THE EFFECT ON THE THERMAL EFFICIENCY OF LIME ADDED TO THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER FOR RETENTION ON SULPHUR

In order to prevent the emission of SO_x, with the flue gas, certain amount of the sulphur of the coal can be retained by adding an adequate amount of lime in the combustion chamber. In this study, two series of experiments were conducted by adding lime at the molar ratios of CaO/S = 0·5 to 2·0 using Ankara-Beypazan lignites, which have around 5 % sulphur content as received form. In one of the series lime was added directly in to the lump coal, and in the other, coal was briquetted together with lime using molasses as binder. It was observed from the experimental results that the increase in the lime ratio leads to an increase in the retained sulphur percentage while it leads to a considerable decrease in thermal efficiency. In order to retain 50 % of sulphur, it was necessary to add lime into lump coal at a CaO/S molar ratio of at least 1,1. This minimum ratio was 0·70 for briquetted coal. When lime was added at these ratios, the thermal efficiencies in the first case dropped to as low as 82 % and to 92 % in the second.