Modeling and countermeasures of combustion characteristics of char particles in CFBC

INTRAODUCTIONAsahigh-efficiencyandcleancoalcombustiontechnology,circulatingfluidizedbed(CFB)combustiontechnologyachievesrapiddevelopmentinChinaforburningvariouslow--gradefuels.ThescalerupofCFBboilersbecomesakeypointconcernedbytheCFBboilerdesigners.At...     

Modeling char oxidation behavior under Zone II burning conditions at elevated pressures

For accurate modeling of the coal combustion process at elevated pressures, account must be made for variations in char-particle structure. As pressure is increased, particle swelling increases during the devolatilization of certain bituminous coals, yielding a variety of char-particle structures, from uniform high-density particles to thin-walled non-uniform low-density particles having large internal void volumes. Since under Zone II burning conditions the char conversion rate depends upon the accessibility of the internal surfaces, the char structure plays a key role in determining particle burnout times. In our approach to characterize the impact of char structure on particle burning rates, effectiveness factors appropriate for thin-walled cenospherical particles and thick-walled particles having a few large cavities are defined and related to the effectiveness factor for uniform high-density particles that have no large voids, only a random distribution of pores having a mean pore size in the sub-micron range. For the uniform case, the Thiele modulus approach is used to account for Zone II type burning in which internal burning is limited by the combined effects of pore diffusion and the intrinsic chemical reactivity of the carbonaceous material. In the paper, the impact of having a variety of char structures in a mix of particles burning under Zone II burning conditions is demonstrated.     

Experimental studies of ash film fractions based on measurement of cenospheres geometry in pulverized coal combustion

In pulverized coal particle combustion, part of the ash forms the ash film and exerts an inhibitory influence on combustion by impeding the diffusion of oxygen to the encapsulated char core, while part of the ash diffuses toward the char core. Despite the considerable ash effects on combustion, the fraction of ash film still remains unclear. However, the research of the properties of cenospheres can be an appropriate choice for the fraction determination, being aware that the formation of cenospheres is based on the model of coal particles with the visco-plastic ash film and a solid core. The fraction of ash film X is the ratio of the measuring mass of ash film and the total ash in coal particle. In this paper, the Huangling bituminous coal with different sizes was burnt in a drop-tube furnace at 1273, 1473, and 1673 K with air as oxidizer. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) and cross-section analysis have been used to study the geometry of the collected cenospheres and the effects of combustion parameters on the fraction of ash film. The results show that the ash film fraction increases with increasing temperature and carbon conversion ratio but decreases with larger sizes of coal particles. The high fraction of ash film provides a reasonable explanation for the extinction event at the late burnout stage. The varied values of ash film fractions under different conditions during the dynamic combustion process are necessary for further development of kinetic models.     

Analysis and modeling of char particle combustion with heat and multicomponent mass transfer

A char combustion model suitable for a large-scale boiler/gasifier simulation, which considers the variation of physical quantities in the radial direction of char particles, is developed and examined. The structural evolution within particles is formulated using the basic concept of the random pore model while simultaneously considering particle shrinkage. To reduce the computational cost, a new approximate analytical boundary condition is applied to the particle surface, which is approximately derived from the Stefan–Maxwell equations. The boundary condition showed reasonably good agreement with direct numerical integration with a fine grid resolution by the finite difference method under arbitrary conditions. The model was applied to combustion in a drop tube furnace and showed qualitatively good agreement with experiments, including for the burnout behavior in the late stages. It is revealed that the profiles of the oxygen mole fraction, conversion, and combustion rate have considerably different characteristics in small and large particles. This means that a model that considers one total conversion for each particle is insufficient to describe the state of particles. Since our char combustion model requires only one fitting parameter, which is determined from information on the internal geometry of char particles, it is useful for performing numerical simulations.     

Experimental investigation of the two-phase theory in a fluidized-bed combustor

Though the two-phase theory of fluidization is well-accepted, no direct experimental measurements of the different gas concentrations predicted to occur in bubble and particulate phases could be found in the literature. For the first time, theoretical predictions of these different gas concentrations have been validated experimentally, using a combined oxygen/bubble probe. Based on the two-phase theory, a mathematical model was developed for the combustion of a batch of char particles in a fluidized-bed combustor. The experimental oxygen concentration in the particulate phase as a function of time was well predicted by the model. Slight discrepancies for the bubble phase values were eliminated when low-oxygen-concentration bubbles were excluded from the data, attributed to some char combustion occurring in bubbles being contrary to the model assumption. The temperature difference between char and bed particles (ΔT) was the only adjustable parameter in the model. A value of 20°C fitted the burnoff times measured by visual observation of the top of the bed, for both 5 and 10 g char batch masses. Model predictions of the oxygen concentrations were not sensitive to ΔT during the first half of burnoff, when mass transfer controlled the combustion rate, so the mass transfer processes were predicted correctly by the model effectively with no adjustable parameter. The ΔT value of 20°C was significantly lower than experimental measurements of maximum burning char particle temperatures, reported to be 70°C for the small-diameter bed particles used in this work. The discrepancy was attributed to two factors: (i) the decrease in char particle temperature towards the end of the burnoff, when kinetics significantly affected the combustion rate; and (ii) a lower char particle temperature in the particulate phase than in the bubble phase, with experimental char particle temperature measurements biased towards the higher bubble phase values. It was inferred: (i) that the maximum values of ΔT measured experimentally are too high for calculation of the char particle combustion rate during the kinetic-controlled latter stage of burnoff and (ii) that reported values of the heat transfer coefficient from burning char particles to the particulate phase deduced from these particle temperature measurements may have been underestimated.     

Effect of reactivity loss on apparent reaction order of burning char particles

Considerable debate still exists in the char combustion community over the expected and observed reaction orders of carbon reacting with oxygen. In particular, very low values of the reaction order (approaching zero) are commonly observed in char combustion experiments. These observations appear to conflict with porous catalyst theory as first expressed by Thiele, which suggests that the apparent reaction order must be greater than 0.5. In this work, we propose that this conflict may be resolved by considering the decrease in char reactivity with burnout due to ash effects, thermal annealing, or other phenomena. Specifically, the influence of ash dilution of the available surface area on the apparent reaction order is explored. Equations describing the ash dilution effect are combined with a model for particle burnout based on single-film nth-order Arrhenius char combustion and yield an analytical expression for the effective reaction order. When this expression is applied for experimental conditions reflecting combustion of individual pulverized coal particles in an entrained flow reactor, the apparent reaction order is shown to be lower than the inherent char matrix reaction order, even for negligible extents of char conversion. As char conversion proceeds and approaches completion, the apparent reaction order drops precipitously past zero to negative values. Conversely, the inclusion of the ash dilution model has little effect on the char conversion profile or char particle temperature until significant burnout has occurred. Taken together, these results suggest that the common experimental observation of low apparent reaction orders during char combustion is a consequence of the lack of explicit modeling of the decrease in char reactivity with burnout.     

Effect of CO2 and steam gasification reactions on the oxy-combustion of pulverized coal char

For oxy-combustion with flue gas recirculation, elevated levels of CO₂ and steam affect the heat capacity of the gas, radiant transport, and other gas transport properties. A topic of widespread speculation has concerned the effect of gasification reactions of coal char on the char burning rate. To asses the impact of these reactions on the oxy-fuel combustion of pulverized coal char, we computed the char consumption characteristics for a range of CO₂ and H₂O reaction rate coefficients for a 100 μm coal char particle reacting in environments of varying O₂, H₂O, and CO₂ concentrations using the kinetics code SKIPPY (Surface Kinetics in Porous Particles). Results indicate that gasification reactions reduce the char particle temperature significantly (because of the reaction endothermicity) and thereby reduce the rate of char oxidation and the radiant emission from burning char particles. However, the overall effect of the combined steam and CO₂ gasification reactions is to increase the carbon consumption rate by approximately 10% in typical oxy-fuel combustion environments. The gasification reactions have a greater influence on char combustion in oxygen-enriched environments, due to the higher char combustion temperature under these conditions. In addition, the gasification reactions have increasing influence as the gas temperature increases (for a given O₂ concentration) and as the particle size increases. Gasification reactions account for roughly 20% of the carbon consumption in low oxygen conditions, and for about 30% under oxygen-enriched conditions. An increase in the carbon consumption rate and a decrease in particle temperature are also evident under conventional air-blown combustion conditions when the gasification reactions are included in the model.     

Coal char particle secondary fragmentation in an entrained-flow coal-water slurry gasifier

Coal char particle size in the gasifier has an influence on the carbon conversion, gasifier slagging as well as the particle matter content in raw syngas. The particle size distribution in a bench-scale opposed multi-burner (OMB) gasifier illustrated that the secondary fragmentation behavior exists in the entrained-flow gasifier after the particles moving from high temperature impinging flame region to the gasification chamber outlet region. Particles larger than 200 μm in the impinging flame region have porosity structures with fragile shapes. Particle size distributions under different oxygen to carbon ratios (O/C) also indicate that there is an obvious fragmentation while the particle size is larger than 200 μm. As long as the coal char particles move from the impinging flame region towards the gasification chamber outlet region, the secondary fragmentation is probably taken place as a result of percolative fragmentation, undergoing gasification reactions and thermal stress. However, thermal stress fragmentation only has an influence on the particle sizes larger than 350 μm according to the calculation by a simplified mathematical model.     

On the burning behavior of pulverized coal chars

A model that predicts the physical changes that pulverized coal char particles undergo during combustion has been developed. In the model, a burning particle is divided into a number of concentric annular volume elements. The mass loss rate, specific surface area, and apparent density in each volume element depend upon the local particle conditions, which vary as a consequence of the adsorbed oxygen and gas-phase oxygen concentration gradients inside the particle. The model predicts the particle's burning rate, temperature, diameter, apparent density, and specific surface area as combustion proceeds, given ambient conditions and initial char properties. A six-step heterogeneous reaction mechanism is used to describe carbon reactivity to oxygen. A distributed activation energy approach is used to account for the variation in desorption energies of adsorbed O-atoms on the carbonaceous surface. Model calculations support the three burning zones established for the oxidation of pulverized coal chars. The model indicates two types of zone II behavior, however. Under weak zone II burning conditions, constant-diameter burning occurs up to 30% to 50% conversion before burning commences with reductions in both size and apparent density. Under strong zone II conditions, particles burn with reductions in both size and apparent density after an initial short period (<2% conversion) of constant-diameter burning. Model predictions reveal that early in the oxidation process, there is mass loss at constant diameter under all zone II burning conditions. Such weak and strong burning behavior cannot be predicted with the commonly used power-law model for the mode of burning employing a single value for the burning mode parameter. Model calculations also reveal how specific surface area evolves when oxidation occurs in the zone II burning regime. Based on the calculated results, a surface area submodel that accounts for the effects of pore growth and coalescence during combustion under zone I conditions was modified to permit the characterization of the variations in specific surface area that occur during char conversion under zones II conditions. The modified surface area model is applicable to all burning regimes. Calculations also indicate that the particle's effectiveness factor varies during conversion under zone II burning conditions. With the adsorption/desorption mechanism employed, a near first-order Thiele modulus-effectiveness factor relationship is obeyed over the particle's lifetime.     

Particle size,porosity and temperature effects on char conversion

The effect of particle size, porosity and reactor temperature/reaction rate constant on the progress of a char particle conversion has been investigated numerically by solving the transport equation inside a reacting char particle. Numerical simulations have been conducted for three cases that include two extreme cases and one general case. The two extreme cases correspond to a very large Damkohler number (3.2607 × 10³) and a very small Damkohler number (0.0042). The third case corresponds to an intermediate value of Damkohler number. For the very large Damkohler number case, concentration profiles of the gasifying agent showed a steep gradient across the particle and the reaction occurred mostly in outer layer of the particle. This behavior corresponds to a diffusion controlled process. For the very small Damkohler number case, gasifying agent concentration was a straight line parallel to the x-axis, with a y-axis value of the surrounding concentration. The reaction occurred homogeneously across the particle and the degree of conversion was only a function in time. This behavior corresponds to a chemically controlled process. The total conversion of the char particle as a function of time has also been calculated for different particle sizes, initial porosity and reaction rate constant. Variation in conversion profiles as a function of time due to variation in initial porosity and reaction rate constant were limited to a certain extent. Very high initial porosity values tend to shift the process towards a chemically controlled one; any further increase in porosity does not have a positive effect on the conversion–time relationship. Very high reaction rate constants tend to shift the process towards diffusion controlled process. Kinetic parameters have been determined experimentally using a chemically controlled process. The obtained parameters have been used in the model to determine the progress of char particle conversion at an increased reactor temperature of 1000 °C. The model has been compared to experimental results at the same temperature (1000 °C). The results showed very good agreement.     

Numerical studies on the reaction of carbon particles in a vacuum residue—air flame

A computational work was carried out for the study of one‐dimensional, laminar, premixed, flat, atomized vacuum residue (VR) particle–air flames. The mathematical model includes the specified pyrolysis scheme, soot and char oxidation scheme. With some experimental works, the product composition and kinetic parameters of VR pyrolysis were determined and used for the present computational work. The computed results show that the oxidation of VR carbon char and soot occurs mainly in the reaction zone and the oxidation rate of soot is much higher than that of VR carbon char. The oxidation rates of carbon char and soot can be increased with the decrease in particle diameter, and it might be accomplished by the more effective atomization and mixing of solid particles with combustion air. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mechanism and kinetics of sodium release from brown coal char particles during combustion

A model for the release of sodium during the combustion of single Loy Yang brown coal char particles is presented. The model is combined with further analysis of recently published measurements of the release of sodium from single brown coal particles burning in a flat flame to estimate the rate constant for sodium release as a function of burnout time for these experiments. A char combustion and heat transfer model is also used to predict the char burnout behaviour and surface temperature of the particle as a function of time during combustion for each of the experiments. By combining the predicted time–temperature history of the particles with the estimated rate constant for sodium release, an Arrhenius expression for the release of sodium during char combustion is determined as:A full mechanism for sodium release during the various stages of coal combustion is also proposed. Utilising the proposed mechanism, the rate-determining step for sodium release during char combustion is proposed to be the formation of a reduced form of sodium in the char which subsequently leads to the rapid loss of sodium from the particle.     

Numerical Studies on Combustion Characteristics of Interacting Pulverized Coal Particles at Various Oxygen Concentration

The two-dimensional laminar combustion characteristics of coal particles at various oxygen concentration levels of a surrounding gas have been numerically investigated. The numerical simulations, which use the two-step global reaction model to account for the surrounding gas effect, show the detailed interaction among the inter-spaced particles, undergoing devolatilization and subsequent char burning. Several parametric studies, which include the effects of gas temperature (1700 K), oxygen concentration, and variation in geometrical arrangement of the particles on the volatile release rate and the char burning rate, have been carried out. To address the change in the geometrical arrangement effect, multiple particles are located at various inter-spacings of 4–20 particle radii in both streamwise and spanwise directions. The results for the case of multiple particles are compared with those for the case of a single particle. The comparison indicates that the shift to the multiple particle arrangement resulted in the substantial change of the combustion characteristics and that the volatile release rate of the interacting coal particles exhibits a strong dependency on the particle spacing. The char combustion rate is controlled by the level of oxygen concentration and gas composition near particles during combustion. The char combustion rate is highly dependent on the particle spacing at all oxygen levels. The correlations of the volatile release rate and the change in total mass of particles are also found.     

The influence of alkaline catalysts on combustion of coal particles

With increasingly stringent environmental limitations, it is essential to develop and study low-emission combustion techniques such as fluidized bed combustion. In this work, an experimental work was carried out to study the influence of minerals on combustion characteristics of Tabas coal in a one-stage fluidized bed. The results showed that the alkaline minerals have a significant influence on the combustion behavior of coal particles, especially at higher temperatures. It was also found that the residence time has a significant role in both the higher thermal energy and char conversion, due to a considerable increase in the rate of reactions especially at the beginning of the process.     

循环流化床锅炉的飞灰含碳量问题

循环流化床锅炉的飞灰含碳量问题近年来受到关注。对实际运行的多台燃烧各种燃料的220t／h锅炉的飞灰样品测定表明：飞灰的含碳量具有明显的不均匀性。分析了煤质、分离器及运行条件对飞灰含碳量的影响。结果表明：循环流化床锅炉燃烧过程中焦炭反应性逐渐下降;焦炭燃烧过程中发生的爆裂、磨损、失活等行为与煤种有关,对循环流化床锅炉飞灰碳燃尽有很大影响。气固混和不均匀是导致较高的飞灰含碳量的原因之一。图7表2参13     

Numerical Simulation of Pressure Effects on the Gasification of Australian and Indian Coals in a Tubular Gasifier

This article presents a numerical study on the effect of pressure on the gasification performance of an entrained flow tubular gasifier for Australian and Indian coals. Gasification using a substoichiometric amount of air, with or without steam addition, is considered. The model takes into account phenomena such as devolatilization, combustion of volatiles, char combustion, and gasification. Continuous-phase conservation equations are solved in an Eulerian frame and those of the particle phase are solved in a Lagrangian frame, with coupling between the two phases carried out through interactive source terms. The numerical results obtained show that the gasification performance increases for both types of coal when the pressure is increased. Locations of devolatilization, combustion, and gasification zones inside the gasifier are analyzed using the temperature plots, devolatilization plots, and mass depletion histories of coal particles. With increase in pressure, the temperature inside the gasifier increases and also the position of maximum temperature shifts upstream. For the high-ash Indian coal, the combustion of volatiles and char and the gasification process are relatively slower than those for the low-ash Australian coal. The mole fractions of CO and H₂ are found to increase with increase in pressure, in all the cases considered. Further, the effects of pressure on overall gasification performance parameters such as carbon conversion, product gas heating value, and cold gas efficiency are also discussed for both types of coals.     

Numerical studies on the combustion properties of char particle clusters

Particle clustering is an important phenomenon in dense particle–gas two-phase flow. One of the key problems worth studying is the reacting properties of particle clusters in coal particle combustion process in the dense particle region. In this paper, a two-dimensional mathematical model for the char cluster combustion in airflow field is established. This char cluster consists of several individual particles. The comprehensive model includes mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations for both gas and particle phases. Detailed results regarding velocity vector, mass component, and temperature distributions inside and around the cluster are obtained. The micro-scale mass and heat transfer occurred inside and around the char cluster are revealed. By contrastively studying the stable combustion of char particle clusters consisting of different particles, the combustion properties of char clusters in various particle concentrations are presented and discussed.     

Continuous lignite char combustion in a spouted bed

A simulation model of continuous lignite char combustion in a spouted bed has been developed to predict bed oxygen concentrations, bed particle size distribution, bed carbon loading, mean diameter of bed char, and the fractional combustion in spout, annulus, and fountain. The approach involves taking into account the spouted bed hydrodynamics, a burning law for individual particles, and the combines mass balances for bed char and oxidant in the three typical regions. The predicted results for various operating conditions are compared with some experimental data.     

Interactive processes in gasification and combustion—Part III: Coal/char particle arrays, streams and clouds

A comprehensive review is presented on the interactive transport processes in the gasification and combustion of a cloud of drops and solid particles. The review is divided into three parts. Part I is concerned with the interactive processes for arrays, streams and clouds of drops, Part II presents a review of isolated coal, carbon and porous char particles pertaining to interactive processes, and finally Part III deals with the interactive processes for solid particle arrays, streams and clouds. Isolated particle gasification (pyrolysis and heterogeneous) and combustion were briefly reviewed in Part II. Because of strong analogy of the group ignition and combustion, to porous char ignition and combustion, the literature on porous char combustion was also included in Part II and new results were presented on the internal ignition of porous char particle using Frank-Kamanetsky type of analysis. Part III presents an integrated approach starting from arrays to clouds and gasification to combustion. The interactions occur through processes ranging from pure diffusive to convective transport processes. Approximate criteria for interactive processes are given.

As opposed to liquid drop arrays and clouds, there is no systematic study for arrays of char or coal particles. Due to the similarity between droplet evaporation and char combustion, new results are presented for the combustion of char arrays in quiescent atmosphere. Convective effects are also briefly discussed. Expanding the Frank-Kamenetsky analysis to ignition of clouds, simple solutions are presented for cloud ignition temperatures. A comparison of results between different techniques and between theory and experiment is given.

Interesting results for the ignition characteristics of coal dispersions are obtained in that the particles with relatively small or low volatile matter which ignite heterogeneously when isolated are found to ignite homogeneously under cloud conditions. The minimum ignition temperature is found to increase with decrease in size under isolated mode while the opposite is true under interactions. The problems of the gasification, ignition, and combustion of clouds in confined and unconfined volumes are reviewed.

Experiments conducted with streams (laminar flow reactors, LFR) and clouds (TGA, heated grids, shock tubes, batch of particles in LFR, Hertzberg Ignition apparatus) are reviewed. Following the drop literature, the relation between array and group combustion is presented. Finally, the relevance of the reviewed literature to pollutants' formation and destruction and spray combustion modeling is briefly discussed.     

FeCl3对稻壳水热炭基本元素及燃烧特性影响

以稻壳为原料,FeCl₃为催化剂,利用元素分析仪和热重法研究稻壳水热炭元素结构和燃烧特性,考察水热温度、催化剂浓度对于水热炭元素结构和燃烧特性的影响。结果表明：1)随着水热温度升高,水热炭固定碳含量和热值增大,O/C和H/C原子比逐渐降低。FeCl₃的加入进一步加深了水热炭的碳化程度,但对于碳化程度影响效果,水热温度大于FeCl₃浓度;2)未添加FeCl₃时,水热炭燃烧呈双峰,且挥发分燃烧段峰值明显高于固定碳燃烧段。水热温度上升,挥发分燃烧峰值下降,固定碳燃烧峰值增加。加入FeCl₃后,固定碳燃烧范围扩大,双峰逐渐融为单峰,整体向高温区转移;3)水热温度一定时,随着催化剂浓度增大,水热炭燃烧DTG曲线由双峰变为单峰,整体向低温区转移;4)升温速率加快,导致样品着火温度、燃尽温度提高,水热炭燃烧整体向高温区转移;5)水热温度一定时,FeCl₃加入后,着火温度和燃尽温度均小幅度提前,综合燃烧特性指数S_N呈先增大后减小的趋势。FeCl