Fluidized Bed Combustion in Practice

5.
FLUIDIZED BED COMBUSTION

IN PRACTICE
5.1. Purpose and basic concept of devices for
solid fuel combustion in fluidized bed
The concept, basic parameters and dimensions of any power-generating device,

depends on the nature of the fuel and the purpose of the plant. In industrial
and commercial settings, energy is consumed either in the form of electric
power or heat (super-heated steam, saturated steam, hot water, hot combustion
products and hot air). In all of these situations, combustion in a bubbling
fluidized bed has become competitive with conventional combustion
technologies used in solid, liquid and gas fuel combustion, as well as waste
fuel and biomass consumption. To respond to the demands of power consumers,
numerous companies, worldwide, have developed and marketed FBC boilers.
Those boilers can be divided into the following categories: furnaces for
production of hot gases and hot air, industrial boilers producing steam or hot
water for the process industries or district heating or for electricity production,
and boilers for electric power generation at the utility scale. The characteristics,
concept and the parameters for each of these categories are discussed below.
5.1.1.
Furnaces for production of hot gases or hot air

(a)
Purpose and applications
In the process industries and agriculture, hot gases are needed in various
processesroasting, heating and most frequently for drying. Such processes
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Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc.
368
Chapter 5
can often be performed directly with combustion products the temperature of

which is most commonly between 800 and 1000 C. In agriculture, however,
the requirement is typically for clean air at temperatures ranging from 40 to
150 C, depending on the sensitivity of the product that is being dried. Drying
grass serves as an exception to that rule, since here it is possible to use
combustion products directly with temperatures ranging from 800 to 1000 C.
The most commonly used fuels for these activities are liquid or gas fuels.
However, various energy crises, and a rise of liquid fuel prices, together with
difficulties with foreign currency, have encouraged many countries to
economize by reducing the use of imported fuel. Such a need to rely on domestic
power sources, primarily coal and biomass, have resulted in the development
of fluidized bed combustion in many countries. Other technologies for solid
fuel combustion demand high-quality coal, and pretreatment of fuel, and as
such they are not appropriate for small power generation units. Fluidized bed
combustion boilers meet the requirements for low air emissions and also allow
the automation of plant operation.
The basic advantages for these types of applications are as follows:
simplicity of operation, the possibility of combustion of various low-quality
coals without special preliminary treatment, and the combustion of wastes,
and in particular biomass. The disadvantages include restricted load following
and change of exit gas temperature, the potential for high unburned char in the
solid residue streams, significant ash and sand elutriation due to high gas
velocities and a requirement for a relatively large amount of excess air.
(b)
Basic parameters and requirements
Furnaces used in agriculture are typically rather small (15 MWth), while in
the process industries requirements may go up to 15 MWth and above.
For drying, clean air at about 150 C is required, and in drying highly
sensitive plant products and seeds, even lower temperatures are required, typically
about 40 C. Heat transfer between combustion products and air is a difficult
engineering problem, since heat exchanger surfaces are usually very large due
to the low heat transfer coefficients of gases. An interesting and efficient solution
is to only heat a portion of air by heat exchange surfaces immersed into fluidized
bed, as in the case of furnaces constructed in the factory CER, a ak, Yugoslavia.
When combustion products are used directly, temperatures can ranging
from 800 to 900 C, and in the case of coals with high ash melting points
sometimes even as high 1000 C. In such cases the FBC furances must use
high temperature resistent materials.
Furnaces are usually lined by firebricks and have simple auxiliary
systemsoverbed fuel feeding is used, and there are no systems for draining
bed material. Simplified construction is possible, because highly efficient
combustion is not required. Typically, the operation of such a furnace is
seasonal, with numerous short interruptions for equipment control and drainage
of excess bed material. Due to the high excess air requirement and the low
Fluidized Bed Combustion in Practice
369
quality and therefore cheap fuels used for these applications, the specific power
of these furnaces is typically 0.5 to 1 MWth/m2, per unit cross section area.
Inert bed material particles are of average size from 0.5 to 1 mm, and
for large units and higher fluidization velocities, may adopt sizes up to 1 to 2
mm. Excess air can range from 1.5 to 2.5 depending on the required temperature
and whether there are heat transfer surfaces immersed in the bed. The
fluidization velocity may reach as high as 4 m/s, i. e. the fluidization number
is 67, while bed height are typically 300 to 1000 mm. Combustion efficiency
tends to range from 80 to 95%, and for particularly well designed boilers, they
may be even 9899% [1, 2].
(c)
Basic problems
Certain basic problems have already been mentioned: limited load following
range, high particle elutriation ratei. e. overload of the flue gas cleaning system,
a large surface of gas to gas heat exchanges. For these systems, large capacity
high-pressure head primary air fans are required. Change in the type of fuel
requires significant variation in the quantity of combustion air, which are not
easy to meet given the required power and performance of the primary air fan.
(d) Some construction
solutions
Figure 5.1.
Bubbling fluidized bed combustion hot gas
generator designed by the factory CER
( a ak, Yugoslavia):
1coal feed hopper, 2refractory lined
walls, 3coal screw feeder, 4particle
separator, 5combustion air inlet, 6air
chamber, 7air distribution plate, 8exit
of the flue gases
Early development, manufacturing and exploitation of FBC furnaces saw perhaps the most dramatic progress in Great Britain
and Yugoslavia. Development
and construction of simple bubbling FBC furnaces began in the
seventies in Great Britain under
the direction of the NCB (National Coal Board) in cooperation with a few small companies
such as G.P. Warsley Ltd., Energy Equipment Ltd., and
Encomech Engineering Services
Ltd. [24]. In Yugoslavia, the
firm CER, a ak, began developing FBC furnaces in cooperation with the Institute for Thermal Engineering and Energy,
VIN A Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade. The first such
4.5 MWth furnace started operation in 1982, and since
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Chapter 5
then this company has over 100 such furnaces in operation, which range from 1
to 10 MWth in size, and have found applications in agriculture and the process
industries [1, 5, 6]. According to 1990 data [7], about 10 to 15 companies in the
world offered FBC furnaces, and only 3 to 5 companies offered hot air generators
of this kind. Currently, this number is if anything lower, given the significant
consolidation that has occured among manufactures of FBC equipment.
Figure 5.1 shows a simple industrial furnace for generation of hot gases
of temperatures up to 800 C made by CER, a ak [1, 6].
The furnace is completely walled by refractory bricks, its power ranges
from 0.5 to 1 MWth, bed height is 300500 mm, and it has overbed fuel feeding.
Typically fuels include: lignite, brown coal, or anthracite, and particle sizes
are in the range of 025 mm depending on the type of coal. There are also
FBC solutions for biomass combustion for very difficult fuels such as corncobs.
Figure 5.2 shows a diagram of a FBC furnace for hot air generation with
temperatures up to 150 C manufactured by CER, a ak [1, 6]. Furnaces are
manufactured with unit power ranging from 1.5 to 4.5 MWth. Both inbed and
overbed fuel feeding is possible, depending on the coal type. Bed height is
300500 mm, and the system uses immersed stainless steel heat exchangers
as well as heat transfer surfaces in the furnace walls. Fuel and coals of various
quality and particle size from 0 to 25 mm are used in this system.
Figure 5.2.
Bubbling fluidized bed combustion hot air generator
designed by the factory CER ( a ak, Yugoslavia):
1FBC furnace, 2side air fluidized beds for
furnace cooling, 3heat exchanger immersed in
fluidized bed, 4coal screw feeder, 5air heater,
6combustion air inlet, 7air chamber, 8air
distribution plate, 9air inlet of the air heater, 10
air exit from air heater, 11exit of the flue gases
from air heater, 12exit of the air from immersed
heat exchanger
371
Figure 5.3.
Bubbling fluidized bed combustion hot air
generator designed by Encomech
Engineering [4] (Reproduced by kind
permission of the author Prof. Dr. J.R.
Howard from [2]):
1combustion air inlet, 2exit of the
flue gases, 3inlet of the cold process
air, 4exit of the hot process air, 5
inlet of the cold process air, 6exit of
the hot process air, 7opening for coal
feeding, 8fluidized bed free surface
An interesting construction solution is an air heater manufactured by

Encomech Engineering Services Ltd. shown in Fig. 5.3. Immersed stainless
steel or ceramic pipes are used for heating air. The unit power range is from 1
to 7 MWht, and air temperatures are up to 600 C.
5.1.2
Industrial boilers with bubbling fluidized bed combustion

(a)
Purpose and applications
Industrial boilers supply process industries with heat energy in the form of
superheated or saturated steam and hot water. Boilers for district heating which
produce superheated steam or hot water can be included in this category. In
certain cases, either occasionally or permanently, industrial boilers use surplus
steam for electric power generation needed by the industries themselves or for
sale to the central electric power system. Industrial boilers here, are of small
or medium power up to 100 MWth.
Given such purposes, one of the major requirements for this type of
boilers is high reliability. An alternative, which is usually too expensive, is to
have several boilers in reserve. The majority of industrial boilers use liquid or
gas fuel. If they use coal, the coal choice and quality are market driven.
Alternatively, it may be necessary that industrial boilers use a local fuel, e. g.
coal from a local mine, waste coal left over from a previous or existing coal
cleaning facility or processed coal, or waste fuelindustrial and city wastes
or biomass. Industrial boilers typically have stringent requirements with respect
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Chapter 5
to SO2 and NOx emissions due to their location near cities. This is especially
the case for district heating boilers.
All of these operational requirements mesh with the characterstics and
capabilities of FBC boilers, and in particular bubbling fluidized beds that are
more appropriate for non-utility applications. Due to a large number of these
boilers, industrial boilers represent both a large market and one with a very wide
range of requirements, so there is a wide range of market niches for a large
number of manufacturers. According to the data from 1990 [7] there were 67
companies worldwide that offered fluidized bed boilers. From a short review of
development of FBC boilers and the more recent state of development of this
technology given in Sections 1.4 and 1.6, it can be seen that boilers with bubbling
fluidized bed combustion were the first to penetrate the market for industrial
boilers. Given the large number of these boilers in operation it is practically
impossible to provide a comprehensive review of their number and characteristics,
although a number of authors have tried to make such an attempt [2, 718].
The characteristics of fluidized bed boilers, which permit their efficient
exploitation as industrial boilers are as follows:
fuel flexibilitysimultaneously or alternative different fuels can be burnt,

low quality fuels may be used with minimal previous fuel preparation, or
waste fuel and biomass may be used, and
low SO2 and NOx emissions.
As noted in the first chapter of this book, in Sections 1.4, 1.6, and 1.7, bubbling
fluidized bed boilers are particularly appropriate for applications demanding
small and medium unit capacity of up to 100 MWth, because they are more
economical in this range than conventional combustion technologies. It is
therefore clear why bubbling FBC boilers first became competitive with the
other combustion technologies, given the numerous advantages listed above.
This rapid breakthrough of bubbling FBC boilers into the industrial boiler
market was supported by the following considerations:
there are often boilers kept in reserve for this type of application, so
investors did not find it as hard to comit to the purchase of new, still
insufficiently tested technology,
there are also a large number of old boilers with obsolete construction and
characteristics so the turnover in this market is large, and
bubbling fluidized bed combustion technology can be retrofitted thus
permitting the revitalization and reconstruction of old boilers with a new,
modern technology. It is also possible to retrofit liquid fuel boilers for coal
or other solid fuel combustion using fluidized bed, without major problems.
In assessing the requirements and possibilities for the application of bubbling

fluidized bed combustion boilers, the decisive element is the local energy
situation. The energy situation typical for undeveloped countries has most
frequently the following features:
373
coal is the basic domestic primary energy source,

the largest reserves are typically low quality coal or lignite, with high
moisture contents and low ash melting points,
in large systems for electric power generation, the share of coal is high,
coal is primarily used in large facilities of unit power 200 MWe,
liquid fuels are mostly used for power generation in industry,
in practice there are often only very limited environmental regulations,
for both large and small power generation plants,
most power generation in eastern Europe, and many other countries does
not use desulphurization systems, or equipment for controlling NOx emission,
a large number of small mines are still exploited, although they may have
no market for the unwashed coal, and
a large number of units (both large and small power generation plants)
are at the end of their operational life and are facing the need for
reconstruction and revitalization.
Expansion of the market for the bubbling FBC boilers in this situation can be
expected in the power generation in industry, because they can best satisfy the
following requirements:
replacement of imported liquid fuels with domestic coals,

reduction of SO2 and NOx emission without requiring large investments
for flue gas cleaning,
flexibility in terms of the quality and type of fuel employed,
efficient combustion of low-quality as-mined coals, biomass, industrial
and city waste,
full plant automation,
increase of combustion efficiency, and
the possibility of reconstruction of old plants with simultaneous increases
of combustion efficiency, reduction of SO2 and NOx emissions, and the
possibility of low-quality fuel use.
(b)
These boilers have a low power range of between 5 and 15 MWth, and a medium
power range of up to 100 MWth. Steam parameters, depending on the boiler
purpose, are close to the highest parameters for electric power generation boilers.
Steam pressures range from 10 to 70 bar, temperatures are most frequently
between 170 and 510 C and steam capacity is between 2 and 160 t/h.
These boilers are expected to be highly efficient and used year round.
Where they use waste fuels, requirements concerning combustion efficiency
are, however, likely to be somewhat less rigid.
Nevertheless, in practice such industrial boilers with bubbling fluidized bed
typically reach combustion efficiency of up to 9899%. Numerous operational
data, presented at international conferences, can verify these facts [11, 1921].
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Chapter 5
Industrial boilers often require use of fuels with a very broad variety of
characteristicsfrom coal (lignite) to biomass and waste fuel, as well as a
considerable range of load change, even up to 1:5 in heating systems. SO2 and
NOx emission must also be within permissible limits for the country concerned.
The basic parameters for these boilers are similar to those for large
power boilers: bed height from 0.5 to 1 m, fluidization velocity from 1 to 2
m/s, fluidization number about 4, inert bed material particle size from 0.5 to
1 mm and combustion (bed) temperature between 800 to 850 C. The specific
power is 1 to 2 MWth/m2 depending on fuel type, fuel particle dimensions are
from 0 to 50 mm, and excess air is around 1.2.
(c) Basic problems in design
The majority of problems in designing and constructing industrial boilers with

fluidized bed combustion are the same as for FBC power boilers in general.
These problems, which will be discussed in detail later, are listed below:
stable fuel feeding can be problematic, because they often burn low quality
fuels with little or no pretreatment, or they burn waste or unusual fuels,
these units have a demand for high combustion efficiency,
it is necessary to ensure a wide range for load turndown,
it is necesaary to achieve a reduction of SO2 and NOx emission to some
permitted limits, and
it may be necessary to incorporate heat transfer surfaces immersed into
fluidized bed.
(d)
Basic designs of industrial bubbling FBC boilers
Depending on the power, purpose of the boiler and fuel type, there are a
number of different conceptions and design solutions for industrial fluidized
bed boilers. The very first boilers of this type were developed around the
concept of the water shell boilers, also since many old boilers burning coal or
liquid fuels had to be reconstructed, this increased the number of different
concepts and design of the boiler itself as well as the auxiliary boiler systems.
The very fact that there were 67 companies worldwide in 1990 manufacturing
FBC boilers, indicates that specific solutions for their construction were
heterogeneous, although it should be noted that in the last 10 years or so there
has been a rapid consolidation of the number of companies, and the number
offering bubbling bed designs internationally may now be less than 10 in the
western world.
FBC boilers require: high combustion efficiency, a high overall boiler
efficiency, the possibility of operating with a range of fuels, continuous and
automatic load following, and maintenance with as little physical labor as
possible (similar to boilers burning liquid and gas fuels), and they should
include all necessary auxiliary systems.
375
Figure 5.4 shows an FBC boiler with all the appropriate auxiliary systems.
The example chosen is a FBC boiler of 16 MWth capacity manufactured by
Generator, Gteborg, Sweden, made in 1982. This boiler was fed with coal
with a 0 to 30 mm size range, with steam capacity of 20 t/h, and is still used
for heating the University in Gteborg.
Although boiler auxiliary systems will be discussed in some detail in the
next section, all systems are listed here, following Fig. 5.4:
system for storage and delivery of fuel (1, 2, 3, 6),

system for storage and delivery of limestone (1, 2, 3, 4),
Figure 5.4.
Bubbling fluidized bed steam boiler, 20 t/h, at Chalmers University

in Gteborg, Sweden, designed by Generator, Gteborg:
1receiving hopper, 2elevator, 3vibrating mechanical
transporter, 4hopper for limestone and sand, 5feeder for
limestone and sand, 6coal hoppers, 7metering belt
transporter, 8screw feeder, 9mechanical sieve, 10coal
feeding on the bed surface, 11fine coal hopper, 12coal
feeding under the bed surface, 13primary air fan, 14
secondary air fan, 15air preheater, 16liquid fuel starting
burner, 17auxiliary burner for liquid fuel, 18multicyclones,
19secondary cyclone, 20bag filters, 21forced draught fan,
22chimney, 23fly ash hopper, 24ash wet discharge, 25
system for draining of the inert bed material, 26system for
recirculation of the fly ash, 27superheaters, 28high pressure
steam, 29water cooled distribution plate, 30water tube panel
walls of the furnace, 31steam drum
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Chapter 5
system for feeding fuel (7, 8, 9, 10), over the bed surface or under the bed
surface (11, 12),
system for feeding limestone into the bed (5),
system for boiler start-up (16, 17),
system for feeding and distribution of primary air (13, 15),
system for feeding secondary air (14),
system for storage and feeding sand into the bed (4, 5),
system for draining material from the bed, maintenance of bed height, separation
of ash and slag, and return of inert material into the furnace (25, 26),
system for flue gas cleaning (cyclones and filters) (18, 19, 20),
system for fly ash recirculation (26),
water circulation system (27, 28),
system for conveying and removal of ash and slag (23, 24, 25, 26), and
stack (21, 22).
In reviewing the basic designs, we will begin with the solutions that have
historically first developed from reconstructed fire-tube boilers.
Figure 5.5 presents a horizontal water-shell boiler developed in Great
Britain in the beginning of the
seventies by reconstruction of a
fire-tube boiler burning liquid
fuel [24]. A plate for primary
air distribution was incorporated
into the fire tube. Washed, highquality coal with particle size 10
25 mm was fed above the bed
surface. Due to small volume and
small height of the space above
the bed, it was impossible to use
coals with high volatile content
and particles below 1 mm. The
boiler was manufactured by Vekos
Figure 5.5.
Powermaster (G.B.), of power up
Water shell bubbling fluidized bed to 5 MWth or up to 10 MWth if
combustion boiler, Vecos Powermaster there are two fire tubes.
(G.B.) (Reproduced by kind permission of Combustion efficiency was
the author Prof. Dr. J.R.Howard from [2]): 9497%. Due to small space, the
1fluidized air, 2coal feed, 3steam boiler operated with a shallow
outlet, 4flue gases, 5grid for prevention bed100 mm. Since there is no
of the particle elutriation, 6bed ash space for incorporation of heat
draining, 7aerodynamic sieve, 8 transfer surfaces immersed into
circulating pump, 9recirculation of the fly the fluidized bed, the boilers have
high excess air and reduced boiler
ash
efficiency.
Figure 5.6.
Vertical water shell bubbling fluidized
bed combustion boiler with refractory
lined furnace, NEI Cochran (G.B.)
(Reproduced by kind permission of the
author Prof. Dr. J.R.Howard from [2]):
1primary air inlet, 2bed surface,
3outlet of the flue gases, 4ash
removal screw, 5ash discharge,
6feed-water inlet, 7steam drum,
8steam outlet, 9safety valve,
10measurement of the combustion
products composition, 11coal and
limestone hopper, 12start-up liquid fuel
burner, 13circulating pump,
14immersed heat exchanger
377
In order to reduce the

disadvantages of horizontal water
shell boilers with the fire tubes,
primarily in order to provide
greater bed height and a greater
volume and height for the
freeboard, vertical water shell FBC
boilers were also developed in
Great Britain. Figure 5.6 shows a
boiler of this type manufactured by
NEI, Cohran (G.B.). The boilers
are of 4 MWth with a deep bed, so
that it is possible to have an inbed
heat transfer surface. They also
have a comparatively high
freeboard and three passages for the
flue gases through the water shell.
Furnaces are made with a water
shell or covered with firebricks.
Feeding of 012 mm coal particles
takes place either underbed or
abovebed surface. Combustion
efficiency is 9095%, with a
moderate excess air1.251.4.
An interesting design of
vertical small power, a fully
automatizied bubbling FBC boiler,
was proposed by Heat and Mass
Transfer Institute from Minsk
(Belarus), (Fig. 5.7) [59]. Basic
boiler parameters are as listed:
steam capacity 0.51.0 t/h,

thermal power 0.370.75 kW,
steam temperature 120 C,
steam pressure 1.21.6 bar,
boiler efficiency of 80%,
start-up time of 0.5 h, and
dimensions: height 2.9 m, length 2.13 m, width 1.5 m.
Another interesting FBC boiler design developed with the aim to remove the
disadvantages of horizontal water shell boilers, is a locomotive type block
boiler made by Johnston Boiler Co. (G.B.), shown according to NCB
technology, as presented in Fig. 5.8 [3, 4].
378
Figure 5.7.
Chapter 5
Vertical water shell bubbling fluidized bed combustion low power

boiler, designed by Heat and Mass Transfer Institute in Minsk,
Belarus:
1furnace, 2, 3, 4start-up chamber with liquid fuel burner,
5flue gas recirculation, 6heat exchanger, 7superheater,
8steam outlet, 9cyclone, 10flue gas cooler, 11air fan,
12forced draught fan, 13chimney, 14cyclone, 15hopper,
16screw feeder, 17coal crusher, 18belt transporter, 19
fly ash recirculation system, 20intermediate hopper, 21screw
feeder, 22primary air inlet, 23system for bed material return,
24ash removal screw, 25bed material discharge tube, 26
bubble cap, 27air chamber, 28distribution plate, 29
immersed heat exchanger
A horizontal placement for water shell boilers was used, and a screened,
water-cooled pre-combustion chamber was employed, which was high enough
for combustion of small particles and volatiles, with several passages for
combustion products through the water shell. Coarse inert material with a
maximum size of 3.2 mm was used, in order to permit higher fluidization
velocitiesup to 1.8 m/s and thus a greater specific power output.
Brown coal and anthracite, lignite, wood waste, waste oils and other
fuels can be burned in these types of boilers. The bed temperature is
850 C, and excess air ranges from 1.2 to 1.25 and the overall system has
combustion efficiencies of the order of 97%. The capacity of these boilers
can reach up to 15 MWth, steam capacity may range from 1525 t/h, and
steam pressure 1020 bar. NBC developed an interesting variety of these
boilers, in which two horizontal water shell boilers were attached to a
Figure 5.8.
379
Locomotive-type bubbling fluidized bed combustion steam boiler,

Johnston Boiler Co. (G.B.) (Reproduced by kind permission of
the author Prof. Dr. J.R.Howard from [2]):
1primary air fan, 2air chamber, 3fluidized bed, 4water
shell of the furnace, 5pilot burner, 6water tubes, 7water
tubes above the bed, 8opening for furnace inspection, 9
flue gas tubes, 10forced draught fan, 11particle separator,
12ash discharge, 13ash hopper, 14fly ash recirculation
system, 15limestone hopper, 16coal hopper, 17limestone
screw feeder, 18coal screw feeder, 19control box, 20flue
gas recirculation, 21liquid fuel inlet
single pre-combustion chamber, thus allowing a considerable increase of

unit power [3, 4, 20].
Further increase of unit boiler power and steam parameters for FBC
boilers could not be achieved by reconstruction of shell boilers. Therefore, a
new type of boilers appeared with a completely screened pre-combustion
chamber and a sufficiently immersed heat exchanger surface in the bed to
attain maximum specific power from 1 to 2 MWth/m2. A conventional shell
boiler served only as the convective part of the boiler. Figure 5.9 shows such
boiler design manufactured by Babcock Power Ltd. (G.B.) [3, 4].
Boilers were designed over a power range from 6 to 30 MWth and steam
pressure 30 to 40 bar. Excess air was 1.3 and the fluidization velocity was 2.3 m/s.
Use of reconstructed shell boilers was aimed at producing cheaper designs
and use of already well developed design solutions. However, these boilers
380
Figure 5.9.
Chapter 5
Composite bubbling fluidized bed combustion steam boiler

with water-cooled furnace, designed by Babcock Power Ltd.
(G.B.) (Reproduced by kind permission of the author
Prof. Dr. J.R.Howard from [2]):
1primary air inlet, 2air chamber, 3fluidized bed, 4
secondary air inlet, 5coal, 6membrane water cooled wall
furnace, 7steam drum, 8water down flow, 9steam outlet,
10flue gases outlet
were limited to lower unit powers and lower steam pressure and temperature.
Higher unit power and higher steam pressure could be achieved only with
water-tube boilers. The first industrial boiler of this type was designed and
made by Stone International Fluidfire Ltd. (G.B.) in 1980, with power ranging
from 3 to 20 MWth, but with a steam pressure of 55 bar and steam temperature
of 400 C (Fig. 5.10). An interesting design of the distribution plate ensures
better fuel mixing in the bed.
The first optimally designed bubbling fulidized boiler, was probably
the water-tube boiler of Gibson Wells Ltd. 1982. Figure 5.11 [3, 4] shows the
schematic diagram for this boiler. The capacity of the first boiler of this type
was 22 t/h of steam at 16.5 bar and 257 C, and the unit was used for processing
steam and electric energy generation. The boiler had two separate fluidized
beds and a multiple gas pass with steam superheaters and an evaporator. Its
distribution plate was water-cooled and was an integral part of the boiler
water circulation system. Heat transfer surfaces in the bed were inclined at an
angle, enabling natural circulation and load following by varying the bed
height. Coal particles of 018 mm size were fed overbed.
Figure 5.10.
The first industrial fluidized bed combustion
boiler with water-tube furnace walls,
Fluidfire Ltd. (G.B.) (Reproduced by kind
permission of the author Prof.
Dr. J.R.Howard from [2]):
1distribution plate, 2fluidized bed, 3
opening for coal feed, 4water-tube wall, 5
steam drum, 6steam outlet, 7flue gases
outlet, 8water downcomer, 9bed material
discharge
381
Following this historical review of the development of

bubbling FBC boilers, which
was provided an insight into
different designs appropriate
for reconstruction of old boilers burning liquid fuels, descriptions of two more modern
FBC boiler designs will be provided. Modern FBC boilers can
have high power and high
steam parameters and successfully operate in the comercial
realm, while satisfying all of the
previously discussed general
requirements for industrial
boilers. One of the first modern boiler designed and constructed by Foster-Wheeler,
started operation in October
1982 in Rotterdam port
Europort for Royal Dutch
Shell, the Netherlands, for combined steam and electric power
generation.
Figure 5.11. Fluidized bed combustion boiler with water-wall furnace, Gibson
Wells Ltd. (G.B.) (Reproduced by kind permission of the author
Prof. Dr. J.R. Howard from [2]):
1primary air, 2opening for coal feed, 3vertical watertube panel walls, 4convective heat exchanger, 5steam drum,
6steam outlet, 7flue gases outlet to feed water heater, 8
convective heat exchanger
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Chapter 5
The description here comes from a detailed report about the design and
operation of this boiler presented at the 3 rd European Coal Utilization
Conference held in 1983 in Amsterdam [22]. Figure 5.12 gives the general
outline and the layout of auxiliary systems of this boiler, whose basic parameters
are given in Table 5.1.
Description of water and steam circulation system (Fig. 5.13). The boiler
has natural circulation and a single steam drum. The basic parameters of steam
and boiler at maximum power output are given on Table 5.1. The boiler self
power consumption is 1850 kW.
Figure 5.12. Fluidized bed combustion boiler designed by Foster Wheeler,

constructed in Rotterdam port EUROPORT (Reproduced by kind
permission from Industrial Presentation Group, Rotterdam, from
[22]):
1fly ash recirculation system, 2bed material and bottom ash
cooler, 3start-up burner, 4immersed heat exchanger, 5
fluidized bed, 6primary superheater 1, 7coal feeders, 8final
superheater, 9steam drum, 10coal hoppers, 11feed water
heater, 12primary superheater 2, 13distribution plate, 14by
pass of the air heater, 15mechanical air separator, 16air heater,
17fly ash recirculation system, 18primary air fan, 19bag
filter, 20fly ash removal system, 21flue gases draft fan
383
Figure 5.13.
Water and steam circulation in Foster Wheeler
FBC boiler (Reproduced by kind permission
from Industrial Presentation Group, Rotterdam,
from [22]):
1feed water pump, 2feed water heater, 3
steam drum, 4superheater 1, 5superheater
2, 6final superheater, 7steam turbine, 8
electrical generator, 9heat exchanger, 10hot
water for oil reservoirs, 11de-aerator
Table 5.1. Basic parameters of Foster-Wheeler boiler in Rotterdam
Feed water enters at a temperature of 145 C and is then heated in an

economizer consisting of smooth tube bundles placed into a screened second gas
pass. Water from the economizer enters the steam drum and mixes with water
circulating through superheaters and evaporators. The evaporating part of the
water circulation system consists of a membrane panel tube waterwall which
384
Chapter 5
Figure 5.14.
Air and flue gases circulation system in Foster Wheeler
FBC boiler (Reproduced by kind permission from
Industrial Presentation Group, Rotterdam, from [22]):
Abed cell A,Bbed cell B, 1primary air intake,
2primary air fan, 3primary combustion air, 4
start-up burner, 5steam drum, 6mechanical particle
separator, 7flue gases, 8air heater, 9bag filter,
10flue gases draft fan, 11chimney
encircles the entire furnace, separates cells A and B, and forms the walls of the
convective part of the boiler. Heat transfer surfaces immersed into the beds of
both cells and are included in the water circuit. The water returns from the
drum to two collectors with several downcomers. Natural circulation is
achieved due to the density difference of saturated water in downcomers and
the steam-water mixture in heated water tube walls and unheated risers.
The first and the second superheaters are placed into the bed of cell A
and the bed of cell B. Final superheating takes place in an irradiated suspended
superheater placed in the freeboard of the cell A. The steam enters the turbine
at a pressure of 82 bar and exits under pressure of 7 bar. Exhaust steam is used
in the heat exchanger to heat water that heats the oil in the oil tanks. Condensate
from the heat exchangers after deaeration passes into the boiler feeding pump.
Description of the air and flue gas flow system (Fig. 5.14). The air from
the main ventilator is heated in the tubular air-heater by combustion products.
During the start-up, flue gases by pass the air heater in order to achieve rapid
heating of the baghouse filters as soon as possible. From the air-heater, the air
is conducted into the plenum chambers of the bed of cell A and the bed of cell
B, having been divided previously into two streams in both cases. One stream
enters the starting sections A1 and B1 (see Fig. 5.15), and the other air stream,
when appropriate temperature is achieved during start-up, is introduced into
the remaining two sections A2 and B2.
The distribution plate is constructed in the form of bubble caps with
built-in water cooled tubes, which are included into the general water circulation
385
Figure 5.15. Organization of the start-up and air distribution in the Foster
Wheeler FBC boiler (Reproduced by kind permission from
Industrial Presentation Group, Rotterdam, from [22])
(a) vertical cross section of the bed cell A, (b) horizontal cross
section of the air distribution chamber, 1primary air, 2startup burner, 3combustion air for start-up burner, 4coal
feeding, 5part of the bed in working (fluidized) state, 6part
of the bed in quiet (defluidized) state, 7air inlet in bed cell
B2, 8air inlet in bed cell A2
system of the boiler. Starting sections are lined with firebricks. Cooling of the
distribution plate enables pre-heating of starting sections of the bed with
combustion products from start-up, and liquid fuel burners with temperature
up to 815 C, without danger of damage due to thermal expansion.
Inside the beds of cell A and B there are no physical separations between
sections A1 and A2, and B1 and B2. The water-tube panel wall separates only
the active beds A and B, and the space above them. Gases from cells A and B
mix at a certain height above the bed surface passing then into the second flue
gas pass. A sufficient height of the space above the section A of the bed is left
for burnup of small particles and volatiles. After leaving the second flue gas
pass, combustion products pass through a system of cyclones with 85%
efficiency, and the unburnt particles are fed into the furnace again to increase
combustion efficiency. Combustion products continue to pass through the airheater and the fine particles are separated in the baghouse filter. Combustion
products is then passed into the stack by means of a flue gas draught fan, and
a low underpressure is maintained in the furnace.
Starting-up the boiler (Fig. 5.15). Figure 5.15 shows that the boiler fluidized
bed is divided into two partscells A and B. Inert material beds from these
two cells are separated above the distribution plate by a water-tube panel wall,
and they have a completely separated primary air supply. Primary air supply
386
Chapter 5
goes through four plenum chambers, of which A1 and B1 are starting chambers
with built in start-up liquid fuel burners.
Air heated up to 815 C fluidizes only the inert material in the starting
sections A1 and B1. Mixing of heated and cold inert bed material and warm
up of inert material up to the start-up temperature when coal feeding begins is
achieved by periodical fluidizing of inert material in sections A2 and B2.
System for handling and feeding of solid materials into the furnace (Fig.
5.16). Trucks supply coal, limestone and inert material (sand), and then these
are transported by a bucket elevator and discharged into the relevant bunkers.
Inert material is fed into the furnace pneumatically.
A vertical bucket elevator and another belt transporter take coal and
limestone into separate day hoppers by means of a common belt transporter.
From the day bunker, the coal is transported by screw feeder and then fed by
gravity to a coal spreader with a rotor flipper. The screw feeder regulates coal
mass flow rate, and the coal spreader can operate at two speeds. Coal is spread
over the surface of section A1 (i. e. B1) at a lower rotor flipper speed, and
onto the entire bed surface in cell A (i. e. B) at a higher speed. Equipment for
coal feeding in cells A and B are identical.
Figure 5.16. Coal, limestone and sand transportation and feeding system for
the Foster Wheeler FBC boiler (Reproduced by kind permission
from Industrial Presentation Group, Rotterdam, from [22]):
1receiving hopper, 2belt feeder, 3vertical transporter, 4
sand hopper, 5toward the boiler, 6limestone hopper, 7
coal hopper, 8belt transporter, 9pneumatic transport for
the limestone, 10vertical transport, 11belt transporter, 12
coal hopper, 13limestone hopper, 14screw feeder, 15
rotating feeder, 16boiler, 17coal spreader, 18fluidized bed,
19air distribution chamber
387
Limestone from the day bunker is delivered to two small hoppers, and
gravity fed to each section of fluidized bed of cells A and B via a rotary feeder.
System for removal of the excess inert bed material from the furnace
(Fig. 5.17). If ash and tramp material (shale and stones) remain after coal
burning in the fluidized bed, and/or if limestone is used for sulphur retention,
the bed height will rise during operation. In addition, the size distribution of
the bed material will change. A special system serves to maintain constant bed
height and constant average particle size for the inert bed material. This system
can operate either continuously or periodically. The material from the bed is
drained at a single point through a vertical draining tube. Only one point is
necessary to drain material from the entire furnace, if overflow openings in
the water-tube panel wall which divide two cells of the furnace, are used.
Inert material is cooled in screw conveyers. After grinding to a size which
corresponds to the design inert bed particle size, inert material is taken into a
spent bed material storage silo, by means of pneumatic transport. From the
storage silo, the material can be loaded into trucks or recycled back to the
furnace, or into cell A or B by pneumatic transport line.
System for separation of flying ash and recycling unburnt particles (Fig. 5.18).
In order to increase combustion efficiency, a system was introduced for reinjection
of fly ash back into the furnace. Only particles separated in the cyclones are returned
Figure 5.17.
Inert material removal system from the bed in Foster Wheeler FBC boiler
(Reproduced by kind permission from Industrial Presentation Group,
Rotterdam, from [22]):
1fluidized bed, 2screw transporter, 3crusher, 4conveying air fan, 5
toward hoppers, 6hopper for bed material, 7toward material disposal,
8rotating feeder, 9fresh inert material for the bed, 10recirculation of
the inert material
388
Chapter 5
Figure 5.18.
Flue gases cleaning system and fly ash recirculation
system for Foster Wheeler FBC boiler (Reproduced
by kind permission from Industrial Presentation
Group, Rotterdam, from [22]):
Abed cell A, Bbed cell B, 1furnace, 2flue
gases, 3mechanical particle separator, 4air
heater, 5bag filters, 6chimney, 7fly ash hopper,
8rotating feeder, 9screw feeder, 10conveying air
fan, 11fly ash hopper, 12toward the disposal, 13
recirculation of the unburned char
to the furnace. These particles are injected below the bed surface by means of a
pneumatic transport line, at eight points near the distribution plate, in section
A1. Recirculation of fly ash enables an increase of efficiency from 93 to 98%.
Load control and following. In order to permit the furnace load to be varied
widely, the fluidized bed is divided into four sections with separate supply of
primary air and the possibility of feeding fuel only into sections A1 and B1.
Boiler load following is provided in two ways: (a) by fluidization shutdown
(slumping the bed) in some of the sections which interrupts combustion in the
section and reduces total heat generation, and (b) by air flow rate variation
and corresponding fuel flow rate change. Using the second procedure it is
possible to change bed temperature from 770 to 900 C, thus enabling continuous
power variation within tight limits.
The following maximum continuous load changed is possible:
30 to 50% when only the entire cell A operates,
389
42 to 70% when three sections operate (A1, A2 and B1), and

60 to 100% when both cells operate (the entire furnace).
This boiler is one of the first larger fluidized bed boilers constructed [22]. The
boiler met all the design requirements, but demonstrated some basic problems
in terms of the systems for handling and feeding of solid materials, and also in
terms of the pneumatic transport lines. However, all of these problems were
satisfactorily resolved.
It is interesting to examine the design and basic parameters of a 90 MWth
bubbling FBC boiler, manufactured by Stork, Hengelo (the Netherlands),
because there is signifcant and detailed information available on its operation
and its operational behavior [2325], and in Chapter 4 of this book, Section
4.7, some results obtained from this boiler are compared with calculation results
obtained using the mathematical model developed by Brem [25] (Fig. 4.59).
The boiler started operation in 1986/87 in the salt industries AKZO-Hengelo
in the Netherlands, and was used to generate superheated steam needed in the
salt production process.
Figure 5.19 presents the basic diagram of the boiler and the layout of
auxiliary systems. It is possible to follow the distribution of heat transfer
surfaces on the diagram and the water and steam circulation system. The
boiler is interesting, because a relatively high unit power was achieved by
using a large cross section area for the furnace in the lower section where the
active fluidized bed is, and then the cross section of the freeboard is reduced
by more than twice some metres above the bed. The basic design parameters
of the 90 MWth AKZO-AFBC boiler are given in Table 5.2.
Figure 5.19.
Industrial fluidized bed boiler, 90 MWth,
designed and constructed by Stork Co. (the
Netherlands) (Reproduced by kind
permission of the ASME from [24]):
1boiler, 2fluidized bed, 3distribution
plate, 4primary air fan, 5air heater, 6
two coal hoppers, 7two coal mills, 8two
air heaters for the mills, 9limestone hopper,
10feed wa-ter heater, 11steam drum,
12circulating pump for immersed heat
exchanger, 3superheater, 14water
injection, 15three cyclones, 16bag filters,
17flue gases cooler, 18hop-per for
recirculation of the unburned char particles,
19fly ash hopper, 20two water cooled
screw transporters for bed material, 21
discharge hopper for used bed material
390
Chapter 5
Table 5.2. Basic design parameters of the 90 MWth boiler by Stork (the Netherlands)
In addition, besides the listed parameters, the following is important:

(1) Bed height in operation is 1.05 m, and evaporation takes place in the immersed
heat exchanger tube banks, removing about 45% of the heat generated.
(2) The remaining heat energy generated is received by water-tubes panel walls
in the freeboard and heat transfer surfaces in the convective part of the boiler.
The freeboard itself is about 13.5 m high.
(3) Circulation of the water-steam mixture in the boiler is natural, but circulation
through horizontal pipes of the exchanger immersed into the fluidized bed is
provided by a special circulating pump. The water enters the steam drum from
the economizer through the rear and the roof water-tube panel walls, while
vertical water-tube walls of the furnace and cooling of the distribution plate
are included in the natural circulation water system. Saturated steam from the
steam drum passes into the primary and the secondary (irradiated) superheater.
(4) The fluidized bed which has a relatively large area (about 61 m2) is not divided, but the air plenum chamber is, and it provides 11 independently regulated primary air supplies. A wide power range variation in the range of about
3:1 is provided by slumping the fluidized beds in some parts of the bed. At
two points, secondary air is introduced above the bed surface.
(5) Coal, with a size range of 1.5 to 2.5 mm after grinding, is pneumatically fed
underbed, in the vicinity of the distribution plate by means of 12 separate
pipelines at 36 points evenly distributed in the cross section. A mixture of coal
and limestone is fed together simultaneously.
(6) Start-up of the boiler consists of heating of inert bed material by combustion
of natural gas in the bed. The gas is introduced and evenly distributed in the
bed by means of 20 horizontal perforated pipes.
(7) Separation of fly ash from the combustion products is first carried out by
cyclones and then by bag-filters. Trapped particles are returned to the furnace
via 8 separate pipelines by means of pneumatic conveying for combustion of
the unburnt char particles.
391
From the published results [24, 25], the 90 MWth AKZO-AFBC boiler
operated very successfully and by mid 1990 had achieved more than 10,000 h
of operation. The boiler achieved the required design parameters: combustion
efficiency of 99%, boiler efficiency of 93.2%, a power increase rate of 4.5%/
min, a power reduction rate of 9.0%/min, availability of 87.4%, SO2 emission
< 400 mg/kg, NOx emission < 270 mg/kg, and CO < 110 mg/m3 at 7% O2
concentration in the flue gases.
After this review of international industrial boiler designs, constructions
of three smaller boilers of Yugoslav manufacturers will be discussed.
Figure 5.20 gives a diagram of a boiler for generation of saturated steam,
pressure at 18 bar, and a steam capacity 20 t/h, manufactured by Djuro Djakovi
Co. from Slavonski Brod. The boiler started operation in 1989, and was used
to burn coal, wood waste and corncobs [26].
Figure 5.20. Fluidized bed combustion steam boiler, 20 t/h, designed and
constructed by Djuro Djakovi Co., Sl. Brod (Croatia) [26]:
1air inlet for start-up burner, 2start-up burner, 3primary
air, 4start-up chamber, 5distribution plate, 6water-tube
panel walls, 7first convective pass, 8second convective pass,
9feed water heaters, 10toward chimney, 11bed material
discharge, 12fly ash discharge, 13coal inlet, 14steam
drum, 15water downcomer, 16steam outlet
392
Chapter 5
Figure 5.21 gives a diagram of a boiler for dry saturated steam generation
with a pressure of 13 bar and steam capacity 4 t/h, manufactured by MINELKotlogradnja Co. in Belgrade. The boiler was intended for combustion of lignite
as mined, with particle size 0 to 20 mm and a heat capacity 9 MJ/kg and
started operation towards the end of 1990 [27].
Figure 5.22 shows a diagram of a boiler for superheated steam generation
with steam pressure of 6 bar and steam capacity of 15 t/h manufactured by
MINEL Kotlogradnja Co. from Belgrade [28]. The boiler was previewed for
combustion of wood waste, bark and sawdust from wood-pulp works, with a
moisture content of up to 55%.
Both of these two boilers were constructed on the basis of technology
developed at the Institute for Thermal Engineering and Energy, VIN A
Figure 5.21. Fluidized bed combustion saturated steam boiler, 4 t/h, designed
and constructed by MINEL-Kotlogradnja Co., Belgrade:
(a) horizontal cross section of the bed, (b) vertical cross section
of the boiler, (c) vertical cross section of the convective pass,
1primary air inlet, 2primary air inlet from the start-up
chamber in the starting part of the bed, 3sparge tube
distribution plate, 4starting part of the bed, 5second part
of the bed, 6openings for coal feeding, 7secondary air, 8
evaporator, 9feed water heater, 10toward chimney
393
Figure 5.22. Fluidized bed combustion steam boiler for wood waste burning, 15 t/h, designed and constructed by
MINEL-Kotlogradnja Co., Belgrade:
1sparge tube distribution plate, 2coal spreader, 3water-tube panel walls, 4steam drum, 5
steam outlet, 6water downcomer, 7convective pass, 8feed water heater, 9air heater, 10toward
chimney, 11bed material discharge, 12screw transport, 13used bed material hopper, 14toward
particle separator and bed material recirculation system
394
Chapter 5
Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade, using data on fuel suitability for

combustion in a fluidized bed, acquired by means of the unique methodology
developed by the Institute, as described in Chapter 6.
5.1.3.
Bubbling fluidized bed combustion boilers for

electricity production
(a)
Purpose and application
Boilers for electric energy production operate under specific conditions: a

large unit power is required along with high boiler efficiency, safe operation
and high availability. That is why utility companies worldwide are extremely
conservative and tend to accept only well demonstrated technologies.
Nowadays, only pulverized coal combustion boilers are widely used in electric
power plants. In modern electric power plants with PCC boilers, in highdeveloped countries, burners for reduced NOx emission and desulphurization
modules (usually wet scrubbers), for flue gas emission control are used.
Pulverized coal combustion technology has developed over several decades
and as such has reached technical and construction perfection, which in turn
makes it very difficult to achieve a breakthrough in this market for new power
generation technologies.
Modern power generating boilers are expected to fulfill a series of
requirements:
flexibility with respect to type and quality of fuel,

effective environment protection,
wide range of load following with no liquid fuel support, and
fast load variation.
The characteristics of fluidized bed combustion that allow this technology to

be competitive with pulverized coal combustion boilers are as follows:
the possibility of simultaneous or alternate combustion of fuels of different

qualities,
the absence of ash sintering, deposit formation and fouling of heat transfer
surfaces,
a high combustion efficiency,
an ability to successful satisfy all of the increasingly rigorous emission standards (low SO2 and NOx and particulate emission),
the possibility of burning low-rank and low-quality fuels,
reduced investment costs (no special devices for desulphurization and control of NOx emission), and
dry solid waste and spent bed materials.
395
Despite the fact that fluidized bed combustion fully satisfies current needs for
electric power generating boilers, utility companies have still not fully accepted
this type of combustion. As was noted in the first part of this book, boilers
with bubbling fluidized bed combustion have reached the phase of commercial
exploitation and they have become competitive with pulverized coal burning
boilers and boilers burning liquid and gaseous fuels. For electric power
generation, fluidized bed boilers, both bubbling and circulating, were in 1990s
being accepted as demonstrated technology. Long-term and complete
demonstration programs testing of full scale bubling fluidized bed boilers are
described below [29, 30]:
TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute),

Commonwealth of Kentucky and Combustion Engineering constructed a boiler
of 160 MWe, using a bubbling fluidized bed, at the Shawnee power plant,
Paducah, Kentucky (U.S.A.). The boiler started operation in 1988, and the
testing program lasted until 1992 [3133] and the boiler has been in operation
for the last 20 years,
NSP (Northern States Power) reconstructed an old pulverized coal combustion boiler in the Black Dog power plant, Minneapolis, Minnesota (U.S.A.).
The boilers power was 130 MWe, and it started operation in 1985, and its
testing program was completed in 1990 [3436], and
EPDC (Electric Power Development Co. Ltd.) carried out a program to
verify and demonstrate fluidized bed combustion technology by constructing and testing a series of bubbling FBC boilers of various capacities. The
largest boiler in the program is the Takehara of 350 MWe, the construction
of which began in 1991. Start-up occured in 1994, and testing lasted until
1995, when the boiler was put into commercial operation [3739]. The
program started in 1979 by construction of a pilot, steam-generated boiler
with steam capacity 20 t/h. Testing of this boiler lasted from 1982 until
1983. Based on these tests, construction of a demonstration Wakamatsu
50 MWe boiler began in 1985, with steam capacity 156 t/h. Wakamatsu
boiler started operation in 1987, after 8 months of testing which lasted
until after 1992.
Demonstration programs showed that while bubbling fluidized bed combustion

boilers can satisfy the requirements of large power systems with respect to
reliability and availability there were issues, especially around feeding very
large beds, and load following. As a result it is now certain that for larger
utility applications only circulating fluidized beds are likely to be used in the
future.
Besides these demonstration programs for bubbling fluidized bed
combustion boilers, demonstration programs for CFBC boilers also took place.
More details on these boilers, their characteristics and testing programs, can
be found elsewhere [8, 40, 41]. There is however no doubt that for smaller
applications, especially burning low quality and waste fuels, bubbling fluidized
396
Chapter 5
beds have a secure future. Despite this caveat, for completion sake and because
there are a number of large bubbling FBC used for utility applications, the
issues for this type of boiler are discussed below.
The most likely applications of bubbling fluidized bed combustion boilers
in electric power generation are as noted above for the following situations:
as new boilers for combustion of low-quality coals,

in the retrofitting or reconstruction, revitalization and upgrading of old coal
burning boilers, if the quality of the available coal changes, if the boiler needs
reconstruction in order to achieve greater combustion efficiency and satisfy
new or existing emission standards, and
in reconstruction of liquid fuel burning boilers, if changing to cheaper, domestic fuel is intended, but without affecting environment emissions and the
level of automatization.
(b)
Along with the requirements discussed above, which must be satisfied by

electric power generating boilers, the most important requirements are the
following: high unit powerover 100 MWe and high steam parameters, up to
190 bar and 580 C. These demanding conditions are necessary to achieving
high thermodynamic efficiency for the steam cycle and efficient operation of
steam turbines. These requirements and parameters necessary for power
generating boilers and the problems and complexity involved in achieving
them, can be better understood by comparing them with the requirements for
industrial boilers:
combustion efficiency and fuel costs strongly affect the price of power generation, therefore, it is necessary to achieve combustion efficiency of 99% for
large boilers used for power generation, while for industrial boilers combustion efficiencies of 9598% can be satisfactory,
boiler efficiency of 8592%, and
SO2, NOx and particulate emission standards are significantly higher due to
their large capacity and large absolute quanties of pollutants such a boiler can
potentially emit into the environment.
Given the present emission standards in many developed countries, the

following emissions are now standard:
SO2 < 150200 mg/m3, and 90% of sulphur retention for coals with high sulphur content and 70% of sulphur retention for coals with low sulphur content
and lignite,
NOx < 150 mg/m3, and
particulates < 50 g/m3.
Based on the data available for bubbling FBC boilers, it can be concluded that
these boilers have achieved the following parameters:
397
demonstration boilers with capacities of 125160 MWe and a 350 MWe demonstration boiler already in existence in Japan,
steam parameters 130 bar, 538 C,
combustion efficiency 9899%,
boiler efficiency 8688%,
SO2 emission < 250 ppm,
NOx emission < 250 ppm,
particulate emission < 50 mg/m3,
load change capability 3:1 up to 5:1, and
rate of load change 24%/min.
(c) Basic design problems
Nonetheless, designing FBC boilers for electric power generating poses serious
problems and important issues include:
practical maximum specific load of bed (furnace) cross section area is 1 to 2

MWth/m2, and
poor lateral mixing of fuel particles makes uniform distribution of fuel in the
bed difficult.
In view of the fact that a 200 MWe boiler has thermal power of approximately
500600 MWth, it can easily be seen that the fluidized bed cross section
area, depending on the fuel type, must be 300400 m2. It is not simple to
achieve uniform air distribution and uniform fluidization, and solve the
problems of thermal expansion of the air distribution plate in such a large
area. Uniform distribution of fuel is also a complex problem given the fact
that in underbed feeding, one feeding point must serve each 12 m2 of the
bed cross section area. Uniform fuel supply to 150300 feeding points is a
complex technological and construction problem, albeit not insuperable.
Demonstration programs, however, show that these problems can be resolved
in a satisfactory manner.
The other serious problem is the achievement of combustion efficiency
of 99%, which necessarily requires introduction of fly ash recycling. Recycling
solves another serious problemlimestone consumption can be reduced to a
molar ratio 2:1, which is generally considered more acceptable, given that the
quantity of wastes from such a boiler firing high sulphur fuel can be extremely
high (for some high sulphur fuels limestone feed may assume values of 50
60% of the fuel feed).
Another issue is that the quantity of fly ash is much larger (due to
limestone consumption) than in conventional pulverized coal combustion boilers
with wet scrubbers, and electric resistance of the ash is higher, thus reducing
efficiency of electrostatic precipitators.
Reduction of NOx emission requires introduction of secondary air.
398
Chapter 5
(d) Basic design solutions for large power bubbling FBC boilers
Combustion Engineerings 160 MWe TVA boiler is presented in Fig. 5.23 and
Table 5.3. Design of this boiler began in 1985, and it was constructed in
February 1986. A ten-year testing period was originally planned. The boiler
started operation in mid 1988. After 18 months of testing and necessary
modifications, in 1990, a two-year period of tests to verify the design parameters
and detailed investigations began and a final report was issued in September
1992. The unit has since then run commercially, burning mostly coal, but also
successfully co-firing petroleum coke for a short period.
Coal and limestone are introduced in a mixture by means of 12
independent pneumatic conveying systems into 12 cells of the fluidized bed.
Each of these 12 pneumatic lines is divided into 10 feeding lines for each cell.
This means that there are 120 points for underbed feeding. Coal is dried and
ground to a size range of 010 mm. Start-up of the boiler is achieved by
Figure 5.23.
Utility fluidized bed combustion steam boiler, 160 MWe,
designed and constructed by Combustion Engineering
(Reproduced by kind permission of the ASME from [43]):
1distribution of the primary air, 2air heater, 3flue
gases toward coal drying, 4hoppers for fly ash
recirculation, 5flue gas cleaning, 6steam drum, 7
compensator of dilatation, 8convective heat exchanger,
9freeboard, 10bed material discharge system
399
Table 5.3. Basic parameters of the TVA 160 MWe boiler
introducing combustion products from two start-up chambers burning liquid

fuel, placed on two sides of the boiler. When the entire bed (all 12 cells) reach
260 C, special start-up chambers start to operate to heat two central cells up
to 510 C, whereupon feeding of coal begins. To increase combustion efficiency
there is a system for recycling fly ash. Unburned particles are injected at three
points in each of the 12 bed cells. The area of the furnace cross section at the
level of the bed surface is very large (234 m2). At the level of 5.5 m above the
bed surface, cross section of the freeboard narrows to the area of 83 m2.
The boiler has a natural circulation water-steam system, but evaporating
surfaces immersed in the fluidized bed are under forced circulation [4244].
The Black Dog NSP boiler is shown in Fig. 5.24 and Table 5.4. The
boiler is actually a reconstruction of an old boiler constructed in 1954. Both
boilers have been built by Foster Wheeler. Dismantling the old boiler began in
1984, and mounting of the new equipment in the beginning of 1985. The
boiler started operation in the beginning of 1986, and in the middle of that
year ear its commercial operation began. A detailed investigation lasting several
years was then carried out. The capacity of the unit was increased from 100
MWe to 130 MWe by the reconstruction.
Table 5.4. Basic parameters of the 130 MWe Black Dog boiler
400
Chapter 5
Figure 5.24
Retrofitted utility fluidized bed combustion boiler Black Dog,
125 MW e, designed and constructed by Foster Wheeler
(Reproduced by kind permission of the ASME form [34]):
1coal spreader, 2immersed heat exchanger, 3circulating
pump, 4water cooled screw transport, 5water-tube panel
furnace walls, 6irradiated superheater, 7liquid fuel burner
in the freeboard, 8secondary air, 9feed-water heater, 10
primary superheater, 11feed-water heater, 12mechanical
particle separator, 13air heater
The fluidized bed is divided into three parts with independent air supply
the central part (about 55% of the area) with two cells, and two side beds
(altogether 45% of the area). Central cells are separated from each other only by
independent air supply. Side cells are separated from the central ones by a
water-tube wall placed above the distribution plate. Coal is fed by spreaders,
401
which are placed at the wider side of the furnace. In each of the four cells, the
region close to the wall with coal spreaders is separated as a starting cell. There
are 12 coal spreaders altogether: 6 for two main cells of the bed and 3 for each
of the two side cells. By slumping the bed in the individual cells a power change
over the limits 20100% is possible. At low rates, the spreaders feed coal only at
the start-up part of the bed (up to the distance of 2.1 m). At higher rates, coal
can be spread all the way to the opposite furnace wall at the distance of 7.3 m.
The boiler has a natural circulation in the water-steam system [34, 35, 45].
A diagram of Wakamatsu 50 MWe boiler is presented in Fig. 5.25 and
Table 5.5. The 50 MWe Wakamatsu boiler was constructed in EPDC research
Figure 5.25. Demonstration fluidized bed combustion boiler Wakamatsu, 50

MWe, Japan:
1coal disposal, 2coal hopper, 3coal drying, 4vibrating
grid, 5crusher, 6intermediate coal hopper, 7limestone
hopper, 8reheater, 9superheater, 10under bed coal feeding
points, 11steam drum, 12boiler, 13convective heat transfer
surfaces, 14evaporator, 15cyclone, 16cell for burning
unburned char particles, 17multicyclone, 18high pressure
water heater, 19catalatic DeNOx reactor, 20feed-water pump,
21air heater, 22low pressure water heater, 23beg filters,
24pump for condensate, 25condenser, 26flue gases draught
fan, 27high pressure fan, 28chimney, 29high pressure steam
turbine, 30medium pressure steam turbine, 31steam turbine
for super high temperatures, 32low pressure steam turbine, 33
electrical generator, 34main fan, 35ash discharge; Lines: 1
coal feeding system, 2limestone feeding system, 3transport
lines for coal-limestone mixture, 4air ducts, 5flue gases ducts,
6ash removal system, 7water and steam circulation system
402
Chapter 5
Table 5.5. Basic parameters of the 50 MWe Wakamatsu boiler
center on the location of a former thermal electric power plant, which ceased
operation. Specific to its design are two fluidized beds placed one above the
other in the boiler furnace in order to reduce the cross section area of the
furnace, as well as a special cell with fluidized bed (furnace) for burning out
unburned char particles. Coal is fed underbed, which is why it is first dried,
and then mixed with limestone.
In the upper main boiler bed, a horizontal evaporator is situated, and in the
lower part, the secondary, the third and the final superheater are located. Since
the evaporators are horizontal, the boiler has partially forced circulation. A part
of the evaporator is placed into the char burn-up cell. In each bed only separated
cells are started up, where there are no heat transfer surfaces [3739, 4649].
5.1.4.
Choice of boiler concept-problems and the

choice of basic parameters
The choice of whether to employ a bubbling fluidized bed combustion boiler,

its construction, basic dimensions, and hydrodynamic and thermodynamic
parameters, as well as the choice and construction of auxiliary systems depend
primarily on the following:
boiler power,
the fuel that will be used,
the requirements for:
combustion efficiency,
range of load change,
rate of load change,
SO2 and NOx emissions, and
level of the boiler automatic operation control.
403
The choice of different concepts, hydrodynamic and thermodynamic

parameters affects mostly the dimensions and the shape of the furnace, and
the paraeters that define combustion conditions. For reliable operation of an
FBC boiler, the most important thing is to provide uniform and good
fluidization, good fuel mixing and ensure its uniform distribution in the bed.
The other problems relate to the following issues:
boiler power (dimensions of the bed cross-section area),

fluidized bed height,
freeboard height,
inert material particle size,
fluidization velocity,
combustion temperature (fluidized bed temperature),
combustion efficiency,
excess air,
dimensions of heat transfer surfaces immersed into the bed,
location for fuel feeding,
fly ash recirculation,
draining of the inert bed material,
boiler start-up, and
load change.
The parameters and processes that are directly connected with the furnace design
will be discussed in this section. The remaining problems (the type of fuel feed
system, recirculation of fly ash, draining of the inert bed material, boiler start-up
and the manner in which power will be changed), which are linked more to the
auxiliary systems, will be discussed to more detail in the following section.
Boiler unit power (fluidized bed cross-section size). Large capacity
FBC boilers can be achieved in two ways: by increasing the cross sectional
area of the bed or by increasing the maximum specific heat generation per
unit of cross-section area of the bed or the furnace.
It was already noted that the cross-sectional heat release rate of the bubbling
FBC boilers is 0.52 MWth/m2. This datum refers to the normally used inert
material with particle size 0.51 mm and fluidization velocity 12 m/s. The actual
value of the cross-sectional heat release rate depends on fuel quality, excess air and
the heat that can be removed by immersed heat exchangers from the bed. For very
high-quality coal combustion, with low moisture and volatile matter content, one
may achieve an upper limit in the range of 2 MWth/m2, since the majority of heat
is generated in the fluidized bed, where the advantages of fluidized bed combustion
become most prominent. Increase of the cross sectional heat release rate for a
given fuel can be achieved only by increasing fluidization velocity, which causes
increase of inert material particle size. Some boiler constructors use inert material
of 12 mm and more, but in that case a high pressure primary air fan is necessary,
which is also a problem. Erosion of internals and heat transfer surfaces in this
environment may also become a significant problem.
404
Chapter 5
If the required boiler power exceeds the reasonable heat release rate, it can
be achieved only by an increase of fluidized bed cross section area. For electric
power generating boilers of 500600 MWth, technological issues in building a
fluidized bed having an area of 150200 m2 are the greatest problem. Despite
that, companies such as Combustion Engineering, in the case of the TVA 160
MWe FBC boiler, did choose a single bed with an area of about 235 m2. This
solution earned the nickname RANCH among some engineers in the U.S.A.,
which indicates the degree of challenge in building such a large bubbling FBC.
The other possibility is to divide the fluidized bed into several stages,
one above the other, along the furnace height. Although there have been several
examples of such approaches to resolving the problem of increasing the power
of bubbling FBC boilers (for example 30 MWe demonstration boiler in
Riversville, U.S.A. [44], 50 MWe Wakamatsu, Fig. 5.25, Worsmer boilers,
Great Britain, and Stal-Laval, Sweden), this type of combustion system never
became very popular. In fact, one of the most important reasons for development
of circulating fluidized bed boilers was the problem of large bed areas in large
power bubbling FBC boilers and currently it can probably fairly be said that
for units with a capacity of greater than 2550 MWe, any new FBC boiler will
almost certainly be of the circulating fluidized bed type.
Fuel mixing in fluidized bed. Mixing of fuel and its uniform distribution in a
fluidized bed is one of the greatest problems in furnace construction. Bad mixing
leads to formation of local hot spots in the bed, ash melting and agglomeration
of the material in the bed, uneven fluidization and, finally, to bed defluidization
and interruption of boiler operation. Bad fuel mixing can also contribute to
reduction of combustion efficiency. This disadvantage of combustion in a
bubbling fluidized bed is especially noticeable for large capacity boilers and in
the combustion of waste fuels, refuse derived fuels and industrial waste.
Section 2.3.6 of Chapter 2 dealt in detail with mixing of solid particles
in a fluidized bed. It was stressed that mixing in the axial direction is very
good, but the low intensity of mixing of fuel in a lateral direction presents a
problem. Some practical aspects of the problem will be discussed below.
Good mixing of fuel can be achieved in several ways:
design of the air distribution plate to achieve a uniform and intense fluidization (this will be discussed in some detail in the following section),
by a correct choice of the manner of fuel feeding, depending on fuel characteristics,
by a correct choice of the positions of fuel feeding points (see Sections 2.3.6,
Figs. 2.32 and 2.33),
by a large number of correctly placed feeding points (see 160 MWe TVA
boiler), which will be discussed in the following section, and
by design solutions which enable directed, organized movement of inert
material in the bed, which can be achieved in lower capacity boilers.
405
Effective directed circulation of inert bed material can be achieved in several

ways (see Fig. 2.38 in Section 2.3.6). Such mixing increases the residence
time of the fuel particles in the bed and it may be necessary for combustion of
low-quality and waste fuels.
The schematic view of a Fluidfire (Great Britain) boiler that used directed
circulation of inert bed material is presented in Fig. 5.10 [2, 4, 12, 50]. The
following advantages of its construction are stated to be:
increase of residence time of coarse fuel particles in the bed and reduction of
elutriation of smaller particles,
collecting of ash and oversized material in the middle of the bed where it is
more easy to drain them, and
in cases of low power, heat transfer to water-tube furnace walls are sufficient
for heat removal from the bed, so it is unecessary to introduce additional immersed heat transfer surfaces.
A similar, highly successful design was developed by a Japanese firm EBARA

Corporation [51] for combustion of various types of waste, even entire car
tires (Fig. 5.26). A British firm, Deborah, also used a similar type of mixing
arrangement, see Fig. 2.38 [2, 50].
Fluidized bed height. In practice, the height of fluidized bed in industrial boilers
ranges from 0.5 to 1.2 m. The height of the fluidized bed depends on many
Figure 5.26.
Fluidized bed furnace with internal bed material circulation,
designed by EBARA Co. (Japan) (Reproduced by permission of
Routledge, inc., part of the Taylor & Fransis Group. Copyright
1986 from [108]):
1primary air inlet, 2air distribution plate, 3opening for
coal feeding, 4immersed tube exchanger in auxiliary bed, 5
bed material discharge
406
Chapter 5
factors: desired combustion efficiency, dimensions of immersed heat exchanger

(if any), the type of load following necessary, the type of fuel and others. The
height of the bed is often dependant and limited by the available pressure head
of the primary air fan. In principle, high-quality coals require communition,
feeding in the vicinity of the air distribution plate, a large area of the heat
exchanger immersed into the bed and a large bed height. Geologically younger
coals (with particle size 2550 mm), can be fed directly on to the bed surface
despite their high volatile content, and can be burned efficiently even with a
bed height of only 500 mm. However, combustion of small sized biomass,
which also have a high volatile content, requires deeper beds.
A larger bed height ensures combustion of fine particles and volatiles in
the bed and increased combustion efficiency, and permits the use of a larger
immersed heat exchanger, bed height variation for the sake of load variation,
better utilization of limestone and a higher degree of desulphurization. However,
deeper beds also mean a more complex furance construction, a primary air fan
with a larger pressure head (over 2000 kPa), and a higher self power or parasitic
power consumption for the boiler itself. Very successful boilers were designed
with bed heights up to 500 mm, primarily for combustion of geologically
younger coals which can be efficiently burnt in shallow beds despite difficulties
with volatile matter combustion.
Freeboard height. In order to achieve a high combustion efficiency, a sufficient
height above the bed is necessary. It was once believed that a large furnace height
was not required for fluidized bed combustion. Considerably lower furnace height,
that is a smaller furnace volume, was stated to be a major advantage of this type of
combustion. Although this characteristic of FBC boiler still remains an advantage
compared to conventional boilers, the furnace height of bubbling fluidized bed
combustion boilers is nonetheless significant. For instance, the 90 MWth AKZO
boiler had a furnace which was about 13.5 m high, while the furnace height of the
160 MWe TVA FBC boiler is 31.5 m, and that of the 130 MWe Black Dog boiler
is 28.5 m, and that of the 50 MWe Wakamatsu boiler was 28 m high. Heat release
rate per furnace volume is still higher in FBC boilers than in conventional boilers,
and ranges from about 1.2 to 1.7 MWth/m3. High furnaces (i. e. the space above
the bed) provides sufficient time for combustion of fine char particles (important
for burning high-quality coals) and for volatile matter combustion (which is
important for burning lignite and biomass).
Freeboard height depends on the fluidization velocity and velocity selected
for above the bed. This volume must be sufficiently high to provide for any
necessary heat transfer to furnace walls, injection of secondary air and the gas
mixing necessary for complete volatile mater combustion.
Inert material particle size. The initial inert bed material in FBC boilers is
typically just silica sand, although in some systems operators may startup with
saved bed material. During operation, and depending on the fuel type and
407
characteristics and behavior of ash, and any requirements for making sand
makeup, a certain steady state mixture of ash and sand components is likely to
be achieved. If limestone is used then the bed is likely to be comprised of
primarily limestone derived products. The average particle size (and size
distribution) of the inert bed material is a very important design parameter. It is
important that the boiler maintain the design specifications for average particle
size, to ensure reliable and safe operation of the boiler. A minimum particle size
of inert material is maintained automatically by the elutriation of small particles
depending on the fluidization velocity. However, the maximum particle size
must be controlled during boiler operation, by means of a system for draining
bed material, and if appropriate by sieving and/or grinding this material and
using it as bed makeup. Typically, the sizing for inert material in a modern
bubbling FBC boilers is between 0.5 and 1.0 mm, although in some designs a
slightly larger size range of 1 to 2 mm may be used.
Ash behavior in the bed. Ash resulting from the combustion of coal can
remain (and accumulate) in the bed or be carried out by gaseous combustion
products. The ratio of fly ash and the ash remaining in the bed depends on
coal characteristics and in particular its mineral characteristics, as well as the
the fluidization velocity. Ash behavior in the bed decisively affects the design
and the capacity of auxiliary systems: the system for recirculation of unburned
particles, the system for flue gas cleaning, and the system for removal of the
solid material from the bed.
The sintering temperature of ash affects the choice of nominal and
maximum bed temperature. A low sintering temperature increases the danger
of ash sintering and bed material agglomeration, which can result in
defluidization, interruption of boiler operation and under some circumstances
substantial damage to the boiler. Section 5.6 of this chapter will deal with bed
material agglomeration and ash sintering in more detail.
Fluidization velocity. In operating bubbling FBC boilers, the fluidization
velocity ranges from 1 to 2.5 m/s, and in some cases even higher velocities of
2 to 4 m/s are employed.
The choice of fluidization velocity depends on the size and type (density) of
inert bed material, the desired combustion efficiency and planned range of boiler
load change to be achieved by changing the fluidization velocity. The fluidization
velocity must be above 46 times the minimum fluidization velocity of the inert
bed material at nominal operation bed temperature to ensure vigerous fluidization.
Higher fluidization velocity implies more large bubbles and better and
more intense mixing in the bed, but also higher elutriation of fine ash and char
particles. While the combustion in the bed will be improved, more unburned
particles will be elutriated from the bed. Typically, higher fluidization velocity
implies lower combustion efficiency, and will likely require the use of unburned
flyash recirculation and higher capacity for devices used for particle separation
from flue gases.
408
Chapter 5
The fluidization velocity must be sufficiently high to ensure that the

fluidization intensity is sufficient to enable good mixing of material in the fluidized
bed during load control by reducing the primary air flow rate and corresponding
reduction of the fuel flow rate. At minimum boiler power (i. e. minimum flow
rate of the primary air), the fluidization velocity should not be below 3 vmf.
Combustion temperature. One of the most important characteristics and
advantages of fluidized bed combustion is that combustion is highly efficient, at
temperatures much lower than in conventional boilers. In operating boilers,
combustion temperature is chosen and maintained within narrow limits between
800 and 900 C. Towards the higher value, temperature is limited by ash softening
and sintering, and towards the lower value, by combustion efficiency. Fortunately,
this is also the temperature range in which the reaction rate between SO2 and CaO
is the greatest and for fuels with significant sulphur contents this is nearly always
the range chosen. For FBC furnaces which use significantly higher temperatures,
sulphur capture is likely not to be a consideration, but in cases of units operating
much above 900 C, NOx emissions may then start to become a problem.
It is possible to maintain operating temperature below 800 C, but seldom
below 750 C, and then only for biomass fuels, or for short periods of time for
other fuels, to ensure the widest possible boiler power range.
Combustion efficiency. Although combustion efficiency depends significantly
on the type of fuel, this is not an a priori determined parameter. Depending on
the boiler purpose, ratio of investment and operation expenses, a boiler designer
may choose any given combustion efficiency, by a suitable choice of boiler
design, and operating parameters. The combustion efficiency will be discussed
further in Section 5.3, but typically it ranges from 95% to over 99%.
Excess air. In bubbling fluidization, a portion of the air passes through the bed
in bubbles and may not actively participate in the combustion process in the
bed. To the extent intense mass (oxygen) transfer between bubbles and emulsion
phase is provided, it is possible to ensure adequate combustion in the bubbling
fluidized bed with less excess air. Despite this deficiency, industrial bubbling
fluidized bed boilers operate with an excess air of 1.2 to 1.3, which is close to
the values typical for conventional pulverized coal combustion boilers.
The choice of excess air is also a matter of achieving an optimum in
terms of performance. A lower excess air implies a risk of incomplete
combustion, but also lower energy losses with the flue gases. Higher excess
air provides higher combustion efficiency, but also higher exit losses. In
practice, by combining different possibilities for improving combustion
efficiency, the designer may choose lower excess air and ensure overall boiler
efficiency within the range from 85 to 92%.
Size of heat transfer surfaces immersed in the fluidized bed. Maintenance of
appropriate combustion temperature in the bubbling fluidized bed within the range
409
from 800 to 900 C, often requires heat removal directly from the bed. The
quantity of heat which must be directly removed from the bed, depends mostly on
the type of fuel. With high-quality coals, with low moisture and volatile matter
contents, it is necessary to remove up to 50% of the total heat generated by the fuel
from the bed (with excess air of about 1.25). Combustion of low-quality fuels,
with high moisture and volatiles contents, can be accomplished without the use of
immersed heat transfer surfaces. In some cases, it may even be necessary to cover
some or all of the furnace walls area with firebricks in order to prevent excess
cooling of the bed, and loss of heat through the furnaces water-tube walls (e.g. for
burning very wet biomass or biomass derived fuels for instance).
Generally, excess heat can be removed from the bed in two ways: by use
of high excess air or by means of heat transfer surfaces immersed into the bed.
High excess air use is typical for hot air or hot gas generation, described in
Section 5.1.1. In FBC boilers, excess air is normally chosen to be as close as
possible to the stoichiometric value, and the combustion temperature is
maintained by removing heat using immersed heat transfer surfaces.
In calculating the quantity of heat which must be removed from the bed,
or for calculating the area needed for heat removal, the area of water-tube furnace
walls in contact with fluidized bed at operating bed height, must be known, and
also the area of any heat exchange surface in the form of tube bundles immersed
into the bed. Appropriate correlation for the heat transfer coefficients should
also be used in such calculations (see Section 3.5.2 of Chapter 3).
The water-tube wall area which is in contact with the fluidized bed is to
some extent predetermined by the given (and limited) furnace dimensions
size and shape of the bed cross-section and the bed height. The size of the
immersed exchanger must then be determined depending on amount of heat
that must be removed. In any such design the bed height must be sufficient to
accommodate the proposed heat exchanger to be immersed into the bed.
This procedure presented here follows reference [2], although there are
various, albeit essentially similar, approaches [52]. The determined heat balance
is the basis of all engineering calculation procedures to determine the basic
dimensions for FBC boiler furnaces, and must be included in the type of
mathematical models described in Section 4.7.
First, the necessary fuel flow rate is determined for the required boiler
power and the given fuel:
(5.1)
Then, based on assumed excess air, the necessary air quantity is determined ined:
(5.2)
Boiler efficiency (which includes combustion efficiency) and excess air are
the parameters the designer chooses based on experience from previously
constructed boilers.
410
Chapter 5
The proportion of the heat energy generated by coal combustion in the

bed, depends on the type and characteristics of fuel, as well as the furnace
and boiler construction. This parameter is very important in FBC boiler
design and has been the subject of detailed and comprehensive investigations
(see Chapter 6). When this so-called degree of inbed combustion is either
assumed or known, the quantity of heat released in the bed by combustion is
given by:
(5.3)
Qb=bQo
The quantity of heat to be taken away by combustion products from the bed is
given by the following:
(5.4)
If the quantity of heat needed to heat the fuel, air and limestone up to bed
temperature is taken into account, as well as the amount of heat necessary for
the calcination process, then the quantity of heat to be removed by the inbed
heat exchanger and by water-tube walls, is:
(5.5)
QI=Qb-Qg-QF-Qk
The surface necessary for heat transfer can be calculated by an expression
having the following form:
(5.6)
Based on the characteristics of the bed material, the average bed particle size
and the assumed fluidization velocity, the fluidized bed cross-section area
may be calculated:
(5.7)
With the previously assumed bed height Hb, it is then possible to calculate the
area of the furnace water-tube walls required to be in contact with the fluidized
bed. Following this, and using the correlations given in Section 3.5.2, and
relation similar to (5.6), it is possible to calculate an amount of heat Qw,
transfered to the furnace walls.
If:
QW>QI
it is not necessary to have inmersed heat exchanger and it may be necessary to
cover part of water-tube walls with firebricks, to insulate the furnace.
If:
QW<QI
it is necessary to incorporate additional heat transfer surface into the fluidized
bed in order to remove the heat surplus QIQw.
411
If there is no possibility of incorporating the necessary surfaces into the

bed, for a prescribed bed height, a greater bed height should be used, excess
air increased, or other measures taken to increase the amount of heat removed
from the bed.
The amount of heat which is removed from the bed by combustion
products Qg, determines the size of remaining exchange surfacesin the
freeboard and in the convective section of the boiler. For calculation of the
necessary heat to be extracted from the furnace by water-tube walls in the
freeboard, expressions such as those given in Section 3.6 should be used. For
irradiated superheaters in the furnace and heat transfer surfaces in the convective
part of the boiler, the customary engineering methods used in designing
conventional boiler calculations are recommended [53, 54].
The engineering heat balance calculation for bubbling FBC furnace
shown here, indicate that this type of calculation is based on a series of
assumptions and empirical data, and does not take into account actual processes
that occur in the bed. Furthermore, these methods of calculation rely on the
methods and empirical data developed and verified for conventional boiler
design, which have not been fully tested for application under conditions
appropriate for FBC boilers.
The reliability of these engineering balance calculations has to be verified
by comprehensive experimental investigations of combustion of various coals
in laboratory scale furnaces, pilot plants and demonstration boilers, and by
supplying data on the behavior of a large number of furnaces over long periods
of operation. Initially, with any such combustion technology, there is insufficient
operational data and a significant amount of time is needed to gather and
interpret such data, which is why so many countries initially involved
themselves in demonstration programs. The character and the results of these
investigations, which were aimed at revealing the influences of coal
characteristics on the design and operation of FBC boilers are described in
detail in Chapter 6.
5.2. The purpose and description of
auxiliary systems in FBC boilers
Auxiliary systems appropriate to bubbling FBC boilers have been mentioned

and listed in several places in this book, together with discussions on their basic
purpose. In this section these systems are described in further detail, and issues
relating to their design and application are discussed. As well, efforts have been
made to discuss some of the most important parameters in choosing such a
system, stem, and practical operational experience is presented on these systems.
stems. In practice, information on auxiliary systems and their behaviour during
operation are infrequently presented in the literature. Many data and design
solutions are considered to be proprietary secrets. Further, such data as is available,
tends to be scattered in the papers presented at international conferences (for
412
Chapter 5
example [1921]), or papers describing operational experiences on FBC boilers.

Further, as the technology matures it becomes more uncommon to discuss such
issues. Therefore results obtained by investigations on auxiliary systems in pilot
and demonstration plants [3133, 42, 44] are of special interest. Most of the
material presented in this book is based on data from papers presented at the
three important international conferences and on material found in references
[2, 12, 50], and especially in the book [55], which was an important source of
data and recommendations for the engineers who design some of the most
important fluidized boilers in the U.S.A..
Air distribution plate. The main task of the distribution plate is to provide
uniform distribution of air for combustion and uniform fluidization over the
whole cross section of the bed. At the same time, the distributitor plate must
be designed to fulfill the following tasks:
to prevent inert bed material from passing (weeping) into the air plenum
chamber under the distributor plate,
to support the weight of the static bed and to accommodate thermal expansion
while maintaining a gas-tight seal, both in the nominal operational regime
and during start-up, and
to enable removal of any surplus inert bed material or oversized material.
The correct design of the distribution plate is also important in order to

decrease erosion of metal surfaces in contact with the fluidized bed. Among
the numerous shapes and designs of air distributors for achieving fluidization
in chemical and other reactors, hoppers and pneumatic conveying systems,
only two basic designs of distribution plates (Fig. 5.27) are used in FBC
boilers:
air distributors in the form of a water cooled base plate with built in nozzles
(bubble caps), of different shapes (Fig. 5.27a and b), and
air distributors in the form of a grid made of sparge pipes with drilled holes in
the underside or fitted with nozzles (bubble caps), (Fig. 5.27c and d).
An interesting construction of the air distributor in the form of grid made of

sparge tubes with rectangular cross section, and longitudinal slits was developed
by CER, a ak (Yugoslavia) for their FBC furnaces and FBC boilers built in
cooperation with MINEL boiler Co., Belgrade, Fig. 5.27e. Different shapes of
bubble caps are shown in Fig. 5.27.
Protection of the air distributor from high bed temperatures, can be
achieved in several ways:
by means of a stagnant layer of inert bed material between the bubble caps
(Fig. 5.27a),
by means of cooled tubes built into the distribution plate (Fig. 5.27b), and
by means of air flow through the plate (Fig. 5.27d and e).
413
Figure 5.27. Different designs of air distribution plates (Reproduced by

permission of Routledge, inc., part of The Taylor & Francis
Group. Copyright 1986, from [108]):
(a) bubble caps of different shapes, (b) water cooled distribution
plate with bubble caps, (c) sparge distribution plate with circular
holes, (d) sparge distribution plate with bubble caps, (e) sparge
distribution plate with longitudinal slots.
Thermal protection and compensation for thermal expansion of the air

distributor are two much more difficult problems during the start-up period, when
the combustion products of liquid or gas fuel are passing through at temperatures
of up to 600 C. For this reason the air distributor is often built of stainless steel.
414
Chapter 5
An air distributor in the shape of a plate with bubble caps is more

expensive to produce, but it has the following advantages:
more uniform fluidization can be achieved (bubble caps are arranged at a

uniform pitch of 75100 mm), and
thermal protection of the plate is easier to accomplish (height of the bubble
caps being 50100 mm).
It is more difficult to achieve uniform fluidization by means of sparge tube air

distributors, but this concept has the following advantages:
it is cheaper and easier to construct, and

it is suitable for combustion of low-rank, high ash coals as received, because it is easier to remove larger amounts of excess bed material from the
bed, in the form of large ash particles, stones and/or agglomerated bed material, which tend to segregate and accumulate on the distributor.
The basic recommendations for the design and calculation of the air distributor
can be summarized in the form of two ratios [2, 55]:
(a) the ratio between the pressure drop across the distributor and the fluidized
bed should be chosen to be about 0.1 over the nominal boiler operating regime (following the recommendations given by Kunii and Levenspiel from
1969 [56]). Higher values can also be found in the literature, including an
extremely high recommended value of 0.3 [57]. When choosing the distributor pressure drop one should note that the air velocity changes with the change
of the boiler power according to the square of air velocity, while the bed pressure drop remains constant. In order to provide good fluidization even under
minimum regimes for boiler operation, it is better to choose the pressure drop
ratio to be 0.1, and
(b) according to Kunii and Levespiel: the open area of the distributor should be
in the range 0.5 to 2% of the total bed cross section.
Detailed recommendations for distributor design can be found in the book

[55], and in other books devoted to fluidization [5658, 6063], and in
references on pneumatic conveying, but one should bear in mind that in FBC
boilers the distribution plate operates under rather different conditions than
appropriate for much of that literature.
Coal feeding system. Coal feeding in bubbling FBC boilers is one of the
basic problems that has to be solved in order to achieve efficient combustion.
Poor mixing of inert bed particles and fuel in horizontal direction is a
characteristic of the bubbling fluidization, which was described in detail in
Section 2.3.6. Problems that arise from this phenomenon are also mentioned
in the same section as well as in Section 5.1.4. Among these problems, the
most important ones are: short char residence time and residence time of
volatiles in the bed and therefore, their incomplete combustion, appearance of
415
hot spots in the bed with temperature higher than the designed ones, and the
resulting danger of ash sintering and agglomeration of inert material. Many of
these problems can be solved or at least reduced by proper coal feeding:
The task of any FBC coal feeding system is to distribute the coal uniformly
over the bed surface and throughout the bed volume, to ensure good combustion
conditions. At the same time, combustion products should be prevented from
penetrating into the coal hopper, or the furnaces cold air entrance.
Fuel feeding in the fluidized bed furnace is usually arranged in two
ways:
by spreading fuel onto the free bed surface, and

by injection fuel underbed.
The choice of one of these two procedures for feeding fuel into the bed is
primarily influenced by the following fuel properties:
geologically younger coals, primarily lignites, with high volatile content, or

more reactive coals, are usually fed to the furnace as supplied (or as mined),
without previous separation, washing and drying. Coal are fed with particle
size between 025 mm (sometimes even up to 50 mm), most frequently
overbed, and
higher quality coals, which must be crushed to the size <5 mm before combustion, because of their low reactivity, and fuels with high volatile content,
with small particle size (for example biomass, sawdust), are usually injected
underbed, near the air distributor.
Industrial boilers and small boilers have a wider range of potential solutions
for designs for coal feeding, because of their smaller cross-sectional area. For
large units, possible solutions are limited to systems, which can distribute fuel
over very large area.
Three possible systems for overbed FBC coal feeding are shown in
Fig. 5.28.
Gravity feeding (Fig. 5.28a) is achieved by supplying fuel by a screw
feeder or a rotary valve (which also serves as a sealing device) to a chute,
along which the coal passes through the action of gravity and falls onto the
bed surface. The basic advantage of this type of feeding is its simplicity of
construction and its high reliablity. Its potential deficiencies include the
possiblity of devolatilisation, ignition and combustion of volatiles in the
chute, and possible formation of a fuel rich regions and lack of oxygen in
the region where fuel falls onto the bed surface. For this reason, it is important
to ensure that fuel falls in a region of the bed where there is a strong downward
movement of the particles into the interior of the bed (see Section 2.3.6,
Figs. 2.32 and 2.33).
Following the recommendations given in [55] one such feeding point is
needed for every 34 m2 of the bed surface.
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Chapter 5
Figure 5.28. Different coal feeding systems for fluidized bed combustion
furnaces (Reproduced by permission of Routledge, inc., part
of The Taylor & Francis Croup. Copyright 1986, from [108]):
(a) gravity feeding, (b) overbed coal spreading, (c) overbed
screw feeding, (d) different designs of the underbed
pneumatic coal feeding devices
Fuel can be fed directly overbed by means of screw feeders (Fig. 5.28b)
in a very similar way, and with the same advantages and limitations. Fuel can
be injected inbed by means of a variable pitch screw feeder. This type of fuel
feeding can also serve 34 m2 of the bed surface, which is why these methods
of feeding are applicable only to relatively small boilers. For example, the
boiler in Fig. 5.21 has two screw feeders placed on one side of the boiler, for
a total furnace cross section area of about 3 m2.
For boilers of medium and high capacity, systems for fuel spreading
onto the fluidized bed surface are used (Fig. 5.28c). These feeding devices
were developed for conventional spreader stoker boilers with grate combustion,
and have been successfully applied in FBC boilers. The basic advantage of
this type of feeding is the possibility of ensuring a relatively uniform distribution
of coal over a much larger bed surface area. According to the data given in
[55] these devices can distribute coal over a surface of 1.57 m2, and in [8,
11] it is noted that one feeding point is needed for 515 m2. The Black Dog
125 MWe boiler has 12 spreaders, i. e. one for each 14 m2 [8, 34]. The advantage
of this type of feeding system is that it draws on the long experience in designing
and operating conventional boilers.
A general advantage of all overbed feeding systems is the possibility of
feeding moist fuels as received, with a particle size range between 050 mm,
although it is recommended that percentage of particles smaller than
417
0.5 mm should not be higher than 10% for this type of system [55]. The deficiencies
of this type of feeding are its limits in terms of the need to specify a particular
particle size range and the likelihood of elutriation of small particles and their
subsequent combustion above the bed. A further general deficiency of this type of
system is the requirement for recycling unburned char particle, given the high
elutriation losses that are likely to be experienced. System for draining, separation,
crushing and returning suitable sized material into the furnace are also probably
inevitable, since together with coal, large sizes of ash, stones and tramp material
will enter the furnace. Futhermore, the limestone utilization for SO2 capture is
likely to decrease due to combustion of significant amount of the fuel above the
bed and release of SO2 in a region where the solid loadings are low.
Inbed coal injection. This is exceptionally accomplished by means of a screw
feeder, however, normally it is achieved solely by means of pneumatic
conveying, with nozzles of different shapes (see Fig. 5.28d) placed in the
vicinity of the air distributor, but above the level of the bubble caps for air
injection. In smaller boilers, pipelines for conveying coal can enter the furnace
through sidewalls. In larger boilers, nozzles for coal injection are arranged
uniformly between the bubble caps for air injection.
The basic advantages of this type of coal feeding are: (1) large residence
time of the coal (char) particles in the bed and higher combustion efficiency,
(2) the improved utilization of limestone, and (3) the fact that ash and stones
are crushed to the size which does not negatively affect fluidization, making it
easier to ensure removal of excess inert bed material.
The basic deficiencies are: (1) complexity of the feeding and coal
pneumatic conveying system, (2) erosion of the pipelines for pneumatic
conveying, and (3) the need for precrushing and drying coal.
For this type of coal feeding, according to [55], one injection point is
needed per each 1.5 m2 of the bed, and according to [11], per each 11.25 m2,
making these systems very complex. Even ensuring a proper particle flow
distribution for a large number of pipelines is especially difficult. For example,
the AKZO boiler of 90 MWth has two coal crushers, each having 6 pipelines
for coal mixture conveying, and each supplying 3 feeding points (totally 36
coal feeding points), while the TVA-160 MWe boiler has 120 coal feeding
points.
From the recommendations given in [55] coal should be crushed to a
size of 56 mm, and dried to ensure moisture content not higher than
68%, prior to pneumatic transport and feeding. Nonetheless, despite its
deficiencies, pneumatic inbed feeding of coal is the only way of feeding
low reactive coals (anthracite, coke and bituminous coal), coal dust and
fine biomass.
Limestone feeding systems. Handling of limestone and its introduction into
the furnace do not pose major problems. For this reason these systems will not
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Chapter 5
be described here. When feeding coal overbed, limestone feeding is usually

ensured by means of a separate feed system, but there are cases where it is
premixed with the fuel and introduced together with the fuel.
Inert bed material removal systems. The reliable operation of a FBC boiler
demands control of its bed height and ensuring that a specified mean size of inert
bed material is maintained. During continuous operation, the initial size distribution
of the inert bed material changes, due to the following processes: (1) elutriation of
small particles from the bed, (2) constant addition of limestone (if used), (3)
accumulation in the bed of ash particles, and (4) the accumulation of tramp material
fed with the coal, which will tend to accumulate in the bed and ultimately can
defluidize the bed. Also if local overheating occurs, ash sintering and agglomeration
of inert bed material are possible during boiler operation. In general, the particles
mean size and bed height increase during operation, although there are some
systems in which makeup bed material must be continuously introduced in the
bed. Due to these processes the composition, size and the amount of inert bed
material change during long term boiler operation.
The task of the system for draining inert material from the bed is to
remove any surplus material. Drained material must also be cooled (usually to
150 C), oversized particles separated and/or crushed. Particles of correct size
may be returned to the furnace, stored for later use or simply disposed of.
Some boiler designs have overflow openings at the nominal level of the
bed surface, however, most frequently material is drained from the bottom of
the bed. If a distribution plate with bubble caps is used, material is removed
by gravity using downflow tubes. Openings for spent inert bed material may be
uniformly distributed across the distribution plate, with one opening for each
1.5 m2, according to [50]. However, the Foster Wheeler boiler shown in
Figs. 5.12 to 5.18 has only two openings, and the AKZO 90 MWth has only one
such opening. The number of openings depends mostly on the properties and
the type of coal feeding system, so that it is difficult to regard any such choice
as generally valid. During draining of the inert bed material in the fluidized
state, the recommended diameter of the downflow tube is about 150 mm.
If the air distributor is in the form of a sparge tube grid, draining of
coarse particles from the bed becomes easier, but one should remember that
the material under the grid is not in the fluidized state. For this reason, an
adequate slope at the bottom and the size of the opening should ensure the free
drainage of the material in the packed bed under the action of gravity.
Material drained from the bed under high temperature (800900 C)
must be cooled usually to 150 C before discharge. In the case of continuous
drainage of a large amount of material, this must be cooled after leaving the
bed, in order to decrease heat losses and increase the boiler efficiency. Cooling
is achieved by means of cooled screw conveyors, or by special heat exchangers.
In boilers with tube distributors, some cooling can be arranged by directing
419
the openings for air injection sideways or downwards, or by special air injection,
which passes through the material deposited under the distributor.
If necessary, the inert material can be sieved and crushed using conventional
mechanical devices (rotational sieve, vibration sieve and crusher), and then
mechanically or pneumatically returned to the furnace. Diagram for systems for
bed material drainage can be seen in Fig. 5.12 and Figs. 5.175.22.
Flue-gas cleaning systems. FBC boilers, as well as other conventional boilers,
must observe environmental regulations for the emission of solid particulates.
In developed countries particle emission less than 50 mg/m3 are normally
required. Systems for flue-gas cleaning from solid particles in FBC boilers
apply conventional devices: cyclones, multicyclones, bag filters and electrostatic
precipitators, and they do not differ much from systems in conventional boilers.
Besides elimination of particulates, solid collections systems can have
another important task in FBC boilersto collect unburned char particles that
may be recycled to achieve burn out. For that reason, particle separation is
usually done in two steps. First, particles are separated and returned to the
furnace by mechanical (inertial) dust collectors or multicyclones at the exit
from the second or the third boiler gas pass. Final flue gas cleaning is most
frequently done by bag-filters and in larger boilers by electrostatic precipitators.
To achieve extremely high combustion efficiency, particles from bag filters
(or electrostatic precipitators) can also be partialy returned to the furnacel.
Compared to conventional pulverized coal combustion boilers flue gas
cleaning system have to cope with the following: (1) higher concentration of
particles in flue gases, due to the presence of the products from limestone use
(lime and anhydrite), (2) smaller particles, (3) the need to separate particles
for reinjection into the furnace, and (4) different particle characteristics (and
higher electrical resistance), which can cause problems in operation of filters
and electrostatic precipitators. The problems of solid particle emission control
in FBC boilers will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 7.
System for recirculation of unburned particles. Bubbling fluidized bed
boilers cannot achieve high combustion efficiency, especially when low-reactive
coals are burned, if unburned char particles are not reinjected to achieve burn
out. The need for recirculation and an optimum particle reinjection mass flow
rate depend on the properties of the coal (reactivity, volatile content), the
manner of feeding, particle size distribution of the coal (i. e. amount of particles
smaller than 0.5 mm) and the desired combustion efficiency.
Recirculation of unburned particles can increase combustion efficiency
up to 10% [55, 64] and under less favourable conditions by up to 25%. The
intensity of recirculation is expressed by the ratio of mass flow rate of
recirculated particles and mass flow rate of coal feed. This parameter is called
recirculation (recycling) ratio or degree of recirculation. In industrial boilers
the recirculation ratio will typically adopt values of about 23. Higher
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Chapter 5
recirculation ratios do not contribute much to the increase of combustion

efficiency, but they do significantly increase the price of the boiler and operation
expenses. These moderate recirculation ratios are usually good enough to ensure
combustion efficiency of 9899% [55].
The return of particles collected in multicyclones, or even better, before
final cooling of combustion products is more favourable. Particles that are
returned into the furnace are larger, it is easier to ensure their transportation
and they enter the furnace at temperatures of 350450 C, which is better for
their final combustion. Particles separated in final dust collectors (particle
size 10 m, and cooled to about 150 C) are more difficult to transport and
they readily elutriate from the bed.
Particles are returned into the bed by pneumatic conveying, and are
reinjected inbed.
Boiler start-up systems. A system for FBC boiler start-up should provide
safe heating of inert material in the bed, from ambient to the temperature for
coal ignition, and good fluidization when coal feeding starts.
The rate of and the start-up procedure itself, as well as the start-up
temperature (the temperature when coal feeding begins) depend on various
factors, of which probably the most important are the fuel properties. However,
there are other factors, such as the cost of the system, the need to decrease
liquid or gas fuel consumption during start-up, and the purpose of the boiler.
The choice of start-up temperature will be described in detail in the next chapter.
Boiler start-up is a very sensitive process, which must be well planned
by the boiler designer. Although operation of FBC boiler is automatic,
start-up of the boiler is usually done by manual control, especially for smaller
boilers.
More reactive, younger coalslignites, permit start-up of a boiler from
very low bed temperatures. For example, the boilers shown in Figs. 5.21 and
5.22, and the furnaces shown in Figs. 5.1 and 5.2 are designed in such a way that
when burning lignites, coal introduction can begin when bed temperatures reaches
350450 0 C. During start-up from such low bed temperatures there are two
critical moments. Up to the temperature of 500600 C, there is no combustion of
volatiles, so that a larger amount of char accumulates in the bed than needed for
normal boiler operation. When the ignition temperature of volatiles is achieved, a
sudden increase of bed temperature may occur, as well as bed overheating and
even ash sintering and agglomeration of inert material. In order to prevent such
sudden temperature rises, the start-up of the boiler is begun with a smaller coal
flow rate than needed for steady state operation, and coal feeding may be periodically
interrupted, and then restarted, when bed temperature drops are noticed.
For less reactive coals, the volatiles will ignite during the start-up (at
temperatures of 500600 C), however, they tend to burn in the freeboard. Heat
generated by combustion of the volatiles does not therefore influence bed heating
and bed temperature rise. At the same time, coal char in the bed will tend to
421
accumulate in the bed due to the low bed temperature, which ensures that it
tends to have a relatively low combustion rate. Again, for such conditions, there
is too much fuel in the bed, and the bed temperature may rise suddenly, causing
the permissible temperature to be exceeded, and local sintering or even bed
defluidization to occur. For this reason, the start-up process must be carefully
controlled during the start-up period from 600 C to 800900 C. Coal feeding
can be continuous, but with lower flow rates than in the steady state, with
gradual approach to the bed temperature and gradual increase of coal flow rate
to the steady state values.
For the above reasons, a start-up temperature higher than 500 C is
recommended in order to avoid at least one start-up critical point [2, 50].
Practically all industrial FBC boilers have a start-up temperature between 500
600 C. When assessing this choice one should bear in mind that older coals,
brown and hard coal do not ignite below 500600 C, and that anthracite or
petroleum coke may demand a minimum temperature of 700 C for a safe and
sufficiently quick start-up.
A simple rule can be formulated: the higher the start-up temperature, the
safer, less dangerous and faster the FBC boiler start-up, but this comes with
great technical and construction difficulties and the investment costs for the
boiler are higher.
Three procedures have so far been applied for heating a bed of inert
material in a FBC boiler:
gas or liquid fuel burners placed above the bed surface and directed towards
the bed surface to heat inert material at bed surface. Such systems are typically only used for smaller units and have two major deficiencies: (1) much of
the heat released does not go into bed heating, and (2) overheating of the bed
surface may also occur, and if fuels with low ash melting point are used,
sintering may occur on the bed surface. The advantage of this start-up procedure is that the distribution plate is not thermally loaded,
the bed is heated by direct combustion of gas and an air mixture which is
introduced into the bed in the vicinity of the distribution plate. When the bed
is cold, the gas ignites and burns on the surface of the fixed bed, and then the
flame front gradually descends into the bed allowing the fluidization of the
part of the bed above the flame front. This start-up system is suitable for
larger boilers (see for example 90 MWth boiler in Fig. 5.19). Such systems
however come with a risk of explosion problems, and the standards and regulations appropriate to the design and operation of such gas burning systems
are still somewhat problematic, and
the bed can be heated by the products of gas or liquid fuel combustion introduced through the distribution plate. This is the most frequently applied procedure for furnace and FBC boilers start-up, and it can be applied for boilers
of all capacities, both small and large. Liquid or gas fuel burns in a special
start chamber, or directly in the air plenum chamber under the air distribution
plate. Combustion products having temperatures of 600800 C, enter the
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Chapter 5
plenum chamber, pass through the plate and gradually heat-up the bed. The
advantage of this start-up procedure is that most of the heat is used for bed
heating itself. The deficiency of this approach lies in the need for thermal
isolation of the pipelines and the air plenum chamber, and cooling of the distributor, or its construction with an expensive material such as stainless steel.
Thermal expansion of the plate can also be an important design problem.
A large amount of heat is necessary to heating the inert material during startup of FBC boilers due to the great thermal capacity of the bed and built-in
heat exchanger surfaces. This is a significant problem in large capacity boilers,
which necessarily contain a huge amount of inert material. For 1 m2 of air
distributor surface, at a mean fixed bed height of 0.5 m, there are typically
about 700 kg of inert material. To heat this mass from 20500 C, the quantity
of heat necessary is about 335 MJ, and a FBC boiler of capacity of 20 MWth
has about 710 t of inert material in the bed.
The heat absorbed during limestone calcination should also be added
to the amount of heat necessary. If the heat taken away by the heat exchanger
were added to this, a very high power start-up chamber would be needed, as
well as a large consumption of fuel during the start-up period. Ideally, the
start-up chamber capacity should not be more than 10% of the boiler capacity.
The following construction and design solution can reduce the amount
of heat and power needed by the start-up chamber for reasonably fast start-up
of FBC boilers:
division of the fluidized bed (furnace) into several sections. Only one, the
smaller, section is heated by combustion products and the fuel is injected in it
first. The remaining, larger section of the furnace does not operate during
start-up. Heating of the remaining part of the furnace is performed by periodical fluidization and mixing of bed material with heated material from the
start-up section. Fuel feeding into this section of the furnace begins when
adequate temperature is achieved,
heat exchanger surfaces are typically not built into the start-up section of the
furnace, and even any furnace water-tube walls are coated with firebricks in
this section, and
start-up of the boiler begins using a decreased amount of inert material in the
bed, so that the heat transfer surface remains above or outside this section of
the bed.
In all the FBC boiler designs, except boilers of very low power (for example
a few MWth,) separation of a smaller start-up section of the furnace is used.
Division of the furnace can be physical, but in any case, air injection is separated
for each section of the furnace. The boiler shown in Fig. 5.12, is separated into
four sections, two of them being start-up sections. The AKZO 90 MWth boiler
(Fig. 5.19) is separated into 11 cells in order to attain better load following,
but even when gas combustion in the bed is used, only 3/5 of the furnace
423
operates at start-up [23, 24]. Boilers shown in Figs. 5.21 and 5.22 are started
with only half of the furnace. A hot water demonstration boiler of 9.7 MWth,
built in the Institute of Thermal Engineering and Energy of the VIN A Institute
of Nuclear Sciences (Belgrade) by reconstructing an old boiler burning liquid
fuel, has a special design solution and starts up with only 1/4 of the furnace
employed [6, 66].
The minimum fluidization velocity of the inert bed material at ambient
temperature is several times higher than the minimum fluidization velocity
under operating conditions at 800900 C. If it were necessary that all the
inert material be fluidized at the beginning of the start-up period, the capacity
of the primary air fan would have to be a several times larger. At the same
time, due to high velocities in the air distributor openings, the air distributor
pressure drop would be excessively high during start-up. Fortunately, fans of
such large capacities and power are not needed during steady state boiler
operation.
Boiler start-up begins with small air flow rates, and the inert material is
not fluidized at the beginning of the lightup process. During start-up, air flow
rate should be chosen so as to ensure that the inert material is fluidized when
one approaches the start-up temperature, i. e. when coal feeding begins, in
order to provide proper mixing of fuel.
Usually the flow rate is chosen to provide fluidization velocity of about
2 vmf at the start-up temperature of the furnace. The degree of fluidization
increases with the increase of bed temperature with constant air mass flow
rate, so that a decrease of flow rate is possible until the nominal value is reached.
Typically, a few hours (24 h) are needed for bubbling FBC boilers to
start-up from the cold state, dependent on the fuel type and start-up procedure.
However, the high heat capacity of the inert material enables the bed to remain
heated for up to a day or so after shut down. Start-up from this heated state is
possible without using the start-up system or with only minimal support with
combustion products from the start-up chamber burner.
System for water and steam circulation. System for water and steam
circulation, as well as arrangement of heat transfer surfaces in the FBC boiler do
not differ from the circulation in the conventional boilers of corresponding
power. This is evident from the boiler diagrams shown in figures of Sections
5.1.2 and 5.1.3. The only particularity is that a high amount of heat (up to 50%
of the boiler thermal power) must be removed from the fluidized bed (except
when burning very moist fuels such a bark or a range of biomass fuels). To
remove this amount of heat, the heat exchanger surface immersed in the bed can
be much smaller than would be necessary in conventional boilers for the same
amount of heat, because the heat transfer coefficients in fluidized bed are high.
For this reason, the total surface for heat transfer, and thus the boilers size, is
significantly smaller than in conventional boilers with the same power output.
Heat transfer surfaces in the bed are most frequently horizontal or
positioned with a slight inclination of 1020.
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Chapter 5
Natural as well as forced circulation is used. In the case of natural

circulation, a special circulating pump is introduced into the circulation scheme
(for example in the boiler in Fig. 5.19) in order to enable circulation through
horizontal heat transfer tubes in the bed. This pump is indispensable if
evaporation surface is involved, but it is not needed if a steam superheater is
placed in the bed.
5.3. Efficiency of solid fuel
combustion in the FBC boilers
Comparison of FBC boiler performance with other boiler types should be

made based on the following parameters: combustion efficiency, overall boiler
efficiency, flexibility with respect to the ability to burn different fuels and
emissions of harmful gases and particulates in the environment. The ability to
efficiently burn different and unusual low-quality fuels has been discussed
several times in this and previous chapters. In this section therefore, only data
concerning combustion efficiency and overall boiler efficiency will be provided
and discussed. An entire chapter (Chapter 7) is devoted to the emission of
harmful gases and particulates.
Combustion efficiency is defined for fluidized bed combustion boilers in
the same way as for conventional boilers. Efficiency of combustion is primarily
affected by the heat losses due to elutriation of unburned char particles in fly ash
and to a much lesser extent by chemically incomplete combustion expressed in
terms of unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. Fluidized bed combustion
boilers suffer another loss of combustible solids, namely unburned solids in any
excess bed material that must be removed either intermittently or continuously
from the furnace. This loss is rarely measured separately and data on efficiency
often does not include this loss, as bed char loadings are normally not high.
However, for some fuels, such as very unreactive high ash coals, it may be
important and should be included in efficiency calculations.
Fluidized bed boiler efficiency depends mainly on the temperature of
the flue gases, combustion efficiency, and of course, consumption of electric
power needed by the boiler to running its auxiliary systems (fans, pumps,
feeders etc.), the so called parastic power requirement for a boiler. According
to the data in references [40, 68, 69], the self power consumption of FBC
boilers per 1 kWh of generated energy is similar to that for pulverized coal
combustion boilers. Also, it may be possible to adopt lower flue gas exit
temperature when designing FBC boilers due to significantly smaller SO2
concentration in flue gases. That is why it is often possible to achieve very
high degrees of efficiency in FBC boilers (up to 90%) which are comparable
with those seen with pulverized coal combustion boilers, and normally
significantly higher than efficiency in grate fired boilers.
As noted in the introduction, the combustion efficiency of boilers with a
bubbling, or stationary fluidized bed, is typically up to levels of about 90%
Table 5.6
425
Combustion and boiler efficiency data for

some very large bubbling FBC boilers
without recirculation of fly ash, and up to levels of about 98% with particle
recirculation [4, 11, 14], depending on the type of fuel and boiler design. Data
available in the open literature also indicate that even higher efficiencies can
sometimes be achieved, see for example references [1921].
As an illustration, of the potential efficiency of combustion in FBC
boilers, we will cite data obtained during the operation of some of the biggest
bubbling fluidized bed boilers ever built (Table 5.6).
Numerous factors influence combustion efficiency in boilers with
fluidized bed combustion. Practically all of the parameters discussed in Section
5.1.4 influence combustion efficiency. These parameters can be classified into
three basic groups: fuel properties, parameters determining operating conditions
and boiler design. Fuel properties influencing combustion efficiency the most
are: volatile content, char reactivity, fuel particle size distribution. Basic
parameters, which define the combustion regime, are bed temperature,
fluidization velocity and excess air. Design solutions that influence the
efficiency of combustion are primarily: the degree of fly ash recirculation,
ratio of secondary and primary air flow rates and intensity of mixing in the
freeboard, place and manner of fuel feeding, bed height and freeboard height.
Data on combustion efficiency is either obtained on industrial boilers or
from pilot and experimental furnaces and boilers [1921]. Data obtained by
measurements from industrial plants are the maximum efficiency of the plant
measured under steady state operating conditions. For industrial scale boilers,
it is usually impossible to investigate the influence of each parameter on
combustion efficiency. Instead, the influence of such parameters is determined
by detailed experimental programs carried out in experimental furnaces or
pilot boilers. The majority of such plants typically have cross sections of the
order of 300300 mm up to perhaps 11 m or higher, the thermal power from
such units may range from less than 1 to 20 MWth. The best known plants of
this type are the TVA 20 MWth in the U.S.A., 20 t/h Wakamatsu in Japan,
TNO 4 MWth in the Netherlands and the 16 MWth at Chalmers University in
Gteborg. For these units a range of detailed studies have been carried out on
the effect of the various parameters on combustion efficiency. When analyzing
these data, one should bear in mind that in practice it is not really possible to
change only one parameter and keep the others constant and there are always
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Chapter 5
changes in other process parameters if one looks at the data closely enough.
Combustion efficiency data obtained by such investigations not surprisingly
shows that for these smaller plants they are usually somewhat lower than the
values seen with large boilers. The basic reason is probably the fact that
industrial boilers usually operate with recirculation of fly ash and higher
freeboard heights, which usually allows sufficient time for more complete
combustion of char particles. It should also be borne in mind that for some of
these fuels (e. g., anthracite, or petroleum coke), combustion may be quite
difficult in more conventional boilers, especially when those fuels are employed
in smaller systems such as stokers and so it is important to take into account
the fuel when comparing boiler performance.
5.3.1. Influence of fuel properties
Coals with high percentage of volatiles (lignite and subbituminous coals) as a

rule have lower fixed carbon content and the possibility of elutriation of small
unburned char particles is lower. At the same time, these type of coals produce
highly reactive char, which facilitates char combustion possible either in
fluidized bed itself or the freeboard. During combustion of such coals
combustion inefficency. due to to unburned char particles escaping the boiler
is very small [1, 7173].
Influence of the Cfix/VMo.The influence of coal properties on combustion
efficiency is expressed most frequently by means of the dependence of
combustion efficiency on the so called fuel ratio, i. e. ratio of fixed carbon to
volatile mater content, Cfix/VMo. Detailed investigations of combustion efficiency
for different coal types using this correlation were performed on the Wakamatsu
pilot boiler in Japan.
Results from tests with seven different coals having volatile contents ranging
from 23.9 to 40.8% [74] are shown in Fig. 5.29. Investigations were carried out
under nominally identical conditions (bed temperature 850 C and excess air 1.2)
in two plantsthe pilot-boiler with the steam capacity of 20 t/h, and the
demonstration Wakamatsu boiler of 50 MWe. Combustion efficiency for high
volatile coal was over 99% in Wakamatsu 50 MWe boiler which has a special burn
out cell for combustion of unburned char particles (which is in effect equivalent to
recirculation). When burning coal with low volatile content this boiler achieved a
combustion efficiency higher than 98.5%. In the pilot plant without recirculation,
the combustion efficiency for this coal was below 90%. The results of long term
comparative investigations of combustion efficiency for 20 coal types using the
experimental furnace 300300 mm at the Institute for Thermal Engineering and
Energy of the VIN A Institute are also described in detail in Chapter 6. These
investigations also show a strong dependence of combustion efficiency in a fluidized
bed on the ratio Cfix/VMo. Combustion efficiency (without recirculation) for lignites
427
Figure 5.29. Combustion efficiency as a function of the Cfix/VMo ratio

for the different coals [74]
was higher than 99% and for anthracite and coke with small particle size it took
much lower values of only 6575% (Fig. 6.9). The influence of volatile content on
combustion efficiency can be seen in Fig. 6.11 in the next chapter, where results
are compared for four different coal types burned in plants of different sizes.
Influence of coal (char) reactivity. Fuels which have low char combustion rate
(low reactive coals), such as anthracite, coke and high rank coals burn in FBC
boilers with very low efficiency independent of their volatile content.
The basic reason for this is that the residence time of char particles
smaller than 1 mm is insufficient to allow for complete combustion. Losses
due to incomplete combustion of particles, which are elutriated from the furnace,
can be very high. When burning these coals it is essential to recirculate the fly
ash particles caught in cyclones or bag filters in order to increase efficiency.
Combustion temperature is the dominant parameter influencing the combustion
rate of low reactive coals, and therefore combustion efficiency, so in these
cases a higher bed temperature must be employed, although this may adversely
affect sulphur capture or NOx emissions.
Results from investigations performed with the mixture of coal and
anthracite in different ratios [48] can be used to illustrate the influence of
reactivity on combustion efficiency. In an investigation with an experimental
boiler with a cross section of 300300 mm2 and height of 4.7 m under identical
conditions, the combustion efficiency seen with coal firing of 90% changed to
about 60% for a 100% anthracite (Fig. 5.30).
428
Chapter 5
Figure 5.30.
Influence of anthracite content in the
anthracite/coal blend on the combustion
efficiency (Reproduced by kind
permission of the ASME from [48])
hydrocarbons, because of poor

mixing with oxygen in the bed or
above it. When burning this type
of fuel secondary air should be introduced above the bed in order to
provide adequate oxygen for combustion and to increase the mixing
intensity in the furnace. The illustration of the possible negative influence of volatile matter content
on combustion efficiency is shown
in Fig. 5.33 [49], which shows the
results of a study on a mixture of
coal (about 37% of volatile matter)
and fuel waste (waste with about
57% of volatile matter) at different
ratios. In Fig. 5.33, it can be seen
that the decrease of total combustion efficiency is caused by incomplete combustion of volatiles, and
evidently, favourable conditions for
their combustion were not achieved
in this plant. This study was
carried out using an experimental
furnace with cross section 300300
mm and insufficient height,
without introducing secondary air.
Figure 5.31
Influence of the recirculation ratio on combustion
efficiency for coals with different reactivity (Reproduced
by kind permission of the ASME from [75])
429
Figure 5.32.
Influence of the bed temperature on the combustion
efficiency for coals with different reactivity (Reproduced
by kind permission of the ASME from [75])
A qualitative presentation of combustion efficiency achieved in Ahlstrom
plants when burning different coals and the influence of recirculation and bed
temperature when burning coals of different reactivity are shown in Figs.
5.31 and 5.32 respectively.
Influence of volatile matter content. Very high fuel volatile matter content
can have an unfavourable influence on combustion efficiency. Volatile matter
can escape from the furnace mostly as unburned, as CO or unburned
Figure 5.33. Reduction of the combustion efficiency due to the

incomplete volatiles combustion (Reproduced by
kind permission of the ASME from [49])
430
Chapter 5
Influence of fuel particle size distribution. It is very complicated to study the

effect of fuel particle size and to separate it from the effects of other parameters
as for example fluidization velocity, fuel reactivity, fragmentation and attrition
of fuel particles, etc. Further, the very act of feeding will change the particle
size. It is also important to distinguish between the problems associated with the
content of fine particles (fuel particles smaller than 1 mm), which will tend to
be elutriated from the bed, and the real influence of mean fuel particle diameter
burning in the bed. Combustion efficiency for fuels with different particle sizes
is also strongly influenced by the manner of feeding. When fed inbed, particles
have a higher probability of complete burnout, but the mean fuel particle size
for such type of feeding must be smaller, and the yield of fine particles will
therefore be greater. When fed overbed, the mean size of the particles is larger
(up to 50 mm), but most of the fine particles smaller than 1 mm are unlikely to
reach the bed surface and experience complete burnout in the furnace, instead
they will tend to be elutriated.
When studying the influence of mean particle size on combustion
efficiency one should have in mind two competing influences. With the decrease
of particle size, burnout time decreases but the possibility of elutriation also
increases and the particle residence time in the bed will decrease. Experimental
Figure 5.34.
Influence of fuel particle size on combustion efficiency
during over bed feeding (Reproduced by kind permission
of MIT, Cambridge, from [55])
431
data in the literature are

contradictory because of the
simultaneous influence of these
and other factors, and they show
that both decreases and increases
of combustion efficiency are
possible when particle size
decreases [55]. Theoretical
studies show that there exists a
critical diameter of fuel particle
for which particle burnout time
reaches a minimum. The
Figure 5.35.
dependence of combustion
Influence of particle size on combustion
efficiency on the fuel particle
efficiency for high reactivity coal [72]
size when feeding Ohio No. 6
coal under bed is shown in Fig.
5.34. This study was performed in an experimental boiler with a cross-section
66 ft in the U.S.A. [55].
When feeding coal overbed, the greatest influence on combustion efficiency
can come from particles smaller than 1 mm which will most probably not
reach the bed surface. In this case, the mean diameter of the particles, which
reach the bed may not have any major influence on combustion efficiency
since the losses can be predominantly from the elutriated char particles.
However, since feeding overbed is most frequently used when burning highly
reactive coals (lignite), small particles can still burn out before leaving the
furnace depending on freeboard hight. Results of an investigation on a small
experimental furnace having a diameter of 147 mm, presented in Fig. 5.35,
show that the influence of particles smaller than 1 mm on combustion efficiency
of lignite is not significant [72].
5.3.2.
Influence of combustion regime parameters
Influence of fluidization velocity. The general conclusion of numerous

experimental investigations [1921, 55, 7779] is that combustion efficiency
decreases with the increase of fluidization velocity. The basic reason for this
negative influence is the increase of probability that small char particles will be
elutriated unburned from the bed and from the furnace. The magnitude of this
influence depends on other factors as well, for example: fuel reactivity, the size
of fuel particles, and velocity range in which investigation is done. Also, if the
fluidization velocity is too low this may itself lead to a decrease of combustion
efficiency, because of lower mixing intensity in the bed. In practice, such a low
fluidization velocity is not adopted for many other reasons, first of all, poor
fluidization might itself cause defluidization, hotspots and sintering, and secondly
432
Chapter 5
Figure 5.36. Influence of fluidization velocity on combustion efficiency

(Reproduced by kind permission of the ASME from [77])
because the output of the furnace is determined by the amount of air being fed
per unit area so that very low fluidizing velocites cannot be associated with
efficient boiler performance for a given boiler size. As an example, the influence
of fluidization velocity during combustion of two types of Indian coal with high
ash content in the experimental furnace with 1x1 m2 cross section and the
freeboard height of 8 m at ORNL (U.S.A.) is shown in Fig. 5.36 [77].
Influence of excess air. Increase of oxygen concentration, i.e. more oxygen
available for combustion, decreases chars burnout time and increases the
chances for combustion of volatiles. For this reason, excluding elutriation
losses, an increase of combustion efficiency should be expected with the
increase of excess air in the region close to the stoichiometric ratio. However,
under real operating conditions, with usual values of excess air in FBC
boilers (of about 1.1 to 1.2), further increases of excess air do not signifcantly
contribute to an increase of combustion efficiency, as can be seen from
Fig. 5.37 [55], which shows that an increase of excess air over 1.2, does not
in practice cause a decrease of heat losses and hence does not contribute to
combustion efficiency.
This results for two reasons. First, char combustion takes place in the
emulsion phase in which the amount of air is limited by the magnitude of
minimum fluidization velocity. Any increase airflow will tend to bypass the
bed in the form of bubbles, thus taking no part in the combustion process,
although assuming that it is not connected with a simultaneous increase of
fluidization velocity, an increase of excess air does not influence particle
elutriation from the furnace. Second, higher gas flowrates are associated with
greater heat losses in the flue gases.
433
Figure 5.37. Influence of excess air on combustion losses in fluidized bed

combustion (Reproduced by kind permission of MIT, Cambridge,
from [55])
Influence of bed temperature. Combustion temperature (bed temperature)
influences the rate of oxidation chemical reaction exponentially, causing the char
burnout time to decreasing significantly, which contributes to an increase of
combustion efficiency. All of the available experimental data show an increase
of combustion efficiency with the increase of bed temperature [1921, 55, 73,
76, 7880]. The influence of temperature is higher for the combustion of lowreactive coals, when char combustion is controlled by kinetics of the chemical
reaction (see Fig. 5.32). In combustion of reactive coals (lignite), with coarse
particles, the control process is diffusion of oxygen towards the fuel particle and
the combustion temperature has a much smaller influence. When considering
the influence of bed temperature on combustion efficiency under real operating
conditions, it is important to note two facts: (a) the influence of temperature is
higher at lower temperatures (700800 C) which are normally not adopted as
operating temperatures (except for biomass), and (b) the choice of the bed
434
Chapter 5
temperature where sulphur

capture is a feature will be
determined by the optimum
temperature for sulphur
capture with limestone
(about 850 C). In general,
it is unlikely that a bubbling
fluidized bed will operate
much above 850 C. In
consequence, increasing
combustion efficiency by
choosing a higher bed
temperature when designing
FBC boilers, is a fairly
limited option and in any
Figure 5.38.
Influence of bed temperature on combustion case the influence of
efficiency (Reproduced by kind permission of the temperature on burn-out
time is smaller in the
ASME from [73])
temperature region between
850 and 900 C. Examples
of the influence of
temperature on combustion
efficiency are shown in Fig. 5.38 [73], based on experimental results from the
combustion of brown coal (volatile content about 30%) and a mixture of coal
and waste pulp from paper production in industrial boilers having steam capacities
between 10 and 22.5 t/h.
5.3.3. Influence of furnace design
The influence of recirculation of unburned particles. Highest losses during

combustion in fluidized bed arise from the elutriation of unburned particles
from the bed and the furnace itself. For that reason when burning low reactive
coals or coals with high percentage of particles smaller than 1 mm, it is not
possible to achieve acceptable combustion efficiency, or high boiler efficiency,
without fly ash recycle of the unburned solids collected in cyclones or in the
bagfilters. Introducing recirculation increases the complexity of the plant and
increases overall boiler costs, but the gain in increased combustion efficiency
often exceeds the increased cost of using this option. Based on investigations in
pilot plants and demonstration boilers, it has been established that the degree of
recirculation (the ratio between mass flow rate of recirculated particles and
mass flow rate of coal) when burning unreactive coals has the highest influence
on combustion efficiency (see Fig. 5.31) in the range 0 to 2.0 for this ratio [69,
7476, 78, 79, 8184].
Figure 5.39.
Influence of fly ash recirculation ratio on
combustion efficiency (Reproduced by kind
permission of the ASME from [81])
435
Further increase of
recirculation degree do not
significantly influence the
combustion efficiency. As an
illustration of the influence of
the degree of recirculation one
can look at the results of
detailed combustion efficiency
measurements for two types of
brown coal in an experimental
furnace with a cross section
11 ft2, Fig. 5.39 [81].
The influence of fluidized

bed height. The increase of
fluidized bed height causes
an increase of the bed
residence time of fuel
particles and the probability
of combustion of volatile matter burn-out, while char concentration in the
bed decreases, all of which, generally have a favourable influence on
combustion efficiency. The influence of fluidized bed height itself on
combustion efficiency has rarely been investigated in detail [55, 84]. This
is because, first of all, bed height is determined by the available fan pressure
head, the space needed for the placement of immersed heat transfer surfaces,
the necessary bed height for heat transfer to water tube walls, etc. In general
it is better to choose the greatest possible bed height compatible with those
limits.
The influence of freeboard height. It is always recommended to choose
furnace height as great as possible, if there is no important reason to do
otherwise. A high furnace enables char particles and volatiles to increase their
residence time in the furnace, and achieve better burnout, thus greater height
means higher combustion efficiency [55].
The influence of secondary air. In contemporary FBC boiler designs, injection
of secondary air above the bed surface is nearly always used. In the bed,
combustion is expected to take place under stoichiometric or even
substoichimetric conditions. Injection of secondary air allows the following:
(a) achievement of staged combustion in order to decrease NOx emissons, and
(b) a supply of a high enough amount of air and intense mixing in the freeboard,
to achieve more efficient combustion of volatiles. Furthermore, in the case of
burning high volatile fuels (for example biomass), secondary air is
indispensable to achieve acceptable combustion efficiencies and low CO
436
Chapter 5
Figure 5.40.
Influence of secondary air on combustion
efficiency (Reproduced by kind permission of the
ASME from [85])
emissions. Experimental data [76, 85] shows that injection of secondary air
and staged combustion does not normally have a negative influence on
combustion efficiency. However, a poor design of nozzles for injecting
secondary air can produce undesirable results. The combustion efficiency for
different ratios between primary and secondary air flow rates is shown in Fig.
5.40 [85]. Investigations were carried out using a 4 MWth TNO experimental
boiler, with substoichiometic combustion in the bed.
The influence of fuel feeding. In order to achieve high values of combustion
efficiency, the location for fuel feeding must be adapted to the properties of
fuel and its particle size distribution. Low reactive fuels (anthracite, low volatile
bituminous coals and most of the brown coals) should be fed inbed, especially
if they contain significant fines. The number of feeding points should be
chosen in such a way as to avoid the production of local substoichiometric
conditions, which could cause local overheating in the bed and lower combustion
efficiency. Highly reactive fuels (lignite) with coarse particles, can be fed
overbed and high combustion efficiencies can be achieved. There appear to be
no detailed studies in the open literature giving a direct comparison of
combustion efficiency when feeding the fuel overbed surface and underbed,
while maintaining all the other conditions constant. Based on comparative
investigation of a large number of different fuels at the Institute of Thermal
Engineering and Energy Research [73, 76, 80, 86, 87], in a PhD thesis [88],
the influence of feeding was analyzed. An illustration of this influence is
437
Figure 5.41. Influence of coal feeding on combustion efficiency [88]

given in Fig. 5.41 together with a comparison with the results of calculations
using the model developed in [88].
5.4. Load control in FBC boilers
Regular operation of a bubbling fluidized bed combustion boiler demands keeping

the fluidization velocity and bed temperature within very narrow limits.
Fluidization velocity cannot be decreased too much, in order not to threaten
good fluidization and fuel mixing in the bed. The bed temperature must be limited
to a very narrow interval between 800900 C, if desulphurization is required.
If a fuel with low sulphur content is burned, a minimum bed temperature of
about 700750 C is necessary for good combustion even with biomass, while
the maximum temperature cannot exceed 900950 C because of problems with
ash softening and possible bed sintering and increased NOx emissions.
These demands limit the possibility of load changing in bubbling bed
fluidized boilers. In order to achieve the same turn-down range as in
conventional boilers, it is necessary to take special design measures, which
considerably complicate boiler design. In Section 1.8 it was noted that this
major deficiency of first generation FBC boilers was one of the main incentives
to develop circulating fluidized bed boilers.
A decrease of coal and air fed to the bed allows some decrease in the
amount of energy generated by the boiler, but if the amount of heat to be
removed from the bed by immersed heat transfer surfaces and water-tube
furnace walls is not decreased, the temperature of the bed must fall. In the
case where bed temperature decrease is allowed over the interval mentioned
above, a continuous decrease of boiler power would be possible, dependent on
the type of heat exchanger in the bed:
by about 23%, if hot water tubes are in the bed,

by about 27% for evaporator tubes in the bed, and
by about 50% for superheater tubes in the bed.
438
Chapter 5
Rembering that there are usually different heat transfer surfaces in the bed,
one cannot expect variation of boiler output over 25%, simply by changing
the bed temperature.
Further decrease of boiler output is possiblesee eq. (5.6)either by
changing the heat transfer coefficient or by changing the size of the exchanger
surface in contact with the fluidized bed.
Since the heat transfer coefficient in the fluidized bed is practically constant
within the limits of possible changes in fluidization velocity, a greater turn-down
range for a bubbling fluidized bed boiler can only be produced by changing the
size of the heat transfer surface immersed in the bed. The most common way to
achieve the wanted turndown range is division of the furnace (physicallyby a
wall, or by subdivision of the air supply only) into several compartments. By
decreasing the fluidization in certain compartments (or by turning parts of the
furnace off), transfer of heat on the immersed surfaces in that cell practically stops,
i. e. the heat transfer surface in the bed is decreased. In the zones where fluidization
is terminated, the fuel supply should also be stopped. This method of load change
has been commonly applied in practice, as can be seen in the figures and sections
5.1.2 and 5.1.3, which show diagrams of commercial FBC boilers in operation.
An alternative approach to load control is by varying the area of immersed
heat transfer surface by decreasing the bed height, and by arrangement of the
exchanger tubes in such a way, so as to ensure that some part of the surface
remains above the bed surface. The height of the bed can be decreased either
by decreasing fluidization velocity or by decreasing the amount of inert material
in the bed. This procedure for load change in FBC boiler is rarely applied in
bubbling atmospheric FBC boilers but has been used in pressurized FBC boilers,
which have inherently deep beds.
By applying these procedures, bubbling FBC boilers can achieve
turndown range up to 4:1, and in special cases even more. The procedures for
load control for bubbling FBC boilers are presented in a systematic manner in
Table 5.7 along with a brief description of their defficiencies from [89].
Besides the defficiencies noted above, load control by slumping the bed
in certain compartments of the furnace can permit a serious problem to occur,
namely slow char burning in the non-operating sector of the bed, which may
cause local overheating and ash sintering. At the same time, char and coal
ejected from the operating sector may accumulate on the surface of the slumped
bed. It is also not possible to prevent some air from bypassing through the
slumped bed, either because of streaming from the operating bed region or
because of failures in sealing and the phenomenon of natural air circulation.
Periodic fluidization of such slumped bed regions is recommended for cooling,
mixing and equalizing the temperature [6668]. When constructing the
subdivision of furnace into compartments and building in heat transfer surfaces
into the bed, care should be taken to avoid a change of the ratio of the heat
transferred to other heat exchangers, while changing heat transfer to specific
immersed surfaces.
Table 5.7.
439
Different approaches for load control in the bubbling

fluidized bed combustion boilers
The load decrease produced by bed slumping is practically instantaneous,

but the time to increase or ramp load again is limited by the large heat capacity
of inert bed material. If the non-operational sector does not cool down below
the start-up temperature, however, ramping may be very rapid.
When changing power by decreasing bed height, a rate of change of up
to 5% of maximum power can be achieved in one minute. However, load
control remains a serious problem for designers and builders of bubbling
fluidized bed combustion boilers, and the failure to resolve these problems is
one of the main reasons, along with the problems of evenly feeding fuel to
very large beds, which is why bubbling FBC is likely to be restricted to size
ranges below 2550 MWe in the future.
5.5. Erosion of heat transfer surfaces
immersed into the fluidized bed
Fluidized bed combustion technology is a relatively young technology. The

oldest boiler units have been in operation for only ten to twenty years,
440
Chapter 5
furthermore FBC technology has been rapidly changing during this period as
various ideas and subsystems have been explored (e. g. the use of carbon
burnout cells, or the construction of different fluidized bed boiler concepts
such as units operating with multiple beds, etc.). Moreover, the range of fuels
that have been burned in FBC boilers is also extremely large. For this reason
there are not enough data about operating problems for this type of boiler
[90]. However, it has been known from the very beginning of the development
of this technology, that there would be a serious operating problemerosion,
or metal wastage from internals in contact with the fluidized material in the
furnace. Experience with the first industrial FBC boilers confirmed these
predictions, although there is a fair variation in the results.
The negative effects of erosion of metal have been noticed on furnace
walls of FBC boilers and on the heat exchangers immersed in the fluidized
bed, during long-term operation. Erosion directly influences the operating life
of the furnace, operating conditions and need for repairs and maintenance.
Potential effects of leakage from worn out tubes in the furnaces of FBC boilers
may be severe. Tube bundles comprising any heat exchanger in FBC boilers
are usually tightly packed, and any steam leaks through cracks caused by
erosion can cause channelling of solid flows, thus speeding up the erosion on
neighbouring surfaces and leading to a chain wearing of adjacent tubes in
the heat exchange bundle. Even if this phenomenon is detected from for
example, inbed thermocouple readings, the thermal heat inertia of the many
tons of solids in an industrial FBC system prevent any instantaneous responses
to prevent this process. There is also a risk of bed agglomeration in the furnace
and defluidization. In the case of limestone derived beds, if they become flooded
with water during the cool down process, then the bed materials may require
major efforts to remove the mass of cement like material that will form once
liquid water is present. For this reason, special attention should be paid to the
processes of erosion and design of any heat exchangers in the bed.
Originally corrosion and not erosion was regarded as a potentially
important problem in fluidized bed boilers with heat exchangers. However,
over a period of time the issue of erorsion or more propely metal wastage has
become the major issue. A review of data concerning metal wastage in FBC
boilers based on the relatively scarce data available in the open literature will
be given here. The results of this type of work is normally proprietary, and it
is difficult to obtain reliable data. Data in this section are based on a detailed
analysis performed in reference [90], on papers presented at conferences
[1921], and internal company reports [71, 91107]. One can distinguish
between at least three different types of wear of metal surfaces [92, 93]:
abrasionor losses of material from the surface as a result of direct contact

between particles of inert material and their impact pressure and movement
across metal surfaces,
erosionor loss of material resulting from collision of particles with metal
surface, and
441
erosion/corrosionor loss of material caused by common effect of erosion/

abrasion and corrosion.
Erosion most frequently means the sum of abrasion and erosion effects,
while erosion/corrosion is described by a single term corrosion, and for the
sake of simplicity it is often better just to use the term metal wastage, where
there is uncertainty about the causes of metal loss.
Some general conclusions on erosion were obtained from experimental
studies [91]:
rate of material wear (mass of eroded material in a unit of time and per unit of
mass of particles colliding with the surface) is independent of mass flux of
particles,
in the majority of cases, it is possible to reach a situation, in which the rate of
wear is constant,
for particles greater than 20 m, the rate of wear does not depend on particle
diameter,
experimental data obtained by investigating erosion on experimental, pilot
and industrial plants show that hardness of the bed material investigated does
not necessarily influence its wear rate,
relation between hardness of particles and erosion has not been established,
and
thermal treatment of metals with the aim of increasing their hardness has not
been generally successful.
Up to now, investigations of metal erosion in fluidized bed have pointed out

the following as the most important causes of this phenomenon [91]:
effect of slow but relatively big particles,

effect of particles which were pushed into the surface by other particles,
effect of fast particles, resulting from bubbles,
effect of fast particles as the result of moving of fast bubbles along vertical
or steep surfaces. When changing the inclination of a surface, these particles
may collide with the curves and elbows on tubes,
erosion caused by particles colliding with the surface when the bubbles burst
on the bed surface,
erosion in the region around the bed surface (splash zone), as the result of
collision of fast particles ejected when bubbles explode on the bed surface,
erosion resulting from jets near the openings for inbed coal feed, and near the
openings for recirculation of particles, as well as other jets, for example of
secondary air, jets of primary air from air distributor bubble caps, and or jets
designed to move oversized material into a bed drain system,
erosion resulting from directed, circulating movement of particles in the
bed-streaming down the furnace walls, or rising in the centre of the furnace,
circulating flows in larger furnaces designed to ehanced bed mixing, etc., and
442
Chapter 5
wear resulting from geometrical irregularities. For example, vertical tube

welded on a horizontal support, or a horizontal tube (measuring probe) may
cause local wear.
Besides erosion, care should be taken to reduce material fatigue and tube
cracking at places where they are fixed to the furnace wall, which can arise
from oscillation due to bed movement such as the generally oscillating behavior
of the fluidized bed which are caused by bubble phenomena. Unfortunately,
detailed investigations and data on these phenomena are extremely limited
and this subject will not be addressed further here.
Among all the of the causes discussed here, erosion due to the effect of
local jets is perhaps the most important and most problematic for the designers
and fabricators of FBC furnace. Other causes of erosion tend to be slower and
hence are more long term issues. The effect of jets, however, is local and may
cause rapid and masssive metal wastage, in a manner that is difficult to predict.
The intense movement of fluidized bed particles and their collisions
with the metal surfaces immersed in the bed, or for that matter with furnace
walls, are ample reasons to believe that the erosion phenomena are inevitable.
However, it is evident that there are FBC furnaces where erosion was not
shown to be a major problem [71], and so it is clear that it is possible to
produce engineering solutions which minimize such problems.
Reliable data on erosion of metal surfaces in contact with fluidized bed
may be obtained only in controlled, steady state conditions from the longterm operation of the unit under constant conditions. Unfortunately, such
investigations are both expensive and time consuming, and for this reason
there are very few such studies are available in the open literature. Even when
such data on metal wear in fluidized bed are provided, important data about
the operating conditions and specific details (thickness of the tubes, type of
erosion, size and type of inert material particles, distance between the tube
bundle from the distribution plate, etc.), are rarely published because of
commercial considerations. Despite the fact that such systematized data are
missing from Table 5.8 [91], this table gives a good insight into metal wear
rate data available from data taken from various pilot and industrial boilers.
When analyzing the erosion data given in Table 5.8, one should remember
that metal wastage rates of up to 35 nm/h are normally considered to be
acceptable. The minimum acceptable lifetime of tubes is about 50,000 h. For
a tube 6 mm thick, with maximum acceptable loss of 4 mm, a loss of 80 nm/
h would be acceptable. It can be seen from the table, that wear of material is
different in different plants, and that it changes by more than two orders of
magnitude, and up to few thousand of nanometres per hour. Besides these
results, data from furnaces where there is no wear of material appears in the
literature [71, 91]. Babcock Power Co. in United Kingdom investigating a
boiler furnace in Renfrew, Scotland, over several years, where there was no
significant loss of material in the furnacer. Results from a boiler operated by
Table 5.8.
Results of investigating the loss of material on the

exchanger surfaces of the furnace
443
444
Chapter 5
Table 5.8. Continued
Wormser (Texas, U.S.A.) also indicated the effective absence of erosion after
7000 hours of operation. Similar results were seen for the boiler in Shamokin
(U.S.A.) after 10000 h of operation. In this boiler, the heat exchange tubes are
vertical, and fluidization velocity is about 1 m/s. A boiler in East Stroudsburg
(U.S.A.) after 3500 h of operation showed no signs of erosion, either. The
fluidization velocity was 11.75 m/s. The fact that there are boilers, for which
there are no significant erosion problems indicates that this is not necessarily
an intractable problem.
Based on the data presented in Table 5.8 it is not possible to precisely
determine the relationship between erosion phenomenon and boiler operating
conditions. However, the following parameters may be regarded as critical:
445
fluidization velocity; a choice of lower fluidization velocity is recommended.

Results from cold models show that there exists a velocity threshold above
which the intensity of erosion may suddenly increase. Some manufacturers
recommend velocities lower than 1.8 m/s,
bed material; many authors think that hardness of particles influences the intensity of erosion. Results of investigating erosion in the 20 MW TVA/EPRI
boiler (U.S.A.) [107], showed an influence of limestone on intensity of erosion,
size of bed particles; investigations show an increase of erosion intensity with
the increase of particle size. This influence is most probably connected with
increased fluidization velocity and change of bubbling regime [94, 99],
tube material; current experience suggests erosion intensity doesnt depend
on hardness or strength of the material. But there are data that suggest that
stainless steels are less liable to erosion [100, 105, 106],
temperature of metal; data from industrial plants and research results clearly
show that erosion decreases with increasing metal temperature. As a rule, wear
of steam superheaters is lower than the erosion of evaporation surfaces in the
bed [103, 104]. It is recommended to place exchangers with higher tube
temperature in the regions where more intense erosion is expected,
shielding/cladding; many studies have been done on the effects of cladding or
shielding on heat exchange surfaces and metal internals that are expected to
be subject to erosion. Systematic investigations at Chalmers University in
Sweden, on three shielding materials (Metco 101, Metco 2185, and
Metcoloy 2) have shown that they have very good resistance to erosion
[98, 99]. Metcoloy 2 and Metco 2185 are alloys based on chromium, and
Metco 101 is a Al2O3 material with addition of TiO2. Further the oxide layer
formed on the tube surfaces can have a shielding role as well.
ribbing and studding on the tubes; experience from many manufacturers of
FBC equipment show that it is possible to decrease erosion considerably by
welding ribs, or studs, or small cylinders or spheres along the tubes (on the
lower side of the tube). A greater wall thickness is also recommended in order
to allow for a reserve of material for wear and to permit it an increase
temperature of the tube surface,
distances between the bundle of tubes and the distribution plate; greater distance enables free growth of bubbles may lead to intense wear of exchanger
tubes in the lower rows of any tube bundle. Distance of 200 to 600 mm are
recommended to minimize erosion,
geometry of tube bundle; corridor or tightly packed arrangement of tubes in
the heat exchanger are recommended to avoid the growth of bubbles, which
are seen as a cause of erosion,
rigid heat exchanger; oscillation of the exchanger under the influence of
collision of particles and bubbles all contribute to material fatigue and to the
increase of erosion intensity. Therefore any heat exchangers should be rigid
to avoid these deleterious effects of oscillations, and
influence of fuel type; there are indications that chlorine can contribute to
metal wear [102].
446
Chapter 5
According to industrial experience, erosion intensity of up to 2000 nm/h should

be expected, if protection measures are not taken. Testing for erosion and tube
wear should be incorporated in regular boiler maintenance.
5.6. Ash sintering during combustion in fluidized bed
Proper design and choice of operating parameters for FBC boilers can prevent
ash sintering during normal operation. Combustion temperature, which are
typically between 800900 C, must always be lower than ash sintering
temperature for the coal in question, but operational experience has shown
that it is even possible to burn lignites in a FBC without major problems,
despite their potentially high alkali metal content. While literature data on ash
sintering is not particularly common [109113], it should be noted that both
manufactures and boiler operators may be fairly hesitant to publish details of
their problems in the open literature and although there are users groups in
various countries, such as the U.S.A. based Council of Industrial Boiler Owners
(CIBO) [114], many of their concerns may not be presented in the formal
open literature. It can be hoped that with the recent involement of CIBO in
joint organization of the ASME FBC conferences, more such practical data
will be found in the open literature.
In order to create operating conditions in the furnaces of FBC boilers, in
which ash sintering does not occur, one must prevent hotspots or local
superheating of the bed above nominal operating temperature. Local
superheating is less likely if:
there is uniform and intense fluidization,

there is good mixing and favourable conditions for combustion of volatile
mater,
there is sufficient oxygen for combustion of char in the whole volume of the
bed, and
there is good mixing of volatile mater above the bed to prevent high temperatures in the freeboard.
Sintering in a FBC boilers may occur [110]:
during start-up of the boiler and load change, i. e. during transient regimes,
during operation with a part of furnace, i.e. operation with reduced power,
and
due to incompatibility of ash and the chosen inert bed material.
Sintering of ash during boiler start-up occurs if start-up is from a low

starting temperature. For younger and more reactive coals and biomass,
the startup temperature can be chosen to be in the interval from
350400 C. Under such conditions the char combustion rate in the bed is
low, combustion is incomplete, and volatile matter tends not to ignite during
the initial start-up period. Hence, char particles accumulate in the bed and
447
the char loadings will be higher than needed for operation in the steady
state regime. When the bed temperature rises above 600 C, volatiles are
ignited, the combustion of char accelerates exponentially and an
explosive increase of bed temperature may occur (even with temperature
spikes over 1000 C) causing instantaneous sintering, defluidization,
and interruption of boiler operation. These events can be avoided by correct
choice of start-up procedure [110].
Sintering of ash during the operation of one section of the bed. Reducing
the power of FBC boilers is often managed by dividing the furnace into
compartments. If the boiler operates under low load, only a section of the bed
in which combustion takes place is fluidized. Under such conditions, sintering
may occur in two ways: on the surface [110] of the bed section, which is not
operating, or in its interior [110, 111].
Sintering on the surface of the non-operating section of the bed results
from transfer of red-hot burning char particles from the operating to the
non-operating section in the furnace. These particles accumulate on the surface
of the non-operating section of the bed and burn under substoichiometric
conditions, using air from the active bed area or air filtering through the
slumped bed because the system is not properly sealed. Under such conditions,
inert material around the particles in the non-operating section of the bed
surface may be overheated and form the nucleaus for the formation of large
sintered masses which can cause defluidization. This phenomenon can be
particularly important when burning younger coals, lignites [110], which have
lower densities and tend to burn near the surface of the bed or actually float on
the bed surface. This phenomenon can be prevented by building in partitions
walls between the bed sections.
Sintering in the interior of the non-operating bed this results from insufficient
sealing of the non-operating bed section, and inevitable gas bypassing from the
operating fluidized bed section [67, 111]. When slumping the bed, a certain
amount of hot char and coal particles remains in the non-operating bed section.
Local superheating and sintering occurs when these particles burn in the bed
interior. Sintering of this type can be avoided by complete separation of bed
sections, by good sealing among other methods [110, 111].
Sintering caused by incompatibility of ash and inert bed material appears
during combustion of fuel with high percentage of alkaline metal compounds
in the ash. Some types of lignite have 510% of Na2O and K2O in their ash,
and some biomasses up to 30% of these compounds in their ash [113]. During
operation of the boiler, these compounds can accumulate in the fluidized bed
by forming eutectic compounds with the sand (SiO2), whose melting temperature
is as low as 720750 C. These mixed oxidespotassium-sodium-silicon oxide,
can cause sintering and defluidization. One interesting solution is to chose a
448
Chapter 5
suitable inert bed material, e. g. Fe2O3, as it was done in the case of burning
corncobs [113] or perhaps by the use of additives which can chemically combine
with the alkaline components such as bauxite or kaoline [115]. The only caveat
in such cases is that amounts of such materials to be used may in some cases
become very large, especially where fuel ash is high (and so must be removed
from the bed) or the fuel ash contains high amounts of tramp material.
5.7. Niche markets for bubbling FBC
(written by Dr. E.J.Anthony)
In recent years there has been more attention paid to distributive power
production, and hence increasing interest in technologies suitable for small
units. While admitting the indisputable advantages of CFBC boilers, when
compared with bubbling fluidized bed combustion (BFBC) boilers for utility
applications, as noted above, in distributive power production smaller units
are necessary, so interest in bubbling fluidized bed boilers and incinerators is
again recovering. In consequence, BFBC boilers currently have and in the
future will likely continue to have a significant role in distributive energy
production. Also, in countries in which the economic situation is more difficult
than that typical of most western European nations, and where the structure of
primary energy resources are limited, there is and will remain a need to use
local fuels [116]. This means that coal, biomass and wastes will be in many
cases the fuels of choice. In these situations, BFBC boilers and hot-gas
generators can have a significant role in heat and power production in the
industrial and agricultural sector as well as for district heating.
Bubbling FBC are cheaper than CFBC for smaller units (<25 MWe) [117],
which means that they are ideally suited for a wider range of waste fuels, which
are not present in large quantities, but either pose a disposal problem, and/or
represent an opportunity fuel, which can be used at a given location. In this
context biomass is a particularly good example of a fuel, which is typically not
available in very large quantities in any given locality, and so lends itself to use
with bubbling FBC technology. The same is true for coals from small mines,
which may represent an available cheap local fuel, which must be burned in small
boilers and hence is suitable for combustion in small industrial scale FBC boilers.
Coal from small local mines
Many developing countries are poor in energy resources, and are faced with the
necessity of importing large amounts of expensive fuels such as oil and natural
gas. To satisfy their growing energy needs such developing countries also need
to be able to use all of their available domestic energy resources in an efficient
and environmentally acceptable manner. One of the most commonly available
resources is coal produced from small mines. The low production capacity of
such mines cannot justify large transportation costs or expensive pretreatment
449
of coaldrying, washing, and pulverization required for large conventional

boilers. In such cases the small sized coal (less than 15 mm) is simply disposed
of by landfill or some type of surface deposition, since it cannot be used in
conventional boilersgrate boilers or pulverized coal combustion boilers. Given
the combustion performance of bubbling fluidized bed technology, such low
quality coals can be easily burned in an as mined state while satisfying modern
emission standards. Equally, if there is a need to burn a variety of fuels from
several small mines, or substitute with another fuel or co-fire or fire with fuels
such as blended coal, biomass and wastes, then bubbling fluidized bed combustion
boilers and hot-gas generators can easily cope with such a situation.
Biomass fuels
The term biomass can cover an enormous range of fuels, from good quality
wood chips, to bark, hogfuel, straw, grasses, etc., and fuels comprised of various
commercial and industrial products, e.g. municipal solid wastes (MSW), refuse
derived fuels (RDF) and construction wastes. Even natural biomass fuels may
have widely different properties and, in particular, concentrations of alkali metals
(i. e., Na and K) can vary from less than 1 to 67%, as in the case of straw. It is,
therefore, not surprising that the combustion performance of different biomass
fuels can vary substantially. There is, however, an increasing desire to use these
fuels to achieve a CO2 neutral strategy (one in which biomass is grown at the
same rate as it is converted into energy), and also to avoid landfilling. Also
worth noting is that biomass fuels, unlike coal or petroleum coke, produce
negligible amounts of N2O, and hence the use of these fuels in FBC boilers is
not compromised by the production of this greenhouse gas [118, 119].
A number of general comments can be made about biomass fuels. First
they are usually bulky, low-density fuels, so in the absence of some external
constraint (e. g., a carbon tax), it is usually not practical to transport them
much over 150 to 300 kilometres [120]. This constraint sets an effective upper
limit on boiler size, independent of choice of boiler technology, unless cofiring of another fuel is practiced, and the largest unit burning solely biomass
is currently the 160 MWth Orebro CFBC boiler in Sweden [119, 121].
For a commercial operation there are various issues that must be resolved
in order to successfully burn biomass fuels. For a unit of any size it is essential
to ensure sufficient availability of those fuels for continuous operation, and
the failure to do this has in some cases forced owners to co-fire with coal, for
example. Second, it is necessary where fuels are purchased, to develop
appropriate strategies to characterize these highly variable fuels (e. g., a system
of weigh stations, and moisture determination per truck load of biomass will
be necessary to ensure both fuel quality and price per load). The other issue to
be borne in mind is that these fuels are often fibrous and difficult to feed, and
unless the feed system has been properly designed, it may be problematic to
use widely different sources of biomass fuels in a single boiler.
450
Chapter 5
Finally, in discussing the use of bubbling FBC for this type of application,
it is worth reiterating that there has been a considerable reduction of the number
of companies offering FBC technology on the market. This is at least partially
a result of an extremely difficult energy market in Europe and North America
over the last 10 years or so, and at this time there is no indication that this
situation is likely to change and the reduction in the number of companies
offering such technology is likely to continue. However, sometimes the new
parent company may offer the original technology. To exemplify this situation
the CANMET Energy Technology Centre carried out a feasibility study in
2001, for a bark burning FBC boiler producing 30,000 kg/h of steam, and
identified only 12 companies offering such technology internationally.
Pulping and deinking sludges
These fuels are increasingly burned in North America using FBC technology.
There appear to be at least 6 new units at various stages of development in
Canada, for example. Generally, the emission results have been extremely
good, and it is evident that this fuel type can be burned with extremely low
emissions of SO2, and negligible polyaromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins and furans
[122].
As these fuels contain high moisture, and may often not have sufficient
heating value to support combustion by themselves without employing
strategies like combustion air preheat, they are often co-fired with a premium
fuel such as natural gas or coal. There is, however, one important consideration
when co-firing coal, namely that NOx emissions are not a simple linear function
of the relative amount of coal being fed. While the amount of fuel nitrogen in
coals is significantly higher than that for most biomass fuels, the actual
percentage conversion of fuel nitrogen is relatively low. This is because coal
use results in high char loading in the bed that, in turn, ensures that the majority
of the fuel NOx is reduced. By contrast, biomass fuels have low fixed carbon
contents, and also usually have very low fuel nitrogen content and the
corresponding char concentrations in the bed are therefore low due both to the
low fixed carbon content of the fuel and the very reactive nature of biomass
chars. This, unfortunately, ensures a much higher conversion of fuel nitrogen
to NOx. Therefore, in situations where a small amount of coal is being fed
(roughly in the 2030% weight range), it is possible to be in a regime where
the coal contributes significantly to the overall fuel nitrogen, while not providing
enough char to the bed to ensure good NO x reduction, resulting in
disproportionately high NOx emissions [118].
Municipal solid wastes
FBC technology has been widely used for the combustion of MSW and RDF
[123125]. There is resurgent interest in this technology in Europe, due to the
451
fact that the high calorific value of MSW has been increasing, making it more
difficult to burn in grate systems. Key factors determining plant success include:
ensuring that fuel pre-processing systems are correctly engineered; and
evaluating overall plant economics for the locality where the plant is situated,
especially if the project depends on revenues from fuel separation and sales of
side streams such as metals, glass, etc. Generally, the siting process for such
plants is contentious, ex pensive and lengthy, as advocacy groups will become
involved in the permitting. An interesting method of resolving public perception
problems for the permitting process was employed by BCH Energy, in
connection with a 230 MWth plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina. This project
employed BFBC technology from Kvaerner Pulping AB [126]. In this case
the plant was deliberately sited in an industrial location, thus avoiding the
strong reaction that greenfield projects normally engender. Unfortunately,
the plant is now closed down due to what appears to be a failure to properly
develop the plants economic plan.
In terms of emissions it appears that modern plants can reduce their
heavy metal output below European and North American standards. For
example, the Madrid FBC MSW incinerator (three 30 MWth Ebara twin
revolving bed units) has reported emissions considerably lower than the
standards: CO of 6 mg/Nm3 (limit 80); SO2 of 3 mg/Nm3 (limit 240); and
HF < 0.02 mg/Nm3 (limit 1.6) [127]. In the case of dioxins and furans (PCDD/
F) the situation is a little more complicated. Most plants can achieve dioxins/
furans emissions in the range of several ng/Nm3 expressed as a TEQ. However,
to meet the German standards of < 0.1 ng/Nm3, it is necessary to use flue gas
treatment, such as activated carbon injection in the baghouse, and perhaps
some type of lime scrubber. The use of these backend technologies is also
effective in further reducing heavy metal emissions. A lime scrubber is also
often necessary to minimize HCl emissions, which are not effectively captured
by lime sorbents at bed temperatures. While such subsystems clearly perform
well, they do add significantly to the cost of the overall plant, and tend to
reduce the competitive advantage of FBC over grate technologies. The Madrid
plant uses calcium hydroxide and activated carbon injection to reduce PCDD/
F emissions to < 0.1ng/Nm3 [127].
Hazardous and special wastes
Special and hazardous wastes would not normally be thought of as fuels for
FBC boilers. However, there is an opportunity to improve the project economics
of such boilers if permission can be obtained to co-fire these wastes. Providing
the amounts of these wastes are relatively small (<1020% by weight of the fuel
feed), it is unlikely that they (e. g., PCBs, contaminated soils, etc.) will affect
the overall boiler performance, and the author is aware, for example, of a 20
MWe coal-fired CFBC boiler being used to successfully remediate contaminated
soil.
452
Chapter 5
That FBC can burn wastes more effectively than conventional

technologies at lower temperatures has also been acknowledged by the EPA
for MSW combustion [128]. Equally, those studies done on organic emissions
(both PAHs and PCDD/F) from coal burning in FBCs have suggested extremely
low emissions [129131]. Given that some coals contain significant amounts
of Cl (up to 1%) and relatively high volatiles, why can FBC boilers, which are
generally recognized to be low-temperature systems, perform so well?
Bulewicz, Anthony and co-workers have proposed an answer to that
question, as follows. First, they suggest the reason a very high temperature (980
C) [132] is generally required for incineration of special wastes is that most
combustors, unlike FBC units, are not isothermal. In consequence, a high
temperature is necessary to ensure that bypassing of unburned organics, which
give rise to PAHs or PCDD/F emissions, can be avoided. Second, they argue
that FBC operates in the same way as high temperature combustion systems,
because the conversion of CO and volatiles is controlled by superequilibrium
concentrations of free radicals [133135], which means that despite its low
temperatures FBC can be regarded as a continuum of flaming combustion.
High-sulphur pitch
Pitch is another high heating value fuel, which ought to be very promising for
FBC systems. While these fuels have been examined at the pilot-scale [136, 137],
until recently there were no industrial examples of this class of fuel being
successfully burned in a FBC boiler. One major project to destroy 700,000 tons of
coal tar pitch deposit (in a number of open lagoons) was terminated in 1995 because
of the failure of the feed system chosen for the project, although FBC trials on the
combustion of the pitch indicated successful results [138, 139]. Recently, however,
an FBC boiler supplied by CSIR Mattek, based in Pretoria, South Africa, has been
successfully deployed for this purpose. Contractor for the project was IMS Process
Plant (a division of IMS Projects) based in Johannesburg, and the client was Sasol
Chemical Industries, based in Sasolburg, South Africa. The following is a
description of the project, provided by CSIR Mattek [140].
The primary purpose of this FBC incinerator is to destroy 2400 kg/h of
a high sulphur pitch (containing up to 10% sulphur), while capturing in excess
of 85% of the sulphur by limestone addition to the bed. Additionally, a stream
of 2000 kg/h of a dilute phenolic effluent is incinerated using the energy
liberated from the combustion of the pitch.
The FBC designed by CSIR to incinerate these streams has a rating of
about 26 MWth and a plan area of 20 m2. The pitch (preheated to 80 C to
enable it to be pumped) is injected through 12 nozzles to ensure a high degree
of in-bed combustion and even bed temperature. The phenolic effluent is
injected in the freeboard area. Limestone is supplied to the bed through two
air assisted feeders. Coal, which is used during start-up to get the bed to
900 C, is also supplied through these feeders.
453
The off-gases are used to generate 21 t/h of steam in a waste heat boiler
(therefore also resulting in a net reduction of CO2 emissions from the plant)
before being cleaned of particulates in a bag filter. Most of the commissioning
activities related to limestone selection and pitch feeding. Several limestones
were tried before an optimal limestone was found (essentially the best
trade-off of efficiency and cost), originating from Northern Province, in the
northern part of South Africa. With this limestone a sulphur capture of about
88% was achieved. The pitch injectors were modified to increase in-bed
combustion, so that the bed and freeboard could be controlled at a temperature
conducive to sulphur capture. The plant has been running successfully since
January 1997, and has met all design requirements in terms of incineration
capability and sulphur emissions reduction.
Nomenclature
Ab
As
Cfix
Cg
d
Hc
Qb
QF
QI
Qk
Qo
Qw
rc
Tb
Ts
Tvo
vf
VMo
cross sectional area of the fluidized bed, [m2]

outside surface area of the heat exchanger immersed in the bed, [m2]
fixed carbon content in coal, as measured by proximate analysis, [%]
specific heat of gas (or combustion products), [J/kgK]
mean fuel particle diameter, [mm] or [m]
calorific value of the fuel, [J/kg]
fuel mass flow rate, [kg/s]
air mass flow rate, [kg/s]
heat energy generated in the bed, [W]
amount of heat necessary to heat fuel from ambient to bed temperature, [W]
amount of heat removed by immersed heat exchanger, [W]
amount of heat necessary to heat limestone from ambient to bed
temperature, [W]
thermal power of the boiler, [W]
amount of heat removed by furnace walls, [W]
recirculation ratio (recycle ratio)
bed temperature, [K] or [C]
immersed heat exchanger surface temperature, [K] or [C]
inlet air temperature, [K] or [C]
fluidization velocity, [m/s]
volatile matter content as measured by proximate analysis, [%]
Greek symbols
s
b
bed-to-surface heat transfer coefficient, [W/m2K]

emissivity of the immersed heat transfer surface
degree of combustion in the fluidized bed, ratio of the heat released in the bed to the total heat released by fuel combustion
454
c
o
b
g
c
Chapter 5
combustion efficiency
boiler efficiency
excess air
excess air in the bed, during stage combustion and secondary air
injection over the bed surface
gas density (density of the combustion products), [kg/m3]
Stefan-Boltzman constant, [W/m2K4]
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