Coal burner

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Coal burner working as a components of asphalt plant in Thailand

A coal burner (or pulverized coal burner) is a mechanical device that burns pulverized
coal (also known as powdered coal or coal dust since it is as fine as face powder in
cosmetic makeup) into a flame in a controlled manner. Coal burner is mainly composed
of pulverized coal machine, host of combustion machine(including combustion chamber,
automatic back and forth motion system, automatic rotation system, the combustion air
supply system) control system, ignition system, the crater and others.
Contents
[hide]

1 Mechanism

2 Ignition

3 Use

4 Requirements for coal

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Mechanism[edit]

Main Structure of Pulverized Coal Burner

In the worksite, a coal burner works with the coal pulverizer and coal hopper usually. The
coal in the hopper is conveyed to the coal pulverizer by screw conveyor. The coal
pulverizer will crush the coal into pulverized coal. In the coal burner, the pulverized coal
mixes with air (High-speed air flow is generated by the draft fan on the coal burner), and
is ignited by the oil burning igniter.

Ignition[edit]
There are mainly two ways to ignite the coal burner. Manual way and automatic way, no
matter which way it adopts, the coal burner often needs fuel(oil, gas, etc) as the
combustion medium. The difference is that the high-energy ignition devices which
generate sparks replace people's hands.[1]

Use[edit]
Pulverized coal burners have a wide range of uses in industrial production and daily life,
such as providing heat for boilers, hot mix asphalt plant, cement kiln, metal furnace,
annealing, quenching furnace, precision casting shell burning furnace, melting furnace,
forging furnace and other heating furnace or kiln.

Requirements for coal[edit]

Mark of coal: bituminous coal;

Gross calorific value:5000kcal/kg ( 20000kJ/kg);

Net calorific value:4200kcal/kg;

Volatile matter:25%;

Ash Content: 10%;

Total moisture: 35%;

Inherent moisture:14%;

Total sulphur:1%;

Particle size:20mm.

Note: These indexes are the lowest requirements for the coal, the better coal will be
better at practice.

See also[edit]

Oil burner

Gas burner

Pulverized coal-fired boiler

Asphalt plant

Boiler

Portable stove

Burner (disambiguation)

Heater

References[edit]
1.

Jump up^ "Ignition System of Pulverized Coal Burner". Pulverized Coal Burners.
Bertrand. Retrieved 2 April 2015.

External links[edit]

PULVERIZED COAL BURNER // Mech4840

Coal Fired Power Generation

Pulverised coal combustion (PCC)

Ignition System of Pulverized Coal Burner

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Bertrand

Currently, asphalt mixing plants mostly use two kinds of burners, the puvlerzied coal
burner and oil burner. Compared with oil burners, coal burners are more economical.
With the widespread use of coal burner in large equipments, users put forward higher
requirements on the performance of pulverized coal burners.

# Ignition methods for pulverized coal burner

The main function of pulverzied coal burner ignition system is to provide a stable
high-temperature ignition source to ignite the coal, in order to provide a self-stabilized
coal
combustion
inside
the
furnace.

There are many ways to light the coal-fired burners. It can be mainly divided into
manual ignition and automatic ignition. Manual ignition requires people to ignite the
fuel manually, and then the fule will ignite the pulverized coal. Fuel oil is usually
atomized and injected into the furnace by pressure. Due to the large differences in
coal quality, manual ignition success rate is pretty low, and very dangerous. Oil
atomizing nozzle is easily blocking and coking, resulting in inadequate atomization
and unsuccessful ignitation etc. So this approach is now being phased out.
Automatic ignition includes fuel ignition, gas ignition and direct ignition of
pulverized coal etc, among which the fuel ignition is mostly used. Automatic fuel
ignition is mainly adopting the high-energy ignition device or high pressure ignition
device.These ignition systems have different advantages and disadvantages in
application of asphalt plants.

#Automatic gas ignition and direct ignition

1. Liquefied gas ignition device

Liquefied gas ignition device belongs to automatic ignition system, it uses premixed
combustion way, taking LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas as ignition source, and
then ignite the pulverized coal with burning liquefied gas . The advantage of liquefied
gas ignition is easy to ignite, and less demanding on the ignition device. But liquefied
gas has low heat volume, so its a little difficult to light the pulverized coal, especially
the low-volatile ones. Also the large gas consumption raises higher demands on the
gas transmission and storage, which makes it hard to adapt to large-scale application.
2. Plasma ignition device
Plasma ignition can achieve direct pulverized coal ignition, with fast speed, but there
are many shortcomings such as that the electrode bar is easily burned, carbon
deposition, arc instability etc.

#Automatic fuel ignition system

Automatic fuel ignition system is actually to ignite the fuel and then let the fuel ignite

the coal. The ke

y is how to ignite the
fuel and the fuel supply. The success rate of the fuel ignition depends on two major
aspects: First, fuel atomization; second, fire source.
1. Fuel atomization
There are many ways to atomize the fuel. Different ways correspond to different oilfired nozzles, with different characteristics.
(1) Pressure atomizing nozzle.

This nozzle has simple structure and low cost. The disadvantage is that when the
pressure becomes smaller, the average size of the atomized particles will rapidly
increase, which will reduce combustion efficiency.
(2) Mechanical atomizing nozzle.
Mechanical atomizing nozzle is to convert mechanical energy of fuel to atomization
energy. Such nozzle needs high mechanical energy, so it requires a very high spinning
speed to reach the desired shear force for atomization.
(3) Pneumatic atomizing nozzle.
Pneumatic atomizing nozzle is taking advantage of high-speed air or vapor, to hit, cut
and spin the liquid gas, causing relative velocity between liguid and gas, in order to
achieve atomization. The advantage is wide adjustment range and good atomization
performance. But it requires large air volumn, and not suitable for high viscosity
heavy diesel oil, heavy residual oil and water-coal-slurry.
(4) Bubble atomizing nozzle.
The bubble atomizing nozzle is a lso known as the atomization technology 3.0. The
principle is to inject air or steam into a special structured channel, and change it into a
huge amount of air bubbles in the fuel. The bubbles will break at the exit of the
sparyer, thereby forming countless teeny-weeny drops. Bubble atomizer nozzle has
the following characteristics: Atomization requires less energy; fine atomized particles
with uniform size.

Now the diesel is the most frequently used fuel for automatic ignition system.
Considering diesel characters, more and more people are choosing pressure

atomization.
2. Ignition device
Ignition device commonly takes high-pressure spark ignition. The sparks must have
enough energy to ensure that diesel fuel can be ignited. It also can be classified as
high energy ignition device and high pressure ignition device.
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Pulverised coal combustion (PCC)

PCC is the most commonly used method in coal-fired power plants, and is based on many decades of experience.
Units operate at close to atmospheric pressure, simplifying the passage of materials through the plant.
The principal developments involve:

Increasing plant thermal efficiencies by raising the steam pressure and temperature used at the boiler
outlet/steam turbine inlet;

ensuring that units can load follow satisfactorily; and,

ensuring that flue gas cleaning units can meet emissions limits and environmental requirements.

Characteristics
The coal is ground (pulverised) to a fine powder, so that less than 2% is +300 m and 70-75% is below 75 m, for a
bituminous coal. The pulverised coal is blown with part of the combustion air into the boiler plant through a series of
burner nozzles. Secondary and tertiary air may also be added.
Combustion takes place at temperatures from 1300-1700C, depending largely on coal rank. Steam is generated, driving a
steam generator and turbine. Particle residence time in the boiler is typically 2-5 seconds, and the particles must be small
enough for complete burnout to have taken place during this time.
The technology is well developed, and there are thousands of units around the world, accounting for well over 90% of
coal-fired capacity. PCC can be used to fire a wide variety of coals, although it is not always appropriate for those with a
high ash content.
Two broadly different boiler designs are used. One is the traditional two-pass layout where there is a furnace chamber,
topped by some heat transfer tubing to reduce the FEGT. The flue gases then turn through 180, and pass downwards
through the main heat transfer and economiser sections. The other design is to use a tower boiler, where virtually all the
heat transfer sections are mounted vertically above each other, over the combustion chamber.
The relative advantages and disadvantages almost balance each other out. Tower designs have been favoured recently in
Europe. They result in taller structures, and this is one reason why they are not used in Japan, which is in an earthquake zone.
There are variations in the positioning of the burners in the combustion chamber, and designs are offered which use:

wall-mounted burners on one side,

opposed-fired wall mounted burners, or

tangential burners in the corners or on the walls. Some corner burners can be the furnace up or down.

There seem to be few clear cut advantages or disadvantages with the different arrangements, and the choice is based on
cost factors, operating experience, environmental considerations and the experience of the various boiler manufacturers.

Boilers with cyclone burners are discussed separately, as a coarser coal feed is used.
Most PCC boilers operate with what is called a dry bottom. Combustion temperatures (with bituminous coal) are held at
1500-1700C. With lower rank coals the range is 1300-1600C. Most of the ash passes out with the flue gases as fine
solid particles to be collected in ESPs or fabric filters before the stack.
Boilers which use anthracite as the fuel commonly use the downshot burner arrangement to achieve longer residence
times and ensure carbon burn-out. Downshot burners send the coal-air mixture down into the cone at the base of the boiler.
Another arrangement used in some boilers is the so-called cell burner. This involves a wall-fired unit where either two or
three circular burners are combined into a single vertically orientated assembly that results in a compact intense flame.
This would generally not be used in new units, as the higher temperature flame results in more NOx formation which then
has to be removed later in the system.
Unit size
PCC boilers have been built to match steam turbines which have outputs between 50 and 1300 MWe. In order to take
advantage of the economies of scale, most new units are rated at over 300 MWe, but there are relatively few really large
ones with outputs from a single boiler/turbine combination of over 700 MWe. This is because of the substantial effects
such units have on the distribution system if they should 'trip out' for any reason, or be unexpectedly shut down.
Thermal efficiency
One of the driving forces which is currently encouraging the use of more efficient power plant is the environmental concern
in many countries, and the declared goal of most OECD governments to reduce CO2 emissions to 1990 levels. This is a
goal which leaves power generators with many unsolved problems, but increasing the thermal efficiency of converting coal
to power is one of the less expensive ways of reducing CO2 emissions. It does, however, involve the construction of new
boilers and turbines, as the costs for retrofitting a supercritical steam system to an existing subcritical boiler would be
prohibitive.
Increasing thermal efficiency has the potential for reducing other emissions per MWe generated, such as those of SO2 and
NOx. Where the coal cost is high, as where traded coals are used, increasing thermal efficiency can result in reduced overall

costs in new plants for power generation, as less fuel is needed.

The overall thermal efficiency of some older, smaller units burning, possibly, poor quality coals can be as low as 30%. A
commonly used assumption for the average efficiency of larger existing plants with subcritical steam burning somewhat
higher quality coals is that it is in the region of 35-36%. New plants, however, with supercritical steam can now achieve
overall thermal efficiencies in the 43-45% range.
Various measures can be used to increase the thermal efficiency relative to current design practice, in particular:

reducing the excess air ratio from 25% to 15% can bring a small increase;

reducing the stack gas exit temperature by 10C (while recovering the heat involved) can bring about a similar
increase;

increasing the steam pressure and temperature from 25 MPa/540C to 30 MPa/600C can increase efficiency by
nearly 2 percentage points;

using a second reheat stage can add another 1 percentage point;

decreasing the condenser pressure from 0.0065 MPa to 0.003 MPa can further increase efficiency.

As with all technical options, there is a trade-off between the costs involved (both capital and operating), the risk element in
the decision and the amount of additional energy recovered.
Many of the methods for increasing thermal efficiency have been well known for several decades. In some cases they were
tried back in the 1950s and 60s, but were abandoned either because of the lack of suitable construction materials or the low
energy prices prevailing. This removed much of the incentive for seeking high thermal efficiencies. Small base-load power
plants using steam at 35 MPa and 650C were built in the 1950s. Regenerative preheating of the feed water was introduced
as long ago as the 1920s. Steam reheat was introduced in the 1950s and double reheat in the 60s. The more costly options
tended to be discounted when oil was cheap, and subsequently as nuclear energy took over base load power generation in
many places.
An increase in the steam pressure and temperature involves the use of austenitic material in various parts of the system.
Using thin walled austenitic steels for superheater and reheater tubes means that operational flexibility can be largely

maintained. In some older plants, thick walled tubes and junctions have been used which means increased start-up times
and hence increased start-up losses.
Controlling the excess air is an important function in boiler operation, but requires a careful balance between conflicting r
equirements. Boilers are normally operated at the minimum practicable excess air amount, but sufficient air is required to
burn virtually all the carbon present (99%+), and modern design and practice is to control and stage the addition of air in
order to minimise the formation of NOx (air staging).
The maximum efficiencies achievable with lower grade and lower rank coals will be somewhat less in all cases. The
maximum efficiencies expected in the brown coal fired plants currently under construction in Germany are around 42%
compared with 45% for equivalent new bituminous coal fired units. Net efficiencies of 45-47% are achievable with
supercritical steam using bituminous coals and currently developed materials.
New high temperature alloys are under development with the aim of facilitating steam temperatures as high as 700C.
This could make net efficiencies of 50% achievable with PCC. A considerable amount of work on this remains to be done.
Flue gas cleaning/emissions
The various technologies are discussed in separate sections, under particulates control, NOx reduction by primary
measures or flue gas treatment, and FGD. Emissions from new PCC units with appropriate flue gas cleaning units can
meet all current requirements reliably and economically, and using well-proven technology. The necessary emission
control measures can be taken with a relatively small effect on overall thermal efficiency, although the capital cost of these
measures can represent about one third of the cost of the unit when meeting the most stringent current standards.
Residues
The solid residues consist of 80-90% of fine fly ash with a low level of carbon-in-ash, averaging around 0.5%.