Coal Combustion

Outcrops?
History of Steam Engines and Boilers:

House of Alexandria invented Aelopile (windball)

Thomas Savery Savery Engine (first commercially successful steam engine)
Thomas Newcomen (first practical device to harness the power of steam to
produce mechanical work.)
James Watt and Mathew Boulton blowing engine
Richard Trevithick first to used high pressure engine (puffing devil)
Stephen Wilcox and George Bobcock powered the Brush Electric Light
Company in Philly (Bobcock and Wilcox Boiler)

Combustion Engineering
In 1929, they erected the first steam generator unit to produce steam at 1
million lbs per hour
Chemistry of Coal Combustion
Three ways of coal burning:

As large pieces in a fixed bed

On a grate as smaller crush
As particles

Coal particles are heated driving off moisture devolatiilization combustion of

volatile matter combustion of the char particles
Devolatilization dependent on temperature and particle size of coal
Char combustion
Adsorption of O2 in coal to form CO oxidizing of CO to form CO2
Region I. reaction rate dictates the rate of reaction
Region II. Is difficult to identify
Region III. A mass transfer rate contributes to the rate of reaction
Coal Combustion systems

Fixed
o
o
o

Bed
Domestic space heaters
Underground gasification
Industrial stoker
Underfeed
Overfeed
spreader
Fluidized Bed

Advantages
Fuel flexibility
Low NOx emissions
In situ control of SO2 emissions
Suspension Firing
o Method of choice for large industrial boilers
Dry bottom firing
Wet bottom firing easier ash handling and disposal
o

Influence of coal properties on utility boiler design

Furnace design
Ash characteristics
Slag viscosity
Slagging and fouling potential

Carbonization process by which coal is heated and volatile products, both gaseous
and liquid, are driven off, leaving a solid residue called char or coke.

High temp carbonization >1650F

Low temp carbonization <1350F

Coking Conditions

Particle size
Charge density
Rate of heating
preheating
Oven design
Preheating

Indirect use of coal to produce fuel:

Liquefaction and gasification
Gasification:
Removal of undesirable impurities from solid feedstock by converting them into
gaseous form.
Jan van Helmont found that gas was evolved from coal
Types of gasifiers

Fixed-bed gasifer
o Reaction Zones
Drying and devolatilization zone
Reduction/gasification zone
Combustion zone
ash zone

Characteristics
Low oxidant requirements
Design modifications are required for handling caking coals
High cold-gas thermal efficiency when the heating calue of the
hydrocarbon liquids are included
Limited ability to habdle fines
Fluidized-bed gasifier
o Advantages
Feedstock flexibility resulting to easy temp control
Ability to deal with fluffy and fine grained materials without need
of pre-processing
o Disadvantages
Instability of the bed and fly-ash sintering in the gas channels
High tar content of the product gas
Entrained-flow gasifier
o Advantages
Feedstock flexibility
Rapid feed conversion
o Disadvantages
Large oxidant requirements
Product syngas has lower gasifier thermal efficiency
o Characteristics
Ability to gasify all coals
Uniform temperature
Very short residence tims
Large oxidant requirements
High temp slagging operation
Entrainment of some molten slag in the raw gas
o

Influence of coal properties on gasification

Coal size distribution

Volatile matter
Caking tendencies
Reactivity
Ash
Fixed carbon

Liquefaction:
Converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons: liquid fuels and petrochemicals
Indirect liquefaction

Fischer tropsch synthesis

o Conversion of CO and H2 to liquid hydrocarbons and related
oxygenated compounds over variously promoted group VIII catalyst.
Iso synthesis
Oxy-synthesis

Synthol process

Direct liquefaction
Bergius/I.G Farben Process
Solvent refining processes
Donor solvent process