Bioresource Technology 116 (2012) 184189

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Bioresource Technology
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A study on uidized bed combustion characteristics of corncob in three different combustion modes
Chien-Song Chyang a,, Feng Duan b, Shih-Min Lin a, Jim Tso c
a

Department of Chemical Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chung-Li 32023, Taiwan, ROC School of Metallurgy and Resource, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan 243002, Anhui Province, PR China c R&D Center for Environmental Technology, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chung-Li 320, Taiwan, ROC
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
This paper presents results obtained from corncob combustion in a pilot scale vortexing uidized bed combustor (VFBC). Three combustion modes including direct combustion, staged combustion and ue gas recirculation (FGR) combustion were employed, and their combustion and pollutant emission characteristics were studied. In addition, the effects of combustion fraction and bed temperature on pollutant emission characteristics were investigated. The experimental results show that the combustion fractions vary with different combustion modes, resulting in different CO and NO emission characteristics. Staged and FGR combustions can reduce the NO emission concentration. Under similar working condition, NO concentration decreases by 30% in FGR mode, while 15% in staged mode compared with direct mode. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 4 March 2012 Received in revised form 10 April 2012 Accepted 11 April 2012 Available online 21 April 2012 Keywords: Combustion fraction Corncob Fluidized bed Pollutant emission

1. Introduction Corn (maize) is an important crop with its annual production being the top among all agricultural grains in the world. The amount of its byproducts such as corn straw and corncob is enormous. More than 1.3 billon tons byproducts generated each year in North America (Kim and Dale, 2004). The LHV of corncob is about 4400 kcal/kg, which is similar to corn stern and leaf. However, its fertilizing value is less than one-tenth of that of corn stern or leaf (Avila-Segura et al., 2011). Therefore, corncob is suitable for

Abbreviations: VFBC, vortexing uidized bed combustor; FGR, ue gas recirculation; LHV, lower heating value; FBC, uidized bed combustor; CFB, circulating uidized bed; ID fan, induced draft fan; EA, excess air ratio (%); Yi, the combustion fraction in the each zone (%); Sb, the stoichiometric oxygen in the bed zone (%); V1st, the volumetric ow rate of rst air (N m3 min1); VFGR, the volumetric ow rate of FGR (N m3 min1); CFGR, the oxygen concentration of FGR at the outlet of ID fan (%); V C;O2 , the oxygen consumed in the each combustion zone (N m3 min1); V T;O2 , the total oxygen consumed in the VFBC (N m3 min1); VPRI, the volumetric ow rate of primary gas (N m3 min1); V2nd, the volumetric ow rate of secondary air (N m3 min1); VT, the volumetric ow rate of total air (N m3 min1); VTO, the volumetric ow rate of oxygen in the primary gas (N m3 min1); Tb, bed temperature (C); Qr, the heat of chemical reaction (kcal/kg); Qm, the heat taken into the bed by fuel and air (kcal/kg); Qv, the heat generated by the combustion of turndown particles from the vortexing effect (kcal/kg); Qi, the heat loss from the incomplete combustion (kcal/kg); Ql, the heat loss from the furnace (kcal/kg); Vn, ow rate of the ue gas generated from the combustion of 1 kg corncob (kg/kg); cf, the specic heat of ue gas (kcal/kg C). Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 3 2654119; fax: +886 3 4636242. E-mail addresses: cschyang@cycu.edu.tw, cschyang@gmail.com (C.-S. Chyang). 0960-8524/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2012.04.041

burning as a fuel instead of serving as a fertilizer. Due to the abundant supply of corncob in the world, a lot of research attention is focused on the new techniques of converting corncob to biomass energy forms. Tippayawong et al. (2006) used the heat from corncob combustion in a 1.0 m ID 2.0 m in height combustor for tobacco drying. The temperature stability in this corncob combustion proved that corncob is suitable for replacing wood as an alternative fuel. FBC is recognized as one of many viable technologies in dealing with corncob combustion (Lin et al., 1995; Shafey and Taha, 1992). FBC has the potential for cleaner combustion because of its lower operation temperature (700900 C), which signicantly reduces the formation of thermal NOx and prompt NOx (Leckner and Karlsson, 1993; Werther et al., 2000). In previous studies, many experimental investigations were carried out to understand the formation and reduction mechanism of pollutant emission produced by corncob combustion in FBC. Youssef et al. (2009) studied the corncob combustion in a 0.145 m ID 2.0 m in height CFB. The results showed that the lowest emissions of the CO and NOx occurred when the excess air ratio is 24%. Butuk and Morey (1987) evaluated the thermal efciency of a combustion system using corncob. However, few studies focused on the NOx lowering techniques by using staged combustion and FGR. Meanwhile, some fossil fuels, such as lignite and anthracite were mixed with corncob in some combustion research works. The co-combustion characteristics in the uidized-beds were also investigated (Lin et al., 2010; Trif-Tordai et al., 2010). The results

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showed that co-combustion of corncob and coal could signicantly reduce the NOx emission. The alkali metal elements such as K, Na, and Ca of corncob have good desulfurization effect and this reduces the SO2 emission signicantly. Moreover, because corncob has higher volatile ratio than coal, the volatile of corncob releases rapidly and combusts in the freeboard, leading to higher freeboard temperatures. However, due to the insufcient combustion time

of volatile, the CO emission concentration increases with the ratio of corncob in the mixture. Corner tangential ring technology is originally applied in the pulverized coal-red boiler. From the previous studies on the corncob combustion in uidized-bed combustors, the volatile released from corncob is carried up from the bed zone and combusts in the freeboard. In addition, due to the lower solid voidage in the

(a)

1 2 21 4 24 5 13 14 12 7 22 8 20 15 17 4 8 9 8 11 6 18 19

10 23 3

16

1. Hopper 2. Screw Feeder 3. Air Lock 4. Burner 5. Incinerator

6. 1st Air Blower 7. 2nd Air Blower 8. Orifice Meter 9. Preheater 10. Reheater

11. FGR Blower 12. Quench Tower 13. Quench Pump 14. Baghouse 15. Scrubber

16. Scrubber Pump 17. Heat Exchanger 18. Induced Draft Fan 19. Cooling Tower 20. Cooling Tower Pump

21. Air Jacket 22. Air Jacket Blower 23. Stack 24. Heat transfer tube

(b)

Gas sampling point

Fig. 1. Vortexing uidized bed combustor system.

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freeboard, the efciency of heat transfer and mass transfer is lower (Bai et al., 1996), which militates against complete combustion of corncob (Lin et al., 1995). Therefore, VFBC was established to create a vortex-generating system by injecting the secondary air tangentially into the freeboard to increase the combustion intensity and the turndown capability. This system improved the combustion performance of uidized-bed combustors (Chakritthakul and Kuprianov, 2011; Chyang et al., 2008; Qian et al., 2009, 2011). The mechanisms of CO/NO formation and reduction of corncob combustion in VFBC are complex. It is difcult to explain the NO emission variations for different operation conditions (Permchart and Kouprianov, 2004; Qian et al., 2011). In this paper, we employed three combustion modes including direct combustion, staged combustion and FGR combustion, and investigated their combustion and pollutant emission characteristics. In addition, the effects of combustion fractions, bed temperature on the CO and NO emissions were investigated. Results from this study would be helpful in the development of more comprehensive physical models for uidized-bed combustion systems and setting operational parameters in practical applications. 2. Experimental 2.1. Materials Corncob particles of sizes ranging from 1 to 5 mm were used as the fuel for the experiments. The proximate analysis data such as moisture, volatile, xed carbon and ash are 8.20%, 74.20%, 16.45%, and 1.15%, respectively. The ultimate analysis data of dried corncob such as C, H, O, N, S, and Ash are 45.82%, 6.27%, 44.70%, 1.50%, 0.49%, and 1.22%, respectively. The bulk density of the fuel is 191 kg m3 and the lower heating value is 3614.74 kcal/kg. The inert bed material used in the experiment is silica sand (99.5% SiO2) with a density of 2500 kg m3. The mean diameter of the sand is 0.54 mm. 2.2. VFBC test facility All the experiments were conducted in a VFBC test facility. A process owchart of the VFBC system consists of a combustor with a windbox, a feeding system, heat convection sections, an air supply system and a ue gas treatment system as shown in Fig. 1a. The conguration of the VFBC is shown in Fig. 1b. The VFBC with a cross section of 0.8 0.4 m2, a freeboard with an inner diameter of 750 mm, and 4.6 m in total height is fabricated of SS41 stainless steel. Refractory brick and ceramic bers were used as thermal isolation. Four equally spaced secondary air injection nozzles of 30 mm in diameter are installed tangentially at the level of 2.05 m above the distributor. The secondary air is preheated to about 200 C with exhaust heat from the combustor before entering the windbox. After preheating, the secondary air expands in volume, resulting in the increase of the gas velocity in the freeboard, which is helpful in raising the gas and solid intention. The effects of three combustion modes including direct combustion, staged combustion, and FGR combustion are studied in the experiments. In the direct combustion mode, the air is introduced through a perforated distributor to the uidized bed when the corncob combust with air directly. In the staged combustion mode, the air ow is separated into primary air and secondary air, and introduced to the uidized-bed combustor. In the FGR combustion mode, the primary air is composed of the rst air and recirculation ue gas, which is different from staged combustion. The rst air is supplied by a 15 hp Roots blower, the secondary air is supplied by a 7.5 hp Roots blower, and FGR is supplied by a 7.5 hp turbo blower. A Novatech oxygen analyzer 1632 (the precision is 1%)

continuously measures the oxygen concentration of ue gas at the outlet of the ID fan. The temperature of ue gas after ID fan ranges between 40 and 50 C. The ow rate of FGR is controlled by the primary gas control system. Before the excess ue gas discharges from the stack, it should be reheated to 120 C by reheater to maintain the temperature discharge requirement of the stack. The temperatures in the VFBC are measured with K-type thermocouples installed in the combustor. The ue gas was sampled at 0.85 and 4.5 m above the distributor. The components of the ue gas, such as CO, CO2, O2, and NO were analyzed by Anapol EU5000 gas analyzers. The values of the concentrations in this study are all corrected to 11% residual oxygen on a dry basis. 2.3. Combustion fraction To interpret the distribution of temperatures in VFBC, it is necessary to build the model of combustion fraction by calculating the consumed oxygen. The hypotheses are as follows: (1) The VFBC is divided into two parts, i.e., bed zone and freeboard zone. The bed zone is dened as the zone between the distributor and the bed surface. The freeboard zone is from the bed surface to the exit of VFBC. For a given operating condition, when the temperature prole in the combustor is kept constant, it is considered a steady state. Once the steady state is established, the oxygen concentration in the ue gas is measured and logged for calculation. (2) Fuel-nitrogen of corncob is completely converted into nitrogen during combustion. The NO content is negligent when calculating composition of ue gas. The combustion fraction can be calculated by the following equations:

Yi

V C;O2 100% V T ;O 2

2.4. Working conditions The working conditions for the experiments are given in Table 1. The Sb is changed by changing the ratio of the rst air and the FGR in the tests. The following denitions were used:

Sb

V 1st 21% V FGR C FGR V TO

The oxygen concentration data of the ue gas at the outlet of induced draft fan were transmitted to the primary gas control system for adjusting the mixing ratio of the rst air and FGR to maintain the oxygen content in the primary gas at a set value. The ow rate of FGR can be calculated by the following equations:
Table 1 Working conditions. Combustion modes Bed temperature (C) EA (%) Sb (%) V2nd (N m3 min1) VPRI (N m3 min1) Feeding rate (kg/h) Bed material Density of bed material (kg/m3) Average particle size of bed material (mm) Static bed height (mm) Weight of bed material (kg) Direct combustion 750 83 183 0 4 Staged combustion 750 83 91.5137.25 1 3 33 Silica sand 2500 0.54 380 206 FGR combustion 700 46 80100 11.44 3

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V 1st V FGR V PRI V PRI V 2nd V T V 1st 21% V FGR C FGR V TO

3. Results and discussion 3.1. Combustion fraction

3 4 5
Temperature ( C)

1000 950 900 850 800 750 700 650 600

(a)

1st air : 2nd air only 1st air 3:1 2.5 : 1.5 2:2

In the course of the corncob burning, the combustion fractions vary with different combustion modes, resulting in different CO and NO emission characteristics. In direct and staged combustion modes, the bed temperature is 750 C and excess air ratio is 83%. When the secondary/total air ratio is 0, 0.25, 0.375, and 0.5, the combustion fraction in the bed is 89.47%, 52.24%, 49.23%, and 41.21%, respectively. The combustion fraction in the freeboard can be obtained by 100% subtracting the value of the bed combustion fraction. The combustion fraction in the bed zone is near 90% for the direct combustion mode. In the staged combustion mode, the oxygen ow rate in the primary air decreases as the secondary/ total air ratio increases, the combustion fraction in the bed zone goes down to 41.21% and the combustion fraction in the freeboard zone goes up to 58.79%. However, due to the limitation of mass transfer resistance between bubbles and silicon sand, the combustion fraction does not decrease in proportion to the air ow rate in the bed zone (He et al., 1998; Scala and Salatino, 2002). Moreover, the characteristic of bubbles in the VFBC chamber is another important factor. The primary air passes through the bed as bubbles, and the corncob is in a state of emulsication. In staged combustion mode, the ow rate of primary air is lower than that of direct combustion. Oxygen does not seep into the emulsication well, which limits the combustion of xed carbon. On the other hand, the CO and volatile released from corncob in the emulsication does not mix with bubbles quickly, resulting in incomplete combustion; the corncob combustion is still in the anoxic condition despite abundant oxygen in the bed zone. More CO and volatiles are carried up to the freeboard zone to combust. In FGR combustion mode, the bed temperature is 700 C. When the Sb is 100%, 90% and 80%, the combustion fraction in the bed is 41.75%, 25.78%, and 10.45%, respectively. The bed zone combustion fraction is lower than that of direct combustion and staged combustion, and it decreases with the falling stoichiometric oxygen ratio because the oxygen in the primary air is much lower and the combustion is incomplete due to the fuel-rich condition in the bed zone. The volatile released from corncob does not combust quickly enough in the bed zone and its combustion is completed in the freeboard zone. 3.2. Effect of the combustion modes on the temperature distribution in the VFBC Fig. 2 shows the effects of the combustion modes on the temperature distribution in the VFBC. The temperature of the bed zone, for example, can be estimated by Eq. (6).

Distance above the distributor (m)

900

(b)

850

Sb=100% Sb=90% Sb=80%

Temperature ( C)

800

750

700

650

600

Distance above the distributor (m)

Fig. 2. Effects of the operating modes on the temperature distribution in the VFBC.

Tb

Qr Qm Qv Qi Ql V n cf

Fig. 2a is the axial temperature distribution in the VFBC using staged combustion and direct combustion with different air ratios. The bed temperature is 750 C. As shown in the gure, the temperature proles of different air ratios in the VFBC show a similar trend. The peak temperature appears at the bed surface. The axial

temperatures decrease with the distance from the distributor, which can be attributed to the heat loss through the wall. However, there is a distinct difference between the peak temperature of direct and staged combustions. The peak temperature of direct combustion is lower than that of staged combustion. This trend is in disagreement with that of coal combustion by Spliethoff et al. (1996). The probable explanation for this difference is as follows. First, although direct combustion has a larger value of Qr and Qm, the lacking of Qv reduced the heat input from the freeboard. Second, as the total air ow rate stays constant, the rst air ow rate in direct mode is the highest, resulting in the greatest ue gas ow rate in the combustor and the biggest heat loss from bed zone to freeboard. Third, as a well-known fact, the peak temperature appears when the stoichiometric ratio is near 1.0. However, the stoichiometric ratio of direct combustion in this experiment is 1.83, much higher than the theoretical stoichiometric ratio of 1.0. Some unburned particles and volatile released from corncob are settled back to the bed surface from the vortexing effect driven by secondary air. Moreover, the number of particles captured by the vortex as the secondary air ow rate increases, which increases their residence time in the bed zone. The stoichiometric ratio in the bed zone decreases to 1.0 gradually, resulting in higher peak temperatures. From Fig. 2a, in the direct combustion mode, the axial temperature has the lowest descending gradient (the difference between peak temperature and outlet temperature) because the heat taken out from the bed zone by the ue gas is at its maximum. In the staged mode, the temperature gradient decreases with the

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increasing secondary air ratio. The combustion fraction of freeboard zone increases because more unburned carbon and volatile combust with the secondary air, resulting in increased freeboard temperatures. This partly offsets the less heat input carried by ue gas from the bed zone. Similar results of temperature distribution have been attained in staged combustion mode of corncob in this experiment and tobacco stern in a uidized bed reactor (Yang et al., 2012). Fig. 2b is the axial temperature distribution in the VFBC in FGR combustion mode with different stoichiometric oxygen ratios. In this gure, the bed temperature is 700 C. By comparing Fig. 2a and b, the descending gradient of temperature in FGR combustion is smaller than that of staged combustion. The study of Park et al. (2003) claried that the addition of CO2 showed the tendency towards the reduction of bed temperature. However, due to the high heat capacity of the chemical species itself and due to the radiation heat loss by the high absorption coefcient of CO2 (Park et al., 2003), thermal effects decreases the descending temperature gradient between the bed zone and freeboard. Besides, the bed zone combustion fraction increases with the increasing bed stoichiometric oxygen (from 0.8 to 1), resulting in a higher peak temperature.

As seen from Fig. 3, the NO emission concentration at the outlet of the VFBC increases with the bed temperatures. This result is in agreement with Okasha (2007) and Tourunen et al. (2009). A higher bed temperature conduces to the generation of NH3 and HCN (important precursors of NO), which leads to a higher NO emission. Also, the CO concentration decreases because higher bed temperature promotes complete combustion in the bed zone, This reduces the chance of a NO reduction reaction with CO (reaction 1) which leads to a higher NO concentration.

2NO 2CO ! 2CO2 N2

reaction 1

3.3. Effect of the operating conditions on the CO and NO concentrations 3.3.1. Bed temperature The effects of the bed temperature on the CO and NO concentrations are shown in Fig. 3. As seen from the gure, the CO emission concentrations of three combustion modes decrease with a higher bed temperature. Because the combustion efciency increases with a higher bed temperature, the concentrations of unburned particles and CO decrease in the ue gas (Lin et al., 1995). The order of the CO emission concentrations in three combustion modes is (1) stage, (2) direct, and (3) FGR. In direct mode, the bed combustion fraction is near 90%, which indicate that most corncob combust at the bed surface. The CO emission is relatively low because the combusting particles have longer residence time in the VFBC. In staged mode, the bed combustion fraction is 52.24%. Unburned particles and volatile released from the corncob combust with the secondary air in the freeboard zone. Compared to the combustion in the bed zone, the residence time in the freeboard zone is shorter, resulting in larger CO emission. In FGR mode, the bed combustion fraction is the same as that of staged mode. However, under same bed temperature, the freeboard temperature is higher because of the smaller descending gradient of temperature (Fig. 2b), resulting in smaller CO emission concentration.

3.3.2. Effect of the secondary/total air ratio in staged mode Fig. 4 shows the effect of the secondary/total air ratio on the CO and NO concentrations. As seen from the gure, the CO concentration goes up rst then down a little at the end. Due to the secondary air, the residence time of the CO emission produced by combustion in the freeboard zone becomes shorter. The CO concentration increases a lot when the ratio increases from 0% to 37.5%. This result agrees with the studies performed by Khan and Gibbs (1995) and Okasha (2007). However, the CO concentration goes from 89 to 56 ppm when the ratio goes from 37.5% to 50%. The probable explanation is that lower primary air rate prolongs the residence time of reactants in the bed zone, and the vortex created by stronger secondary air enhances the mixing and reaction of the O2 and CO (Chakritthakul and Kuprianov, 2011). Meanwhile, the volatiles and unburned particles escaped from the bed zone and react with the excessive oxygen provided by the secondary air completely (Yang et al., 2012), resulting in lower CO emission concentration. The results are consistent with those by Atimtay and Varol (2009). As seen in this gure, the NO concentration decreases gradually with the increasing secondary/total air ratio, which decreases the oxygen input to the bed zone. The CO, NH3, and char concentrations increase from incomplete combustion, which increase the chance of NO reduction reaction (Okasha, 2007; Tourunen et al., 2009). 3.3.3. Effect of the stoichiometric oxygen ratio in the bed zone The CO concentration emission increases from 5 to 63 ppm and the NO concentration increases from 76 to 103 ppm when the stoichiometric oxygen ratio in the bed zone decreases from 100% to 80%. In this experiment, the stoichiometric oxygen ratio in the bed zone is always less than 1. It is considered fuel-rich combustion, which is conducive to CO generation. Meanwhile, the bed temperature decreases as rst air was mixed with more cooled ue

80 70 60

140 120

140 120

140 120 100

NO concentration (ppm)

CO concentration (ppm)

50 80 40 30 20 10 0
CO concentrations Direct combustion Stage combustion FGR combustion NO concentrations Direct combustion Stage combustion FGR combustion

CO concentration (ppm)

80 60 40 20 0

CO concentration NO concentration

80 60 40 20 0

60 40 20 0

700

720

740

760

780

800

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Bed temperature (C)

Fig. 3. Effects of bed temperature on the CO and NO concentrations.

Secondary/total air ratio

Fig. 4. Effects of the secondary/total air ratio on the CO and NO concentrations.

NO concentration (ppm)

100

100

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gas, which increases the CO emission concentration (Snger et al., 2001; Tan et al., 2006). The combustion fraction is only 10.45% when the stoichiometric oxygen ratio is 80%, and a lower stoichiometric oxygen ratio in the bed zone means more oxygen is injected from the secondary air to maintain the total oxygen intake (Qian et al., 2009). More volatile released by corncob is carried up to the freeboard and reacts with the secondary air to create NO. As a result, the NO emission concentration is the highest when the stoichiometric oxygen ratio in the bed zone is 80%. 3.4. Comparisons As seen from Figs. 3 and 4, FGR and staged combustions can reduce the NO emission concentration. Under similar working conditions, the NO concentration decreases by 30% in FGR mode, while 15% in staged mode compared with direct combustion. The reasons for the major NO emission reduction in FGR combustion are as follows: First, CO2 emission is recirculated back to the bed zone which increases the chance of CO2 reduction reaction with the char from the corncob to generate CO, which contributes to NO reduction reaction. Second, a percentage of NO emission is taken back to the bed zone with the ue gas, and further reduction in the VFBC is obtained. 4. Conclusion (1) Combustion fractions vary with different combustion modes resulting in different CO and NO emission characteristics. (2) The CO emissions of stage, direct and FGR combustion decrease with a higher bed temperature. (3) The CO emission goes up then down and the NO emission decreases with the increasing secondary/total air ratio in staged combustion mode. (4) The CO and NO emissions increase with the decreasing stoichiometric oxygen ratio in FGR mode. (5) Under similar working conditions, the NO emission concentration decreases by 30% in FGR mode, and by 15% in staged mode compared with direct combustion. Acknowledgement This research was sponsored by National Science Foundation under Grant NSC NSC-100-2221-E-033-035. References
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