Oxidant control and air-oxy switching concepts for CFB furnace operation

Oxy combustion in circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers was investigated in this paper. Oxy combustion is a carbon capture and storage technology, which uses oxygen and recirculated flue gas (RFG) instead of air as an oxidant. Air and oxy combustion were compared through physical considerations and simulations, focusing on process dynamics, transients and control. The oxidant specific heat capacity and density are elevated in oxy combustion, which leads to slower temperature dynamics. Flue gas recirculation introduces internal feedback dynamics to the process. The possibility to adjust the RFG and oxygen flows separately gives an additional degree of freedom for control. In the simulations, “direct” and “sequenced” switches between air- and oxy-firing were compared. Fast “direct” switches with simultaneous ramping of all inputs should be preferred due to the resulting smooth temperature responses. If these process input changes are unfeasible, the fuel should be altered after the gaseous flows (“sequenced” method).