Patent Application
20090262777
The invention relates in general to heat flux measurement devices, and in particular, to a temperature measurement device using at least two thermocouples to measure a heat flux at one side of a wall of a radiant syngas cooler (RSC) exposed to a gas stream and to estimate the fouling thickness on this same side of the wall.
In a coal gasification system, coal slurry from a feed pump and oxygen from an air separation plant are fed to a gasifier through a series of valves that operate in a carefully determined sequence to start the gasifier and provide positive isolation for shutdown. The oxygen and slurry combine in a feed injector that is designed to intimately mix and disperse the fuel and oxidant into the gasifier chamber.
The coal slurry and oxygen interact in the gasifier to produce three products: synthetic gas or “syngas,” slag, and flyash. Syngas consists primarily of hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), water vapor, and carbon dioxide (CO2), with smaller amounts of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbonyl sulfide (COS), methane (CH4), argon (Ar), and nitrogen (N2). After moisture has been removed, the heating value of the syngas is about 250 BTU/SCF. It contains about 70% to about 75% of the heating value of the original fuel.
Coal and most other solid fuels contain some mineral matter that does not convert to syngas. Part of this mineral matter melts at the gasifier's elevated temperature and flows down the gasifier's refactory-lined walls. This material is called slag. It ultimately solidifies into an inert glassy frit with very little residual carbon content.
Some of the coal particles are not completely gasified; their contained volatile matter flashes off, and the residual carbon is only partially gasified, forming char particles. This char is referred to as “flyash,” although its physical characteristics are quite different from conventional coal boiler flyash. Flyash particles contain a considerable amount of residual carbon plus the mineral matter from the coal particles. Flyash is transported out of the gasifier with the syngas.
In some configurations, the high temperature gasifier exit stream flows through a radiant syngas cooler (RSC), which is a high-pressure steam generator and gas cooler for improved efficiency and reliability. A typical RSC is shown generally at 100 in
As shown in
High pressure steam is generated inside the tubes 110a, 110b of the water wall 110 using circulating boiler feedwater. At the high temperatures, heat is transferred by radiation and convection. The syngas passes over the surface of the water bath 104 located at the bottom of the RSC 100 before exiting. The water bath 104 collects virtually all of the slag and about half of the flyash.
The water wall 110 also serves to protect the RSC's pressure containing shell 102 from the hot syngas. If a rupture of the water wall 110 does occur, outer shell 102 would be exposed to contact with excessively hot syngas. When the latter occurs, since the outer shell 102 is not constructed to safely contain the gas at the temperature and pressure at which it will be, the shell 102 is susceptible to being damaged and thermally stressed to the point where, if preventive measures at not taken, it will rupture.
The failure of the water wall 110 can occur from corrosion. Corrosive components in the syngas, such as hydrogen sulfide, can migrate into annulus 112, thereby exposing the external surface of water wall 110 to corrosion. The inner surface of shell 102 can also be exposed to these corrosive components.
Fouling is caused by the particles in the downwardly moving stream of syngas sticking to the relatively cooler walls of the RSC 100. Fouling is a major issue in the gasification process because it restricts flow, reduces heat transfer and substantially reduces operating efficiency of the RSC. Thus, there is a need to measure heat flux at the walls and to estimate the fouling thickness on the walls of the RSC.
Briefly, one aspect of the invention resides in a heat flux measurement device for estimating a fouling thickness on a wall over a period of time comprising a front portion having a front wall and an annular side wall defining a cavity; a first thermocouple disposed within the front portion at a first distance from the front wall for measuring a first temperature; and a second thermocouple disposed within the front portion at a second distance from the front wall for measuring a second temperature. The first and second temperatures are used to estimate a measured heat flux, and the measured heat flux is used to estimate a fouling thickness on a wall.
Another aspect of the invention resides in a method of estimating a fouling thickness on a wall over a period of time using a heat flux measurement device, comprising the steps of:
measuring a first temperature using a first thermocouple disposed within a front portion at a first distance from a front wall of the heat flux measurement device;
measuring a second temperature using a second thermocouple disposed within the front portion at a second distance from the front wall of the heat flux measurement device;
determining a heat flux based on the measured temperatures from the first and second thermocouples; and
estimating a fouling thickness on a wall based on the determination of a variation in the heat flux.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:
Referring now to
One aspect of the invention is that the front portion 12 of the heat probe 10 includes a plurality of thermocouples at different, predetermined locations from the front wall 16. In the illustrated embodiment, the heat probe 10 includes three thermocouples 24, 26 and 28 that are disposed within the front portion 12 at a different axial position from the front wall 16 of the heat probe 10, respectively. For example, the thermocouples 24, 26 and 28 can be located at a distance of about 0.10, 0.20 and 0.40 inches from the front wall 16. The thermocouples 24, 26 and 28 can be fixed into position by using any well-known means, such as brazing, and the like.
In addition, each thermocouple 24, 26 and 28 are at a different radial position with respect to a central, longitudinal axis 30 of the probe 10. In other words, the thermocouples 24, 26 and 28 are radially offset from each other so that they do not “shadow” each other, even though they are located at different axial distances from the front wall 16. It will be appreciated that the invention can be practiced with at least two thermocouples at any desired offset distance from the front wall and the central, longitudinal axis of the probe, and the invention is not limited by the total number of thermocouples and the distance from the front wall and the central, longitudinal axis. For example, the invention can be practiced with four or more thermocouples at different distances from the front wall of the probe.
Testing was performed by inserting the heat probe 10 through the water wall 110 and into the internal chamber 116 at two different elevations of the radiant syngas cooler (RSC) 100. Specifically, the heat probe 10 was positioned to measure both the temperature at the front side of the water tube 110a, 110b (proximate the syngas) and two temperatures at a distance away from the front side. The testing was conducted to determine whether the temperature at the back wall of the water tube 110a, 110b (proximate the water flowing through the water tube) would be constant with time and independent of the elevation of the heat probe 10 within the RSC 100.
The measured heat flux from the probe 10, which is exposed to the syngas at the front side and to the water at the backside is given as follows:
For clean surface the measured heat flux is given by:
For a fouled surface the measured heat flux is:
Based on the assumption that the syngas heat transfer coefficient and the gas temperature are substantially constant and using the equations above, an algorithm was developed that provides a correlation between the measured heat flux and the fouling thickness, as shown in
Feasibility studies so far have demonstrated that the heat flux probe of the invention could be used to estimate a fouling thickness in the RSC 100. The results of the feasibility study proved that the measured heat flux from the heat flux probe 10 decreases with time as fouling thickness increases, thereby providing an accurate estimation of fouling thickness over a period of time.
As described above, the temperature measurements from the three thermocouples 24, 26, 28 proved that the back side temperature could be linearly extrapolated. Therefore, the principles of the invention can be applied to a heat flux probe using two thermocouples, rather than three thermocouples, to measure temperature at the outer surface and inner surface of a tube, for example, a water tube. In this embodiment, a first thermocouple measures the relatively hotter temperature at the outer surface of the wall, while the second thermocouple measures the relatively cooler temperature at the inner surface of the wall. For example, the outer surface of the wall may be proximate the hot syngas, while the inner surface of the wall may be proximate the water passing through the tube. It will be appreciated that a plurality of heat flux probes could be located at a plurality of locations along the length of the tube.
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.
