Basics in Process Design

Assignment 1 – Material balances

A power plant uses coal as fuel. The operators want to check some of the measure-
ment equipment at the plant and conduct a study of the flows in to and out of the
power plant furnace and the particle filter after the furnace. Some of the measure-
ments are considered to be unreliable and must be checked in some way against other
more reliable measurements.
Several parameters of the main flows in to and out of the power plant, i.e. coal in, air
in, flue gas out and ash out, have been measured and the list below gives average
measurement values for these parameters during one day (24 h) of operation.
The measurement of the mass flow of coal in, the volume flow of air in and the mass
flow of ash out are considered to be less reliable than the other measurements. Set up
material flow balances and use the other available measurements to calculate these
flows and compare the results to the measured values.
Coal in:
Mass flow 12 ton/h
Moisture content 6.5 weight-%
Ash content 8.4 weight-% (dry)
Carbon content 76 weight-% (dry)
Hydrogen content 4.5 weight-% (dry)
Oxygen content 9.1 weight-% (dry)
Air in:
Volume flow 110234 m3/h
Moisture content 0.005 kg H2O/kg dry air
Temperature 25 °C
Flue gas out:
Volume flow 143500 m3/h
Carbon dioxide
content 13 volume-%
Oxygen content 4 volume-%
Moisture content 6.3 volume-%
Ash content after
filtration 4.6 mg/m3
Temperature 185 °C
Ash out: Figure 1. The flows in to and out
Bottom ash 97 kg/h of the power plant.
Fabric filter ash 402 kg/h