INTRODUCTION TO COAL HANDLING PLANT In a coal based thermal power plant, the initial process in the power generation

is Coal Handling. So in this article i will discuss the overall processes carried out at a Coal Handling plant in a coal based thermal power generating station. The huge amount of coal is usually supplied through railways. A railway siding line is taken into the power station and the coal is delivered in the storage yard. The coal is unloaded from the point of delivery by means of wagon tippler. It is rack and pinion type. The coal is taken from the unloading site to dead storage by belt conveyors. The belt deliver the coal to 0m level to the pent house and further moves to transfer point 8. The transfer points are used to transfer coal to the next belt. The belt elevates the coal tobreaker house. It consists of a rotary machine, which rotates the coal and separates the light dust from it through the action of gravity and transfer this dust to reject bin house through belt. The belt further elevates the coal to the transfer point 7 and it reaches the crusher through belt. In the crusher a high-speed 3-phase induction motor is used to crush the coal to a size of 50mm so as to be suitable for milling system. Coal rises from crusher house and reaches the dead storage by passing through transfer point 8.

Stages in coal handeling power plant

Equipment used in a coal handling plant 1. Pull chord switch A series of such switches are arranged in series at a 1m distance on the side of conveyor belt. The power supply to rotor of the conveyor belt is established only if all switches in series are connected. 2. Vibrating feeder The coal stored in a huge hub is collected on the belt through vibrations created by the vibrating feeder. 3. Flap gates These are used to channelize the route of coal through another belt in case the former is broken or unhealthy. The flap gates open let the coal pass and if closed stop its movement. 4. Magnetic separator these are used to separate the ferrous impurities from the coal. 5. Metal detector These are detect the presence of any ferrous and non-ferrous metal in the coal and sends a signal to a relay which closes to seize the movement of belt until the metal is removed. It basically consists of a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter consists of a high frequency oscillator, which produces a oscillations of 1500 Hz at 15V. The receiver receives this frequency signal. If there is any presence of metal in the coal. Then this frequency is disturbed and a tripping signal is send to relay to stop the conveyor belt. 6. Belt weightier It is used to keep an account of the tension on the belt carrying coal and is moves accordingly to release tension on the belt. 7. Reclaim hopper Reclaimation is a process of taking coal from the dead storage for preparation or further feeding to reclaim hoppers. This is accomplished by belt conveyors.

STEAM GENERATION FROM COAL 1. Tipplers Coal from the coal wagons is unloaded in the coal handling plant. This unloading is done by the Tipplers. This coal is transported up to the raw coal bunkers with the help of conveyor belts.

2. Crush House After hand picking foreign material, coal is transported to the Crush house by conveyor belts where it is crushed to small pieces of about 20 mm diameter. The crushed coal is then transported to the store yard. Coal is transported to bowl mills by coal feeders. 3. Bowl Mill The coal is pulverized in the bowl mill, where it is grounded to a powder form. The mill consists of a round metallic table on which coal particles fall. This table is rotated with the help of a motor. There are three large steel rollers, which are spaced 120 apart. When there is no coal, these rollers do not rotate but when the coal is fed to the table it packs up between rollers and the table and this forces the rollers to rotate. Coal is crushed by the crushing actions between the rollers and rotating tables. 4. Furnaces This crushed coal is taken away to the furnace through coal pipes with the help of hot and cold air mixture from P.A Fan. P.A Fan takes atmospheric air, a part of which is sent to Air preheaters for heating while a part goes directly to the mill for temperature control. Atmospheric air from F.D Fan is heated in the air heaters and sent to the furnace as combustion air. 5. Boiler Boiler used in the power plant is suspended type. This prevents it from getting deformed, when a subjected to very high temperatures. The boiler is divided into two cylindrical parts namely the Primary and the Secondary boiler. Water from the boiler feed pump passes through economizer and reaches the boiler drum. Water from the drum passes through down comers and goes to bottom ring header. Water from the ring header is divided to all the four side of furnace. Due to heat and density difference the water rises up in the water wall tubes. Water is partly converted to steam as it rises up in the furnace. This steam and water mixture is again taken to the boiler drum where the steam is sent to super heaters for superheating. The super heaters are located inside the furnace and the steam is superheated (540C) and finally it goes to turbine. Flue gasses from the furnace are extracted by induced draft fan, which maintains balance draft in the furnaces with forced draft fan. These flue gasses emit their heat energy to various super heaters in the pant house and finally pass through air pre-heaters and goes to electrostatic precipitator where the ash particles are extracted. Electrostatic precipitator consists of metal plates, which are electrically charged. Ash particles are attracted on to these plates, so that they do not pass through the chimney to pollute the atmosphere. Regular mechanical hammers blows cause the accumulation of ash to fall to the bottom of the precipitator where the bottom of the precipitator where they are collected in a hopper for disposal. This ash is mixed with water to form slurry and is pumped to ash pond.

ASH HANDLING

Ash handling refers to the method of collection, conveying, interim storage and load out of various types of ash residue left over from solid fuel combustion processes. The most common types of ash include bottom ash, bed ash, fly ash and ash clinkers resulting from the combustion of coal, wood and other solid fuels. Ash handling systems may employ pneumatic ash conveying or mechanical ash conveyors. A typical pneumatic ash handling system will employ vacuum pneumatic ash collection and ash conveying from several ash pick up stations-with delivery to an ash storage silo for interim holding prior to load out and transport. Pressurized pneumatic ash conveying may also be employed. Coarse ash material such as bottom ash is most often crushed in clinker grinders (crushers) prior to being transported in the ash conveyor system. Very finely sized fly ash often accounts for the major portion of the material conveyed in an ash handling system. It is collected from baghouse type dust collectors, electrostatic precipitators and other apparatus in the flue gas processing stream. Ash mixers (conditioners) and dry dustless telescopic devices are used to prepare ash for transfer from the ash storage siloto transport vehicles.

Vacuum Pneumatic Ash Handling Systems

Vacuum pneumatic ash collection & ash conveying system System Operation Ash which has accumulated in various collection hoppers is pneumatically conveyed to a centrifugal receiver atop the ash storage silo. Vacuum forces providing the conveyance air flow are created by a blower (exhauster) located near the silo. Coarser ash particulates collecting at the bottom of the receiver are transferred to the silo via a double dump gate air lock assembly ( see description on following page). Finer ash particles and the induced conveying air flow report through the "vortex finder" pipe at the top of the centrifugal receiver to a pulse jet, bag type dust collector located nearby. Ash particulates released by periodic blow down of the bags collect below, where this material is transferred to the silo via a double dump gate air lock assembly. Overall solids recovery typically exceeds 99.9% for 2 micron and larger particulates.

1. Air Intake 2. Fully Enclosed, Quick Acting, Swing Disc valve 3. Pipe Fittings with Replaceable, Reversible, Interchangeable Wearbacks (550 BHN) 4. Paddle Type Ash Conditioning Unit 5. Abrasion Resistant centrifugally Cast Conveyor Pipe 6. Silo Vent Filter 7. Centrifugal Receiver/Separator 8. Pulse Jet Bag Type Dust Collector 9. Continuous Ash Collecting Double Dump Gates 10. Silo Relief Valve 11. Ash Storage Silo 12. Air Pipe 13. Fugitive Dust Filter 14. Telescopic Dry Unloader 15. Vacuum Breaker 16. Guard Filter 17. Mechanical Exhausters Pressure Pneumatic Ash Handling Systems

Schematic - Pressure Pneumatic Ash Collection/Ash Conveying System Pressurized pneumatic ash handling systems are most often used for conveying ash over long distances. Such systems are also usefully applied when ash is to be delivered to multiple interim storage or load out stations. An upstream mechanical blower creates a flow of conveying air. Ash is transferred from collection hoppers to the conveying pipeline on a programmed cycle with the use of rotarty airlock feeders or double dump gate airlock valves. At the end of the ash conveying pipeline ash is received in a highly abrasion resistant silo mounted target box from which it falls by gravity into the storage silo. Ash conveying air is normally exhausted to the atmosphere through a silo vent filter or it can be recycled to other dust collection equipment.

Combination Vacuum/Pressure Ash Handling Conveying Systems

Combination vacuum/pressure pneumatic ash conveying systems can be beneficially applied to take advantage of the simplicity of a vacuum system for the collection and delivery of ash to a transfer hopper from which it is reclaimed through an air lock feeding device for pressurized pnueumatic conveyance to a remote location silo for subsequent load out.