Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 5 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 258–267

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Chemical Engineering Research and Design

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

Mechanism analysis of gas solid flow

non-uniformity problem of 330 MW CFB boiler

Yi Zhang a , Man Zhang a , Shahong Zhu a , Yiqun Huang a , Boyu Deng a ,

Xinyu Gao b , Xiaoguo Jiang b , Junfu Lyu a , Hairui Yang a,∗
a Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Power
Systems, Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
b State Key Laboratory of Efficient and Clean Coal-fired Utility Boilers (Harbin Boiler Company Limited), Harbin

150046, Heilongjiang Province, China

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

Article history: The bed inventory overturn in pant-leg CFB boilers and bed pressure wave in single air dis-
Received 25 January 2019 tributor CFB boilers were the two well-known non-uniformity problems in large scale CFB
Received in revised form 27 boilers. However, a special gas solid flow non-uniformity problem, bed pressure deviation,
February 2019 occurred in a single air distributor 330 MW CFB boiler. The bed pressure in one side was 2 kPa
Accepted 12 March 2019 constantly higher than that in the other side and lasted for a long time, resulting to the local
Available online 19 March 2019 over temperature and endangering the boiler performance. Mechanism analysis showed
that the primary air temperature deviation caused the serious primary air rate deviation,
Keywords: further forming a stable solid concentration deviation in the bottom bed and bed pressure
Circulating fluidized bed boiler deviation, which was totally different from above two non-uniformity problems. The similar
Gas solid flow phenomenon was replicated in a laboratory CFB test rig, validating the gas velocity devia-
Non-uniformity problem tion had a serious effect on the bed pressure deviation. To solve the problem, solutions,
Bed pressure deviation like increase the primary air ratio, were put forward. To solve the primary air non-uniform
distribution, further study on optimizing air chamber and air distributor is urgent, so that
other large scale CFB boilers can avoid such a problem.
© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers.

1. Introduction et al. 2015). Besides, there are 25 units of 350 MW supercritical

With the advantages of fuel flexibility and low cost of emis-
sion control, circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers have been
developed rapidly in the past three decades (Yue et al. 2017),
especially for large scale CFB boilers (Liu et al. 2015; Song et al.
2018). The first 460 MW supercritical CFB boiler was put into
operation in 2009 in Lagisza power plant in Poland (Hotta,
2009). After that, the 330 MW and 550 MW supercritical CFB
boiler were put into commercial operation in Russia and Korea
in 2016, separately (Jantti et al. 2009; Lee Sang et al. 2018). As
for China, the world’s largest 600 MW supercritical circulating
fluidized bed boiler has been successfully in commercial oper-
ation since the beginning of 2013 in Baima Power Plant (Yue
CFB boilers and more than 120 units of 300 MW CFB boiler in
operation in China. The industrial operation proves that the
boiler efficiency increases with the higher steam parameters
for the larger capacity.
However, with the larger capacity of the CFB boilers, the
sectional area of furnace and width/depth (W/D) ratio of sin-
gle furnace and single air distributor CFB boilers increase, as
listed in Table 1. Due to the limitation of the lateral dispersion
coefficient in the boiler (Liu and Chen, 2010), larger sectional
area and larger W/D ratio of the furnace, the gas solid flow
non-uniform distribution in the boiler becomes prominent,
causing serious threats not only to the boiler stability and
safety, but also to the combustion efficiency and pollutant con-

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yhr@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn (H. Yang).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2019.03.017
0263-8762/© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers.
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 5 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 258–267 259

trol (Zhou et al. 2012; Mo et al., 2016). To guarantee the high

wall, 4 in rear
performance of CFB boilers, the mechanism of the gas solid

et al., 2009)
(Robertson

distributor
39.5 × 11.6
800 MWeb

4 in front

single air
flow non-uniformity problems should be studied.

furnace,
Single
The pant-leg structure furnace is adopted when the CFB

wall
3.4
boiler is scaled up so that the secondary air can penetrate into
—
the centre of furnace (Zhang et al. 2009). Operation experi-
ence shows such a structure is in favour of imbalance in the

4 in rear wall
(Tang et al.,

bed inventory between the two legs, such special phenomenon

distributor
4̃0.0 × 13.0
660 MWeb

single air
furnace,
called as the bed inventory overturn (Li et al. 2009), which

Single
2019)

3.1 is the main gas solid flow non-uniformity problem for large
—

scale pant-leg CFB boilers. Such a phenomenon may cause

solid particles flow continuously from one leg to the other,

air distributor
and the air flow rate decreases and defluidization occurs in
3 in right wall
3 in left wall,

structurea , 2 leg as the solids keep accumulating to a high level. Yang et al.
27.9 × 15.0
600 MWe

Sichuan,

Pant-leg

(2012, 2013) studied the solid exchange in a duel-leg fluidized

China

bed with experiments and CFD-DEM simulation. Due to the

1.9

different bubbling actions in two legs, amount of solids shut-

tled between two legs even the gas velocities in two legs were
wall, 4 in rear

same. Wang et al. (2011a) studied the mechanism of bed inven-

550 MWe (Li
et al., 2018)

Samcheok,

distributor
39.6 × 10.8

tory overturn with 2-D simulation and found that pant-leg CFB
4 in front

single air
furnace,

boiler had self-balance ability when the primary air rate was
Single
Korea

wall

insensitive to the back pressure fluctuation, while the fan was

3.7

sensitive to the change of back pressure in real operation. Zhou

et al. (2014) further confirmed the self-balance ability of pant-
wall, 4 in rear
(Hotta, 2009)

leg CFB boilers, and proposed the inventory overturn could be

distributor
27.6 × 10.6

4 in front

single air
460 MWe

avoided when the air rate was higher than a critical value.
furnace,
Lagisza,
Poland

Single

Sun et al. (2013) found the particle size also had impact on
wall
2.6

inventory overturn, and finer particle size distribution showed

more potential to inventory overturn. To deep understand the
inventory overturn process, Li et al. (2010) studied the mech-
air distributor
2 in right wall
2 in left wall,

structurea , 2

anism of lateral solid transfer in a scaled down pant-leg CFB

14.9 × 12.5
300 MWe

Sichuan,

Pant-leg

boiler based on scaling laws proposed by Glicksman (1984).

China

They found the lateral solid motion was driven by the lateral
1.2

pressure gradient in the furnace and recommended to control

Pant-leg structure — the boiler has single furnace in upper part while two furnaces in lower part.

the lateral pressure difference between two sides of the fur-

nace to avoid the bed inventory overturn. Based on the above
Fujian, China

distributor

studies, some control strategies, such as control the air rate in

Table 1 – Typical furnace structure of CFB boilers with different unit capacity.

3 parallel

single air
28.3 × 8.4
300 MWe

furnace,
cyclone

two legs and monitor the lateral pressure difference, were put
Single

forward, and the bed inventory overturn could be controlled

3.4

in some extent.
Compared with the complex furnace structure of pant-leg
CFB boilers, a simplified furnace structure, i.e. single furnace
Shandong,

distributor

and single air distributor furnace, is widely used in large scale

2 parallel

single air
13.9 × 7.2
135 MWe

furnace,
cyclone

Single

CFB boilers. This kind of structure has only one furnace in

China

1.9

bottom, thus avoiding the inventory overturn between two

legs. However, this structure has larger W/D ratio, as listed
in Table 1. The W/D ratio is about 2 for capacity from 130 t/h
Shanxi, China

to 135 MW CFB boiler, while the W/D ratio is larger than 3

distributor
2 parallel

single air
11.0 × 5.5

for 300 MW and larger capacity CFB boilers. Operation expe-

furnace,
cyclone
240 t/h

Single

riences of 300 MW CFB boiler showed a special phenomenon

called the lateral bed pressure wave, as shown in Fig. 1, which
2

never occurred in CFB boilers lower than 135 MW. The bed
pressure in left side and right side of the furnace fluctuated,
and the amplitude could reach to 10 kPa, which would cause
distributor
Zhejiang,

2 parallel

single air
furnace,
7.8 × 3.8

cyclone

solid back flow to the primary air chamber (Li et al. 2013). The
130 t/h

Single
China

bottom bed of CFB boilers belonged to the bubbling or turbu-

2

lent fluidization (Yue et al. 2005), though many researchers

Conceptual design.

studied the pressure fluctuation in bubble bed, their work

mainly concerned to the laboratory fluidized bed, and the fre-
width × depth

quency of the fluctuation was in second level caused by bubble

(W × D) (m)

structure

formation, bubble break up or mechanical fluctuation (Sasic

W/D ratio
Capacity

Location

Furnace

Furnace
Cyclone

et al. 2005a,b; Bi, 2007). However, the period of the pressure

drop wave is always in minute level (the period is 116 s in Fig. 1),
a

b
260 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 5 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 258–267
Fig. 1 – Lateral bed pressure wave of a 300 MW CFB boiler
(Hu et al., 2013).
and the amplitude is much larger, which is obviously differ-
ent from the pressure fluctuation in laboratory scale fluidized
bed. Hu et al. (2013) found that the sectional area of air distrib-
utor in large scale boiler was much larger (30.2 m × 4.7 m for
300 MW CFB compared with 11.01 m × 3.0 m for 240 t/h CFB),
and the W/D ratio of air distributor was larger, too (W/D = 6.4
for 300 MW CFB compared with W/D = 3.7 for 240 t/h CFB). They
thought the bed pressure wave was caused by the resonance
Fig. 2 – Schematic diagram of the 330 MW CFB boiler.
of air-bed system, and occurred only in large air distributor,
and low primary air rate. Li et al. (2013) confirmed that the bed
pressure wave only occurred in large area and large W/D ratio
air distributor CFB boilers, and could be solved with increasing
the primary air rate.
The two gas solid flow non-uniformity phenomena men-
tioned above have been restrained due to deep understanding
and optimizing control. However, more and more non-
uniformity problems occurred in an endless stream in large
scale CFB boilers, and caused serious threat to boiler oper-
ation. Recently, a special gas solid flow non-uniformity
phenomenon, called the bed pressure deviation, occurred in
one 330 MW CFB boiler with structure of single furnace and
single air distributor. The bed pressure in one side was con-
stantly 2 kPa higher than that in the other side, even achieving
to 4 kPa in worse condition, and this phenomenon lasted for
more than 24 h, which affected the gas solid flow and temper-
ature distribution in the furnace. To avoid over temperature
in the bottom bed, the boiler had to reduce the load. Such a
phenomenon was totally different from the above two non-
uniformity problems and could not be explained with the
mechanisms leading to the above two. Moreover, such a prob-
lem may occur in other large scale CFB boilers. Therefore, the
mechanism of this problem should be studied to alleviate bed
pressure deviation.
In this paper, detailed descriptions and field test data to
the bed pressure deviation were introduced. By analysing the
operation condition and field test data, the mechanism and
reasons resulting to the problem were discussed, especially
the air temperature deviation and primary air rate deviation in
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 5 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 258–267
Fig. 3 – Pressure fluctuation of 24 h with non-uniform distribution.
*: dilute zone refers to the position from 21.3 m high above air distributor to the furnace outlet.
two sides of the furnace. The primary air rate deviation caused
a stable solid concentration deviation in the bottom bed, while
showed little impact on the upper furnace, thus leading to
the bed pressure deviation. To validate the influence of gas
velocity deviation, three kinds of air distributor were used in
a laboratory 2-D CFB test rig, and the solid concentration non-
uniform distribution was replicated in the experiments. Based
on the analysis, some measures were carried out to solve the
bed pressure deviation. Such analysis and measures can help
other large scale CFB boilers to avoid bed pressure deviation.
2. Bed pressure deviation and mechanism
analysis
2.1. Field test data
The 330 MW CFB boiler has single furnace, single air distrib-
utor and three parallel cyclones and external loops, whose
general arrangement is shown in Fig. 2(a). Based on the centre
line in width direction, the furnace could be divided into A and
B side, with one cyclone (A cyclone) in A side and two cyclones
(B and C cyclone) in B side, as shown in Fig. 2(b). The primary
air was divided into two parts, and heated in the air preheater
separately. The two parts of heated primary air were injected
into the primary air chamber from A and B side respectively,
as shown in Fig. 2(c), so the primary air temperature in A side
might be different from that in B side.
The bed pressure in A side of the furnace gradually
increased and that in B side gradually decreased when the
non-uniformity problem occurred, and then achieved a new
261
gas solid flow balance. As shown in Fig. 3(a), the bed pressure
in A side was 2–4 kPa higher than that in B side and such devia-
tion lasted for 24 h, which was different from the bed pressure
wave shown in Fig. 1. While at the same time, the pressure in
the primary air chamber and dilute zone were similar between
A and B side, as shown in Fig. 3(b) and (c). The bed pressure
deviation reduced after increasing the primary air ratio. Table 2
listed the comparison of parameters of non-uniform condition
and normal condition. The difference of pressure in primary
air chamber between A and B side was only 0.1 kPa, while the
bed pressure in A side was 4 kPa higher than that in B side
in serious non-uniform condition, and 2 kPa higher than that
in B side in slight non-uniform condition. The bed temper-
ature deviation between A and B side increased from 1◦ to
74 ◦ when the serious non-uniform problem occurred. Both
bed pressure deviation and bed temperature deviation showed
serious non-uniform distribution in the furnace.
As shown in Fig. 4, the circulating ash in A cyclone was
coarser than those in B and C cyclone, showing that there were
more coarser particles in A side of the furnace, and the rea-
sons would be discussed in the following section. The average
primary air temperature, only 150 ◦ , was much lower than the
design temperature, 297 ◦ , when the pressure drop deviation
occurred. At the same time, the primary air temperature was
202 ◦ in A side, while only 98 ◦ in B side, existing large temper-
ature deviation, which was resulted from the uneven heating
on two parts of primary air in the air preheater.
In slight non-uniform condition, the boiler could increase
or decrease load. However, in serious non-uniform condition,
the non-uniform gas solid flow would seriously influence the
262 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 5 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 258–267

Table 2 – Comparison of parameters of non-uniform condition and normal condition.

Serious non-uniform condition Slight non-uniform condition
Parameters Unit
Normal Non-uniform Normal Non-uniform

Load MW 297 232 324 330

Bed pressure in A side kPa 8.48 11.76 6.72 8.17
Bed pressure in B side kPa 8.21 7.87 6.44 6.04
Primary air chamber pressure in A side kPa 12.99 13.14 11.45 12.38
Primary air chamber pressure in B side kPa 13.10 13.06 11.52 12.44
◦
Bed temperature in A side 872 834 919 899
◦
Bed temperature in B side 871 908 911 906

where P1 and ug1 are the pressure drop of air distributor and
gas velocity through the air distributor in actual condition, P0
and ug0 are the design parameters.
Assuming the primary air velocity depended linearly on
the temperature when considering the air as the ideal gas,
and primary air rate in actual condition Q1 = 370,000 Nm3 /h
(lower than the design parameter Q0 = 380,000 Nm3 /h), so the
pressure drop of air distributor in real operation condition can
be determined as Eq. (4).

Q1 T1
P1 = P0 (4)
Q0 T0

The pressure drop of air distributor, P1 = 3651 Pa, which

Fig. 4 – Particle size distribution of circulating ash.
combustion and heat transfer in the furnace (like high bed
temperature deviation in Table 2), and local over tempera-
ture occurred on the water wall. The CFB boiler had to reduce
the load and increase the primary air ratio to solve the bed
pressure deviation, which had negative impact on the boiler
operation.
2.2. Influencing factors analysis
was much lower than the design parameter (P0 = 5053 Pa).
Many researchers found that the primary air would be in non-
uniform distribution when the pressure drop of air distributor
was relatively low (Guo et al. 2005; Mirek, 2011). The 330 MW
CFB boiler had a large area air distributor (30.2 m × 4.7 m
shown in Fig. 2(c)) and was hard to realize the uniform dis-
tribution of primary air. In the actual operating condition,
the primary air temperature was much lower than the design
parameter, resulting to the low pressure drop of air distribu-
tor, which might cause the worse non-uniform distribution of
primary air and worse fluidization in the furnace. Moreover,
the lower primary air rate also caused the worse fluidization.
So, the lower primary air temperature might influence the gas
solid distribution in the furnace.

2.2.1. The influence of primary air temperature 2.2.2. The influence of primary air temperature deviation
The design primary air temperature was 297 ◦ (T0 = 570 K), and Due to uneven heating on two parts of primary air, the primary
design primary air rate Q0 = 380,000 Nm3 /h. The pressure drop air temperature in A side was 202 ◦ (TA = 475 K), and that in
of air distributor was P0 = 5053 Pa at design working con- B side was only 98 ◦ (TB = 371 K). Assuming the pressure drop
dition. While in the actual operating condition, the average of air distributor in A side and B side were same and the air
primary air temperature was only 150 ◦ (T1 = 423 K). The pres- followed the ideal gas equation, the primary air flow rate in B
sure drop across the air distributor can be calculated with Eq. side could be converted to the temperature of A side by Eq. (5).
(1).
TA
QB = QA = 1.28QA (5)
1 TB
P = g u2g (1)
2
In the serious primary air temperature deviation condition,
where  is the coefficient of air distributor, g is the density of the primary air flow rate in B side was 28% higher than that in A
air, kg/m3 , and ug is the gas velocity through the air distributor, side, so the gas velocity in B side was higher than that in A side,
m/s. and more coarser particles in B side could be elutriated to the
When the fuel air ratio is constant, the mass flow rate of upper furnace and flowed to A side, causing the bed pressure
primary air is constant as Eq. (2). Assuming the  is constant, in A side increasing and the bed pressure in B side decreas-
the pressure drop of air distributor in real condition can be ing. Consequently, as shown in Fig. 5, the solid concentration
calculated with Eq. (3). in A side was higher than that in B side in dense bed, and
the solid concentration in dilute phase was similar (validated
Gair = g ug = const (2) with the pressure in dilute zone in A and B side). A new gas
solid flow balance would achieve, and the non-uniform distri-
ug1 bution occurred. With more air in B side, the coal combustion
P1 = P0 (3)
ug0 was strengthened, causing the bed temperature increasing.
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 5 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 258–267
Fig. 5 – Solid concentration distribution along the height.
Oppositely, the coal combustion in A side was weakened, and
the bed temperature decreased, which was accordant with the
field test data listed in Table 2.
With higher gas velocity in B side, more particles were
entrained to the upper furnace, finer particles among them
showed more potential to flow out of furnace, while coarser
particles flowed to A side, causing the particles size distribu-
tion in A side was coarser than that in B side. So, the circulating
ash size in A side was coarser than that in B side, which was
validated with the circulating ash size distribution shown in
Fig. 4.
2.2.3. The influence of effective bed materials
The effective bed materials meant the particles participating
the circulation (about 100–300 ␮m), and studies found more
effective bed materials would improve the fluidization in the
furnace (Yang et al. 2011; Ren et al. 2014). The cyclone collec-
tion efficiency and coal ash formation properties would affect
the inventory of effective bed materials.
High efficiency cyclone was in favour of increasing the frac-
tion of effective bed materials (Yang et al. 2011) and the fly ash
size distribution was sensitive to the cyclone collection effi-
ciency. Ding et al. (2015) tested fly ash distribution of a 300 MW
CFB boiler and found the d50 of fly ash was lower than 20 ␮m,
while the d50 of fly ash in this 330 MW CFB boiler was about
26.5 ␮m. So, the cyclone efficiency was lower, causing low col-
lection efficiency for effective bed materials, which had impact
on the fluidization quality in the furnace.
Bituminous coal was used as the fuel, whose ash content
was low (Aar = 13.66%), and the coal formed more fine ash
(40% finer than 100 ␮m (Zhang et al. 2014)), so the amount of
effective bed materials might be little. Due to the low cyclone
efficiency, the effective bed materials reduced furtherly. Less
263
effective bed materials could have impact on gas solid flow,
and caused the slight gas solid non-uniform distribution in
the furnace, but might not cause the serious bed pressure
deviation.
2.3. Mechanism analysis of bed pressure deviation
Based on the above influencing factor analysis, the mecha-
nism analysis of the bed pressure deviation is discussed in
this section.
It is notable that the pressure in A and B side in dilute zone
are similar, shown in Fig. 3(c), meaning the solid concentra-
tion is similar in two sides in upper furnace, so the solid flow
rate to three cyclones and external loops are similar, too. It
confirms that the external loops show little impact on bed
pressure deviation. Meanwhile, based on the field test data
of bed pressure and pressure in dilute zone, the bed pressure
deviation mainly occurs in the bottom bed, and shows little
impact on the dilute zone. So, the analysis concerns to the
bottom bed of furnace.
The primary air temperature in A side was much higher
than that in B side when the bed pressure deviation occurred,
so the primary air rate in B side was higher than that in A side
when heated to the same temperature. With larger air rate in
B side, the gas velocity of bottom bed in B side was higher
than that in A side. Furtherly, the pressure drop across the air
distributor was lower than the design value, thus deteriorating
the primary air non-uniform distribution. The bed pressure
deviation formed in the following process.
i) In the normal condition, as shown in Fig. 6(a), with
uniform air distribution, the gas solid distributions are
similar in A and B side, forming a steady uniform distri-
bution in the bottom bed. Adamczyk et al. (2014) studied
the gas solid flow of 460 MWe CFB boiler using a hybrid
Euler–Lagrange approach, and found that the gas solid
flow was uniform with uniform air distribution, which
further supported our views in normal condition.
ii) In the non-uniform primary air distribution condition, for
instance, the gas velocity in B side is higher than that in A
side, as shown in Fig. 6(b), the solid particles in B side will
flow to A side, which is validated in previous work (Zhang
et al. 2017) and validated in experiments introduced in the
next section. It is notable that this is an unstable gas solid
distribution in the bottom bed.
iii) If the primary air deviation lasts for a long time, a new gas
solid flow balance will achieve in the bottom bed, as shown
in Fig. 6(c). The gas velocity in B side is higher than that
in A side, and more particles will flow to A side, causing
the solid concentration in bottom bed of A side increas-
ing. More and more particles will flow back to B side with
the solid concentration in A side increasing, and the new
balance will achieve when the solid exchange between A
and B side are same. Consequently, a stable gas solid non-
uniform distribution existed in the bottom bed, and the
solid concentration in A side is higher than that in B side,
thus the bed pressure in A side is higher.
Accordingly, the primary air temperature deviation causes
the serious non-uniform distribution of primary air, which
may be the main reason resulting to the bed pressure devi-
ation. Furtherly, in large scale CFB boilers with large W/D ratio
air distributor, there exists non-uniform distribution of pri-
mary air even with the uniform air temperature distribution
264 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 5 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 258–267
Fig. 6 – Gas solid distribution in the bottom furnace with three conditions.
(Mirek and Nowal, 2008), so the design of air distributor should
be carefully in large scale CFB boilers to avoid such bed pres-
sure deviation problem. A combined numerical-experimental
approach for designing of primary air nozzles was proposed by
Mirek (2011), and validated in a 235 MWe CFB boiler. Besides,
Mirek and Klajny, (2018) presented a specific design for low-
pressure drop air nozzle based on the orifice outlet jet kinetic
energy criterion, and such a design was tested to be effective in
the 460 MWe CFB boiler in Lagisza Power Plant. All these prac-
tices can be a guide for primary air nozzles design of other
large scale CFB boilers.
3. Experimental
To study the influence of gas velocity deviation on the gas
solid flow in the furnace, experiments were conducted in a
2-D CFB test rig, as shown in Fig. 7. The rig consisted of a
riser and two external loops (two cyclones, two standpipes and
two loop seals). The riser had a cross section area of 0.3 × 0.08
m2 and a height of 4.5 m. The two identical high-efficiency
cyclones were used to reduce the particle loss. The standpipe
had an inner diameter of 0.075 m and was connected to the
riser with the loop seal. The pyramid air chamber was used
and the fluidization air, provided by roots blower, was sent to
air chamber through the bottom. The aeration air was pro-
vided by air compressor, shown in Fig. 7(a). The fluidization
air rate and loop seal aeration rate were individually measured
by flowmeters. As shown in Fig. 7(b), the CFB rig could also be
Primary air flow Solid particles flow.
divided to A and B side based on the centre line, and there are
two instrumentation ports (0.5 m and 3.0 m high above the air
distributor, shown in Fig. 7(a)) in the riser side, through which
the fiber probe could be inserted to the riser to measure the
solid concentration in the lateral direction. The fiber probe was
calibrated with a small fluidized bed, and the detailed method
could be found in the literature (Wang et al., 2011b).
All experiments were carried out at ambient temperature
and atmospheric pressure. The bed materials were quartz
sands, whose physical properties were listed in Table 3. During
the test, three air distributors were used, as shown in Fig. 8,
with different open area ratio of A and B side. A layer of metal
sieve (mesh size 100 ␮m) was used above the air distributor to
prevent the sands fall into the air chamber. So, by adjusting
the gas velocity difference in A and B side, the effect of gas
velocity deviation could be studied.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Lateral solid concentration distribution
As shown in Fig. 9(a)–(c), the lateral solid concentration dis-
tribution at height of 0.5 m, belonging to the dense bed, was
measured in the experiments. For the uniform air distribution
with AD1, the gas velocity in A and B side were similar and the
solid concentration in two sides were similar (except for the
dense zone near the wall), as shown in Fig. 9(a). When using
the AD2 and AD3, due to the open area ratio in A side was
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 5 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 258–267 265

Fig. 7 – Schematic diagram of the experimental test rig.

Table 3 – Physical properties of the bed materials.

Bed materials Real density (kg/m3 ) Bulk voidage Minimum voidage Average diametera /␮m

Quartz sands 2600 0.51 0.63 160

a
Particles diameter is determined by standard sieve.

Fig. 8 – Schematic diagram of three air distributors.

*: Pore diameter in A and B side are 6 mm, and the open area ratio in A and B side are 15.3%.
# : Pore diameter in A side is 3 mm, and the open area ratio in A side is 3.8%, while those in B side are same with AD 1.
+ : Pore diameter in A side is 0 mm, and the open area ratio in A side is 0%, while those in B side are same with AD 1.

smaller than that in B side, and the pressure in air chamber
were similar, so the air rate in A side was lower than that in B
side, i.e. the gas velocity in A side was lower than that in B side.
More particles flowed to A side and piled up, which could be
observed during the experiments, and the solid concentration
in A side was higher than that in B side. For instance, solid con-
centration 1 − ε ≈ 0.15 at position d/D = −0.5 with Ug = 4.1 m/s
and AD3, while solid concentration 1 − ε ≈ 0.125 at position
d/D = 0.5 with same operation condition, as shown in Fig. 9(c).
The same trend existed in the experiments when using AD2,
as shown in Fig. 9(b).
Different from the dense bed, the solid concentration in
dilute zone (at height of 3.0 m) between two sides were similar
even with AD3, as shown in Fig. 9(d), showing the gas velocity
deviation had little impact on dilute zone. The same trend was
validated with AD2.
During the test with AD2 and AD3, the gas velocity in B side
was higher than that in A side, and more bed materials in B
side flowed to A side, thus increasing the solid concentration
in bottom bed of A side. The solid concentration could reflect
the pressure drop in riser, so the bed pressure in A side was
higher than that in B side. With higher solid concentration in
A side, more particles flowed back to B side, and a new balance
achieved when the particle flow rate between two sides were
same. Finally, the bed pressure in A side was higher than that
in B side, forming a stable bed pressure deviation between A
and B side, which was accordant with the field test data of
330 MW CFB boiler. So, the gas velocity deviation can account
for the non-uniformity problem of 330 MW CFB boiler.
4.2. Solutions to the bed pressure deviation
i) To avoid the local over-temperature, the boiler load should
reduce firstly when meeting the non-uniformity problem.
The load of 330 MW CFB boiler reduced from 297 MW to
232 MW during the serious non-uniform condition.
266 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 5 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 258–267
Fig. 9 – Lateral solid concentration distribution in dense bed and dilute phase.
ii) Increasing the primary air ratio. With higher primary air
flow, the gas velocity in the nozzles is higher, and the pres-
sure drop of the air distributor is higher, which produces
more uniform air flow. Moreover, more primary air will
intensify the fluidization in the furnace, and alleviate the
non-uniform distribution. The primary air rate increased
from 360,000 Nm3 /h to 420,000 Nm3 /h in the 330 MW CFB
boiler.
With the two measures listed above, the boiler could work
safely and the bed pressure deviation reduced. During the
shutdown of the boiler, the air preheater, primary air pipe
and air distributor were redesigned, so the air temperature
increased, and the primary air temperature deviation reduced.
More importantly, the pressure drop of air distributor achieved
the design value, so the primary air non-uniform distribution
was weakened, and the serious bed pressure deviation was
solved. It is notable that further study and optimizing design
of primary air chamber and air distributor is of great signif-
icance to large scale CFB boilers to realize more uniform air
distribution, which is in beneficial to reduce the gas solid flow
non-uniformity problems in large scale CFB boilers.
5. Conclusions
A special gas solid flow non-uniformity problem in one
330 MW CFB boiler, which was totally different from the bed
inventory overturn in pant-leg CFB boilers and the bed pres-
sure wave in large scale single air distributor CFB boilers, was
introduced in this paper. Detailed field test data showed that
the bed pressure in A side was 2 kPa higher than that in B
side, and the solid concentration non-uniform distribution
influenced the combustion and heat transfer in the furnace,
endangering the performance of the boiler.
The influence of primary air temperature, primary air tem-
perature deviation and effective bed materials on the bed
pressure deviation were discussed in the paper. Mechanism
analysis showed that the primary air temperature deviation
caused the gas velocity deviation between A and B side, and
this might be the main reason resulting to the problem. The
effect of gas velocity deviation on the solid concentration in
the riser was validated in a laboratory CFB test rig, and the
experimental results were accordant with the field test data
of 330 MW CFB boiler, further confirming the non-uniform dis-
tribution of primary air caused the bed pressure deviation in
the furnace.
 Chemical Engineering Research and Design 1 4 5 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 258–267 267

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