Feasibility Study of Co-Firing of Torrefied Empty Fruit Bunch and Coal through Boiler Simulation

Yu Jiang, Kyeong-Hoon Park and Chung-Hwan Jeon
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Yu Jiang: School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Korea
Kyeong-Hoon Park: School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Korea
Chung-Hwan Jeon: School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Korea

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-27

Abstract: Torrefied empty fruit bunch (EFB) co-firing is a promising technology to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants. However, co-firing can influence the combustion and heat transfer characteristics in a coal boiler. In order to study the feasibility of co-firing application of torrefied EFB (T-EFB) in boilers, the combustion characteristics, gas emissions and heat flux distribution were analyzed, respectively. First, the kinetic parameters of T-EFB devolatilization and char oxidation were obtained by experimental analysis. Second, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was applied to the actual 500 MWe boiler simulation to further evaluate the differences in the co-firing performance parameters (combustion characteristics and emissions) of the T-EFB and the heat transfer characteristics within the boiler. Numerical results show that T-EFB co-firing can improve the ignition characteristics of pulverized coal, reduce the formation of unburned particles. When the blending ratio was increased from 10% to 50%, significantly NO x (oxides of nitrogen) reduction (levels from 170 to 98 ppm at 6% O 2 ) was achieved. At a blending ratio above 40%, boiler combustion efficiency decreases as the total heat flux of the boiler decreases due to an increase in the amount of unburned carbon. In addition, T-EFB co-firing can affect the heat transfer characteristics of the boiler.

Keywords: torrefaction; empty fruit bunch; co-firing; simulation; exhaust gas emission; tangential firing boiler (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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