22/06/2016

Cemtech Asia – 19-21 June 2016

Developing a cost-effective
fuel switching capability

Tahir Abbas

Cinar Ltd

Cinar Ltd: Est. 1988

(Over 25 Years)

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Some of Cinar’s Clients-Producers and Manufacturers

CHERAT

5 Projects
18 Projects CEMENT

15 Projects

AKCANSA CEMENT - CANAKKALE

For LafargeHolcim, completed over 35 projects

CINAR - Associates

Customised AFR
Burners
design/installation Design
Emissions Testing
Plant trials Commissioning
Plant performance
analysis via MI-CFD Purpose-built burn

Burner/Combustion
system design
Low-CapEx Solutions
Cyclone technologies Fuel Strategy
Preheater/calciner Business planning
upgrade A
AFR Market analysis
Installation and
Complete Permitting/lobby
commissioning
services Solution!

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The Complex Fuel-Mix Matrix

• Shale oil & gas discoveries are driving the
energy costs down - April last year, more power
production from NG than coal in US,
• Egypt’s NG declining resources get a boost with
recent Zohr gas field discovery plus
• Israel’s new NG findings;

Solid fuel Market:

• Petcoke from new Saudi refineries, more (20)
new coking plants are expected by 2020;
• Lower coal and AFR prices!!

AFR/Biomass Co-Processing
Influence heat Production (tons lost)
factor
consumption
All kilns SP/PC Grate Long
Unit Unit kiln PH wet

Water GJ/t H2O 2.15 t cli 2.0 1.6 0.8

/t H2O

Ash GJ/t ash 1.1 t cli 0.26 0.22 0.11

/t ash

False GJ/kNm3 1 (0.7) t cli 0.24 0.2 0.07

air /kNm3

Oxygen % q per 1.8 % cap 5.7 5 4.4

level % O2 per %O2

1 tonne H2O looses 2 tph of output

1 tonne ash looses 0.5 tph output
An additional 1% Exit O2 looses 6% output (Data courtesy of LH)

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Kiln Burner (Rings and Balls)

Balls/rings? Mineralogy issue

or its the burner or the
calciner?

How do we do it?
• A unique simulation tool (MI-CFD), specifically
constructed for the mineral industries – i.e.,
cement and lime;

• Multi-fuel firing capability (coal, oil, gas,

AF’s);
• Combustion is directly coupled with calcination
and clinker formation chemistry.

MI-CFD applied and tested on over 150 plants!!

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Calciners are more Fuel-Flexible but!!

• It is assumed that meal particles are
fully dispersed and fuels fully burn!

• It is difficult to visualise (invisible flame)

and correct it
(so calciner is taken as black box, RT is taken from the volume of
calciner and the flow of the gases going through it);

The Most Common Problem:

Insufficient Mixing!

Coal Particles in Oxygen: (Maximum oxygen 2.3%)

Oxygen concentrations
along particle
trajectories in a 6-s
calciner
O2 [% vol.] TA

TA

Black lines
KRD represent the
coal particles
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Calciner Geometries and the Residence time (s) 8s

Calciners are fired with 60% of the total fuel!!

6s
5s
3s

2s
1.5s

Calciner inlets: Very low-Volatile HiCal (KRD)

HiCal
%
Carbon 53.73
Hydrogen 0
Sulphur 0.27
Oxygen 0
Nitrogen 0
H2O 0
Ash 46

TSR %
HiCal 13 %
Natural Gas 34 % HiCal Burner
Waste Oil 53 %

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Solution to Kiln Balls Simply shifting Hical

Exit O2 = 3.4 % BO = 41 % burner to TAD eliminates
BO % the kiln balls!!
O2 %

BO = 98 %

HiCal Burner

When firing several fuels,

it is difficult to know which
fuel burns well and which
does not!!

Enhancing AFR Substitution Rate (RT:6s)

Concerns:
• Kiln inlet blockage
due to the
accumulation of
semi-burned tyre
chips;

• Tyre chip feed

limited to 20% of
the calciner fuel.

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Design of Riser Throat for AFR

Tertiary
air
Meal

Meal
Tertiary air Meal Coal

Coal
Coal Burner
Burner
Kiln Gas
Kiln Gas (3.658x2 sq m)
(2.210x2 sq m)
Existing Configuration
Tertiary air
Modified Entry Section

Enhancing Tyre-Chips Injection Rate

Plant Feedback:
• A refractory throat restriction was
added (A=4.4m2)

• Tyre chip TSR increased from 2 to

8 tph (from 20% to 65% calciner
thermal input).

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Savings from Enhancing the Tyre Chip

• We have helped several plants to increase AFR throughput;
• For example to replace coal with tyre-chips, to increase tyre-chip
feed rate; (e.g., from 2 to 8 t/h in a calciner);
• Net fuel cost savings of approx. between $ 30/tonne, per hour

• 8-2=6 6*30*24*30*10 $1.3M

3%
90%
7%
Payback
within a
Savings
MI-CFD
month!!
Implementation

Fuel/Meal Inlets Tyre

chips
Concerns:
• Blockages due to unburnt MBM Coal
tyre chips
Gas velocities
Aim: > 50m/s
• Increase TSR of Chipped
tyres from 30 to 75% Meal

O2: 21%, TA

Temp: 900 C Bypass

Kiln
gases O2: 4%,
Temp: 1100 C

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Tyre-Chip Burnout (%)

99 96 64 29 20 17
Burnout fraction
[m/m]

Chip-Sizes in (mm)
S1: <35 x 35 S2: 35 x 35 S3: 55 x 25 S4: 55 x 45 S5: 75 x 45 S6: >75 x 45

Venturi Design (dP and tyre chip burnout)

62% 90% 95%

DP=700Pa DP=600Pa DP=850Pa

45% B/out
Improvement

Base Case Selected ID Fan Limitations

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Switching from
Natural Gas to Coal

Plant Observations: Severe Build-ups

Unburnt Calcination
RT: 1.5 S Coal
(88%)
18%
C-in-HM
(0.3%)

Recommended C-in-HM
(0.05-0.1)

TA

Upward
Kiln Gases Velocity (m/s)

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Riser Duct Extension

Abandoned as MI-CFD results

showed worse performance

Unburnt coal %= 18 Unburnt coal %= 7

Calcination %=88 Calcination %=92

Base Case Burner Relocation

Savings of $1.5M with a simple burner relocation

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From Poor Coal Burnout

to 90% Pro-fuel TSR in 2-s
Calciner

Calciner Geometry- 2s (residence time)

Meal

Tertiary Air

Tertiary Air

Coal

Kiln Gases
Original TA ducts

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Poor Mixing & Coal Burnout

Coal Burnout
70 %

Modified Calciner TA

Tertiary Air

Kiln Gases Modified TA

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Improved Mixing & Coal Burnout

Burnout Burnout
70 % 93 %

Construction of a Venturi for

Higher TSR of Pro-fuel (90%)

Venturi

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Plant Feedback

Year Before After

Clinker production (tpd) 2788 2838
Profuel Firing (tph)
6.8 8.2

PH exit temp (oC) 431 416

ID fan av O2 (%)
7.5 6.6

ID fan av CO (%) 0.111 0.093

Fuel Cons (GJ/t)
3.92 3.75

Profuel
O2 particles
in O2

40% Profuel 70% Profuel 90% Profuel

Meal particles in Temperature

T (C)

Adding a
lower meal
inlet

90%
Profuel

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The Fuel-Switch Solutions!

• Saving potential in switching to
cheaper fuels – considering
combustion-process interactions!!

• MI-CFD can reduce the time

and effort in ‘developing a
cost-effective fuel switching
capability’
Calciner Kiln

• How? By analysing where and how much a fuel

fraction burns & optimising it with respect to
feed inlet(s)!!

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