Ash effects during combustion of lignite/biomass blends in fluidized bed

Aiming at investigating the role of minerals in evaluating co-firing applications of low rank coals and biomass materials, agricultural residues characteristic of the Mediterranean countries, one lignite and their blends with biomass proportions up to 20% wt, were burned in a lab-scale fluidized bed facility. Fly ashes and bed material were characterized in terms of mineralogical, chemical and morphological analyses and the slagging/fouling and agglomeration propensities were determined.The results showed that combustion of each fuel alone could provoke medium or high deposition problems. Combustion of raw fuels produced fly ashes rich in Ca, Si and Fe minerals, as well as K and Na minerals in the case of biomass samples. However, blending of the fuels resulted in a reduction of Ca, Fe, K and Na, while an increase of Si and Al elements in the fly ashes as compared to lignite combustion, suggesting lower deposition and corrosion problems in boilers firing these mixtures. The use of bauxite as an additive enriched bottom ash in calcium compounds. Under the conditions of the combustion tests, no signs of ash deposition or bed agglomeration were noticed.     

The use of equilibrium thermodynamic models for the prediction of inorganic phase changes in the co-firing of wheat straw with El Cerrejon coal

The combustion of pulverised coal in power stations results in slagging and fouling in the boiler section and this can be a more severe problem when co-fired with biomass, especially straw. Prediction of the effects of different combination of biomass and coal are helpful to the plant operators. Predictive software gives information about the onset and nature of the slag formed but often the results of these calculations have to be validated. This was undertaken in this work which gave a comparison of ash behaviour for coal (El Cerrejon) and wheat straw blends studied by ash fusion test, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and by using predictive software (FactSage). Ash prepared in the laboratory was also compared with ash produced in a 250 kW pilot-scale test furnace. The FactSage model showed good agreements with XRD data for the presence of inorganic phases with temperature, although it predicted some inorganic phases which are not detected in the XRD, particularly in low temperature ashes. Nevertheless, FactSage gave insight into liquid phase formation, more so than the ash fusion test, since it predicted the beginning of slag formation below the initial deformation temperature seen in the ash fusion test. For the coal, wheat straw and their blends, FactSage always predicted that slag formation is near to completion by the flow temperature observed in the ash fusion test.     

Effect of leaching on the ash behavior of wheat straw and olive residue during fluidized bed combustion

Fluidized bed combustion has been proven to be an attractive method for the conversion of agroresidues to energy offering economical and environmental benefits. The low melting point ash of agroresidues cause a number of problems e.g., sintering, agglomeration, deposition, etc., which consist the main obstacles for economical and viable application of this conversion method. Leaching that is considered to be a low cost pretreatment technique for the elimination of ash related problems in biomass boilers studied here. The produced results clearly demonstrate that leaching could help significantly to reduce the ash related problems caused during the operation of fluidized bed combustors with biomass.     

CFD modeling and experimental study of multi-walled carbon nanotubes production by fluidized bed catalytic chemical vapor deposition

A parametric study investigating the impact of temperature, gas velocity, and composition of the gaseous phase on the catalytic growth of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) has been performed. CNTs have been produced by catalytic chemical vapor deposition from methane decomposition over Co-Mo/MgO with average diameter of 188 μm with spherical shape in a fluidized bed reactor. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used for simulating the hydrodynamics of the reactor and investigating the operational and best velocity for producing high quality CNTs by this system. The operational and best velocities obtained by simulation were 0.015 to 0.05 m/s and near 0.015 m/s. Then the results used in the experiments with different temperature and gas compositions. CNTs products were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The results showed that temperature of 900 °C, methane to hydrogen volume ratio 1:4 and 0.02 m/s are the best quantities of the parameters for CNTs growth.     

Simulation of ash deposition in different furnace temperature with a 2D dynamic mesh model

Ash deposit on the heat exchangers reduces the heat transfer efficiency and even threatens the operation of the equipment. The tool of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) allows for better understanding of the deposit formation and the prediction of the process. This paper presents an improved CFD model to reproduce the growth of ash deposition on a temperature-controlled probe in a pilot-scale furnace with the commercial software Fluent16.0. Dynamic mesh technique is included to investigate the shape variation of the ash deposit during the deposit growth. The model is improved by taking the changing surface temperature of the deposition into consideration. The deposition efficiency, surface temperature and heat flux through the deposit are monitored as the iteration. Three cases are presented to investigate the influence of furnace temperature (1473 K, 1523 K and 1573 K). The results show that the deposition efficiency increases with the increasing surface temperature of the deposit while the mass flow of impaction decreases with the changing flow field. The growth rates of the deposit for the three cases are 0.064, 0.079 and 0.103 mm/min within the simulation time which is consistent with experiment results. The simulated surface temperature shows the same trend of the experimental values. The heat flux in the simulation decreases with a range of 38.2%, 50.3% and 50% for the three cases, respectively. This method of modelling can be used to predict the growth of deposit accurately.     

An experimental and modeling analysis of vapor transport deposition of cadmium telluride

Vapor transport deposition (VTD) was employed for high-rate deposition of CdTe thin film solar absorbers. A detailed model was developed for CdTe deposition that included the role of source conditions, convective mass transport, and deposition chemistry. A Langmuir formulation that was consistent with experimental observations of resublimation was used to describe the surface reaction probability. Comparisons of experiment and model showed very good agreement over a range of operating conditions. The model predicts an optimum operating pressure for VTD, arising from a competition between surface kinetics and dilution of the precursor species. For VTD deposition of CdTe the optimum pressure is in the range of 2–5 Torr. These modeling concepts may be easily extended to VTD of other materials as well.     

微粒污垢沉积率的理论分析与实验研究

建立了一个小规模实验装置,利用该装置研究了微粒粒径、表面涂层类型、悬浮液温度等因素对微粒污垢沉积率的影响,得到了非常独特的实验结果。悬浮液温度在50℃时,微粒污垢沉积率最大。基于污垢附着机制对这一实验结果进行分析,理论上证实了在某一悬浮液温度微粒污垢沉积率最大,并进一步推导出了微粒污垢沉积率最大时的悬浮液温度与换热面表面自由能之间的关系式。     

Effects of ash composition and ash stack heights on soot deposition and oxidation processes in catalytic diesel particulate filter

In order to provide the theorical basis for regeneration strategy and solid catalytic reaction of catalytic diesel particulate filter (CDPF), the effects of ash composition and ash stack heights on soot deposition and oxidation processes in CDPF are investigated. The MgO ash nanoparticles have an inert effect on soot oxidation process through a series of thermogravimetric experiments. Based on the visualized single-channel bench, the influence of ash stack height on the soot deposition and regeneration processes is studied. The deposition process of soot particles on the CDPF slice without ash is divided into three stages, including depth filtration, transitional filtration and soot cake formation stages. When the ash stack height is 15 μm, there are only transitional filtration and soot cake formation stages. Then, only soot cake formation stage remains when the height increases to 30 μm. During the regeneration process, the pressure drop mainly has three linear decline stages, the oxidation rates of which are 0.77, 1.78 and 0.54 Pa/s, respectively. When the ash stack height increases from 0 to 30 μm, the oxidation rate of soot layer during Ⅱ-regeneration stage decreases from 1.78 to 0.51 Pa/s. The oxidation rate is 0.51 Pa/s at 30 μm ash stack height, which is close to the 0.55 Pa/s oxidation rate of the clean DPF sample. Consequently, around 30 μm ash stack height is the limit distance of back-diffusion of active oxygen molecules, which leads to the failure of the CDPF catalytic layer.     

Reactivation of limestone sorbents in FBC for SO2 capture

Fluidized bed combustion (FBC) has the considerable advantage of being capable of burning high-sulphur fuels while achieving in situ sulphur capture by means of limestone addition. Unfortunately the efficiency of this process is limited, and limestone utilization in the range of 30–45% is not uncommon. In consequence, improving limestone utilization has long been an aim of FBC research. The principal directions this research has taken are the use of water (as liquid or vapour) to reactivate the spent sorbent, or mixing of chemical additives with the limestone to improve its utilization. Despite research stretching over the entire history of FBC combustion, there are still no working commercial applications of reactivation technology noted in the open literature. It is the aim of this paper to present some of the more important research undertaken in this field and to explore the major knowledge gaps that still exist in the area of sorbent reactivation.     

A novel method used to study growth of ash deposition and in situ measurement of effective thermal conductivity of ash deposit

Ash deposition always brings boilers some trouble due to fouling or slagging. In this paper, a completely controlled system was developed to study the growth of ash deposit. A novel sampling probe was designed to online measure the heat flux through ash deposit. Additionally, the thickness of ash deposit can be obtained by an online figure collecting system. The results of this research showed that as the thickness of ash deposit increased, the heat flux decreased. It was also found that at the initial stage of ash deposition when the thickness of ash deposit is approximately 1 mm, the heat flux through ash deposit had a sharp reduction. An effective method was attempted to situ measure the effective thermal conductivity of the ash deposit in the simulated combustion flue gas. It was found that temperature of the ash deposit layer had no obvious effect on its value. It was concluded that the structure of ash deposit had no obvious change in a short deposition time of 30 min with varied surface temperatures of the probe head between 400 °C and 600 °C.     

Assessment of the rice husk lean-combustion in a bubbling fluidized bed for the production of amorphous silica-rich ash

Rice husk lean-combustion in a bubbling and atmospheric fluidized bed reactor (FBR) of 0.3 m diameter with expansion to 0.4 m in the freeboard zone and 3 m height was investigated. Experiment design - response surface methodology (RSM) - is used to evaluate both excess air and normal fluidizing velocity influence (independent and controllable variables), in the combustion efficiency (carbon transformation), bed and freeboard temperature and silica content in the ashes. Hot gases emissions (CO₂, CO and NO_x), crystallographic structure and morphology of the ash are also shown. A cold fluidization study is also presented. The values implemented in the equipment operation, excess air in the range of 40-125% and normal fluidization velocities (0.13-0.15 Nm/s) show that the values near the lower limit, encourage bed temperatures around 750 °C with higher carbon transformation efficiencies around 98%. However, this condition deteriorated the amorphous potential of silica present in the ash. An opposite behavior was evidenced at the upper limit of the excess air. This thermochemical process in this type of reactor shows the technical feasibility to valorize RH producing hot gases and an amorphous siliceous raw material.     

Conceptual design and analysis of a novel system based on ash agglomerating fluidized bed gasification for co-production of hydrogen and electricity

In this paper, a novel system with ash agglomerating fluidized bed gasification and CO₂ capture to produce hydrogen and electricity is firstly designed in Aspen Plus. The newly-proposed system is composed of eight subsystems, namely air separation unit, gasification unit, water gas shift unit, Rectisol unit, CO₂ compression unit, Claus unit, pressure swing adsorption unit, gas and steam turbine unit. The thermodynamic performance and hydrogen to coal ratio of the new proposed system are investigated. The results demonstrate that the hydrogen to coal ratio, energy efficiency, net electricity power and exergy efficiency of the overall system for Yangcheng anthracite are 0.096 kg/kg, 46.52%, 1.71 MW and 43.92%, respectively. Additionally, the exergy destruction ratio and exergy efficiency of each subsystem are researched. More importantly, the influences of the oxygen to coal ratio, steam to coal ratio and coal types on the hydrogen to coal ratio, energy efficiency and exergy efficiency are also studied.     

Characteristics of SOFC single cells with anode active layer via tape casting and co-firing

SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) single cells with anode active layers of various thicknesses were fabricated successfully via tape casting and co-firing in order to improve their electrochemical performance and long-term stability. The mercury porosimeter and the gas permeability were measured so as to examine the effects of the anode active layer while under a gaseous flow. It was found that the anode active layers affected the microstructural characteristics as a result of the pore distribution and the gas permeation behavior. The anode active layers improved the cell performance by increasing the number of active sites in the anode. The thickness of the anode active layer was optimized at 20 μm in this work through a combination of the power density, the ohmic ASR (area specific resistance), and the cell ASR. SOFCs with the optimized active layer showed good electrochemical performance at 600–700 °C in hydrogen or hydrocarbon fuel (methane) and excellent long-term stability for 500 h.     

Experimental and modeling study of laminar burning velocity of biomass derived gases/air mixtures

Laminar burning velocities of four biomass derived gases have been measured at atmospheric pressure over a range of equivalence ratios and hydrogen contents, using the heat flux method on a perforated flat flame burner. The studied gas mixtures include an air-blown gasification gas from an industrial gasification plant, a model gasification gas studied in the literature, and an upgraded landfill gas (bio-methane). In addition, co-firing of the industrial gasification gas (80% on volume basis) with methane (20% on volume basis) is studied. Model simulations using GRI mechanisms and detailed transport properties are carried out to compare with the measured laminar burning velocities. The results of the bio-methane flame are generally in good agreement with data in the literature and the prediction using GRI-Mech 3.0. The measured laminar burning velocity of the industrial gasification gas is generally higher than the predictions from GRI-Mech 3.0 mechanism but agree rather well with the predictions from GRI-Mech 2.11 for lean and moderate rich mixtures. For rich mixtures, the GRI mechanisms under-predict the laminar burning velocities. For the model gasification gas, the measured laminar burning velocity is higher than the data reported in the literature. The peak burning velocities of the gasification gases/air and the co-firing gases/air mixtures are in richer mixtures than the bio-methane/air mixtures due to the presence of hydrogen and CO in the gasification gases. The GRI mechanisms could well predict the rich shift of the peak burning velocity for the gasification gases but yield large discrepancy for the very rich gasification gas mixtures. The laminar burning velocities for the bio-methane/air mixtures at elevated initial temperatures are measured and compared with the literature data.     

Evaluation of different biomass gasification modeling approaches for fluidized bed gasifiers

To develop a model for biomass gasification in fluidized bed gasifiers with high accuracy and generality that could be used under various operating conditions, the equilibrium model (EM) is chosen as a general and case-independent modeling method. However, EM lacks sufficient accuracy in predicting the content (volume fraction) of four major components (H₂, CO, CO₂ and CH₄) in product gas. In this paper, three approaches—MODEL I, which restricts equilibrium to a specific temperature (QET method); MODEL II, which uses empirical correlations for carbon, CH₄, C₂H₂, C₂H₄, C₂H₆ and NH₃ conversion; and MODEL III, which includes kinetic and hydrodynamic equations—have been studied and compared to map the barriers and complexities involved in developing an accurate and generic model for the gasification of biomass.This study indicates that existing empirical correlations can be further improved by considering more experimental data. The updated model features better accuracy in the prediction of product gas composition in a larger range of operating conditions. Additionally, combining the QET method with a kinetic and hydrodynamic approach results in a model that features less overall error than the original model based on a kinetic and hydrodynamic approach.     

The efficiency of heat transfer through the ash deposits on the heat exchange surfaces by burning coal and coal-water fuels

The results of the numerical simulation of heat transfer from the combustion products of coal and coal-water fuels (CWF) to the internal environment. The mathematical simulation has been carried out on the sample of the pipe surfaces of the combustion chamber of the boiler unit. The change in the characteristics of heat transfer (change of thermochemical characteristics) in the conditions of formation of the ash deposits have been taken into account. According to the results of the numerical simulation, the comparative analysis of the efficiency of heat transfer has been carried out from the furnace environment to the inside pipe coolant (water, air, or water vapor) from the combustion of coal and coal-water fuels. It has been established that, in the initial period of the boiler unit operation during coal fuel combustion the efficiency of heat transfer from the combustion products of the internal environment is higher than when using CWF. The efficiency of heat transfer in CWF combustion conditions is more at large times (t ≥ 1.5 h) of the boiler unit. According to the results the numerical simulation of the temperature distributions in the system “pipeline environment — pipe wall — a layer of ash — the products of combustion” have been obtained. A significant decrease in heat flux from the combustion products to the inside pipe coolant in the case of coal combustion compared to CWF has been found. It has been proved that this is due primarily to the fact that massive and strong ash deposits are formed during coal combustion.     

Experimental study on combustion and pollutants emissions of oil sludge blended with microalgae residue

Experimental study on co-combustion of oil sludge (OS) and microalgae residue (MR) was conducted with a thermogravimetric analyzer and a designed fluidized bed reactor system. Combustion process of OS blended with MR could be divided into four stages, water evaporation, volatiles release and combustion, fixed carbon combustion and minerals decomposition. With MR ratio increasing, combustion performance of the mixture became better. MR addition can help improve the combustion performance of OS. NO_x and SO₂ concentrations increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of combustion temperature which ranged from 800 to 1100?°C. With the increase of excess air ratio α, NO_x and SO₂ emissions increased. Generally, NO_x and SO₂ emissions decreased with MR ratio increased at 800?°C, which is caused by the catalysis effect of ash and heavy metals in OS. OS blended with MR could both improve combustion performance and help reduce NO_x and SO₂ emissions during OS combustion, which provides an effective approach to massive synergistic disposal of waste resources.     

循环流化床锅炉排渣分选装置的冷态试验研究

在一个可视化冷态试验台上对新型排渣分选装置的气固流动特性进行了试验研究,试验结果表明：分选室和主床同时运行时,主床和分选室之间存在合理的压力分布以形成“主床-分选室-主床”的颗粒循环运动;初始床料特性对分选室分选效果有一定的影响;分选室分选效果随着流化风速比ξ的增大而变好。     

Co-firing biomass with coal for electricity generation—An assessment of the potential in EU27

The European Union aims to increase bioenergy use. Co-firing biomass with coal represents an attractive near-term option for electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES-E). This study assesses the near-term technical potential for biomass co-firing with coal in the existing coal-fired power plant infrastructure in the EU27 Member States. The total technical potential for RES-E from biomass co-firing amounts to approximately 50–90 TWh/yr, which requires a biomass supply of approximately 500–900 PJ/yr. The estimated co-firing potential in EU27 amounts to 20–35% of the estimated gap between current RES-E production and the RES-E target for 2010. However, for some member states the national co-firing potential is large enough to fill the national gap. The national biomass supply potential is considerably larger than the estimated biomass demand for co-firing for all member states. About 45% of the estimated biomass demand for co-firing comes from plants located close to the sea or near main navigable rivers and indicates the possibility for biomass import by sea transport. Thus, biomass co-firing has the potential to contribute substantially to the RES-E development in EU27.