Development of high temperature air combustion technology in pulverized fossil fuel fired boilers

High temperature air combustion (HTAC) is a promising technology for energy saving, flame stability enhancement and NO, emission reduction. In a conventional HTAC system, the combustion air is highly preheated by using the recuperative or regenerative heat exchangers. However, such a preheating process is difficult to implement for pulverized fossil fuel fired boilers. In this paper, an alternative approach is proposed. In the proposed HTAC system, a special burner, named PRP burner is introduced to fulfill the preheating process. The PRP burner has a preheating chamber with one end connected with the primary air and the other end opened to the furnace. Inside the chamber, gas recirculation is effectively established such that hot flue gases in the furnace can be introduced. Combustible mixture instead of combustion air is highly preheated by the PRP burner. A series of experiments have been conducted in an industrial scale test facility, burning low volatile petroleum coke and an anthracite coal. Stable combustion was established for burning pure petroleum coke and anthracite coal, respectively. Inside the preheating chamber, the combustible mixture was rapidly heated up to a high temperature level close to that of the hot secondary air used in the conventional HTAC system. The rapid heating of the combustible mixture in the chamber facilitates pyrolysis, volatile matter release processes for the fuel particles, suppressing ignition delay and enhancing combustion stability. Moreover, compared with the results measured in the same facility but with a conventional low NOx burner, NOx concentration at the furnace exit was at the same level when petroleum coke was burnt and 50% less when anthracite was burnt. Practicability of the HTAC technology using the proposed approach was confirmed for efficiently and cleanly burning fossil fuels. (c) 2006 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.