Fluidized bed combustion

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Fluidized bed combustion (FBC) is a combustion technology used in power plants. Fluidized
beds suspend solid fuels on upward-blowing jets of air during the combustion process. The result
is a turbulent mixing of gas and solids. The tumbling action, much like a bubbling fluid, provides
more effective chemical reactions and heat transfer. FBC plants are more flexible than
conventional plants in that they can be fired on coal and biomass, among other fuels.

Combustion systems for solid fuels

FBC reduces the amount of sulfur emitted in the form of SOx emissions. Limestone is used to
precipitate out sulfate during combustion, which also allows more efficient heat transfer from the
boiler to the apparatus used to capture the heat energy (usually water tubes). The heated
precipitate coming in direct contact with the tubes(heating by conduction) increases the
efficiency. Since this allows coal plants to burn at cooler temperatures, less NOx is also emitted.
However, burning at low temperatures also causes increased polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
emissions. FBC boilers can burn fuels other than coal, and the lower temperatures of combustion
(800 °C / 1500 °F ) have other added benefits as well.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Benefits
• 2 Types
o 2.1 FBC
o 2.2 PFBC
• 3 See also

• 4 References

[edit] Benefits
There are two reasons for the rapid increase of fluidized bed combustion (FBC) in combustors.
First, the liberty of choice in respect of fuels in general, not only the possibility of using fuels
which are difficult to burn using other technologies, is an important advantage of fluidized bed
combustion. The second reason, which has become increasingly important, is the possibility of
achieving, during combustion, a low emission of nitric oxides and the possibility of removing
sulfur in a simple manner by using limestone as bed material.

Fluidized-bed combustion evolved from efforts to find a combustion process able to control
pollutant emissions without external emission controls (such as scrubbers-flue gas
desulfurization). The technology burns fuel at temperatures of 1,400 to 1,700 °F (750-900 °C),
well below the threshold where nitrogen oxides form (at approximately 2,500 °F / 1400 °C, the
nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the combustion air combine to form nitrogen oxide pollutants); it
also avoids the ash melting problems related to high combustion temperature. The mixing action
of the fluidized bed brings the flue gases into contact with a sulfur-absorbing chemical, such as
limestone or dolomite. More than 95% of the sulfur pollutants in coal can be captured inside the
boiler by the sorbent. The reductions may be less substantial than they seem, however, as they
coincide with dramatic increases in carbon (monoxide?) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
emissions.[citation needed]

Commercial FBC units operate at competitive efficiencies, cost less than today's units, and have
NO2 and SO2 emissions below levels mandated by Federal standards. Although, it has some
disadvantages such as erosion on the tubes inside the boiler, uneven temperature distribution
caused by clogs on the air inlet of the bed, long starting times reaching up to 48 hours in some
cases.

[edit] Types
FBC systems fit into essentially two major groups, atmospheric systems (FBC) and pressurized
systems (PFBC), and two minor subgroups, bubbling (BFB) and circulating fluidized bed (CFB).

[edit] FBC

Atmospheric fluidized beds use limestone or dolomite to capture sulfur released by the
combustion of coal. Jets of air suspend the mixture of sorbent and burning coal during
combustion, converting the mixture into a suspension of red-hot particles that flow like a fluid.
These boilers operate at atmospheric pressure.

[edit] PFBC

The first-generation PFBC system also uses a sorbent and jets of air to suspend the mixture of
sorbent and burning coal during combustion. However, these systems operate at elevated
pressures and produce a high-pressure gas stream at temperatures that can drive a gas turbine.
Steam generated from the heat in the fluidized bed is sent to a steam turbine, creating a highly
efficient combined cycle system.

Advanced PFBC
• A 1½ generation PFBC system increases the gas turbine firing temperature by using
natural gas in addition to the vitiated air from the PFB combustor. This mixture is burned
in a topping combustor to provide higher inlet temperatures for greater combined cycle
efficiency. However, this uses natural gas, usually a higher priced fuel than coal.

• APFBC. In more advanced second-generation PFBC systems, a pressurized carbonizer is

incorporated to process the feed coal into fuel gas and char. The PFBC burns the char to
produce steam and to heat combustion air for the gas turbine. The fuel gas from the
carbonizer burns in a topping combustor linked to a gas turbine, heating the gases to the
combustion turbine's rated firing temperature. Heat is recovered from the gas turbine
exhaust in order to produce steam, which is used to drive a conventional steam turbine,
resulting in a higher overall efficiency for the combined cycle power output. These
systems are also called APFBC, or advanced circulating pressurized fluidized-bed
combustion combined cycle systems. An APFBC system is entirely coal-fueled.

• GFBCC. Gasification fluidized-bed combustion combined cycle systems, GFBCC, have a

pressurized circulating fluidized-bed (PCFB) partial gasifier feeding fuel syngas to the
gas turbine topping combustor. The gas turbine exhaust supplies combustion air for the
atmospheric circulating fluidized-bed combustor that burns the char from the PCFB
partial gasifier.

• CHIPPS. A CHIPPS system is similar, but uses a furnace instead of an atmospheric

fluidized-bed combustor. It also has gas turbine air preheater tubes to increase gas turbine
cycle efficiency. CHIPPS stands for combustion-based high performance power system
How Coal Gasification Power Plants Work

The heart of a gasification-based system is the gasifier. A gasifier converts hydrocarbon

feedstock into gaseous components by applying heat under pressure in the presence of
steam.

A gasifier differs from a combustor in that the amount of air or oxygen available inside the
gasifier is carefully controlled so that only a relatively small portion of the fuel burns
completely. This "partial oxidation" process provides the heat. Rather than burning, most of
the carbon-containing feedstock is chemically broken apart by the gasifier's heat and pressure,
setting into motion chemical reactions that produce "syngas." Syngas is primarily hydrogen
and carbon monoxide, but can include other gaseous constituents; the composition of which
can vary depending upon the conditions in the gasifier and the type of feedstock.

Minerals components in the fuel, which don't gasify like carbon-based constituents leave
the gasifier either as an inert glass-like slag or in a form useful to marketable solid products. A
small fraction of the mineral matter is blown out of the gasifier as fly ash and requires removal
downstream.

Sulfur impurities in the feedstock are converted to hydrogen sulfide and carbonyl sulfide, from
which sulfur can be easily extracted, typically as elemental sulfur or sulfuric acid, both valuable
byproducts. Nitrogen oxides, another potential pollutant, are not formed in the oxygen-
deficient (reducing) environment of the gasifier; instead, ammonia is created by nitrogen-
hydrogen reactions. The ammonia can be easily stripped out of the gas stream.

In Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) systems, the syngas is cleaned of its

hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and particulate matter and is burned as fuel in a combustion
turbine (much like natural gas is burned in a turbine). The combustion turbine drives an
electric generator. Exhaust heat from the combustion turbine is recovered and used to boil
water, creating steam for a steam turbine-generator.

The use of these two types of turbines - a combustion turbine and a steam turbine - in
combination, known as a "combined cycle," is one reason why gasification-based power
systems can achieve high power generation efficiencies. Currently, commercially available
gasification-based systems can operate at around 40% efficiencies; in the future, some IGCC
systems may be able to achieve efficiencies approaching 60% with the deployment of
advanced high pressure solid oxide fuel cells. (A conventional coal-based boiler plant, by
contrast, employs only a steam turbine-generator and is typically limited to 33-40%
efficiencies.)

Higher efficiencies mean that less fuel is used to generate the rated power, resulting in better
economics (which can mean lower costs to ratepayers) and the formation of fewer greenhouse
gases (a 60%-efficient gasification power plant can cut the formation of carbon dioxide by
40% compared to a typical coal combustion plant).

All or part of the clean syngas can also be used in other ways:

• As chemical "building blocks" to produce a broad range of higher-value liquid or

gaseous fuels and chemicals (using processes well established in today's chemical
industry);
• As a fuel producer for highly efficient fuel cells or perhaps in the future, hydrogen
turbines and fuel cell-turbine hybrid systems;
• As a source of hydrogen that can be separated from the gas stream and used as a fuel
(for example, in the hydrogen-powered Freedom Car initiative) or as a feedstock for
refineries (which use the hydrogen to upgrade petroleum products).

Another advantage of gasification-based energy systems is that when oxygen is used in the
gasifier (rather than air), the carbon dioxide produced by the process is in a concentrated gas
stream, making it easier and less expensive to separate and capture. Once the carbon dioxide
is captured, it can be sequestered - that is, prevented from escaping to the atmosphere, where
it could otherwise potentially contribute to the "greenhouse effect."