COMBUSTION OF SOLID FUELS
INTRODUCTION
Solid fuels are either natural fuels or artificial fuels.
Wood ,peat,coal,charcoal,coke are few of the solid
fuels contain basically carbon or hydrogen which
invariably react with the oxygen in the air.
The solid fuels are burned in beds in chunk or pellet
form or in pulverized form suspended in the air
stream.
Most of the energy comes from coal which is naturally
occurring and the combustion of solid fuels may be
called as heterogeneous combustion.
We burn fuels for two major purposes:
i) Generating heat for cooking, melting metals, heat
treatment etc.
ii) Generating power as in External combustion
engine.
COMBUSTION OF SOLID FUELS
When a piece of coal is gradually heated in a furnace in
presence of air, water vapour is released as its
temperature is raised which is carried over at about
100⁰C.
Decomposition of its unstable compounds starts and
coal starts emitting volatile matter where the coal
piece remains dark during these process and its
temperature is raised not exceeding 600 to 700⁰C.
The most common example of solid fuel
combustion is pulverised coal combustion
Related applications are: fluidised-bed
combustion, coal gasification, biomass
combustion and gasification, and the burning of
refuse and wood
These processes all involve the initial liberation of
volatile material (devolatilisation), which reacts in
the gas phase, followed by the subsequent burnout
of the remaining char with any inert material
remaining as ash
MAIN PROCESS IN COAL COMBUSTION
The period when the coal gets dried and its volatile
matter is burned, is called the preparation period of
coal or the first stage of burning.
During the second stage the solid carbon burns and
most of the energy is liberated during this period
where the coke gets roasted and temperature increases
to about 1100⁰C.
Fluidized-bed combustion
A fluidized bed is a bed of solid particles which are set into
motion by blowing a gas stream upward through the bed at a
sufficient velocity to suspend the particles.
The bed appears like a boiling liquid.
The fluidization occurs when the drag force on the particles in
the bed due to the upward flowing gas just equals the weight of
the bed.
Advantages
• Low combustion temp.(820 to 950oC) inhibits the
formation of Nox.
• Due to better heat transfer, the unit size and hence the
capital costs are reduced.
• Safe and efficient operation.
• Easy ash removal system
• Higher thermal efficiency.
• No moving parts, resulting in reduced maintenance cost.
• Can meet the rapid changes of demand.
• Shorter erection and commissioning period.
Disadvantages
• The major disadvantage is that since the air had to be
supplied at high pressure so as to support the bed, the
fan power is increased sufficiently.
• Erosion problems caused by the particles in the furnace,
rubbing the evaporative tubes.
• The system is best suited for relatively low power
applications, for larger power, many units in parallel will
be necessary.
Circulating Fluidized Bed type
In a CFB boiler furnace the gas velocity is
sufficiently high to blow all the solids out
of the furnace.
The majority of the solids leaving the
furnace is captured by a gas–solid
separator, and is recirculated back to the
base of the furnace.
The primary combustion air is injected
through the floor or grate of the furnace
The secondary air is injected from the sides
at a certain height above the furnace floor.
Fuel is fed into the lower section of the
furnace, where it burns to generate heat.
This system re-circulates nearly all the
bed material with adjacent high-volume,
hot cyclone separators. The relatively clean
flue gas goes on to the heat exchanger.
This approach extends the contact
between sorbent and flue gas, reduces
likelihood of heat exchanger tube erosion,
and improves SO2 capture and
combustion efficiency.
Coal Burners
Tangential Burner
• Tangential firing is a method of firing a
fuel to heat air in thermal power stations.
• The flame envelope rotates ensuring
thorough mixing within the furnace,
providing complete combustion and
uniform heat distribution.
• Burners are located at 4 corners of the
furnace.
• Streams of pulverized coal and air are
projected along a line tangent to a small
circle in horizontal plane. Intensive
mixing occurs where these streams meet.
• With this type of firing, combustion is
extremely rapid.
Coal Burners
Plasma Technology for solid fuel combustion
• In this method some portion of pulverized solid fuel is
separated from the main PF flow and it is subjected to
activation by arc plasma in a special chamber with
plasmatron.
• The air plasma is a source of heat and additional oxidation,
it provides a high temperature medium enriched with
radicals, where the fuel mixture is heated.
• The active blended fuel is used to ignite the main PF flow
supplied into the furnace
• With this type of firing, combustion is extremely rapid.
• The arc plasmatron consists of copper water-cooled
electrodes (cathode and anode) through which the plasma
forming air is blown.
Coal Burners
Plasma Technology for solid fuel combustion
• Across the plasma flame, coal particles with an initial size
of 50-100 μm experience ‘heat shock’ and disintegrate into
fragments of 5-10 μm. This accelerates the process of
oxidation of fuel combustibles by 3-4 times.
Plasmatron PFS Burner
CHEMICAL LOOPING PROCESS
Chemical looping combustion (CLC) typically employs
a dual fluidized bed system (circulating fluidized bed
process) where a metal oxide is employed as a bed
material providing the oxygen for combustion in
the fuel reactor.
The process is based on the gasification of the solid
fuels, followed by oxidation of the gasification product
by an oxygen carrier, CaSO4.
Chemical-looping process for the combustion of solid fuels
References
“Fuels and combustion” by S P Sharma
“Understanding Combustion” by H S Mukunda
Outline for Combustion of Coal:
Devolatilisation
Devolatilisation Models
Particle Heat-up during Devolatilisation
The Char
Char Burnout
Global Reaction Rate
Burnout Time
Char Surface Temperature
Devolatilisation:
It occurs as coal is heated in inert or oxidising-
environments
Moisture is evolved early during heating
At higher temp, gases and heavy tars (volatiles) are
emitted
Particle may soften and become plastic
Extent of pyrolysis varies from a few percent up to
70-80%
Both the pyrolysis time and the extent of pyrolysis
depends on particle size, coal type and pyrolysis
temperature
Devolatilisation Models:
Smoot (1991) discusses a number of empirical and
semi-empirical models for predicting coal
devolatilisation rates
Badzioch and Hawksjey (1970) proposed a simple
first-order model
Postulate that the devolatilisation rate is
proportional to the amount of volatile material
remaining in the coal:
d
k (with
) k = A exp(-E / RT)
dt
"Total" volatile matter (v ) is determined from
proximate analyses
The Badzioch and Hawksley model is too simple to
accurately describe many of the experimental
observations
A more complicated model is proposed by
Kobayashi et al (1977) in which the pyrolysis
process is modelled as a pair of parallel, first-order,
irreversible reactions:
C → (1- Y1)S1 + Y11, rate constant k1
C → (1 - Y2)S2 + Y2 2 , rate constant k2
with rate equations given by:
dC/dt= - (k1 + k2) C
d/dt= (Y1k1 +Y2k2) C
C = coal, S = solid, = volatiles
Particle heat-up during devolatilisation:
Coal reaction processes are dependent on the
particle heating rate (order 104 K/s) and maximum
particle temperature
Devolatilisation is initiated at about 3000C
Convective heating is initially retarded by flow of
volatiles out of particle
However, reaction of the volatiles heats the
surrounding gas and increases the heating rate
Therefore, the devolatilisation rate depends on gas
temperature and mass transfer
The Char:
The residual material (char) is enriched in carbon
but depleted in oxygen and hydrogen
Char has some N & S and retains most of the
mineral matter
Particles may have cracks and holes caused by
escaping gases and may have swelled to a larger
size
Char particles have high porosities (0.7) and high
specific surface areas (100 m2/g)
Properties of char depend strongly on pyrolysis
conditions
Char Burnout:
Reaction between char and oxygen is
heterogeneous and occurs at the gas-solid
interface
Primary product of surface reaction is CO
CO reacts in the gas-phase to form CO (highly
2
exothermic)
Char burnout is generally much slower than
devolatilisation
Overall char burning rate depends on the chemical
rate of the carbon-oxygen reaction at the surface
and also on the rate of O2 diffusion through the
boundary layer and pores
Char reactivity varies with coal type, temperature,
pressure, char characteristics (size, surface area,
etc) and O2 conc.
Burnout rates of the char are generally determined
using a global reaction rate which is found
empirically for a given coal and range of conditions
The global reaction rate is expressed in terms of
rate of mass loss per unit external area
Progress is being made in the use of intrinsic
(elementary) reactions rates but we still some way
to go
Global reaction rate:
C + 1/2 O CO
2
d mC/dt = -2 MWC/MWO2 Ap kc (ρ(O2)s)n
where AP = external particle surface area;
kc = rate constant;
O2(s) = oxygen partial density at surface of
particle;
and n = order of reaction
For n = 1, and eliminating the unknown ρ
(O2)s:
d mC/dt = -2 MWC/MWO2 Ap ke (ρ(O2)())
where ke is an effective rate constant and is a function
h k
k
of the kinetics (k
D c
c) and diffusion (hD)
e
hD k c
See Borman and Raglan, pp 469-470 for a full derivation for
calculating kc and hD
Burnout Time:
Assuming that CO is formed at the surface, the
global char burnout rate is:
12
2
dmC/dt = d k eO2
16
Consider the limiting cases of: (i) the burning at
constant diameter (with decreasing density) or (ii)
at constant density (with decreasing diameter)
For constant diameter, this equation is integrated
directly
For constant density, d = (6m /)1/3
C
Under diffusion-controlled conditions (kc >> hD),
corresponding to high temperature and large d:
1/ 3
dmC 6 mC 12
2 DABO2
dt
C 16
Under kinetic control (hD >> kc), associated with
low temperature and small d:
2/3
dmC 6 mC 12
k c O 2
dt C 16
Integrating from the initial char mass to zero, the
char burnout time is obtained for the following
special cases.
Constant Diameter
Ci di
tC
4.5 k eO2
Constant , diffusion control
Ci di 2
tC
6 D AB O2
Constant , kinetic control
C di
tC
1.5 k c O2
Char Surface Temperature:
In an oxidising environment, the char surface
temperature is typically hotter than the gas
temperature
Particle temperature is strongly coupled to the
burning rate
A steady-state energy balance, equating heat
generation by reaction at the surface with heat loss by
convection and radiation (neglecting conduction),
results in:
dmC (T T ) A (T 4 T 4 )
HC hA p p g p p b
dt
