NPRE 201/GLBL 201

ADVANCED ENERGY SYSTEMS

Section III: Advanced Fossil Fuels 15. Advanced Coal Technologies

October 18, 2005

http://acdisweb.acdis.uiuc.edu/GLBL201/coursematerial/advanced_coal_technologies/lecture15.html

NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 1

Jrgen Scheffran 2005

Introduction
Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel and also regarded as the "dirtiest." Not only is coal inherently impure by composition by the fact that it contains ash and sulfur; coal is also very difficult to burn completely.
Many techniques to combust coal have been developed since the late 1800's. The first innovations were more concerned with achieving more complete combustion and reducing manual labor than they were with pollution and economics. More recent innovations have focused on minimizing air pollution while achieving the lowest possible cost. The history of coal furnaces has proceeded from the basic boiler which anyone who has operated a teapot on a stove would understand to the mechanical stoker, pulverized coal firing, cyclone furnace, and finally to the fluidized bed.

As the most important current method of coal combustion, the fluidized bed reactor will be examined in depth with respect to the chemistry, physics, and engineering of its operation.
Several other features have been developed to augment the primary combustion system. These technologies typically function as acccessories which can be added to tackle specific problems or achieve greater energy efficiency. Gas reburning, sorbent injection, and low nitrous oxide burners have different objectives, but in general they reduce the concentration of pollutants or achieve more complete and cleaner coal combustion.
NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 2 Jrgen Scheffran 2005

15.1 History of Coal Burning Technology

D15.1.1 How did sulfur and nitrogen oxide emission controls compare in the 1980s, and at what cost?
D15.1.2 How do pulverized bin and direct feeds compare? D15.1.3 What's the difference between a cyclone separator and a cyclone furnace? In many regions of industrialized countries and in some developing ones like India as well, coal remains the cheapest source of fuel per unit energy content. Use of coal in residential settings for heating or cooking is inconvenient and generally avoided in developed countries, even if where coal remains the cheapest fuel per unit energy content. Use of coal as the dominant fuel for electricity generation persisted in many countries long after it was being phased out in residential, commercial, and transportation applications. But even here there has been a move towards other energy sources for electricity generation. It is the local environmental effects of coal and the cost of avoiding them that have provided one of the strongest motivations for alternatives to coal even in regions distant from hydroelectric power plants.
NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 3 Jrgen Scheffran 2005

Emission Control in Coal Plants

Nearby coal plants without emissions controls: downfall of particulate matter under frequently unfavorable atmospheric conditions.
By the 1950s, 70% reduction in average particulate emissions, before serious efforts to control other coal plant emissions on a national basis. Then an effort catalyzed in part by Chicago community groups led to a national movement to clean up other coal plant emissions. By the 1980s, over 80% of sulfur content and aqueous emissions were controlled. Problematic remained emissions of smog-inducing oxides of nitrogen, for which emission control percentages only went up from c. 40% to c. 50% from 1960 to 1990. The cost of emissions controls rose to about 1/3 of power plant cost before 1990. Early simple coal burners were stoked manually by shovelling lumbs of coal into a hinged door. Not only was this an onerous task, it also let to an inefficient and polluting burn.

Use of automatic feed of pulverized coal for more even and complete burn: pulverized coal stored in bin after passage through cyclone separator or introduced directly to burner without storage in pulverized state.
NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 4 Jrgen Scheffran 2005

The Rising Costs of Environmental Control

NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, the Used with permission from "Are Fluidized-Bedsp. 5 Answer to Burning Coal Cleanly?" Smith, Douglas,Jrgen Engineering, May 1989 p. 26 Power Scheffran 2005

Pulverized Coal Bin

Figure Illustrates pulverization in heated air, cyclone separator and exhaust system, and bin storage.

NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 6

Jrgen Scheffran 2005

Pulverized Coal Direct Feed

Figure illustrates a temperature controlled direct feed of coal and air.

NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 7

Jrgen Scheffran 2005

Cyclone Furnace
Cyclone air circulation can also be used in the burner in a coal plant to control the burn. An air heater along the exhaust stream beyond the boiler recovers heat for reinjection with the coal feed. Adding an electrostatic precipitator gives a comparatively simple system with reduction of particulate emissions. Figure 15.1d gives a diagram of a cyclone furnace, air heater, electrostatic precipator and other plant equipment

NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 8

Used with permission from Steam, ItsGeneration and Use, Jrgen Scheffran 2005 Babcock & Wilcox, Babcock & Wilcox Company, 1978

15.2 Fluidized Bed Technology

D15.21.1 What are the flow rates and characteristics of fixed, bubbling, circulating, and transport burners?
D15.2.2 What is the "collapsed condition" in a fluidized coal bed? D15.2.3 How are "fines" separated and returned to a fluidized burner? D15.2.4 Why is calcium injected? D15.2.5 Is limestone cost a negligible, modest, or dominant plant cost with sulfur removal? Another technological step in coal burning is the fluidized bed. Bottom-up flow rates in the range of 412 feet per second (c. 1.23.6 m/s) will raise pulverized coal into a levitated coal-air mixture for more even and complete burn. At 1230 fps (3.69 m/s) the entire burn chamber can be filled, and the unburned material bled back into the air/coal mixing chamber in a circulating bed configuration. In these velocity ranges the mean coal transport velocity for the larger particles is less than half of the mean air velocity.

Above 9 m/s the difference between coal and gas velocities ("slip velocity") is small compared. In this "transport reactor" an appropriate initial mix of oxygen and coal leads to nearly complete combustion on one pass. Cost is a Jrgen Scheffran system. greater NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 9 compression requirement and perhaps more highly stressed2005

Solid vs. Gas Velocities in the Systems

Figure 15.2a shows flow and slip velocities for bubbling,circulating, and transport burners.
NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 10 Jrgen Scheffran 2005 From Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, "Fluidized-bed combustion Technology," Tavoulareas, E., Stratos., 1991

Fluidization
Fluidization over a perforated plate.

Air is blown into the bottom of a combustion chamber through a perforated support plate to fluidize a coal bed.

From Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, "Fluidized-bed combustion Technology," Tavoulareas, E., Stratos., 1991 NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 11 Jrgen Scheffran 2005

Fluidized Bed System

Figure 15.2c: Chambers in a fluidized coal system. The finer particles lofted rapidly out of a fluidized bed may need to be recovered in a cyclone separator and reinjected. Limestone can also be injected to control sulfur dioxide emissions.

From Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, "Fluidized-bed combustion Technology," Tavoulareas, E., Stratos., 1991 NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 12 Jrgen Scheffran 2005

Bubbling Bed Boiler

Figure 15.2d: gas-fired reburn in a low nitrogen oxide coal-fired plant.

Just the limestone, not to mention the additional plant maintenance burden, can be a significant component in the contribution to cost of delivered electricity.

From "Largest U.S. Fluidized-Bed Boiler Clean-Burning, Reliable," Power, October, 1985 NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 13 Jrgen Scheffran 2005

Is It Worth It?

Table 15.2a: illustrates contributions to the cost of delivering steam or electricity from an emission-controlled coal plant.

NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 14

Jrgen Scheffran 2005

15.3 Other Clean Coal Technlogies

D15.2.1 What is overfire injection for?
D15.2.2 What is the alternative to limestone for calcium injection? D15.2.3 Is a low nitrogen oxide burner a simple air jet injector? D15.2.4 What is "reburn" used for?

D15.2.5 Why might flue gases be recirculated?

D15.2.6 How much do emissions fluctuate? Overfire is another mechanism for reducing emission of nitrogen oxides. Overfire injection can follow gas injection for reburn, to complete oxidation at a lower temperature and further shift the thermal equilbrium towards molecular oxygen at temperatures still high enough for signficant reaction rates. The final stage of emission gas control in for sulfur-containing coal is the injection of hydrated lime [Ca(OH)2] or limestone (i.e. calcium carbonate, CaCO3). At high temperature hydrated lime dissociates endothermically to calcium oxide and water, and limestone dissociates endothermically to calcium oxide and carbon dioxide. Either way, the calcium oxide reacts with SO2 and oxygen or with SO3 to produce precipitable calcium sulfate CaSO4.
NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 15 Jrgen Scheffran 2005

Nitrogen Formation
High burn temperatures in low slip velocity systems can have the disadvantage of greater nitrogen oxide production.
All coal contains some organically bound nitrogen. Concentrations of nitrogen oxides from this fuel range from c. 0.30.7 grams per cubic meter for burn temperatures in range 10001400 degrees Centigrade, going slowly up to c. 0.8 grams per cubic meter at 1800 degrees. Thermally-induced formation of nitrogen oxides in background air lead to concentrations of roughly (T-1000)2 grams per cubic meter, where T is the temperature in degrees Centigrade. At c. 1700 degrees and above this thermal concentration can more than double total nitrogen oxide emissions. Difficulty can be reduced by one or both of two approaches. 1. Burn most coal in fuel rich (oxygen-poor) conditions, saving c. 20% to complete oxidation at lower temperature. 2. Inject natural gas above coal burning region to achieve a controlled lowertemperature burn to shift equilibrium towards molecular nitrogen and away from nitrogen oxides. This latter process is called "reburn. Flue gases can also be recirculated into the reburn zone.
NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 16 Jrgen Scheffran 2005

Gas Reburning Diagram

NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 17 Jrgen Scheffran 2005 From Clean Coal Technology, The U.S. Department of Energy, September 1993, Topical report Number 3 Revision No. 1.

Sorbent Injection

Figure 15.3b: injection of hydrated lime and air to convert sulfur oxides to calcium sulfate. Low nitrogen oxide burners can be fairly complex pieces of equipment. They are designed to control the air-fuel mix to reduce nitrogen oxide formation.
From Clean Coal Technology, The U.S. Department of Energy, September 1993, Topical report Number 3 Revision No. 1 2005 NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 18 Jrgen Scheffran

Cutaway View of Burner

From Clean Coal Technology, The U.S. Department of Energy, September 1993, Topical report Number 3 Revision No. 1 NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 19 Jrgen Scheffran 2005

Boiler System

Jrgen Scheffran From Clean NPRE/GLBL 201, LectureDepartment of Energy, September 1993, Topical report Number 3 Revision No. 1 2005 Coal Technology, The U.S. 15, p. 20

Costs of Reburning Technology

From Clean Coal Technology, The Lecture 15, p. 21 Energy, September 1993 Topical report Number Jrgen Scheffran 2005 NPRE/GLBL 201, U.S. Department of 3 Revision No. 1

Long Term System Performance at Hennepin

Figure 15.3f shows 10 months of emissions at various plant power levels

From Clean Coal Technology, The U.S. Department of Energy, September 1993, Topical report Number 3 Revision No. 1 NPRE/GLBL 201, Lecture 15, p. 22 Jrgen Scheffran 2005