Journal of Process Control 68 (2018) 14–22

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Journal of Process Control

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jprocont

Investigation on the energy conversion and load control of

supercritical circulating fluidized bed boiler units
Mingming Gao a , Feng Hong a,∗ , Jizhen Liu a , Feng Chen b
a
The State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electric Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, 102206, Beijing, China
b
Beijing GuoDian ZhiShen Control Technology CO. Ltd., Beijing 102200, China

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

Article history: Load control is the core of the operation control system on power plant units. The energy conversion
Received 5 May 2017 process is complicated in the supercritical circulating fluidized bed (SCFB) boiler due to the special flu-
Received in revised form 28 January 2018 idized combustion type, which also results in the large thermal inertia. So the control performances of
Accepted 4 April 2018
conventional load control scheme without the consideration of carbon storage are poor in SCFB units. To
reveal and monitor the energy storage in the boiler, the control model of burning carbon is established.
Keywords:
Through the analysis on energy conversion process, the signal of advanced dynamic heat is structured
Supercritical circulating fluidized bed
to characterize the variation trend of energy. Based on the combination of the burning carbon control
(SCFB)
Energy conversion
model and the dynamic heat signal, the boiler main control and feed-water control schemes are designed
Reactive carbon to optimal the control performance. Finally, the verification and application on the 600 MW SCFB unit
Load control scheme prove the effectiveness of advanced dynamic heat signal and feasibility of the proposed control scheme.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers have been widely
commercialized in power generation applications owing to the
advantages in fuel flexibility [1,2] and lower cost of emission con-
trol [3,4] compared to the pulverized coal (PC) boilers. However, the
thermal efficiency of the CFB unit is relatively low. So it is necessary
to develop SCFB boiler units to overcome this disadvantage.
The heat distribution along the furnace height direction in the
supercritical PC boilers is inhomogeneous due to the combustion of
coal powders with small particle size [5]. Thus the cooling capacity
of the water wall is one of the key challenges. With the characteris-
tic of fluidized combustion, the temperature and heat distributions
in the CFB furnace are much more uniform than that in the PC boiler.
Besides, in the CFB furnace, the heat flux decreases with increasing
height of furnace and the maximum heat flux occurs at the bot-
tom part, which is just the position with lowest temperature of the
water in water wall. This is beneficial to control the metal tempera-
ture of water wall. On the other hand, the combustion temperature
in the boiler is lower than general ash melting point and the inten-
Abbreviations: CFB, circulating fluidized bed; SCFB, supercritical circulating flu-
idized bed; EHE, external heat exchanger; HTS, high temperature superheater; ITS,
intermediate temperature superheater; LTS, low temperature superheater; PA, pri-
mary air; PC, pulverized coal; SA, secondary air.
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: hongf@ncepu.edu.cn, 15811466820@163.com (F. Hong).
sive solid particles are conducive to the heat absorption of the water
wall. So it is suitable for the combination with the fluidized com-
bustion technology and the supercritical steam parameters [6].
Load control is the core of the operational management for
the units [7,8]. Attributed to the fluidized combustion mode and
wide-size range of the coal feed particles, the thermal inertia of
CFB boilers is quite large and the energy conversion process is
fairly complicated [9,10]. Moreover, the supercritical units adopt
the once-through furnace rather than the traditional drum one,
making the higher requirements for feed-water control. Usually,
the CFB power plant unit can operate at a fixed load stably, while
the control performances will turn worse during the adjustment of
load. In fact, the load variation is almost inevitable and the current
requirement for the speed of load changes is becoming stricter due
to the rapid development of new energy power generation [11]. All
these characteristics lead to the great difficulty in the load control
of SCFB units [12,13].
The key to the load control schemes is to regulate the combus-
tion intensity in the boiler and govern the heat transformation in
the unit precisely based on energy and mass balance principles,
especially during the dynamic process. The intensive material and
heat transfer [14], and complex chemical reaction in the furnace
[15] bring about the challenges in analyzing the energy conver-
sion of CFB unit. There is little systematic research on the energy
conversion process and effective load control theory in SCFB units.
In this paper, it was concluded that the accumulated carbon
could reveal the huge thermal inertia and the complicated heat
balance in the CFB boiler. The dynamic heat signal was structured

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jprocont.2018.04.001
0959-1524/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Gao et al. / Journal of Process Control 68 (2018) 14–22 15

• The balance model in the energy conversion of the SCFB unit has
Nomenclature been set up to reflect the heat transfer process.
• The designed boiler main control and feed-water control schemes
Air Total air flow rate are validated to optimal the control performance in SCFB units by
AI Instruction of total air volume engineering verification.
B Amount of burning carbon
Car Net carbon as received basis
CarL Carbon content of fly ash The rest of paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the
CarS Carbon content of slag combustion and energy conversion process are analyzed, laying a
Ch Coefficient of enthalpy differential foundation for the control model of the burning carbon. Section 3
Co2 Oxygen concentration presents the designed load control scheme of SCFB units, then the
dc Average diameter of particles verifications and applications on the 600 MW SCFB units are shown
F Coal-feed rate into the furnace in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 concludes the work.
FI Instruction of coal-feed rate
FL Rate of fly ash
2. The energy conversion process in the SCFB boiler unit
FS Rate of slag
hgr Final super heater outlet steam enthalpy
2.1. Plant description
hgs Enthalpy of feed-water
H0 Calorific value of carbon unit
This study mainly investigates a 600 MW coal-fired SCFB unit of
Ppr Predictive power
Baima power plant in Sichuan Province, China, which has been suc-
PT Main steam pressure
cessfully put into commercial operation since April 14, 2013. It is
PTS Set point of main steam pressure
characterized with once-through boiler, single furnace with double
QB Released energy
air distributors, H-type symmetric layout, balanced draft and sin-
Qcar Heat released in carbon combustion
gle reheat system. Six high temperature steam-cooled cyclones are
QF Energy of coal combustion
adopted for gas-solid separation and six external heat exchangers
QL Energy required for target load
(EHEs) are equipped to adjust the bed temperature and reheated
Qo Effective output energy
steam temperature.
Qr Boiler heat absorption
The general layout of the CFB boiler is shown in Fig. 1. The raw
Qvol Heat released in volatile combustion
coal are dried and smashed without mill to particles of the diame-
Rc Combustion rate of burning carbon
ter in a very wide range of 1–10 mm. In general, the coal are mixed
RWF Ratio of water to fuel
with limestone through fluidization, which can capture SOx pro-
uT Valve opening of turbine
duced in the combustion. The primary air enters the furnace from
WSI Feed water flow
the bottom of two legs and plays a vital role in keeping the bed
Yo2 Practical oxygen content
inventory in fluidized state and enhancing the fully mixing of bed
Y’o2 Set value of the oxygen content
inventory with the newly-added fuel. Secondary air nozzles are
installed at various levels of the furnace walls to supply sufficient
Greeks
air for complete combustion. Mixed particles consisting of partly
HF Calorific value of coal unit
burned coal, limestone and ash are carried to the upper region of
kAF Coefficient of the air flow instruction
the furnace with flue gasses. Subsequently, the particles are sent
kAO Coefficient of the air flow instruction
to six cyclone separators, in which the heavy particles are sepa-
kc Combustion rate constant of granule
rated from the gasses and returned to the furnace for recirculation.
kFL Coefficient of the coal quantity instruction
The gasses pass through the cyclones and flow to the heat transfer
kFQ Coefficient of dynamic energy deviation
surface for heat exchange. The coal particles experience multiple
kFP Coefficient of the coal quantity instruction
circulations in the furnace accompanied by the low temperature
kL Coefficient of load
combustion of 850–950 ◦ C. The special combustion mode leads to
ko2 Oxygen concentration coefficient
the considerable energy storage at fuel side and a large amount of
kWh Coefficient of the enthalpy deviation
residue chars are accumulated in the furnace. Thus the combustion
kWQ Coefficient of the released energy
process in a CFB boiler is more complicated than that in a PC boiler,
K Overall coefficient
in which small coal particles with size of 0.05–0.1 mm burn out one
L Load instruction
time pass within a few seconds.
Mc Molar mass of carbon
Rather than natural circulation, supercritical boilers use the
Ne Power
once through circulation for the water wall. The water wall system
b Boiler efficiency
consists of headers, inlet tubes, tube panels, outlet tubes, elbows
t Turbine efficiency
and other elements for the absorption of heat flux on the furnace
c Density of carbon particle
side. Saturated steam is drawn off the top of the steam separator
hso Enthalpy deviation
and re-enters the furnace in through the reheat system. Then the
steam with supercritical parameters is sent to turbine to generate
electrical power combined with a generator.
to monitor the combustion intensity and the trend of heat trans-
formation. This paper mainly investigates the coal-fired SCFB unit 2.2. The combustion in the CFB boiler
and the main contributions are consisted of the following aspects.
The energy of the coal is given off instantly in a PC boiler and
• The control model of burning carbon is established to monitor the the released heat can be calculated by Eq. (1).
amount of reactive carbon that participating in the combustion
in CFB boilers. QF (t) = F(t)HF (t) (1)
16 M. Gao et al. / Journal of Process Control 68 (2018) 14–22
Fig. 1. The general layout of the 600 MW SCFB power generation.
Fig. 2. The concept of the burning carbon in the combustion of the CFB boiler.
where QF is the energy of coal combustion, MJ/s; F is the coal-feed
rate into the furnace, kg/s; HF is the calorific value of coal unit,
MJ/kg.
However, the burn-out time for coal in a 600 MW SCFB boiler
is about 18 min, and Eq. (1) is inappropriate. In fact, the total heat
is mainly released from the summation of existing char in the fur-
nace. The combustion energy of the fresh feed coal only occupies
a small part for the moment. Based on these characteristics of the
combustion process in a CFB boiler, the concept of “burning carbon”
is proposed [16]. It refers to the reactive carbon that participating
in the combustion, and its released energy is absorbed by water
wall tube to work through steam turbine. From the view of energy
conversion, the burning carbon means the effective residue car-
bon releasing or storing heat at the real time (shown as Fig. 2). The
energy released in the combustion of burning carbon in a CFB boiler
can be calculated by Eq. (2).
QB (t) = Rc H0 (t)
where QB is the released energy, MJ/s; Rc is the combustion rate of
burning carbon, kg/s; H0 is the calorific value of carbon unit, MJ/kg.
2.3. The control model of burning carbon amount
The burning carbon is an important intermediate state vari-
able, but it cannot be measured with any instrument. Soft sensing
puts forward a new thinking for monitoring the amount of burn-
ing carbon. In this section, the control model of the burning carbon
is established for revealing and monitoring the heat storage and
combustion intensity in real-time.
The coal supply in a CFB boiler is different from that in a PC
boiler. In a CFB boiler, the crashed coal is sent to the bottom of
combustor. The coal particle burn-out time is proportional to the
square of grain diameter. For coal particles with diameter larger
than 1 mm, the burn-out time is over 15 min, and the particles expe-
rience multiple cycles of circulation in the furnace. The relationship
between the burning carbon and other main variables can be indi-
cated in Fig. 3. The fresh coal particles are equivalent to the external
power to supply energy. While the combustion of burning carbon
is responsible to satisfy the demand for power through changing
its storage capacity accompanied by the heat conversion.
The balance relationship between the burning carbon and the
other variables in a CFB boiler can be obtained by Eq. (3).
dB(t)
= F(t)Car − Rc − FS (t)CarS − FL (t)Car L (3)
dt
where B is the amount of burning carbon, kg; F is the coal-feed
rate, kg/s; Car is the net carbon as received basis, %; FS is the rate of
slag, kg/s; CarS is the carbon content of slag, %; FL is the rate of fly
ash, kg/s; CarL is the carbon content of fly ash, %. According to the
engineering experience, Car and CarS are assumed to be constants,
while CarL is ignored in this paper.
The combustion rate of burning carbon can be expressed by Eq.
(4) [17]:
−1 dmp 6Mc kc Co2 B(t)
RC = B(t) × ( )= (4)
mp dt dc c
where mp means the quality of a carbon particle, kg; Mc is the molar
mass of carbon, kg/kmol; kc is the combustion rate constant of gran-
(2) ule [18], m/s; Co2 is the oxygen concentration around the carbon,
 M. Gao et al. / Journal of Process Control 68 (2018) 14–22 17

Fig. 3. The relationship between the burning carbon and other variables.

kmol/m3 ; dc is average diameter of particles, m; c is density of

carbon particle, kg/m3 .
The oxygen concentration is decided by the total air flow rate:
Co2 (t) = ko2 Air (t) (5)
where ko2 is a coefficient; Air is the total air flow rate, Nm3 /s.
Combined with Eq. (2), the heat released in combustion of burn-
ing carbon can be calculated by Eq. (6).
6Mc H(t)kc ko2
QB (t) = Rc H0 (t) = B(t)Air (t)
dc pc (6)
= K(t)Air (t)B(t)
where K is the overall coefficient of the model.
Besides, in the combustion process of a CFB boiler, the volatile
of the fuel should be taken into consideration. In this paper, the
calorific value of burning carbon H0 is corrected by the heat of
volatile as Eq. (7) with the assumption that the volatile content
of the fuel is unchanged in a period of time and the released heat
of volatile could be seen as an energy correction factor.
Qcar + Qvol
H(t) = × H0 (t) (7)
Qcar
where the Qcar is the heat released in the combustion of carbon,
and the Qvol is the heat released in the combustion of volatile.

2.4. The energy conversion in a SCFB boiler

The energy conversion process in a SCFB unit is complicated due

to the fluidized combustion mode and the operation characteristic
of once-through boiler. Fig. 4-1 shows the response time of main
steam pressure to coal change in 600 MW SCFB and PC units. The
response time in a CFB unit is longer than that in a PC unit.
During the operation of the CFB unit, load changing is almost
inevitable and it is the main external disturbance to the control of
the energy conversion. As Fig. 4-2 shows, when the load increases,
the dominant energy supply of CFB units in various time stages
are different. At initial stage, the heat storage in steam-water mix-
tures and on metal of heating surface (steam water side) is the
main energy supply to follow load. But this part is relatively small
in the supercritical unit without a drum, so at middle stage, the
heat released in combustion of burning carbon has to be the domi-
nant energy supply. The incremental fresh coal feed does not burn
completely to give out heat until about 7 min later. This energy
Fig. 4. Characteristics of energy conversion in the SCFB unit.
conversion process can reveal the essence of the large delay and
thermal inertia in the SCFB unit.
It can be concluded that the heat released in combustion of
burning carbon QB is very important in energy conversion, espe-
cially during the dynamic process. The change trend and rate of
QB can characterize the variation tendency of combustion inten-
sity and heat storage in the CFB boiler. It could act as an advanced
dynamic signal to guide the precise control of coal feeding, air flow
and feed-water.
Moreover, the heat storage on the steam water side should be
taken into consideration in the energy conversion. In the supercriti-
cal power plant, the steam enthalpy of the separator is used to judge
whether the heat-water ratio is imbalanced. In the temperature
18 M. Gao et al. / Journal of Process Control 68 (2018) 14–22
control system, the adjustment of heat-water ratio is basing on the
steam enthalpy of the separator [19]. Thus the steam enthalpy of the
separator is used to measure the heat storage on the steam water
side of the control system in supercritical unit. The energy balance
model in the energy conversion of SCFB unit can be expressed by
Eq. (8).
dB dhm
b H = Qr − Qo + Ch
dt dt
where the Qr means the boiler heat absorption, MJ/s, and the Qo is
the effective output energy of boiler, MJ/s; The Ch is the coefficient
of enthalpy differential, kg.
In this paper, b H dB
dt
is defined as the energy storage on the fuel
side and Ch dh
dt
m
is defined as the heat storage on the steam water
side.
3. The load control scheme of the SCFB unit
3.1. Overall load control scheme
The regulation load control system should respond to follow the
load instruction rapidly and eliminate the external disturbance. At
the same time, it should stabilize the main steam pressure and tem-
perature, oxygen concentration and the enthalpy of steam-water
separator in the unit by adjusting the rate of coal, air and feed-
water.
Usually, the SCFB unit operation is unstable and the main steam
parameters remarkably deviate from the set values with the appli-
cation of conventional load control schemes that suitable to the
supercritical PC unit. In this section, a novel load control scheme of
SCFB units is designed based on the advanced dynamic signal struc-
tured to make full use of energy storage. Fig. 5 shows the control
architecture of the overall load control scheme.
Decentralized PI control is widely used in process industry due
to its simplicity and ease of use [20]. The research and verification
are all oriented to the actual 600 MW SCFB unit, so the feedback
control structure based on the PI controller has not been changed
due to the safety considerations. In the power plant industry, this PI
feedback control structure has been proved to have a certain stabil-
ity margin [21–24]. In addition, there are some control blocks in the
load control system to ensure the stability, such as the rate limiter
and saturation of the control variable output. As Fig. 5 shows, this
paper focuses on the research of the feed forward signal, which can
reveal the essence of the large thermal inertia in the SCFB unit. The
heat released in combustion of burning carbon QB is very impor-
tant in energy conversion, especially during the dynamic process.
The change trend and rate of QB can characterize the variation ten-
dency of combustion intensity and heat storage in the CFB boiler.
The fundamental is somewhat similar to the control structure of
cascade control strategy in main steam temperature control sys-
tem [25,26]. The feed forward signal has no influence on the closed
loop stability.
3.2. Control scheme of coal feeding and air flow
The general control scheme of coal feeding in conventional once-
through boilers is expressed as Eq. (9). The instruction of coal
quantity mainly consists of two parts: the baseline value is pro-
portional to the load instruction, and the dynamic part is to correct
the deviation of main steam pressure.
FI = kFL L + kFP (PT − PTS )
where FI is the instruction of coal-feed rate, kg/s; L is the load
instruction, MW; PT is the main steam pressure, MPa; PTS is the set
point of the main steam pressure, MPa; kFL and kFP are coefficients
of the coal quantity instruction, the latter is usually generated by
proportional-integral (PI) controller.
However, this scheme is unsuited to the coal feeding control in
CFB boilers due to the long response time, especially in the dynamic
phase. It is needed and profitable to find an advanced signal to
overcome the huge thermal inertia. QB can measure the dynamic
combustion intensity of fuel quickly and effectively. So this paper
(8) proposed a control scheme of coal feeding in SCFB boiler expressed
as Eqs. (10) and (11).
QL = kL L (10)
FI = kFL L + kFQ d(QL − QB ) + kFP (PT − PTS ) (11)
where QL is the energy required for target load, MJ/s; kFQ is the
coefficient of dynamic energy deviation.
In the typical boiler combustion control system, the basic
instruction of air flow is proportional to the coal feeding instruction
shown as Eq. (12).
AI = kAF F + kAO (YO 2 − Y  O 2 ) (12)
where AI is the instruction of total air volume, m3 /s; Yo2 is the
practical oxygen content, %; Y’o2 is the set value of the oxygen
content, %. Usually, the oxygen content deviation is eliminated by
secondary air control system. kAF and kAO are coefficients of the air
flow instruction.
The change of the air flow rate affects main steam pressure sig-
nificantly and promptly in the CFB units. The reason is that the
burning carbon accumulates in the furnace, and its combustion rate
is sensitive to the air flow rate as Eq. (5) shows. Thus, a control
scheme of air flow in CFB boiler was proposed as Eq. (13).
AI = kAF F + kFA d(QL − QB ) + kAO (YO 2 − Y  O 2 ) (13)
where kFO is the coefficient of dynamic energy deviation. The flow
rates of the primary and secondary air are proportional to the
instruction of total air volume. It should be noted that the two pro-
portions are different, and the part of oxygen content deviation is
mainly eliminated by secondary air control system.
In addition, the ratio of total air rate to coal feeding kAF can be
optimized by the balance equation of burning carbon under various
static working conditions. When the unit is in stable states, Eq. (3)
turns to
QB (t)
+ FS CarS = F(t)Car (14)
H(t)
Then, combined with Eq. (6), the kAF can be obtained from Eq.
(15).
Air (t) H(t)
= (15)
F(t)Car − FS CarS K(t)B0 (t)
When the load is required to increase, through the proposed
control schemes of coal feeding and air flow, the balance of car-
bon storage and energy conversion in CFB boilers can be controlled
according to the following stages. In the initial stage, the flow rates
of the primary and secondary air are to increase excessively at the
same time. The combustion intensity of burning carbon is enhanced
owing to the raised fluidization of bed material and oxygen content,
releasing the heat storage to meet the load requirements. Mean-
while, the coal feed is overshot to supply burning carbon and to
release heat thereafter. At later stage, the increment of coal supply
(9) and the rational ratio of air to coal remain the balance of energy
in the furnace, ensuring the stability of the main steam pressure
and temperature. The control process that applied with the pro-
posed control schemes in following the decreasing load instruction
is similar.
 M. Gao et al. / Journal of Process Control 68 (2018) 14–22
Fig. 5. Control structure of the load control scheme.
3.3. Feed-water control scheme
The feed-water control is crucial and difficult in supercritical
units without drums. In the conventional supercritical PC units, the
feed-water control scheme is designed based on the water-follows-
fuel principle. The control scheme of feed-water is expressed as Eq.
(16).
WSI = RWF FI + kWh hso
where WSI is the feed water flow, kg/s; RWF is the ratio of water
to fuel; hso is the deviation between the actual and set point
enthalpy at steam-water separator outlet, kJ/kg; kWh is the coef-
ficient of the enthalpy deviation.
The essence of water-follows-fuel strategy is that the feed-water
should match the energy released in combustion, which is approx-
imately proportional to the amount of coal feed in supercritical PC
units. However, such approximate relation cannot be established
in the SCFB units that featured with larger inertia, so the traditional
feed-water scheme is not effective. The combustion energy released
in CFB boilers is not proportional to the amount of coal feeding, but
it could be equal to the heat released in burning carbon combustion.
Thus, the feed-water should be closely related to QB , and it forms
the water-follows-heat principle in SCFB units. Based on these, the
feed-water control scheme in SCFB unit was proposed as Eq. (17).
WSI = kWQ dQB + kWh hso + W0
where W0 is the basic feed-water flow rate, kg/s; kWQ and kWh are
coefficients.
The proposed feed-water instruction consists of three essen-
tial parts. The first part is a dynamic energy signal that reflects the
changing tendency of the energy released or stored in the boiler.
This part can accelerate the regulating speed of feed-water flow
rate based on the accurate and ahead monitor of the combustion
intensity, ensuring the fluctuation of enthalpy deviation in the safe
range during dynamic processes. The second one is to eliminate
the enthalpy deviation caused by the energy fluctuation on steam
water side, and kWh is usually generated by the PI controller. The
last part mainly characterizes the theoretical reference water sup-
19
ply in static states, and W0 can be obtained by Eq. (18) according to
the heat balance principle.
L
W0 = (18)
(hgr − hgs )
where hgr is the outlet steam enthalpy of the final super heater,
kJ/kg; hgs is the enthalpy of feed-water, kJ/kg.
(16)
3.4. The controller tuning
For the consideration of engineering, the controller of the feed-
back control loop is selected as PI controller, which is the most
commonly used in the industrial applications [20]. The system sta-
bility and more precisely the robustness of the controller in the
different configurations are main consideration of the design. For
the SCFB unit with large thermal inertia and strong nonlinearity,
the conventional control scheme is hard to solve the system stabil-
ity in each operating condition. The proposed load control scheme
based on the advanced dynamic signal structured is advantageous
to overcome the large thermal inertia and strong nonlinearity. In
addition, the dynamic heat with feed-forward structure does not
affect the stability of the system. The setting of the controller is still
determined by the engineering setting method [27]. The controller
tuning of the load control system is oriented to the actual 600 MW
SCFB unit as the following steps.
(17)
1) Coarse tuning of the single loop
Firstly, the load control system is divided into four single loops
as F – PT , Air – Yo2 , WSI – hgr and uT – Ne . The controller tuning
of each single loop is based on the 4:1 attenuation curve method
to find the appropriate controller parameters to ensure the output
of each loop stable [28]. This method may need some engineering
experience but useful. It is worth noting that when one single loop
is under controller tuning, other loops should be in a manual state
to eliminate the fluctuation of loop output.
2) Fine adjustment of the whole load control system
After the tuning of PI controller parameters for four single loops,
the whole load control system should be in an automatic state. Then
the fine adjustment of the controller parameters can be executed
20 M. Gao et al. / Journal of Process Control 68 (2018) 14–22
Fig. 6. The furnace structure of the 600 MW SCFB unit.
by engineering experience. The purpose of this step is to elimi-
nate the fluctuations caused by the coupling between four single
loops. But with the large thermal inertia and strong nonlinearity of
SCFB unit, the control performance is usually unable to achieve the
satisfactory results.
3) Tuning of the feed forward signals
The last step is to add the feed forward signal and tuning of feed
forward loop. The integral effect of each closed loop can be weak-
ened properly to reduce the overshoot and the integral saturation
at the same time.
4. Verification and application
In this section, the theory of burning carbon, the energy con-
version balance model and the proposed load control scheme are
mainly verified in the first 600 MW SCFB boiler unit, of which the
furnace structure is shown as Fig. 6.
The fuel properties of the investigated unit is shown as Table 1.
4.1. Verification of burning carbon model
To test and verify the control model of burning carbon amount,
the predictive power Ppr is formed as Eq. (19), which can charac-
terize the energy released in the combustion of boiler.
Ppr (t) = b t QB (t) = b t K(t)Air (t)B(t)
where b is the boiler efficiency, %; t is the turbine efficiency,
%.
Fig. 7 shows the variations of the predictive power and
burning carbon amount during the dynamic process in
the 600 MW SCFB unit when the load was changed that
600 MW–370 MW–600 MW–370 MW. It can be seen that the
trend of predictive power is consistent with the actual power
in the dynamic process and the deviations are acceptable. More
importantly, the signals of burning carbon and predictive power
change in advanced for the reason that the heat transformation
from boiler to turbine to generate electricity has certain inertia.
This nature indicates that the control model of burning carbon
amount can satisfy the general application, which is meaningful to
the control systems in CFB units.
Fig. 7. The burning carbon amount and predictive power during the dynamic oper-
ation.
Fig. 8. Main parameters during the dynamic process applied with conventional
schemes.
4.2. Verification of boiler main control scheme
The boiler main control in thermal power plants usually refers
to the control of coal feed amount and air flow rate. To verify the
proposed boiler main control scheme, this section presents the
comparative analyses of two operating segments applied with the
conventional and designed control schemes respectively.
Fig. 8 shows the main parameters and the control variables dur-
(19) ing the dynamic process in the unit applied with the conventional
boiler main control schemes. In the operation time of 450 min when
the load was changed that 540 MW–420 MW–360 MW, the biggest
deviation of power and main steam pressure reached 15 MW and
1.1 MPa respectively. Besides, the average absolute error of the
main steam pressure reached 0.5 MPa, which is unfavorable to the
operation of the unit. The reason lies in the imprecise control of
the coal feed and air flow. The coal feed amount was overshot fre-
quently, and the fluctuation reached 12–32 t/h even in the steady
state condition. Meanwhile, the adjustment of primary air flow was
weak and not timely in dynamic conditions, it also varied exces-
sively during the stabilized period. In addition, the secondary air
flow was controlled rather roughly, which was not adjusted below
the load of 420 MW.
Fig. 9 illustrates the main parameters and the control variables
during the 500 min operation time on the unit applied with the
 M. Gao et al. / Journal of Process Control 68 (2018) 14–22
Table 1
Ultimate analysis on the coal of the unit (wt% as received).
Component C H O N
Value 41.08 2.91 4.83 1.01
Fig. 9. Main parameters during the dynamic process applied with proposed
schemes.
Fig. 10. Main parameters applied with conventional feed-water scheme.
designed boiler main control schemes. In the dynamic process,
the load changed that 360 MW–480 MW–360 MW, and the biggest
deviation of power and main steam pressure were within 8 MW
and 0.7 MPa respectively. The static deviation of power was within
3 MW and the average absolute error of the main steam pressure
was no more than 0.25 MPa. Besides, the variations of main con-
trol variables were reasonable. When load was on the rise, the flow
rates of the primary and secondary air were increasing appropriate
excessively in the initial stage to improve the combustion inten-
sity, releasing the heat storage in the furnace. At the same time, the
coal was overshot, most of which to supply the burning carbon to
release energy thereafter. At last stage, the increment of coal feed
and the rational air to coal ratio remained the energy balance in the
unit and ensured the stability of main steam pressure.
4.3. Verification of feed-water control scheme
Fig. 10 shows the main parameters and the control variables
during the dynamic operation of the feed-water control system
applied with the conventional scheme in the 600 MW SCFB unit.
21
S Moisture Ash Volatile Qnet (MJ/kg)
2.95 8.70 37.51 14.74 15.79
Fig. 11. Main parameters applied with proposed feed-water scheme.
Fig. 12. The application of the proposed load control scheme on unit 1.
During 360 min, the load changed from 600 MW to 370 MW, and
the control performance of feed-water flow was unstable both in
static and dynamic process. The feed-water flow was overshot fre-
quently even in the steady state conditions and the fluctuation
reached 100–150 t/h.
Fig. 11 illustrates the running process of the feed-water control
system applied with the proposed scheme in the unit. Dur-
ing 360 min, the load changed that 480 MW–430 MW–360 MW.
The correct coordination of dynamic heat and enthalpy variation
modifications had excellent performances. The water supply was
accurate when load changed and smooth in steady state condi-
tions with the fluctuation of 5–10 t/h. As a result, the stability of
the operation improved greatly and the deviation of power was
within 1 MW.
4.4. Application of the proposed load control scheme
Fig. 12 shows the main parameters and the control variables
during the dynamic process with application of the proposed load
control scheme on the 600 MW SCFB unit. In the 450 min operation
time, the load changed that 360 MW–540 MW–360 MW. It can be
seen that the variations of the coal feed amount, air flow and feed-
22 M. Gao et al. / Journal of Process Control 68 (2018) 14–22
water are reasonable and timely. The biggest deviation of power
and main steam pressure were within 8 MW and 0.6 MPa respec-
tively. The static deviation of power was within 1.5 MW and the
average absolute error of the main steam pressure was no more
than 0.27 MPa. Besides, the biggest deviation of main steam tem-
perature was within 0.8 ◦ C. The performance of the load control is
well.
5. Conclusions
In this paper, the combustion and energy conversion process
in the SCFB boiler were analyzed that the accumulated carbon
resulted in the huge thermal inertia and complicated heat balance
relations. To monitor the amount of reactive carbon that partic-
ipating in the combustion of CFB boilers, the control model of
burning carbon was established. Usually, the conventional load
control scheme without the consideration of the carbon storage
was not effective in the CFB units. Based on the theory of burn-
ing carbon and dynamic heat, the load control scheme had been
designed to optimal the operation performance in SCFB units.
The verification of the proposed load control scheme in a
600 MW SCFB unit showed that both the boiler main control and
feed-water control scheme well functioned in the operation than
the conventional strategies. The application of the load control
scheme on the 600 MW SCFB unit indicated that the responses of
control variables were precise and the main parameters of load
control had excellent performance.
In all, the load control scheme of the SCFB units presented in
our paper has great potential to improve the stability and dynamic
operating performance.
Acknowledgments
This project was funded by the Project Supported by the National
Key R&D Program of China (2016YFB0600205) and the Funda-
mental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2016MS28,
2018ZD05).
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