Projects

Projects: Projects for Investigator

• Review previous work to predict combustion efficiency.
• Identify how prediction can be made faster and more reliable than existing methods.
• Develop the ability to predict how a coal will perform on a given boiler (to include ability to allow for specific plant features, eg mills and coal fineness, air ingress).
• Provide a predictive tool which can be used to quantify combustion improvement from proposed plant modifications.

The drive to reduce the environmental impact of power stations is increasing the pressure to improve efficiency of power plant. This is coupled with the drive to reduce costs through the use of a wider range of fuels. Prediction of combustion efficiency (or carbon burnout) in pulverised fuel (pf) fired utility boilers is of increasing importance to UK basedpower generators and manufacturers.

The overall aim of the project was to develop new tools for the reliable and rapid predictionof combustion efficiency of coals in pf-fired utility boilers. This would give the ability to improve fuel selection and chose the most appropriate burner and boiler design for a given fuel.

It is concluded that laboratory-scale and drop tube furnace results are invaluable in providing detailed understanding of the processes occurring during coal combustion and in providing input data for computer models of full scale furnaces. Both Innogy and Powergen have tested sufficient coals ontheir test rigs and on actual power stations to know how to extrapolate results. A new empirical correlation has been developed to enable burnout to predicted for a particular rig or power station.