What is oxy-coal combustion?

A Combustion File downloaded from the IFRF Online Combustion Handbook

ISSN 1607-9116
Combustion File No:

318

Version No:

Date:

29 January 2016

Author(s):

Steve Wilcox

Source(s):

See CF

Sub-editor:

Neil Fricker

Referee(s):

Neil Fricker

Status:

Published

Sponsor:

University of South Wales

1. Background
Coal will remain a major fuel for electricity generation in both the developed and
developing world for at least several decades. However, to address the issue of climate
change, the power generation industry will be required to reduce its CO2 emissions by,
for example, the improvement of cycle efficiency and by increased use of carbon neutral
biomass fuels. Whilst these options will achieve limited reductions in carbon emissions in
the relatively short term, the longer term need to move to near zero emission coalfired power plants will require the adoption of carbon capture and storage (CCS)
technologies. These can be categorised into three main approaches:

Pre-combustion capture by fuel decarbonisation (e.g. via gasification using the

water shift reaction to produce H2 and CO2)

Combustion with a nitrogen-free oxidant such as occurs with oxy-pulverised coal

firing with flue gas recirculation. The combustion products then consist mainly of
CO2 and water vapour and this simplifies the subsequent capture of the CO 2.

Post-combustion capture with CO2 separation from conventional flue gases (e.g.
by using amine scrubbing).

All three potential technologies will involve lower overall plant efficiency and increased
operating costs. Oxy-coal technology is considered to offer the fastest and least risky
path towards commercial CCS [1].

2. Oxy-coal combustion
Oxy-coal combustion involves firing with oxygen instead of air by removing the nitrogen
from the air upstream of the boiler using an air separation unit. The flue gases then
largely contain CO2 and water vapour so that CO2 separation and removal is readily
achieved. Firing with oxygen, however, results in very high flame temperatures which can

in turn lead to overheating problems with existing materials as well as unacceptable

changes in the slagging and corrosion characteristics of the boiler. Consequently, it is
necessary to recycle or recirculate a proportion of the relatively cool flue gases to
reduce the flame temperatures and hence overcome or reduce the problems associated
with oxygen firing. The resultant behaviour of the system depends on the degree of
recirculation, the composition of the recycled flue gases (RFG) and also on how they are
mixed with the fuel and oxygen.

3. Issues in switching to oxy-coal

Scaling Criteria for Oxy/Coal/RFG Burners
At the time of writing, there are no established and validated rules for burner scaling
from air/coal to oxy/coal operation, especially when both the burner operation per se,
and its impact on boiler performance must be addressed quantitatively. Data obtained in
small scale experiments cannot yet be applied with confidence to medium or full scale
systems.

Optimal RFG Rates

Switching from air operation to oxy/RFG operation affects the thermal performance of
boilers and related operational factors. Optimal RFG configurations will ensure reliable,
safe and efficient boiler operation with respect to factors such as the allowable heat
transfer and the constraints imposed by the corrosion resistance of existing and likely
future materials. It may be necessary to use very high recycling rates of up to 80% to
obtain similar combustion and heat transfer characteristics as for conventional air
combustion when retrofitting oxy-coal on to existing boilers.

Flame Instability
Under the high recycle rates needed to optimise thermal performance when using
oxy/coal/RFG, flames on burners designed to fire with air can become unstable.

Gas-Side Corrosion
The almost complete absence of nitrogen in the combustion gases is compensated by
much higher concentrations of CO2 and water vapour, whilst recycling the flue gases also
increases the concentrations of SO2/SO3 and HCl in the combustion atmosphere by a
factor of 3 to 5. Corrosion of the radiative and convective sections of the boiler is
therefore more likely than with conventional pulverised firing systems.

Ash Deposition and Slagging

Oxy/fuel combustion atmospheres can affect the mineral transformations in the coal
and hence the composition and properties such as the melting point and viscosity of ash
deposits. These can affect the stability of the deposits and hence their stickability
and cleanability.

Exhaust Gas Cleaning

The changes in composition of the boiler exhaust under RFG conditions can substantially
affect the performance and costs of the downstream gas cleaning equipment.

Safety
Switching from air to oxygen/RFG mixtures will impact on the risk of explosions in parts
of the plant that contain mixtures of coal/oxygen/RFG.

Glossary terms
carbon capture and storage Family of technologies to capture carbon dioxide
produced (or that would be produced, in the case of pre-combustion carbon capture) by
fossil fuel combustion, and to store it in a stable storage media (typically geological).
CCS Acronym carbon capture and storage
flue gases - Products of combustion at the outlet of the combustion chamber and/or at
the exhaust chimney.
Oxy-coal - Combustion technique in which coal is burned in a mixture of oxygen and
recycled flue gases within a power station boiler.
RFG Acronym - Recirculated Flue Gas.

Keywords
Oxy-coal; coal; oxygen; RELCOM; CCS; carbon; capture; storage

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Sources
[1] Lars Stromberg, Vattenfall Oxy-Fuel Activity. Keynote Paper 1,1st Oxy-Fuel
Combustion Conference, Cottbus, Germany, September, 2009

Acknowledgements
The preparation of this Combustion File was supported by RELCOM; Reliable and
Efficient Combustion of Oxygen/Coal/Recycled Flue Gas Mixtures a project
undertaken with the financial support of the European Commission under FP7 Grant
Agreement Number 268191.

File Placing
Power Generation; RELCOM; Introduction

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[Open Domain]

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