The Coal
Proximate Analysis, Ultimate Analysis, Calorific Value, Ash Constituents, Ash Fusion Temperatures, FC/VM ratio, Hard Grove Index, YGP (Yeer Geer Price) Index Typical Proximate Coal Analysis - Fixed Carbon - 32.4 %, Volatile matter - 21.6 %, Moisture 16.0 %, Ash 30.0 %, GCV 4050 kcal/kg +ve aspects - Low Sulfur, Low chlorine, Low iron content and High Ash fusion temp -ve aspects - High ash, moisture, high silica / alumina ratio, low calorific value, high electrical resistivity of ash,
Problem
Coal characteristics decide the heat release rates, furnace wall conditions and consequently the furnace heat transfer Deterioration in Coal quality affects boiler capability to operate at rated parameters. Change in coal quality affects capacity, efficiency and combustion stability. Increase in moisture affects mill drying, tempering air requirement, gas velocities, ESP & Boiler efficiency. Ash quality / quantity affects boiler erosion, mill wear, slagging and fouling propensity, ash handling system, sprays, sootblowing requirements etc. Change in coal characteristics affects mill wear parts life & throughput of Pulverizers.
PF fineness
Typical recommended value of pulverised fuel fineness through 200 mesh Sieve is 70% and 1% retention on 50 mesh sieve. Fineness is expressed as the percentage pass through a 200-mesh screen (74m). Coarseness is expressed as the percentage retained on a 50-mesh screen (297m). Screen mesh indicates the number of openings per linear inch.
Burner Imbalance
Mill discharge pipes offer different resistance to the flows due to unequal lengths and different geometry layouts. Fixed orifices are put in shorter pipes to balance velocities / dirty air flow / coal flows. The sizes of the orifices are specified by equipment supplier.
B 2
E 3
Mills
Boiler
1 4
Control Room
Burner Imbalance
Primary Air Flow Coal Flow Dirty air flow distribution should be with in +/5.0% of the average of fuel pipes Coal distribution should be with in +/-10% of the average of fuel pipes Balanced Clean air flows do not necessarily result in balanced Dirty air flows.
Burner Balance
Balanced PF flows are an essential pre-requisite to an optimized combustion. Usually the imbalance gets camouflaged by additional excess air, thereby losing out on boiler efficiency and operating flexibility.
Excess Air
Low excess air operation can lead to unstable combustion (furnace puffs) increased slagging of waterwalls and SH sections Loss in boiler efficiency due to increased CO / unburnt combustibles High excess air operation can lead to Increased boiler losses High SH / RH temperatures Higher component erosion
Air Ingress
The difference between oxygen at furnace outlet (HVT) and economizer outlet (zirconia) was in the range of 1.0 to 2.5 % in many boilers. Apart from degradation of AH baskets performance, another reason for lower heat recovery across air heaters is boiler operation at lesser SA flows due to high air-in-leakage.
Air Ingress
Boiler operation under adverse conditions continues as in majority of units On line CO feedback is not available. All boilers need to be equipped with On line CO monitors at Eco Outlet / ID fan discharge. Air ingress across AH outlet to ID suction observed to be generally in the range of 5 to 9%. Flue gas ducts & expansion joints at Eco outlet and APH inlet / outlet inspected thoroughly during O/H Replacement of Metallic / Fabric Expansion joints in 10 years / 5 years cycle
Air Heaters
Factors affecting performance include Operating excess air levels PA/SA ratio Inlet air / gas temperature Coal moisture Air ingress levels Sootblowing No. of mills in service
Air Heaters
Factors affecting performance include PA Header Pressure High pressure results in increased AH leakage, higher ID fan loading, higher PA fan power consumption, deteriorates PF fineness & can increase mechanical erosion Upstream ash evacuation Maintenance practices Condition of heating elements, seals / seal setting, sector plates / axial seal plates, diaphragm plates, casing / enclosure, insulation
Test Duration
Should be sufficient to take care of deviations in parameters due to controls, fuel variations & other operating conditions. When point by point traverse of Flue gas ducts is done, test should be long enough o complete atleast two traverses. In case of continuous Data Acquisition System & use of composite sampling grids, shall be based on collection of representative coal & ash samples. Could be 1/2 to 2 hours in case of parametric optimisation tests or 4 hours for Acceptance Tests.
Frequency of Observations
Parameter readings to be taken at a maximum interval of 15 minutes & a preferred interval of 2 minutes or less
Coal Sample for Proximate analysis & GCV Bottom Ash and Flyash Samples Flue Gas Composition at AH Outlet Flue Gas Temperature at AH Inlet / Outlet Primary / Secondary air temp at AH inlet / outlet Dry / Wet bulb temperatures Control Room Parameters
Coal Sampling
Coal Samples are drawn from all individual running feeders from sampling ports in feeder inlet chutes Composite sample is collected from all running feeders One sample is sealed in an air tight container for total moisture determination
Flyash Sampling
Flyash is collected in several hoppers as Flue Gas goes to stack; Heavier particles fall out first due to turns in gas stream Relative distribution of ash to various hoppers is not accurately known Preferred way to collect a) a representative sample b) sample of the test period is to use High Volume Sampler probes on both sides of boiler
Flue Gas Duct is divided into equal cross-sectional areas and gas samples are drawn from each center
Typical problems
High Economiser / AH exit gas temperature Air ingress from furnace bottom, penthouse and second pass Boiler operation at high excess air Metal temperature excursions High Unburnt carbon in ashes Uneven Flyash Erosion Flame failures Shortfall in steam temperatures Imbalance in Left - Right steam temperatures
Air Heaters
Deterioration of Boiler efficiency and increase in auxiliary power is generally on account of Air Heater performance degradation from O/H to O/H. Major symptoms of this degradation include the following
Increased flue gas volume - Affects ESP performance Lower flue gas exit temperatures due to high air heater leakage- An erroneous boiler efficiency feedback generates complacency Lower fan margins - Limit the unit output at times Boiler operation at less than optimum excess air - Specially in units where in ID fans are running at maximum loading
AH Performance Monitoring
O2 & CO2 in FG at AH Inlet O2 & CO2 in FG at AH Outlet Temperature of gas entering / leaving air heater Temperature of air entering / leaving air heater Diff. Pressure across AH on air & gas side
Air leakage occurring at the hot end of the air heater affects its thermal and hydraulic performance while cold end leakage increases fans loading.
Entrained Leakage due to entrapped air between the heating elements (depends on speed of rotation & volume of rotor air space)
CO2 measurement is preferred due to high absolute values; In case of any measurement errors, the resultant influence on leakage calculation is small.
Tgas out (no leakage) = The temperature at which the gas would have left the air heater if there were no AH leakage = AL * Cpa * (Tgas out - Tair in) + Tgas out Cpg * 100
Say AH leakage 17.1%, Gas In Temp 333.5 C, Gas Out Temp 133.8 C, Air In Temp 36.1 C Tgasnl = 17.1 * (133.8 36.1) + 133.8 = 150.5 C 100
X Ratio
Ratio of heat capacity of air passing through the air heater to the heat capacity of flue gas passing through the air heater. = = Wair out * Cpa Wgas in * Cpg Tgas in - Tgas out (no leakage) Tair out - Tair in
Say AH leakage 17.1%, Gas In Temp 333.5 C, Gas Out Temp 133.8 C , Air In Temp 36.1 C, Air Out Temp 288 C X ratio = (333.5 150.5) / (288 36.1) = 0.73
Air Heaters
Baskets cleaning with HP water jet cleaning during Overhauls after removal from position Heating elements to be covered with templates during maintenance of air heaters. Gaps between diaphragms & baskets to be closed for better heat recovery & lower erosion rate at edges. Ensuring healthiness of flushing apparatus of Eco & AH ash hoppers
Boiler Efficiency
Boiler Efficiency can be determined by a) Direct method or Input / Output method b) Indirect method or Loss method
Boiler Efficiency
Direct method or Input / Output method measures the heat absorbed by water & steam & compares it with the total energy input based on HHV of fuel. Direct method is based on fuel flow, GCV, steam flow pressure & temperature measurements. For coal fired boilers, its difficult to accurately measure coal flow and heating value on real time basis. Another problem with direct method is that the extent and nature of the individual components losses is not quantified.
Boiler Efficiency
Indirect method or Loss method For utility boilers efficiency is generally calculated by heat loss method wherein the component losses are calculated and subtracted from 100. Boiler Efficiency = 100 - Losses in %
In addition to being more accurate for field testing, the heat loss method identifies exactly where the heat losses are occurring.
Boiler Efficiency
Commonly used standards for boiler performance testing are ASME PTC 4 (1998) BS 2885 (1974) IS: 8753: 1977 DIN standards
Boiler Losses Typical values Dry Gas Loss 5.21 Unburnt Loss 0.63 Hydrogen Loss 4.22 Moisture in Fuel Loss 2.00 Moisture in Air Loss 0.19 Carbon Monoxide Loss 0.11 Radiation/Unaccounted Loss 1.00 Boiler Efficiency 86.63
U =
= Ash 100
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