ‘‘as–received” from utility are assumed
atures and O2 mass fractions to be around 1645–1690 K and 3.7– in calculations. These values are presented in Tables 3. The yield of
3.9%). volatile matter was taken according to the data provided (dry-ash-

Fig. 4. Contours of temperature for Case 5 (50% Kideco–50% Berau with all burners switched on). (a) Burner A; (b) Burner B; (c) Burner C; (d) Burner D; (e) Burner E; (f) Burner
F; (g) Y = 10 m plane.
1422 H.B. Vuthaluru, R. Vuthaluru / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 1418–1426

free ash) by the utility. Although, the boiler is equipped with 24 Particle trajectories and contours of temperature and velocity
conventional burners of the swirling type arranged on each corner vectors for Case 5 are shown as examples in Figs. 3 and 4, which
of the furnace walls in six tiers, only five of the burner sets are usu- establish resulting temperature deviations in the upper part of
ally in operation and one set is used as a standby. the furnace. Additionally, predicted velocity vectors were also
Particle trajectories and temperature distributions were deter- found to be useful as uneven velocities cause non-uniform absorp-
mined for several of the following cases: tion of heat creating deviations in the temperature. Table 4 pre-
sents the summary of observations for each burner for Case 5
 Case 1 (60% Kideco and 40% Berau with burner A switched off) with all burners in operation. Similar observations have been
 Case 2 (60% Kideco and 40% Berau with burner F switched off) recorded following simulations and summary of all cases are re-
 Case 3 (40% Kideco and 60% Berau with burner F switched off) ported in Table 5. From these observations it was concluded that
 Case 4 (40% Kideco and 60% Berau with burner A switched off) particle trajectories from burner ports 2D or 2E are even for most
 Case 5 (50% Kideco and 50% Berau with no burner switched of the cases and profiles from burner ports 3E or 4E are more to-
off) wards left (SH) in most of the cases. However, profiles from burner
 Case 6 (40% Kideco and 60% Berau with burner B switched off) ports 1D or 2F more towards right (DIV SH) and evenly spread in
 Case 7 (40% Kideco and 60% Berau with burner C switched off) most of the cases.
 Case 8 (40% Kideco and 60% Berau with burner D switched In TF boilers, the particles travel around the furnace volume
off) providing sufficient residence time for the very fine particles.
Due to the concentric firing system in the furnace, and the distance
It is well known that as the scale of the tangential fired boiler between the upmost burner and the furnace exit, the long period of
becomes large, a series of problems occur. The gas temperature intensive mixing is observed depending on which burner is opera-
deviation in the upper part of the furnace is among them, which tional (see Fig. 3 for a typical Case 5 for particle trajectory profiles).
can result in pipe explosion of super-heaters and re-heaters. Unlike
many researchers, who investigated the causes of temperature
deviations and attempted to develop the technique for decreasing Table 5
the temperature deviations, present research focussed on exploit- Summary of particle trajectories from burner ports for all case runs.
ing the fact of existence of these temperature deviations in the fol- Burner ports Case runs
lowing manner.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Using numerical simulations, areas of temperature deviations
were established. Particle trajectories were predicted with their 1A – E E – TL TR ML TL
1B TL TL TL TR TR – ML MR
time and temperature history. Based on these particle trajectory 1C TL E E TL TR TL – MR
paths, appropriate burner ports were identified, which have the 1D TR TL TR E MR TL TR –
most impact on these temperature deviations. Once the ports were 1E TL TR TR TL TL TL TR TR
identified, coal additive injections were performed in the actual 1F TL – – TL TL E TR ML
2A – E E – TL TL TL MR
boiler to reduce the ash deposition with the help of additives.
2B TL E E TR TH – TL MR
2C TL E E TR E TR – TR
2D E E E E E EM E –
2E E E E E MR E E TR
2F TR – – TR TR TR TR TL
Table 4 3A – E TR – TL TL E ML
Case 5 (50% Kideco and 50% Berau all burners in open condition, left panel – SH and 3B E TR TL TL TR – E TR
right panel – Div SH). 3C MR TR TL TL TR ML – ML
3D E TL TR TL TR TR TL –
Burner Trajectory path
3E E TL TR E E E EM MR
location
3F TL – – E E E TL TR
1A Many streams first going towards hopper and then reaching to 4A – E TR – TR TR TL TL
the divisional panels, more towards left panel 4B TL TR TR E TR – E ML
1B Fewer streams more towards right panel 4C TR E TR E E E – MR
1C More towards right panel 4D TR E TR MR MR TL TL –
1D More towards right panel and middle 4E TL TL TR TL MR TL MR MR
1E More towards left panel and then some towards right panel 4F TR – – TL MR TL TL TL
1F More towards left panel and then some towards right panel
2A Many streams first going towards hopper and then reaching to Note: E – Even impact on left and right panels; EM – Equally towards middle
the divisional panels, more towards left panel section.
2B Many going to hopper and few reaching up evenly ML – More towards left panel and middle part; MR – More towards right panel and
2C Even on both sides middle part.
2D Even on both sides TR – Towards right divisional SH or panel; TL – Towards left SH or panel.
2E More towards middle and right panel
2F More towards right panel
3A Many streams first going towards hopper and then reaching to
the divisional panels, more towards left panel Table 6
3B Few streams going towards right panel Trial (T) run schedules.
3C Towards right panel after going towards hopper
3D More towards right panel straight upwards T1 1  3 h: July 5, LRC
3E Even on both sides Activities: performance monitoring 1 and sampling
3F Even on both sides T2 2  24 h: July 5 (21:00) until 7 (21:00), LRC
4A Many streams first going towards hopper and then reaching to Activities: injection 1, performance monitoring 2 and sampling
the divisional panels, more towards right panel T3 1  9 h: July 7 (21:00) until July 8 (6:00), LRC
4B More towards right panel with towards left panel Activities: performance monitoring 3 and sampling
4C More towards right panel T4 3  24 h: July 8 (6:00) until 11(8:00), LRC
4D Even on both sides Activities: injection 2, performance monitoring 4 and sampling
4E More towards right panel and some to middle T5 1  3 h: July 11 (08:00–11:00), LRC
4F More towards right panel and some to middle Activities: performance monitoring 5 and sampling
H.B. Vuthaluru, R. Vuthaluru / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 1418–1426 1423

Fig. 5. Observations from trial runs with bar lines showing the trial schedules T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T5.

During particle combustion, all of the fuel species except char are at a slower rate, and normally is not consumed until it reaches the
consumed within 1 or 2 m of the burner throats, while char burns furnace centre. This is exemplified by the temperature spread near
1424 H.B. Vuthaluru, R. Vuthaluru / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 1418–1426

the burner throats up to the furnace centre (as shown in Fig. 4 for Table 7
various burners for Case 5). In particular the high temperature re- Unburnt carbon during trial runs.

gion is expanding in the central section of burner plane from bur- 6th July, 7th July, 2007 10th July, 2007 11th July, 2007
ner A–F. 2007 (9:08 PM) (10:15 PM) (10:15 AM)
At the furnace exit cross-section (SH P1 and Div SH sections), (10 AM)

the gas temperature is fairly uniform between the two side-walls % Un-burnt 1.56 0.19 0.03 0.17
and the average temperature deviation between the two side-walls carbon

was found to be 50–100 K. This is in agreement with previous stud-


ies [4–6]. Residual airflow swirling at furnace exit is one important +7% (with average FEGT’ predicted values being in the range of
cause for this gas temperature deviation. It is expected that a high- 1180–1310 °C).
speed gas flow along the relatively cool front wall can cause a tem- Desirable constituents in bottom ash were found to be higher
perature deviation between the two side-walls depending on than that of coal, indicating that additive penetration is significant
which burner is operational. These observations assisted in identi- and un-burnt carbon showed decreasing trend (Table 7). This also
fying the most influential ports for each case run indicating their suggests that the suggested injection port targets from the model-
impact on left and right panel temperatures. Detailed understand- ling results are effective.
ing of particle trajectories and their likely effects on temperature Economiser (ECO) Inlet temperatures (see Graph 3 in Fig. 5)
distributions in various sections obtained in this manner provided during the test tend to decrease with the minimum gas tempera-
the basis for optimum additive injection locations to control de- ture being 583.4 °C on July 9th at 4 AM with load of 612.51 MW.
posit formation. The ECO Inlet gas temperature was 605.5 °C on July 10th at 4 PM
The simulation results provided valuable information on the with load of 614.02 MW compared to 617 °C before injection on
particle trajectories, temperature profiles and radiative heat flux July 5th at 8 PM with load of 617.05 MW. This indicates that the
distributions within the furnace including heat transfer sections. SH and RH heating surface was cleaner and increase the heat trans-
The various cases (with different burners either in operational or fer effectiveness so that the gas temperature decreases.
non operational modes) have shown that different burner opera- Visual photographic observations of deposits in super-heater
tions could lead to different particle trajectories. The results pro- sections during trial runs showed decreasing thickness of the depos-
vided insights into the optimum burner ports which could it on port 3 after 4 days of application of additive injections (Fig. 7).
potentially be employed to control exit gas temperatures and at- Especially on July 10th, the tube surface is starting to open, which
tack areas prone to high deposition. means less propensity for ash deposition and increased drops of bot-
These insights have been utilised to carry out filed trials (see tom ash. This suggests that the additive application during trial runs
trial details in Table 6) as a follow-up to modelling work on a not only reduced slagging but reduced the deposit strength.
cleaned unit and observed dramatic changes to the exit gas tem-
peratures and assisted in arriving at remediation options for han-
5. Conclusions
dling ash related problems.
Observations from trial runs are summarized in Fig. 5 show-
Using numerical simulations, areas of temperature deviations
ing the measured Furnace Exit Gas Temperature (FEGT) profiles
were established. Particle trajectories were predicted with their
and Economiser (ECO) inlet temperatures with date and time.
time and temperature history. Based on these particle trajectory
Average FEGT profile is shown in Graph 1. The minimum furnace
predictions, appropriate burner ports were identified, which had
exit gas temperatures during the test observed was 1210 °C on
the most impact on these temperature deviations. Once the ports
July 7th at 9 PM with plant load of 607.50 MW, compared to
were identified, coal additive injections were performed in the ac-
1221 °C without injections on July 7th at 3 AM with plant load
tual boiler to reduce the temperature deviations.
of 609.71 MW (Graph 2). FEGT (Furnace Exit Gas Temperature)
Following additive injections, slagging on the upper furnace
is measured at the exit of the radiant section or entrance to
surface decreased. This is shown from exit gas temperatures which
the convective zone near the nose section using pyrometer which
showed decreasing trend during injection. Slagging and high tem-
utilises infrared system (see the measurement region shown in
perature fouling on SH and RH also decreased with a simultaneous
Fig. 6). The accuracy of this instrument has been reported to
decrease in economiser inlet temperature during injection.
be within +1% error as per plant personnel. Our simulation re-
No significant effect of additive is seen towards low tempera-
sults indicated close agreement with the measured exit gas tem-
ture fouling regions such as economiser tube banks. This is evident
peratures with average absolute deviations found to be within
due to the fact that the air heater inlet temperature exhibited sta-
bility during injection.
Since each boiler dimensions are unique and dependent on spe-
cific power utility, usefulness of CFD modelling in simulating pur-
pose oriented results is very much evident in our current
investigations. Example showing particle trajectories and contours
of temperature presented in the paper establish resulting temper-
ature deviations in the upper part of the furnace.
Overall it appears that additive injections with the help of CFD
modelling for identifying the optimum location of burner ports
could be one of the effective methods to overcome ash deposition
issues associated with the burning of coal which could potentially
enhance the efficiency of boilers.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial and other sup-


Fig. 6. Schematic showing the region for FEGT plant measurements. port received for this research from an Indonesian coal mining
H.B. Vuthaluru, R. Vuthaluru / Applied Energy 87 (2010) 1418–1426 1425

Fig. 7. Slagging growth observed on super-heater ports during trial runs (green and red dots in photographs correspond to trial schedules). Note: Up to green dot – T1; green
dot to red dot – T2; red dot to green – T3; green dot to red dot T4; red dot to green dot – T5. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)

company. The author also likes to acknowledge H. Yurismono and [3] Costen PG, Dajnak D, Messina M, Lockwood FC, Abbas T, Bertrand C, et al. On the
prediction and control of industrial combustors by mathematical modelling.
M. Parinussa for assisting with the retrieval of plant data.
Paper presented at 2002 Australian symposium on combustion and the seventh
Australian flame days, Adelaide; February 2002.
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