Types of Fluidized Bed Combustion Boilers

There are three basic types of fluidized bed combustion boilers:

1. Atmospheric classic Fluidized Bed Combustion System (AFBC)
2. Atmospheric circulating (fast) Fluidized Bed Combustion system (CFBC)
3. Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion System (PFBC).
NBEIL has employed the CFBC boiler for steam generation. The principle of CFBC Boiler
utilizes the fluidized bed principle in which crushed (6 –12 mm size) fuel and limestone are
injected into the furnace or combustor. The particles are suspended in a stream of upwardly
flowing air (60-70% of the total air), which enters the bottom of the furnace through air
distribution nozzles. The fluidizing velocity in circulating beds ranges from 3.7 to 9 m/sec. The
balance of combustion air is admitted above the bottom of the furnace as secondary air. The
combustion takes place at 840-900 °C, and the fine particles (<450 microns) are elutriated out of
the furnace with flue gas velocity of 4–6 m/s. The particles are then collected by the solids
separators and circulated back into the furnace. Solid recycle is about 50 to 100 kg per kg of fuel
burnt. There are no steam generation tubes immersed in the bed. The circulating bed is designed
to move a lot more solids out of the furnace area and to achieve most of the heat transfer outside
the combustion zone – convection section, water walls, and at the exit of the riser. Some
circulating bed units even have external heat exchanges. The particles circulation provides
efficient heat transfer to the furnace walls and longer residence time for carbon and limestone
utilization. Similar to Pulverized Coal (PC) firing, the controlling parameters in the CFB
combustion process are temperature, residence time and turbulence. For large units, the taller
furnace characteristics of CFBC boiler offers better space utilization, greater fuel particle and
sorbent residence time for efficient combustion and SO2 capture, and easier application of staged
combustion techniques for NOx control than AFBC generators. CFBC requires huge mechanical
cyclones to capture and recycle the large amount of bed material, which requires a tall boiler.
A CFBC could be good choice if the following conditions are met.
 Capacity of boiler is large to medium
 Sulphur emission and NOx control is important
 The boiler is required to fire low-grade fuel or fuel with highly fluctuating fuel quality.
Major performance features of the circulating bed system are as follows:
a) It has a high processing capacity because of the high gas velocity through the system.
b) The temperature of about 870 °C is reasonably constant throughout the process because of the
high turbulence and circulation of solids. The low combustion temperature also results in
minimal NOx formation.
c) Sulphur present in the fuel is retained in the circulating solids in the form of calcium sulphate
and r e m o v e d in solid form. The use of limestone or dolomite sorbents allows a higher sulfur
retention rate, and limestone requirements have been demonstrated to be substantially less than
with bubbling bed combustor.
d) It has high combustion efficiency.
e) It has a better turndown ratio than bubbling bed systems.
f) Erosion of the heat transfer surface in the combustion chamber is reduced, since the surface is
parallel to the flow. In a bubbling bed system, the surface generally is perpendicular to the flow.

CIRCULATING BED BOILER

At high fluidizing gas velocities in which a fast recycling bed of fine material is superimposed on
a bubbling bed of larger particles. The combustion temperature is controlled by rate of recycling
of fine material. Hot fine material is separated from the flue gas by a cyclone and is partially
cooled in a separate low velocity fluidized bed heat exchanger, where the heat is given up to the
steam. The cooler fine material is then recycled to the dense bed.
A high speed rotating (flue gas) flow is established with in a cylindrical or conical container
called a cyclone. Flue gas flows in a spiral pattern, beginning at the top (wide end) of the
cyclone and ending at the bottom (narrow) end before exiting the cyclone in a straight stream
 through the center of the cyclone and out the top. Larger (denser) Particles in the rotating stream
have too much inertia to follows team and strike the outside

Removed with greater efficiency and smaller particles with a lower efficiency.
The boiler employed in the NBEIL is CFBC boiler. It is the super high pressure boiler is designed
and manufactured by Wuxi Huaguang Boiler Co., Ltd (WHBC). The capacity boiler is 520 TPH.
The boiler contains various mountings and accessories. The mountings are for safety while
accessories for efficiency.
Specifications:

PureCondensingmaximum
Item Unit load

1 RatedSHsteamflow t/h 520

2 RateSHsteampressure MPa 14.5

3 Rated SH steam temperature °C 542

4 Rated RH steam flow t/h 425.8

5 RatedRHsteamoutletpressure MPa 2.95

6 RatedRHsteaminletpressure MPa 3.087

7 RatedRHsteamoutlettemperature °C 542

8 RatedRHinlettemperature °C 336.9

9 Drumworkingpressure MPa 15.86

10 Feedwatertemperature °C 248.6

6. TURBINE
The turbine is the equipment which converts the Steam energy into mechanical energy. NBEIL
employed super high pressure intermediate reheat single axle impulse type double
casing and double exhaust steam turbine from Dong Fang Power Systems, China.
1) Type: N155-13.7/537/537
2) Model: super high pressure intermediate reheat, single axle, impulse
type double casings and double exhaust condensing steam turbine.
3) Power: 155MW THA)
4) Maximum power: 161.5MW VWO conditions, back pressure 9.8KPa)
5) Rated steam parameters
Fresh steam: before HP main stop valve 13.7MPa/537 OC
Reheat steam: before MP combined steam valve 2.65MPa/537OC
Back pressure: 9.8kPa
6) Rated fresh steam flow: 475.43 t/h
7) Maximum fresh steam flow: 500t/h
8) Steam distribution mode: full electronic regulating valve management
9) Rotation direction: clockwise when viewed in the direction from turbine towards generator
10)Speed: 3000r/min
11)Shaft line critical speed: calculated value) r/min
1st step 1247(generator 1st step)
2nd step 1817 (HIP rotor step)
3rd step 2149 (LP rotor step)
4th step 3451 (generator 2nd step)
Note: Generator critical speed shall be the one that is provided by the generator manufacturer.
12) Number of steam passage stages: 25stages in all, of which: HP part: 1 regulating stage + 8
pressure stages MP part: 10 pressure stages LP part: 2 x 6 pressure stages
13)Feed water heat recovery system: 2 HP heaters + 1 deaerator+ 4 LP heaters
14) Steam sealing system: self-sealing system (SSR)
15) Last stage blade length:660mm
16) Last stage moving blade circular exhaust area: 2×4.14 m2
17) Turbine Body outline dimension (length x width x height) 13.545m × 7.4m (the width of the
LP cylinder) × 5.2m (the height refers to the distance from the top of the lifting lug of the cross-
over pipe to the operation floor ground) 13.545m × 7.4m (the width of the LP cylinder) × 5.2m
(the height refers to the distance from the top of the lifting lug of the cross-over pipe to the
operation floor ground)
18) Main machine weight ~ 395t (including the HP, MP valves and their supports, HP and MP
main steam pipes and their supports etc)
19) Operation floor elevation 12.0m
20) Connection mode between turbine and condenser inflexibility
7. GENERATOR AND TRANSMISSION SYSTEM:
Generator is the device used to convert the mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Cooling system:
For cooling the generator the air cooling is employed. There are series of fans in parallel rows
Under the generator, these fans take air from surroundings which gets cooled by circulating
in the coolers through which ACW is circulating.
220 KV Switchyard:
220 KV Switchyard is conventional outdoor open air insulated. The switch yard has two
main buses with One Bus Coupler switching scheme for the evacuation of power. The electric
power generated are 15.75 KV level of GT is stepped up to 220 KV via Generator transformer
and exported to grid at 220KV level. There are two outg oing lines, line-1 & line- 2 connected to
Budidhampadu substation which is about 61 km from power plant. Startup supply for the station
is taken from 235/7kv station transformer from the grid 220kv supply. 220kv switchyard
provides the startup power supply back charging. The power is stepped down through station
transformer to 6.6 kv HT switchgear and delivered through station service transformers for
feeding to the various Boiler, turbine and BOP auxiliaries.
8. ELECTRO STATIC PRECIPITATOR
Thermal power plants are based on coal as fuel. Coal consists of some percentage of ash, Sox,
and Nox gases in which flow into atmosphere should be controlled within hygiene, pollution free
and comfort before the gas is released into atmosphere. For the control of dust, mainly the ash
particles from combustion of coal in Boilers, Electrostatic Precipitator is often used. Electrostatic
precipitator is electric equipment where a DC voltage is imparted through emitting electrodes
creating an electrical field around it. The dust particle carried by the gas while passing through
the field is charged to saturation and migrates towards the c o l l e c t i n g electrode usually in
the form of plate curtain where they deposit in layers. By suitable ramming dust is dislodged in
to the hopper.
NBEIL installed two ESPs. Each ESP contains
 6 fields having 95 KV, 1500 mA rating
 6 collecting rapping motors & 6 emitting rapping motors
 1 gas distribution rapping motor
 6 transformer/Rectifier panels
 48 hopper heaters each of 0.75 KW
 24 Support insulator heaters each of 1 kW
 48 dust level indicators
9. ASH HANDLING SYSTEM
The coal burnt in the boiler contains bed ash and fly ash. There is continuous generation of bed
ash and fly ash as there is c o n t i n u o u s feeding of coal. For the fluidization to occur the bed
ash should be drained continuously for this purpose four bed ash coolers and one emergency
drain are installed. The fly ash collected in the electro static precipitator (ESP) hoppers should be
conveyed to fly ash silo for this three ash handling compressors are installed.
The bed ash handling system comprises the following
1. Bed drain pipes
2. Bed ash coolers
3. Drag chain conveyor
4. Bucket Elevator
5. Silo
6. Ash conditioner & Rotary vane feeder.
Bed Drain Pipes
Specially designed five ash drain pipes on bed plate are provided to drain excess ash/ shale / rock
etc. from the f l u i d i z i n g bed / combustor to maintain bed level for proper fluidization (four
connected to Bed Ash Coolers and other is used in emergency purpose). In this four drain pipes
are connected to ash coolers with Manual and pneumatic operated valves ash before connecting
to Bed Ash Cooler. And each Drain pipe is provided with one bypass Manual operated valve for
emergency draining purpose.
Bed ash cooler
Nava Bharat Energy India employed Bed Ash Coolers to cool the drained Bed ash from the
furnace. The ash drained o u t s i d e has high temperature which will be a loss if it is not used. In
order to use that heat main condensate from the discharge of Condensate Extract Pump is made
to flow through bed ash coolers such that it gains temperature of drained ash. There are four such
bed ash coolers which will be operated depending on requirement.
How Bed ash cooler works
Hot ash enters the rotary barrel from one side and is cooled by condensate in spiral and
longitudinal fins inside the barrel. The spiral f i n s lift and conveys the ash continuously to the
barrel exit. There is no mechanical pushing force on the ash and therefore there is little erosion
on fins and the barrel. The ash flow increases with the barrel rotating speed and decreases to zero
when barrel stops rotating.

Drag Chain Conveyor

Drag chain conveyor is a scraper type conveyor using for dry ash purpose. RUD India chain
private ltd are the supplier of this conveyor to our system. The capacity of this conveyor is 63
TPH with 0.17m/s is conveyor speed. It can sustain up to 300deg temp of ash outlet. And the
length of the conveyor is 40mtr .After cooling the ash, hot air from the cooler exits through
the out let duct, which is connected to APH hopper.
Bucket Elevator
BUCKET ELEVATOR is a Vertical type conveyor using for dry ash purpose. RUD India chain
pvt ltd are the supplier of this conveyor to our system. The capacity of this conveyor is 63 TPH
with 1.17m/s is conveyor speed. It can sustain up to 300deg temp of ash outlet. And the length of
the conveyor is 30mtr .It has Discharge chute which was connected to Bed ash silo (MS SILO)
Fly Ash Handling System
The fly ash gets collected in the hoppers of ESP has to be conveyed to Fly Ash Silo. The Fly
Ash handling system Consist of 3 Ash Handling Compressors.

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CONCLUSION:
The Industrial Visit to NAVA BHARAT ENERGY INDIA LIMITED Thermal Power Plant,
Paloncha was highly successful. We received insight of the whole plant right from the raw
material (coal) procurement, processing, combustion and generation & transmission of
electricity. The whole process was explained in-detail by the representative with detailed
description about each equipment with their specifications. A doubt solving session with the
Control Room In charge cleared all our queries. This kind of industrial exposure helped us to
absorb the theoretical aspects of Thermal & Fluid Power Engineering more efficiently. We
would highly appreciate more such visits in the future.