Circulating Fluidised Bed Combustion (CFBC) Boiler CONTINUATION BY: V GOVINDAN, SR.

.DGM (TSX) After having understood the basic principles of Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC) technology, as mentioned in our earlier issue, presented by the same author, now an attempt has been made in this issue to bring out the salient parts of CFBC boiler. CFBC boiler mainly comprises of the following components: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Combustor, Cyclone, Seal pot/ Loop Seal, Fluidized Bed Heat Exchanger (either integral or non integral type), Ash coolers, Drag Link chain conveyor (for Lignite fuel- and for bed ash), Rotory air lock feeders (for fuel feeding, bed material feeding, Lime powder feeding and for bed ash conveying), Bed material bunker, Lime stone bunker, Lignite Bunker, Start up Burners, Lances, Spiess Valve Non Metallic Expansion Joints.

Fig.1 through 6 give general idea about various above mentioned parts of the CFBC boiler

Fig 1

Fig 2

Fig 3

Fig 4

Fig 5

Fig 6

Parts of CFBC Boiler:

COMBUSTOR : This is the heart of CFBC boiler. Combustor is surrounded by refractory lined water walls. This is the chamber where ignition takes place. Primary air nozzles are situated at the bottom of the combustor over the refractory lined grate, through which air from Primary air fan enters in to combustor. This primary air is responsible for fluidization. Further, Secondary air nozzles are also connected to combustor for staged combustion. In addition, combustor comprises of Start Up Burners (SUB) and Bed Lances. Combustor is also connected to the cyclones (inlet) and also to seal pot out let. Combustor bottom has spiess valves to drain bed material to ash cooler. The out let of Fluidized Bed Heat Exchangers also are connected to Combustor. From this it can be understood the importance of combustor.

Combustion takes place at temperatures from 800-900C resulting in reduced NOx formation compared with Pulvarised coal fired units. Staged combustion also aids in reducing the NOx formation. SO2 emissions can be reduced by the injection of sorbent into the bed, and the subsequent removal of ash together with reacted sorbent. Circulating beds use a higher fluidizing velocity, so the particles are constantly held in the flue gases, and pass through the main combustion chamber and into a cyclone, from which the larger particles are extracted and returned to the combustion chamber. Individual particles may recycle anything from 10 to 50 times, depending on their size, and how quickly the char burns away. Combustion conditions are relatively uniform through the combustor, although the bed is somewhat denser near the bottom of the combustion chamber. There is a great deal of mixing, and residence time during one pass is very short. CFBCs are designed for the particular coal to be used. The method is principally of value for low grade, high ash coals which are difficult to pulverise, and which may have variable combustion characteristics. It is also suitable for co-firing coal with low grade fuels, including some waste materials. The direct injection of limestone into the bed offers the possibility of economic SO2 removal without the need for flue gas de-sulphurisation. Fuel is fed into the fluidized bed via rotary air lock feeders in the seal pot return line on either side of the combustor. Combustion takes place in the bed at about 870 - 900C at full load. The bed material is formed from the fuel ash (and sand in some cases). Due to the large heat capacity of the bed, combustion is stable and no supporting fuels are required, provided the fuel heating value is sufficient to raise the combustion air and the fuel itself above its ignition temperature. The intense turbulence ensures good mixing and combustion of the fuel. High heat transfer is obtained through the circulating material, which is approximately proportional to the load. That is, the boiler has good response over a wide range of loads with a relatively small excess air levels. Primary air is taken from the atmosphere by centrifugal fans. Air is being brought to the combustor wind box through air pre heater to prevent cold air from entering in to hot furnace. During initial start up, air pre heater bypassed through by pass ducts. In the wind box it is blown through the primary air nozzles situated in the refractory lined grate to fluidize the bed and

provide combustion air. Primary air fan control is via fan IGV / Multi louver damper / VFD control / hydraulic coupling according to the required airflow, which is measured by the aerofoil in the discharge duct before the air heater. There is a minimum flow of primary air required to fluidize the bed and prevent flow of the material through the nozzles. So at low loads the primary airflow remains constant and does not vary with load. Secondary air is also taken from the atmosphere by centrifugal fans and preheated in the air heater, as in the case of Primary air. Secondary air is brought in at specified levels from the grid. Secondary air achieves the "staged" combustion and completes the combustion of the fuel without the formation of excessive NOx. The secondary airflow is measured with an aerofoil in the discharge duct before the air heater. The secondary air fan is controlled with IGV / Multi louver damper / VFD control / hydraulic coupling according to the pressure down stream of the fan. CYCLONE: Cyclonic separation is a method of removing particulates from air, gas or water stream, without the use of any filters, through Principle of vortex separation. Rotational effects and gravity are used to separate mixtures of solids and fluids. A high speed rotating (air) flow is established within a cylindrical or conical container called a cyclone. Air flows in a spiral pattern, beginning at the top (wide end) of the cyclone and ending at the bottom (narrow) end before exiting the cyclone in a straight stream through the center of the cyclone and out the top. Larger (denser) particles in the rotating stream have too much inertia to follow the tight curve of the stream and strike the outside wall, falling then to the bottom of the cyclone where they can be removed. In a conical system, as the rotating flow moves towards the narrow end of the cyclone the rotational radius of the stream is reduced, separating smaller and smaller particles. The cyclone geometry, together with flow rate, defines the cut point of the cyclone. This is the size of particle that will be removed from the stream with a 50% efficiency. Particles larger than the cut point will be removed with greater efficiency, and smaller particles with a lower

efficiency.

Cyclone of KLTPS

Top (Inside) of Cyclone - Vortex finder

In CFBC boiler, refer fig 2, the bed material travels from combustor to cyclone through the connecting duct. Based on the cyclone separator principle as explained above, the coarser particles get separated from the finer particles, and travels downwards inside the cyclone and reaches seal pot. The finer particles go out through the cyclone out let duct to the back pass or second pass, along with hot flue gas. SEAL POT and LOOP SEAL Loop-seal, considered heart of a circulating fluidized bed (CFB), returns solids captured by cyclone to the base of the riser while preventing direct flow of gas from high pressure riser to the low-pressure cyclone. This non-mechanical valve is used in thousands of CFB systems.

Loop Seal The loop seal, an important component of CFBC boiler, is one type of non-mechanical valve for transfer of solids from the cyclone to the furnace. Proper operation of the loop seal is critical for the operation of CFBC boiler. If it fails to transfer solid at the required high rate, the furnace moves from fast to entrained bed conditions. This result in a large temperature gradient along the furnace, low heat absorption and high back pass temperature. The boiler suffers from loss in steam output, excessive steam temperature and high stack temperature. The loop seal also prevents leakage of air from the lower furnace to cyclone, When the loop seal functions properly, no air bypasses the furnace. FLUIDIZED BED HEAT EXCHANGERS (FBHE): Several CFBC boilers offer separate FBHEs, which are unfired which are unfired vessels that extract heat from the solids, collected by the cyclone before it is returned to the combustor. The FBHEs are used as evaporative heat transfer surfaces as well as super heat and reheat surfaces, depending on the design. An FBHE can be designed for total recirculation of solids from the cyclones or for partial flow with remainder of solids returned directly to the combustor. FBHEs use low fluidizing velocities and virtually no combustion occurs in the heat exchanger because of the low carbon content of the solids being circulated. Erosion/corrosion in the FBHE is not a significant concern because of the low fluidizing velocities and low levels of combustion. The initial FBHEs were separate stand alone vessels and were commonly called external heat exchangers. In more recent designs, the FBHEs have been incorporated in to the design of the combustor, usually sharing a wall with the combustor. In the integrated FBHE design, the walls of the FBHE are formed by water cooled membrane panels.

FBHE at KLTPS

--------to be continued..