Hairui Yang

Design Theory of Circulating Fluidized Bed Boilers

Studies on circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers have being conducted at the Tsinghua University (TH) for about two decades and much of works are done to link the fundamentals with practical application. A full set of design theory was developed and some key elements of this theory are presented in this paper. First, a classification of state of the solid-gas two-phase flow in CFB boiler is given. TH’s studies validated that a CFB boiler can be generally described as the superposition of a fast bed in the upper part with a bubbling bed or turbulent bed in the bottom part. A concept model of material balance for the open system of CFB boiler was developed and later improved as a more comprehensive 1-D model taking ash formation, particle attrition and segregation in bed into account. Some results of the models are discussed. Then the concept of State Specification of a CFB boiler is defined and discussed. The State Specification is regarded as the first step to design a CFB and a base to classify different style of CFB boiler technologies for various CFB boiler manufacturers. The State Specification adopted by major CFB boiler makers is summarized and associated importance issues are addressed. The heat transfer model originally developed by Leckner and his coworkers is adopted and improved. It is further calibrated with experimental data obtained on the commercial CFB boiler measurements. The principle, improvements and application of the model are introduced. Some special tools developed for heat transfer field test are also given. Also, combustion behaviors of char and volatile content are studied, and the combustion difference between a CFB boiler and a bubbling bed is analyzed. The influence of volatile content and size distribution is discussed. The concept of vertical distribution of combustion and heat in CFB boiler furnace is introduced and discussed as well. In the last, the suggested design theory of CFB boiler is summarized.Copyright

Latest Development of CFB Boilers in China

The circulating fluidized bed (CFB) coal-fired boiler has being rapidly developed in China since 1980s and becomes a key clean coal technology used in thermal and power generation. In this paper, the development history and development status of the CFB boiler in China are introduced. The development history of the CFB boiler in China is divided into four periods and the important features of each period are given. Some latest research activities and important results on CFB boilers, and the typical achievements and newest development of the CFB boiler in China are also introduced. In addition, a few challenges and development directions including the capacity scaling up, SO2 removal and energy saving are discussed.

Effects of the Updated National Emission Regulation in China on Circulating Fluidized Bed Boilers and the Solutions To Meet Them

The advantage of circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers in China is their ability to utilize low rank coal with low cost emission control. However, the new National Emission Regulation (NER) issued in early 2012 brings much more stringent challenges on the CFB industries, which also causes much attention from other countries. Based on the principle of a CFB boiler and previous operating experience, it is possible for the CFB boilers to meet the new NER and maintain the advantage of low cost emission control, while, more influences should be considered in their design and operation. To meet the requirement of the new NER, the fly ash collector should adopt a bag house or combination of electrostatic precipitator and bag filter to ensure dust emissions of less than 30 mg · Nm(-3). For SO2 emission control, the bed temperature should be strictly lower than 900 °C to maintain high reactivity and pores. The limestone particle size distribution should be ranged within a special scope to optimize the residence time and gas-solid reaction. At the same time, the injecting point should be optimized to ensure fast contact of lime with oxygen. In such conditions, the desulfurization efficiency could be increased more than 90%. For lower sulfur content fuels (<1.5%, referred value based on the heating value of standard coal of China), increasing Ca/S enough could decrease SO2 emissions lower than that of the new NER, 100 mg · Nm(-3). For fuels with sulfur content higher than 1.5%, some simplified systems for flue gas desulfurization, such as flash dryer absorber (FDA), are needed. And the NOx emissions of a CFB can be controlled to less than 100 mg · Nm(-3) without any equipment at a bed temperature lower than 900 °C for fuels with low volatiles content (<12%), while for fuels with high volatiles, selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) should be considered. Due to the unique temperature in CFB as well as the circulating ash, the efficiency of SNCR could reach as high as 70%. The Hg emission of CFB is very low for the new NER due to its innate property.

Measurement of Heat Transfer in a 465t/h Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler

The study of heat transfer and thermal boundary layer in the combustor of a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) is important to the boiler design and operation. Both heat transfer coefficient between the solid-gas flow and the water-wall and the thickness of thermal boundary layer are key data to determine the amount and layout of the tube walls in a CFB furnace. A series of experiments was conducted on a 465t/h commercial CFB boiler, which operated at bed temperature between 850 and 900°C, and at superficial gas velocity between 5.2 to 5.9m/s. Local bed to water wall heat transfer coefficients and temperature profiles near the wall were measured at a set of test ports at different heights of the sidewall. In the same time, the local solid bulk density near the wall was also measured. Special tools such as heat flux probe, solid bulk density sampling probe and temperature probe were developed for the experiments and their structures were introduced. The experimental results were compared with the data from previous studies. Theoretical analysis of the factors that play important role in heat transfer in a CFB boiler was also performed. The relationship between heat transfer and thermal boundary layer was also discussed. Furthermore, a simple model correlating the local heat transfer coefficients with bulk density was developed.Copyright

Research on Flow Non-Uniformity in Main Circulation Loop of a CFB Boiler with Multiple Cyclones

Maldistribution of gas-solid tow-phase flow field in circulating fluidized bed (CFB) can cause a series of problems, such as thermal deviation, wear of water walls, etc. In this study, a cold model CFB facility, which was scaled down from a commercial 300MWe CFB boiler with three cyclones placed in an array, was built up and a series of experiments were conducted the flow non-uniformity. The results showed that in CFB boiler with multiple cyclones, the distribution of bed material in the circulation loops is different and uncertain. The gas-solid two-phase flow in the furnace is unbiased, even the circulating rates in the circulation loops are different. The circulating rate in the middle loop is larger than that in the side loops. The difference is less than 10%.

Heat Transfer Coefficient Distribution in the Furnace of a 300MWe CFB Boiler

Properly understanding and calculating the distributions of heat flux and heat transfer coefficient (α) in the furnace is important in designing a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler, especially with supercritical parameters. Experimental study on the heat transfer in a commercial 300MWe CFB boiler was conducted. The α from the bed to the water wall was measured by the finite element method (FEM), at five different heights. The influence of suspension density and bed temperature on α was analyzed. It was found that the pressure difference between the inlet and exit of the three cyclones, and the chamber pressure of the corresponding loop seal were not equal. The results indicated the suspension solid density was non-uniform in the cross section at a certain height. Consequently, the distributions of heat flux and α in the horizontal plane in the furnace was non-uniform. The furnace can divided into three sections according to the arrangement of the platen superheaters hanging in the upper CFB furnace. In each section, the heat flux near the center showed increasing trend.

Determination of Ignition Temperature of Coal by Using Thermogravimetry

In this paper, the ignition temperatures (Ti ) of seven kinds of coals were measured by using thermlgravimetric analyzer (TGA). A TG-DTG method was suggested to determine the ignition temperature. This method is simple, convenient, standardized and with high repeatability. The relations between Ti and volatile content and active energy are analyzed. Compared with the ignition temperatures measured in a bench scale fluidized bed and boiler test, Ti s derived from TG-DTG method have nearly same tendency with changing volatile content, but have 100°C deviation below those measured in fluidized bed. The results strongly indicate that TG-DTG method can substitute the fluidized bed method and boiler test for measuring ignition temperature of a coal with an off-set adjustment.Copyright

An Experimental Study on N2O Reduction Over Circulating Ashes of CFB Boilers

An experimental study on nitrous oxide (N2 O) reduction with circulating ashes of circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers was conducted for the development of an effective and economical technology to reduce the N2 O emission from CFB boilers. The experiments were conducted with three kinds of circulating ashes, by using a fixed bed reactor with a diameter of 25mm, under various conditions of different operational temperatures, initial N2 O concentrations, NH3 additions and O2 concentrations. The effects on N2 O reduction were compared that with quartz sand. The experimental results showed that circulating ashes may possess remarkable catalytic effect on N2 O reduction and the intensity of the catalytic effect strongly depends on operational parameters such as reaction temperature and O2 concentration. It was also found nitric oxide (NO) was produced during the process of N2 O reduction and its concentration also strongly affected by reaction temperature and O2 concentration. The mechanisms of N2 O reduction were discussed. The study confirmed the feasibility of injecting NH3 at the cyclone entrance of CFB boiler to form a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) process for N2 O emission without using extra catalyst and provided some guidance to choose the operational parameters for N2 O reduction with circulating ashes.Copyright

Combustion Model for a CFB Boiler with Consideration of Post-Combustion in the Cyclone

Severe post combustion in the cyclone of CFB boilers could destroy heat absorbing balance among the heating surfaces and cause overheating problem for reheaters and superheaters. However, post combustion in the cyclone is rarely considered in the design phase of a CFB boiler. Based on our previous experiment results, group combustion model is used in this study to estimate the combustion of particles in the cyclone. It is found that the combustion of particles in the cyclone did not contribute as much as we anticipated to the temperature augment in the cyclone because of great oxygen diffusion resistance in near-wall particle layer. Post combustion model in the cyclone is then added into a one-dimensional combustion model of CFB boiler, in which the gas-solid flow, reaction, and heat absorption at different vertical locations in a CFB boiler can be well predicted with the knowledge of operation parameters. The new model was used to estimate the influence of some operation parameters on the post combustion in the cyclone and heat releasing fraction in the cyclone. The prediction results are very good.

Design and Operation of CFB Boilers with Low Bed Inventory

In this paper, the challenges and problems of the circulating fluidized bed (CFB) combustion technology are summarized and analyzed. In order to resolve the problems in CFB boiler application, design principals and method of CFB boiler with the low bed inventory is proposed by Taiyuan Boiler Group Co. Ltd., cooperated with Tsinghua University. And a full set of design code of new CFB boiler with low bed inventory has been developed, to design the product structure of new generation CFB boilers. The first CFB boiler product with the low inventory was placed and has been operated for two years in Datuhe Thermal Power Plant at Lishi, Shanxi province. The operation practice and measurement data show that the CFB boiler with the low bed inventory stands for the newest trend of the development of CFB boiler in the future. It is expected that more technical advantages will be shown when this technology is applied to the CFB boiler with larger capacity in the near future.