J. Antonio Garcia-Mallol Kenneth McCarthy Joey Fernandez Foster Wheeler Energy International, Inc.

Clinton, NJ USA

Pedro Otero Ventin Pedro Gomez Yague Jose Luis Albaladejo Martinez Endesa S.A., C. T. Compostilla II Ponferrada, Spain

Presented at:

POWER-GEN International Conference Orlando, Florida U.S.A. November 14 - 16, 2000

HARD-COAL BURNUP INCREASE WITH ADJUSTABLE STATIC CLASSIFIER FOR BALL MILL
J. Antonio Garcia-Mallol, Kenneth McCarthy and Joey Fernandez Foster Wheeler Energy International, Clinton, New Jersey, 08809-4000, U.S.A. Pedro Otero Ventin, Pedro Gomez Yague and Jose Luis Albaladejo Martinez, Endesa S.A., C.T. Compostilla II, Apartado 35, 24400 Ponferrada, Spain ABSTRACT An overview of the evolution of firing equipment for coals of high-rank and low grindability is followed by a brief description of an up-to-date ball mill, the type preferred for this service in conjunction with a direct-firing arrangement. The case of substituting a redesigned classifier of the mill product, in the six ball mills installed at a 330 MWe anthracite-fired steam generator, is reported. Test results show approximately a 60% decrease in the pulverized coal retained on a 200 mesh (74 microns) sieve, and over an 80% decrease in coal retained on a 100 mesh (149 microns) sieve. Also, some 10% increase in fineness, as pulverized coal passing through a 200 mesh (74 microns) sieve, to well in excess of 90%. Long-term data attests to this modification decreasing the original unburned fuel losses to less than half. INTRODUCTION To pulverize coals of high-rank and low grindability, ball mills are preferred because they can achieve a high fineness, required for proper burning, and maintain a very high availability. With some firing arrangements, the mill classifier returns coarser particles to the mill drum while the product is transported to an additional solids-separator and intermediate storage system. This design, initially preferred because of flame stability, is often called an indirect-firing arrangement. For hard-to-burn coals, particularly anthracites, FW has since supplied an Archfiring system with cyclone burners capable of venting the colder air that transports the coal out of the mill, enriching the coal/air mixture. As a result, FW Arch-fired units can fire anthracites with the ball mill in a direct-firing arrangement [1]. A direct-firing system eliminates the investment, operating and maintenance costs, as well as the safety risks of the additional separator, intermediate storage bins and downstream feeders of the indirect-firing systems. MILL EQUIPMENT AND MODIFICATION Figure 1 illustrates the FW Ball Mill design that combines all of the solids and air inlets and outlets in each one of the mill ends. This way the FW Ball Mill accommodates two coal feeders and can have about twice the length of a single-outlet ball mill. Consequently, each half of this mill, including the corresponding end and associated equipment, is symmetrical to the other half. Hot primary air is admitted to the drum through the inner concentric tube of each mill end, picking up pulverized coal and transporting it to the classifiers (see trajectories in Figure 1). The FW Ball Mill has been described in detail before [2]. During normal automatic operation, an increase in demand increases the flow rate of the mills primary air, which will then draw from its inventory the required additional pulverized coal. The

RAW COAL IN

RAW COAL IN

AIR / PULVERIZED COAL OUT

AIR / PULVERIZED COAL OUT

AIR IN

AIR IN

PPG28

Figure 1: Ball MillPulverizer Air/Coal Flow Diagram

COAL IN

COAL OUT

COAL FEED COAL / AIR DELIVERY

BAFFLE PLATES COAL FEED AND REJECT CONVEYOR HOT AIR INLET

CENTRAL AIR TUBE

CONVEYOR DRIVE SPOKES SEAL PLATE TRUNNION TUBE

PPG34

Figure 2: Ball MillPulverizer Classifier subsequent decrease in the inventory level, which is monitored by pressure taps at different

subsequent decrease in the inventory level, which is monitored by pressure taps at different elevations in the drum, increases the raw coal feed rate of both mill feeders. Actually, the FW Ball Mill components and the mill coal feeders are designed to operate with one feeder out of service, without undue imbalance or decrease in output through all of the coal/air conduits connected to the classifier exits (Figure 2). Notice in the figure the primary air and coal/air mixture flow lines, particularly within the classifier, where the mixture is centrifuged by the dual scroll prior to its delivery.

Pulverized coal to burner

Raw coal chute

Coarse return

The modification of the FW Ball Mill consisted in substituting, for the dual scroll classifiers of Figure 2, a static Figure 3: Drawing of Adjustable Classifier classifier with adjustable inlet vanes (Figure 3). This classifier is of the type similar to a cyclone, but with the inlet all around its circumference and fitted with adjustable vanes. Figure 4 photographs show the original classifier (left, looking towards one end of the mill) and this new adjustable classifier (right, mill end side view) as retrofitted within the space available underneath the raw coal feeders. Both classifiers, the original and the new one, are an integral part of the mill end.

Original Classifier

New Classifier

Figure 4: Mill Classifiers Photographs

ADJUSTABLE CLASSIFIER RETROFIT BACKGROUND AND RESULTS The Compostilla II Power Plant of Endesa is located near Ponferrada, Leon, Spain. The fuel is local anthracite. The power installed are 1312 MWe, from 5 units with FW arch boilers. The 330 MWe unit 3 operated with unburned fuel losses that, although within FWs predictions for this units pulverized coal fineness, were higher than the losses of the 350 MWe units 4 and 5. This has been attributed mainly to their difference in mill selection. As a result, Endesa decided to try an improved, adjustable static classifier in one mill of Compostilla II unit 3. It was later retrofitted to all of the 6 ball mills of the unit. Although a dynamic classifier application to this case was considered, its initial cost did not support the Plants objective. Figure 5 shows, from mill tests with the same coal and mill load, actual size distributions of coal pulverized in a mill with the original classifiers and another with the new ones. Both mills had been inspected inside, during the weekend shutdown preceding the tests, and found in similar condition, particularly their grinding elements (drum liners and ball charge). Notice how the mill product retained on 200 mesh (74 microns) went down from 18% to 7% (60% reduction). As illustrated elsewhere [1], the unburned fuel resulting from anthracite arch-firing comes from pulverized coal particles which initial size exceeded 200 mesh.
99.99 99.95 99.9 99.8

New classifier
99 98 95 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 30 40 50 60 70 80 90100 200 300 400 500

Original classifier

Screen Aperture, Microns

Figure 5: Fineness Improvement With New Classifier For The Same Coal and Mill Load

Figure 6 [3] is a comprehensive comparison of performance tests on two mills, one with the original existing classifiers and the other with the new classifiers. Pulverized coal fineness is plotted against mill coal flow rate. Trends, for different new classifier adjustable vanes position (Class. Pos.), are given as solid lines and data corresponding to the same primary air capacity damper opening x (P. A. x %) are joined by dotted lines. Figure 7 shows the effect on the flyash Loss of Ignition (LOI) of the fineness increase brought by the new classifiers. For this unit most of the unburned fuel resides in the flyash. Each monthly average volatile matter of the coal and flyash LOI, for three consecutive months, is given for the following cases in sequence:

Figure 6: Improvement of Coal Size Distribution by the use of New Adjustable Classifiers

Compostilla II 3 FW Arch Unit

Flyash Loss of Ignition (LOI) & Volatiles Select Monthly Averages
10

LOI,% % & Volatiles,% as rec'd

0 6 mills=> 6/94 7/94 8/94 2/95 3/95 newCl 5mills=> 4/95 5/97 6/97 newCl 6mills*= 7/97 11/98 12/98 1/99

Volatiles

Flyash LOI

* NOTE: Lower Ball Charge (to decrease mill power requirement) with New Adjustable Classifier ("newCl") & 6 Mills

Figure 7

Before the retrofit of new classifiers, for coal having about 6% volatile matter. Before the retrofit of new classifiers, for coal having about 7% volatile matter, which results in less unburned fuel than in the first case. After the retrofit and tune-up of the new classifiers and with only 5 of the 6 mills in operation, for a coal comparable to the immediately preceding case. After the retrofit of new classifiers and with all of the 6 mills in operation, for a coal comparable to the first case also having 6 mills on. Relative to mentioned first case, this last case shows less than half the LOI, in spite of having: 1) lower ball charge in the mills, which decreased by 6% their power consumption, and 2) 0.08 less boiler stoichiometry, that is ratio of actual air to theoretical air required for combustion. These two measures were part of the successful attempt to achieve, with 6 mills in operation, a lower net heat rate than with 5 mills on.

CONCLUSIONS Retrofitting to the FW Ball Mill an adjustable static classifier, which replaced the original dual scroll type, resulted in some 10% increase in pulverized coal fineness, as percent through 200 mesh (74 microns), to well above 90%. This corresponded to a 60% reduction of pulverized coal retained on the same 200 mesh, while also achieving over an 80% reduction of the coal retained on the 100 mesh (149 microns). When applied to all 6 FW Ball Mills of a 330 MWe FW arch unit, firing anthracite coal, the unburned fuel loss was reduced by more than 50%. Consequently, the retrofit of this new classifier was cost-effective. Application of this new adjustable classifier is foreseen for retrofits as well as for new units, either to reduce the unburned fuel loss or to compensate for its expectable increase because of adopting NOx reduction measures. Substantial reductions of NOx are possible even for the archfiring of anthracite, as reported before [4]. REFERENCES 1) 2) 3) 4) J. A. Garcia-Mallol and D. J. Parham, Large Capacity Steam Generator Design Challenges for Anthracite, Power-Gen Asia, Singapore, 1995. A. E. Kukoski, Ball Mill Pulverizer Design, Low-Volatiles Fuels, Double Arch Firing Technology Applications Symposium, Beijing, P. R. China, June 1992. P. Otero, Efficiency and Environmental Improvement Programme in Compostilla Power Station, Power-Gen Europe, Frankfurt, Germany, June 1999. J. A. Garcia-Mallol, A. E. Kukoski and J. P.Winkin, Anthracite Firing at Central Power Stations for the 21st Century, Pittsburgh Coal Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 1999.

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