Consideration for Coal Firing:

Boilers designed for stoker firing have been in industrial size and
classification.
Third method of burning coal and other solid fuels is the fluidized bed
boiler.
It is now commonly accepted as an alternative to stoker and
pulverized-coal firing. Because of its uniqueness and relatively recent
acceptance

Spreader Stoker:

Most popular stoker application with industrial boilers because of

simplicity, low maintenance and ability to respond to load variations.
Can operate effectively with coals having a wide range of moisture,
volatile and ash constituents
These type of stoker is adaptable already for bark firing and in
combination of coal.
Associated with high particulate emissions in which it contains
unburned carbons
Suitable fly-ash-collecting devices such as mechanical dust collectors,
electrostatic precipitators, and baghouses are necessary to maintain
low stack emissions that meet or exceed environmental standards.
A substantial amount of combustion air is introduced into the furnace
above the grate as over fire air.
Lack of over fire air results in increased smoke density at the boiler and
higher carbon loss that leads on loss of efficiency.

Pulverized coal firing:

This kind of coal firing helps to achieve minimum carbon loss, lower
excess air
Stoker firing is sensitive to fuel size, segregation and moisture.
Stoker variables such as rate of feed and fuel trajectory cause
stoker operation to be subject to high variability.
The practical economic lower limit of pulverized coal fired
boilers is a steam flow of approximately 200,000 lb./h
Suitable fly-ash-collecting devices such as mechanical dust
collectors, electrostatic precipitators, and baghouses (see Chap. 12)
are necessary to maintain low stack emissions that meet or exceed
environmental standards.

For spreader stokers, concentration of particles under 30 _m is less

than half of that found with pulverized-coal firing.

Stoker vs Pulverized Coal Firing:

Advantages and disadvantages of Stoker units:
Lower cost
Simpler particulate removal equipment
Generally less overall space
Lower power requirement
Lower maintenance equipment
Less sophisticated auxiliary equipment and controls
Disadvantages:
Limited steam capacity range of about 75,000 to 400,000 lb/h
Efficiency 4 to 7 percent lower
Limited coal size flexibility
Limited choice of coal types
Higher excess air
Limited load swing and pickup capability

Pressurized vs Balanced draft boiler design:

A pressurized-furnace design, with its forced-draft fan system and its

already high pressures, would develop excessively high discharge
pressures with a resulting higher flue gas and fly ash leakage from the
boiler.
Important factor in the trend to balanced-draft systems is leakage
through penetrations and seals from the pressurized furnace to the
ambient air.
The problem is magnified in units burning pulverized coal because fly
ash penetrates into both the penthouse and the ambient air
Advantage of pressurized unit is that the induced draft fan is
eliminated.
Advantage of balanced draft system is that the unit operates with a
furnace pressure slightly below atmospheric
The infiltration must be minimized because it reduces boiler efficiency.

Fluidized Bed Boilers:

Used as combustion device for almost 40 years.

They burned in an environmentally acceptable manner, low grade

fuels, which can range from wet biomass sludges to high ash coal
wastes, as well as conventional fuels.
Temperature ranging between 1500 degree F to 1600 degree F instead
of normal combustion temp of 3000 to 3500 degree F. ( burning temp )
Burning in low temp makes it possible to burn low quality fuels that do
not have high enough heating value to support combustion at high
temp.
Lower Combustion temp also mean lower emission of Nitrogen oxides
a high-ash fuel with a low moisture
Content (less than 30 percent) and a heating value above 2500 Btu/lb.
can be burned in a water-cooled fluid bed boiler.
Fuels below 2500 Btu/lb. require a refractory-lined fluid bed combustor
in order to support a higher combustion temperature.

Major benefits of Fluidized bed process:

Fuel flexibility
Reduce air pollution emission

COMPARISON OF PULVERIZED COAL AND STOKER FIRING:

For pulverized coal:

In a pulverized-coal-fired boiler, the combustion process consists of burning
fine fuel particles (70 percent less than 200 mesh) that are suspended in air
and combustion gases. The zone in the furnace around the burners is the
hottest zone, with temperatures in the range of 3000 to 3500F.
For stoker firing:

The fuel size is approximately 1 to 114 in. Depending on the type of

stoker

For fluid bed combustion:

The size of the coal between the coal size requirement of pulverized
and Stoker .

The coals is crushed in less than in and the solids are maintained at
the temp of 1500 to 1600 degree F in a upward moving stream of air
and combustion gases.
The flow of air and coal to the dense fluid is controlled to meet the
steam load demand.
As the fuel particles burn, their sizes reduce below a value wherein the
terminal and gas velocities became equal.

TYPES OF FLUIDIZED BED COMBUSTORS:

Bubbling fluid bed - the combustion occurs only in the bed because of the
low air velocity and large fuel size.
Circulating fluid bed have more particles blow from the bed and particles
are collected by a separator and recirculated in the furnace.
Both BFB and CFB allow the burning fuel at approx. 1600 F
Fluid bed boilers use conduction heat transfer to the furnace
Advantage of Fluidized Bed Combustion:
Reduction of SO2 and NOx(Nitric Acid ) emission
Can burn low grade fuels
FUEL FLEXIBILITY the ability to use a large variety of fuels
BUBBLING FLUID BED:
-

Two stage combustion system

Solid fuels burned in the bed and volatiles from the fuel and very fine
particles are burned in the freeboard area of the bed.
Secondary air is injected to the freeboard area for optimizing
combustion in the second stage
Operates at bed temp between 1500 and 1600 F, results in low
uncontrolled nitric acid emission, because the rate of formation of NOx
decreases rapidly as the combustion temp reduces.
Limestone and dolomite is use as bed materials. At normal bed temp,
this mats acts as an excellent sorbent for removal of SO2 from the flue
gas.

BFB is lower cost rather than CFB

BED LEVEL is controlled by draining and cooling an appropriate amt. of
mat. From the operating bed.

CIRCULATING FLUID BED:

-

Used to burn coal, tire chips, and waste fuels.

Fuel and limestone are fed into the lower portion of the combustion
chamber in the presence of fluidizing air.
Turbulent environment mix the fuel and sorbent quickly.
Continuous circulation of solid through the system provides longer fuel
residence time, which result in very efficient fuel combustion.
Used to burn anthracite culm, a waste by-product of coal mining
industry in Pennsylvania
It depends on the design of the CFB boilers on how much electricity it
can produces. ( stated in the book, Pennsylvania )
L valve or Loop seal is a simple non mechanical hydraulic barometric
seal against the combustor shell.
Ash is removed from the bottom of the combustor to control the solid
inventory and bed quality.
CFB use Staging in order to minimize nitric acid emissions.

DESIGNS of CFB:
Hot cyclone separator- has a primary function in capturing solid that are
entrained in the flue gas leaving the furnace.
-

Ammonia is injected to the flue gas to reduce nitric acid emission

during combustion.

Cold cyclone separator collects primary solids after the convection pass for
recycle to the furnace.
Impact separator:

The entrained solids and gas mixture passes through in-furnace U

beam separators, where approximately 75 percent of the solids, which
include unburned carbon and unutilized calcium oxide (CaO), are
separated and returned to the furnace internally.
The remaining 25% is separated by external U-beam separator.
A multi-clone dust collector are also recirculated to the lower furnace
to minimize the loss of carbon and use of limestones.
SOLID SEPARATION SYSTEM IS THE MAJOR PART OF A CFB BOILER

EMISSION CONTROLS WITH FLUIDIZED BOILERS:

SO2:
HAVE HIGHER SULFUR DIOXIDE CAPTURE RATE RATHER THAN BFB.
A 90 PERCENT OF REMOVAL EFFICIENCY OF CO2 CAN BE OBTAINE IN
CFB.
IF REMOVAL REQ. IS HIGHER THAN 90%, THE AMT. OF LIMESTONE IS
REQD TO INCREASE RAPIDLY, WHICH SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE
OPERATING COST. THIS COULD RESULT IN USING THE PULVERIZED
COAL-FIRED UNIT WITH SCRUBBER.

NOx (nitric Acid):

Because of low temps at which a fluidized bed boiler works, NOx
formation is minimized and NOx emission limits often can be met
without additional system.
Particulates:
The ash contained in solid fuel is released during the combustion
process. Some of this ash remains in the fluid bed boiler and is
discharged by the bed material removal system, often called the bed
drain system. The remaining ash leaves the boiler in the flue gas,
where it is collected by a fabric filter.
Bed Material:
Ash is not usually depended on to form a stable bed
Therefore, an inert material must be added like sand
When sulfur removal is required, use limestone as replacement for
sand to capture SO2.
Heat Transfer:
-

For CFB boilers:

Amt. of solid in the flue gas leaving the furnace may exceed 5000 lb. of
solid per 1000 lb. of flue gas. If high solid content occur, additional
heat transfer characteristic are considered in the design.

For conventional boilers:

A flue gas radiation is very important and the solid convection is least
important to overall heat transfer.

BFB heat transfer:

3 zones for the purpose of Heat Transfer:
1. Dense bed
2. Disengaging
3. Freeboard
CFB heat transfer:
-

From the furnace water walls and internal furnace division walls.
2 zone where heat transfer came from: dense bed and remainder of
the furnace.
Heat Balance:
-

In conventional firing such as pulverized coal or stokers, only a small

amount of heat is removed from the combustion gases in the zone of
maximum heat release.
In fluidized bed combustion, heat is removed from the zone of
maximum heat release at a much higher rate. The temp of the flue gas
is limited to design level of 1500-1600F.
For BFB design, the heating surface is placed in the bed of hot solids
and burning fuel to maintain the temperature.
For CFB design, the large quantity of solids that circulate in the system
removes heat from the active combustion zone and transfers it to the
heating surface throughout the furnace.