2017 2nd International Conference on Environmental Science and Engineering (ESE 2017)

ISBN: 978-1-60595-474-5

The Influence of Coal Calorific Value on Power Plant

Boiler Operation

Liang-fei LUO1,*, Fang-qin LI1 and Hai-wen WANG1

1
College of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai University of Electric
Power, Shanghai 200080, China

Keywords: Calorific value, Efficiency, Calculation analysis.

Abstract. The calorific value of coal is an important factor which affects the stability of
combustion and the economy of boiler operation. If the boiler is used in the power plant
boiler, the boiler heat efficiency and the net efficiency of the power plant will be
reduced, and the combustion efficiency will be reduced. It is very important to improve
the economy of the power plant by using the high calorific value coal. In this paper, a
300MW pulverized coal fired boiler unit is taken as an example, Based on the
calculation and analysis, it is concluded that the influence of the pulverized coal
combustion on the boiler efficiency, exhaust temperature, exhaust gas loss and coal
combustion, as well as, bring the reasons for these effects.

Introduction
The selection of boiler in thermal power plant is mainly determined by the quality of
coal resources nearby. Once the boiler coal quality (mainly the low calorific value, ash
content, volatile matter, ash melting point and sulfur etc.) were determined, the boiler
type is then determined[1]. With the increasingly tight supply of coal, the price is rising,
the contradiction between coal and electricity market is becoming more and more acute.
Under the weight of loss, thermal power plants do everything possible to reduce fuel
costs, coal-fired power plant boiler supply diversification, the quality fluctuation of coal
power increases, and the coal quality is difficult to control, so that the quality of the coal
from the design of coal, boiler combustion stability and economy are seriously
threatened. In the aspect of boiler combustion, the decrease of the calorific value of coal
leads to the decrease of theoretical combustion temperature and the decrease of
temperature in the furnace. At the same time, the calorific value of coal will also affect
the efficiency of the boiler, flue gas temperature, flue gas loss, coal, etc., these factors
will affect the economic operation of the boiler[2]. It is generally believed that the
combustion efficiency of pulverized coal fired boiler will be improved. However, the
benefits brought about by the power plant can offset the increase in coal prices, the need
for scientific and rational basis for the calculation and analysis. In this paper, the
combustion of 300MW pulverized coal fired boiler unit is taken as an example, this
paper comprehensively evaluated the economy of coal combustion with different
calorific value, and provided reference basis for the combustion of coal with different
calorific value.

Calculation Basis and Research Object

Through calculation and analysis: when the properties of coal are changed greatly, one
side ,the amount of air required to produce coal per unit mass, the amount of flue gas
produced, the enthalpy of flue gas and the theoretical combustion temperature will

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change; on the other hand, the total air volume and the amount of flue gas in the unit
time will also change All these factors will affect the radiation heat transfer and
convection heat transfer in the furnace, which will have an impact on the boiler flue gas
loss, which will directly affect the boiler thermal efficiency[3]. In this paper, the
calculation data is based on the boiler manual material balance and heat balance theory
calculation formula, calculate the boiler thermal efficiency and related data, which can
provide the analysis data for the boiler thermal efficiency and the relevant data changes
caused by the different heat output of the pulverized coal.
This paper takes four kinds of coal with different calorific value as the research
object, the calorific value of four kinds of coal were 21000KJ/Kg, 18000 KJ/Kg, 16000
KJ/Kg, 14000 KJ/Kg. Element analysis and industrial analysis of different calorific
coals are shown in table 1.
Table 1. Element analysis and industrial analysis of different calorific coals.
Coal Qnet(KJ/K
Mar(%) Car(%) Har(%) Oar(%) Nar(%) Sar(%) Aar(%)
Variety G)
1 8.6 51.5 3.5 6.0 1.0 2.5 26.9 21000
2 10.0 40.0 4.5 6.5 1.0 2.0 36.0 18000
3 9.3 31.5 5.5 7.0 1.5 1.5 43.7 16000
4 11.0 23.5 6.0 7.0 1.5 1.0 50.0 14000

By calculating the amount of air, the amount of combustion products and the
enthalpy value of boiler combustion of four kinds of different calorific value of coal,
and thermodynamic calculation of furnace and convection heating surface[4]. The
changes of flue gas temperature, flue gas loss, boiler thermal efficiency and coal
combustion rate are analyzed, and provided reference basis for the combustion of coal
with different calorific value.

Calculation Results and Analysis

Calculation Results
The calculation of the combustion products of coal, the calculation of boiler heat
balance and the thermal calculation of boiler are all in accordance with the relevant
calculation procedures. Excess air coefficient of air preheater outlet is 1.28. The results
are shown in table 2.

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Table 2. Combustion calculation of different calorific value coal and boiler thermodynamic calculation.

Ordina Name Unit 1 2 3 4

1 Theoretical air volume V0 Nm3/kg 5.389 4.599 4.074 3.480

2 Smoke volume Vy Nm3/kg 7.666 6.931 6.4553 5.7835

3 Gas heat loss q2 % 7.036 7.173 7.232 7.285
Theoretical combustion o
4 C 1733.54 1664.25 1613.56 1589.78
temperature (T0)
Furnace outlet gas o
5 C 1056 1071 1079 1087
temperature(TL)
solid-unburning hot loss
6 % 3.445 6.35 9.59 14.45
q4
Boiler thermal
7 % 88.269 85.057 81.628 76.835
efficiency(η)
8 Fuel consumption (B) Kg/h 145595 176278 206642.1 250891
Air required per unit time 3
9 m /h 764434 785462 806489 835239
(V0)
10 Smoke per unit time(Vy) m3/h 102466 183668 238246 294832

Result Analysis
A comprehensive analysis of Table 2,when coal is heated with different calorific values
can be obtained the following results:

Figure 1. Trends of V0 and Vy with the Figure 2. Trends of V0 and Vy with the change of
change of calorific value. calorific value.
(1)As can be seen from Figure 1,with the increase of low calorific value of coal, the
amount of theoretical air needed for coal combustion increases. That is due to the
increase in the calorific value of coal powder, which increases the proportion of
combustible coal combustion can produce high heat. Therefore, the theoretical amount
of air required by the coal will increase with the increase of the calorific value of coal
powder. At the same time, the volume of flue gas produced by coal combustion also
increases with the increase of low calorific value[5]. As can be seen from Figure 2, the
amount of air required per unit time and the amount of smoke produced per unit time
decrease with the increase of the low calorific value. Due to the same output under the
condition of the boiler, pulverized coal of high heat can release more heat when
burning, burning in the boiler can reach the level of less fuel quantity, so enter the
amount of coal burning in boiler is greatly reduced. As can be seen in Figure 3, with the
increase of heat, the consumption of raw coal is reduced. Therefore, the total amount of
air required to reduce the unit time, while the amount of smoke produced per unit time
is also bound to reduce.

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 Figure 3. Trends of B with the change of Figure 4. Trends of T0,TL with the change of
calorific value. calorific value.
(2)As can be seen from Figure 4, With the increase of coal powder heat, the
theoretical combustion temperature increases, However, the smoke temperature of the
furnace outlet decreases with the increase of heat flux .When burning the pulverized
coal with high calorific value, according to the formula of theoretical combustion
temperature, the furnace combustion temperature increases, at the same time, the
average temperature of the furnace rises. This is beneficial to the stable combustion of
boiler, especially under the condition of low load operation, it is beneficial to the stable
combustion of boiler. Due to the increase of heat flux, the radiation heat transfer in the
furnace is enhanced, and the heat transfer is increased, therefore, the flue gas
temperature will decrease with the increase of the calorific value, this is conducive to
energy-saving boiler.

Figure 5. Trends of q2 with the change of

Figure 6. Trends of with the change of calorific
calorific value.
value.

(3)As can be seen from Figure. 5, with the increase of the calorific value of coal fired
boiler, the heat loss of the boiler flue gas is reduced, and the amplitude of the reduction
is relatively large. That is because the main factors affecting the exhaust heat loss is the
flue gas flow and exhaust temperature. Figure .2, Figure .4 shows that with the increase
of heat, the amount of flue gas required per unit time is reduced, and the flue gas
temperature is reduced, therefore, the flue gas temperature will naturally reduce[6].
Under the condition that the flue gas flow rate and exhaust gas temperature are reduced,
the flue gas loss of boiler decreases with the increase of coal calorific value.
(4)As can be seen from Figure. 6, with the increase of the calorific value of coal, the
boiler thermal efficiency increases. There are many factors that affect the thermal
efficiency of the boiler, the heat loss of the exhaust is an important proportion of the
heat loss, can be seen in Figure. 5. With the increase of heat, the heat loss of the boiler
exhaust is greatly reduced. Due to the increase of the base low calorific value, boiler
exhaust heat loss calculated by input heat%, therefore, the utility model can effectively

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reduce the heat loss of the exhaust gas and greatly improve the boiler efficiency.
Because of the increase of boiler thermal efficiency, at the same time also show in
Figure .3 with the increase of calorific value of coal, fuel consumption reduced.

Conclusions
In this paper, a 300 MW pulverized coal boiler unit is taken as an example, based on the
calculation of combustion and boiler thermodynamic calculation, the influence of
pulverized coal calorific value on the main operating parameters of boiler and auxiliary
engine is analyzed, the causes of these changes are analyzed in detail[7]. Through
calculation and analysis, with the increase of the calorific value of coal, the amount of
theoretical air and flue gas increases, however, the amount of air required per unit time
and the amount of smoke produced per unit time decrease with the increase of heat; the
outlet flue gas temperature and exhaust temperature of the furnace decreases with the
increase of the heating rate, and then the heat loss of the boiler is reduced. Finally, the
thermal efficiency of the boiler is increased, which is beneficial to the operation of the
boiler.

Acknowledgement
Project supported by Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission
(15110501000)

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