Aspects of the present invention relate to furnace operations and, more particularly, to furnace operations that reduce pollutants in emissions.
As global climate concerns grow, methods and apparatuses for reducing emissions from fossil fuel boilers have been employed. These methods and apparatuses have incorporated fuel staging, biomass co-firing, biomass gasification, biomass reburn and/or combinations thereof into furnace operations to reduce pollutant emissions including NOx, SOx, CO2, Hg, etc.
However, each of the above noted methods includes certain shortcomings that have limited their applicability. These shortcomings include the need to rely on the availability of seasonal fuels, the need to preprocess the fuels, inefficiencies, and high costs. In addition, with respect to the use of biomass alone in co-firing or reburn operations, the shortcomings discussed above are particularly relevant and often result in emissions reductions not achieving their full entitlement.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a fuel flexible furnace is provided that comprises a main combustion zone, a reburn zone downstream from the main combustion zone, a burnout zone downstream from the reburn zone, and a delivery system operably coupled to supplies of biomass and coal and configured to deliver the biomass and the coal as ingredients of first and reburn fuels to the main combustion zone and the reburn zone, with each fuel including flexible quantities of the biomass and/or the coal. The flexible quantities are variable with the furnace in an operating condition.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a fuel flexible furnace of a boiler to reduce pollutant emissions is provided that comprises a main combustion zone, a reburn zone downstream from the main combustion zone, a delivery system operably coupled to supplies of biomass and coal and configured to deliver the biomass and the coal as ingredients of first and reburn fuels to the main combustion zone and the reburn zone, with each fuel including flexible quantities of the biomass and/or the coal, the flexible quantities being variable with the furnace in an operating condition, a burnout zone in which overfire air (OFA) is injected into the burnout zone to mix with emissions of the main combustion zone and the reburn zone to create oxygen rich and fuel lean emissions, an exhaust path, coupled to an outlet of the burnout zone, in which particulate matter is removed from heat transfer surfaces of the furnace, and an exhaust system coupled to the exhaust path through which the emissions are exhausted to an exterior of the boiler. Operations of the exhaust path and the exhaust system are controlled in accordance with the flexible quantities of the biomass and coal in each fuel.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method of operating a fuel flexible furnace is provided that comprises combusting first and reburn fuels in a main combustion zone of the furnace, injecting the first and reburn fuels into a reburn zone of the furnace, which is located downstream from the main combustion zone, and supplying flexible quantities of biomass and/or coal as ingredients of the first and reburn fuels. The flexible quantities are variable during an operating condition of the furnace.
These and/or 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:
As shown in
With reference to
Proximate to the main combustion zone 25, pluralities of first burners 23 are arranged on the front wall 21 with pluralities of second burners 24 similarly arranged on the back wall 22. In an embodiment of the invention, the first and the second burners 23 and 24 are arranged in rows. A first fuel, such as pulverized coal, pulverized coal/petroleum coke mixture, etc., is pneumatically supplied from a mill 101 of a coal feed system 110 of a fuel delivery system, an embodiment of which will be described later with reference to
The firing of the first and second burners 23 and 24 produces emissions, which may include pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur oxides (SOx) and mercury (Hg), in the main combustion zone 25. The emissions are transported through the furnace 20, the exhaust path 13 and the exhaust system 14 to be emitted to the atmosphere through the exhaust slack 28 (see
In accordance with embodiments of the invention, modified combustion processes in the furnace 20 reduce amounts of the pollutants in the emissions. That is, reburn fuel, which may comprise, for example, biomass, coal and/or a combination of flexible quantities of biomass and coal, is injected into reburn zone 26, which is disposed within the furnace 20 and downstream from the main combustion zone, by at least one reburn injector 41. The reburn fuel reacts with and reduces amounts of the pollutants in the emissions of the main combustion zone in accordance with compositional ingredients thereof. That is, the reburn fuel reacts with and reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by converting the nitrogen oxides into molecular nitrogen. Here, the biomass in the reburn fuel is supplied from a biomass supply system 30 of the fuel delivery system, an embodiment of which will be described below with reference to
As shown in
In accordance with embodiments of the invention, an efficient mixing of the reburn fuel with combustion gases that are present in the reburn zone 26 requires a substantially complete penetration of the reburn fuel into the furnace 20. To this end, various constructions of the reburn injector 41 may be employed. In one construction, a composite reburn injector 41, which does not mix coal and biomass particles prior to their injection into the reburn zone 26, injects coal and biomass particles into the reburn zone 26 of the furnace 20 with different trajectories. In another construction, the necessary penetration of the reburn fuel into the reburn zone 26 can be achieved by pre-mixing reburn injectors 41 that are designed to mix coal and biomass fuel particles prior to their injection into the reburn zone 26.
To complete the combustion process, overfire air (OFA) is injected into a burnout zone 27 of the furnace 20, which is located downstream from the reburn zone 26. The OFA is injected through a plurality of OFA injectors 106 and 107. While the OFA injectors 106 and 107 are shown as being level with one another in the furnace 20, in alternate embodiments of the invention, one or more OFA injectors can also be located downstream from the burnout zone 27 in an upper part of the furnace 20. The injection of the OFA creates an oxygen rich and fuel lean exhaust gas that passes through the outlet 12, the exhaust path 13 and the exhaust system 14.
A system for providing the reburn fuel to the reburn zone 26, according to embodiments of the invention, will now be described. With reference to
With reference to
Here, it is noted that the structure of the biomass supply system is highly dependent upon the nature of the biomass being used. As such, the embodiment shown in
As shown in
The carrier gas may be ambient air that is supplied by a dedicated air fan, such as dedicated air fan 40 (see
Utilization of the RFG as a carrier gas enables a preheating of and, at least, a partial pre-drying of the biomass. Pre-heated and pre-dried biomass fuel will read more readily when injected into the reburn zone 26. Also, utilization of the heat content of the RFG for fuel preheating may increase an overall efficiency of the furnace 20. Moreover, RFG extraction upstream from the air heater 53 reduces an overall exhaust gas flowrate through the PCD 60 and may increase particulate control efficiency.
In a further embodiment of the invention, where the thermocouple 56 is employed in the feedback loop to control a temperature of the carrier gas, a single control setpoint temperature can be chosen as a carrier gas temperature. Alternatively, a number of different setpoint temperatures can be chosen, with each setpoint matched to a specific biomass feedstock. That is, as a type of biomass used with the furnace 20 changes during the operation of the furnace 20, different setpoint temperatures of the carrier gas may be chosen.
In accordance with embodiments of the invention, since the reburn zone 26 of the furnace 20 is capable of operating with biomass, pulverized coal, or a mixture of flexible quantities of biomass and pulverized coal in accordance with a number of parameters such as boiler efficiency, pollutant emissions, steam production, etc., a number of problems associated with biomass fuel availability, variability, and reliability may be resolved.
For example, to achieve high levels of nitrogen oxide emissions reductions, large amounts of biomass may be required for the reburn fuel for the reburn zone 26 and may exceed 200,000 tons of biomass per year. The supply of such an amount of biomass depends upon seasonal availability and is subject to supply interruptions. Accordingly, in an embodiment of the invention a need for limited on-site storage of biomass is satisfied by, for example, a one-week supply of biomass.
In this case, when the biomass is available for use in the reburn fuel, the reburn fuel can comprise only biomass so as to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in the reburn zone 26. When the supply of the biomass cannot be maintained, the reburn fuel can comprise a mixture of flexible quantities of biomass and coal. If the biomass supply is exhausted, the reburn fuel can comprise only coal. In addition, the flexible quantities of both of the biomass and the coal may be varied regardless of the amount of available biomass to alter boiler performance in accordance with changing furnace 20 conditions. For example, if the supplied biomass has a high moisture content, steam production in boiler 10 may decrease, leading to undesirable boiler derate. Here, negative impacts on the furnace 20 can be mitigated or avoided if a portion of the high-moisture biomass is substituted with coal.
To these ends, a control system (not shown) may be employed to adjust a ratio of biomass to coal in the reburn fuel mixture. For example, with reference to
The control system may also ensure that the reburn zone 26 of the furnace 20 is supplied with coal or biomass exclusively, for example, with the biomass feeding system 30 offline, the furnace 20 can continue to operate with only coal being used as the first fuel and the reburn fuel. Also, the control system may change the proportion of the biomass or coal in the reburn fuel in response to operational considerations based on feedback from a thermocouple 57 (see
In addition, as shown in
In this case, the diverted biomass/carrier gas mixture, which is designated by the dotted line extending from the diverter 43 to the valve 44 and the subset of burners 29, can either be fired through the subset of burners 29 alone or in combination with the coal fuel. When the biomass/carrier gas mixture is to be fired alone, the coal fuel supply (designated by arrow, C) is cut off from the subset of burners 29 by the valve 44. When the coal and the biomass/carrier gas mixture are to be fired together, the subset of burners 29 may be required to comprise composite burners, such as concentric burners, in which coal is fed through a center pipe and biomass is fed through a concentric annular pipe. Alternatively, the coal and biomass/carrier gas mixture may also be pre-mixed upstream from subset of burners 29 or inside the subset of burners 29 themselves. Retrofitting the first and second burners 23 and 24 in a row-by-row sequence may be employed to prepare the subset of burners 29 for the diverted biomass/carrier gas mixture.
With reference now to
According to an embodiment of the invention, the PCD 60 may comprise an electrostatic precipitator (ESP). Since biomass may have a lower ash content as compared to coals, it is expected that using biomass as a reburn fuel in the reburn zone 26 will reduce ash loading at an inlet of the PCD 60. However, since the use of biomass as a reburn fuel may lead to an increased exhaust gas flowrate, a reduced efficiency of particle collection may result. The exhaust gas temperature at an inlet of the PCD 60 may increase or decrease as a result of the furnace 20 operation. Here, PCD 60 (i.e., ESP) operating parameters, such as voltage, current density, rapping frequency, and so on, can be adjusted to account for the impacts caused by the furnace 20 operation. In particular, PCD 60 controls may be linked to the control system to integrate the furnace 20 and the PCD 60 operations.
Chemical and physical properties of the ash formed by combusting biomass differ significantly from those of the ash formed by combusting coal. Therefore, it is expected that a substitution of a portion of the coal fuel with biomass fuel will affect ash formation. That is, since the reburn fuel, including the biomass, is injected into the reburn zone 26 downstream from the main combustion zone 25, it is expected that biomass combustion will affect a formation of ash in the furnace 20. To this end, as shown in
The operation of the deposit control elements 70-79 may then be adjusted based on the type, amount, and chemical properties of the reburn fuel, since trajectories of coal particles differ from trajectories of biomass particles such that ash deposit characteristics and formation rates will exhibit non-uniform spatial distributions. For example, if it is expected that biomass ash particles will primarily concentrate in an upper part of cross section A-A, in the exhaust path 13 while coal ash particles will primarily concentrate in a bottom part of the cross section, different deposit removal frequencies may be employed for the deposit removal element 74 as compared to the deposit removal element 76 to achieve an optimum deposit control. A deposit removal frequency for each deposit removal element or subset thereof may be determined and controlled based on the characteristics of the main fuel (i.e., pulverized coal) and the reburn fuel (i.e., coal/biomass mixture) and operating conditions of the furnace 20.
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. 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 language of the claims.
This non-provisional application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. Provisional Application 60/999,749, which was converted on Oct. 11, 2007 to provisional status from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/860,222, filed on Sep. 24, 2007, the contents of both of which are incorporated herein in their entirety.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20090078175 A1 | Mar 2009 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60999749 | Sep 2007 | US |