Applied Thermal Engineering 103 (2016) 491–500

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Numerical simulation of oxy-coal combustion in a rotary cement kiln

Mingyue Wang a, Bin Liao a, Yiqin Liu b, Shibo Wang a,⇑, Shan Qing a, Aimin Zhang c
a
State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Department of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and
Technology, Kunming, Yunnan 650093, China
b
Department of Communication and Information Engineering, Yunnan Open University, Kunming, Yunnan 650000, China
c
Kunming Sino-Platinum Metals Catalyst Co. Ltd, Kunming, Yunnan 650000, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

There exist inner recirculation zone

and outside recirculation zone in the
kiln.

The maximum temperature increases,
but uniformity becomes worse with
the % of O2.

The enhancement of temperature is
slight when the oxygen content
exceeds 30%.

NOx emissions increase sharply when
the oxygen content exceeds 27%.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, a comprehensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology was adopted to inves-
Received 12 September 2015 tigate the characteristics of oxy-coal combustion in a cement kiln with a specially designed burner. The
Accepted 7 April 2016 simulation was conducted under five oxidant stream conditions with different O2/N2 volume ratios:
Available online 12 April 2016
21/79, 24/76, 27/73, 30/70, and 33/67. The results revealed that there is strong entrainment from the pri-
mary air to the secondary air, resulting in an inner recirculation zone and outside recirculation zone. The
Keywords: oxygen-enriched combustion increases the maximum temperature and improves the combustion effi-
Numerical simulation
ciency; however, the uniformity of the temperature field becomes worse. The temperature rises sharply
Oxy-coal combustion
Pulverized coal combustion
as the oxygen content increases; however, the enhancement is slight when the oxygen content exceeds
Rotary cement kiln 30%. At a lower oxygen content (<27%), the NOx emissions increase slowly as the oxygen content
NOx emissions increases, whereas NOx increases sharply when the oxygen content exceeds 27% in volume. This suggests
Burner that the optimal oxygen content is no more than 27% for pulverized coal combustion in a cement kiln. The
simulation results reasonably agree with the measured data. The findings of this work will help save fuel
consumption and decrease production cost.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction is composed of 21% O2, 78% N2, and 1% other gases. In conven-
tional combustion, a large amount of nitrogen is heated, and
The cement industry garners a great deal of attention due to some energy is lost through the high-temperature exhaust. Cur-
high coal consumption and severe environmental impact [1]. Air rently, there is an urgent need to improve the pulverized coal
combustion efficiency and reduce emissions. In contrast,
⇑ Corresponding author. oxygen-enriched combustion can decrease the energy loss in
E-mail address: tasklb@163.com (S. Wang). the exhaust as well as improve both the productivity and thermal

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.04.028
1359-4311/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
492 M. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 103 (2016) 491–500

efficiency of the system [2]. Moreover, CO2 can be obtained easily
from the exhaust [3–5].
The burner is an important piece of equipment in the cement
clinker production process. The burner used in this paper is spe-
cially equipped with swirl vanes in every channel, as shown in
Fig. 1. With this special structure, a strong inner recirculation zone
and outside recirculation zone can be established in the rotary kiln.
The recirculation zones can greatly enhance the mixing of pulver-
ized coal and air, which favors combustion [6,7]. The oxygen con-
centration of the swirling flow channel is varied from 0.21 to 0.33.
Details on oxygen enriched combustion in a rotary kiln is discussed
in later sections.
2. Numerical model
This paper assumes that the flow regime is steady-state and the
fluid is incompressible. In the present study the kiln rotation as
been neglected as it has been done in the previous studies [8].
The ‘‘SIMPLEC” algorithm was selected to couple velocity and pres-
sure. Momentum, energy and continuity equations were used to
solve the flow field. The following models were employed in the
simulation: RNG k–e turbulence model, P-1 radiation model
[9,10] for gas-phase radiation, Discrete phase model (DPM), and
Eddy Dissipation model for coal combustion.
2.1. Gas phase
The continuity equation was used in the paper, shown as Eq. (1).
The source Sm is the mass added to the continuous phase from
combustion particles. The velocities of the x, y, and z directions
are presented by the momentum equation, shown as Eq. (2). The
source term in Eq. (2) results from the interaction between coal
particles and gas.
@ H2O and CO2. Other gases, such as SO2, CO and NO, are usually sec-
ðqui Þ ¼ Sm
@xi
@ @p @ sij
ðqui uj Þ ¼  þ þ q g i þ F i þ Sm
@xj @xi @cj
where Gk is the production due to the mean velocity gradients, and
Gb represents the production due to buoyancy. Y M represents the
contribution of the fluctuating dilatation in compressible turbu-
lence to the overall dissipation rate. The quantities ak and ae are
the inverse effective Prandtl numbers for k and e, respectively. Sk
and Se are user-defined source terms.
The energy model is used in this paper, as following.
@ *  X *
ðqEÞ þ r  v ðqE þ PÞ ¼ r  ðkeff rT  eff  *
hj J j þ ðs v ÞÞ þ Sh
@t j
ð5Þ
The first three terms on the right-hand side of Eq. (5) represent
energy transfer due to conduction, species diffusion, and viscous
dissipation, respectively. Sh is the heat of chemical reaction in this
paper.
Radiation is the primary means of heat transfer in a rotary kiln,
and the P-1 radiation model is used as Eq. (5).
r  qr ¼ aG  4an2 rT 4 ð6Þ
where a is the absorption coefficient, r is the Stefan–Boltzmann
constant, G is the incident radiation, n is the refractive index of
the medium. r  qr can be substituted into the energy equation
to account for heat sources as a result of radiation. Additionally,
the P-1 radiation model is capable of considering the effect of ani-
sotropic scattering absorption, emitting, and scattering media
[12], which is based on the expansion of the radiation intensity I
into an orthogonal series of spherical harmonics. The P-1 radiation
model is more stable and precise for the heat radiation when optical
thickness >1. The P-1 radiation model is responsible for exchange of
radiation between coal particulates and gas. Furthermore, the P-1
model is easy to converge and solve without much computing
effort. The Weighted-Sum-of-Gray-Gases model (WSGGM) was
selected to calculate the variable absorption coefficient. The
WSGGM model in fluent computes the absorption coefficient for
ð1Þ
ondary due to their low concentration [11].
ð2Þ
2.2. Particle phase

The RNG k–e turbulence model has greater predictive accuracy In this paper, the coal particle only occupies a very low volume
and greater convergence stability when a swirling flow exists [11] fraction. Trajectories of coal particles are computed in a Lagrangian
as the effect of swirl on turbulence is included. The model is frame [13], which particle trajectories are calculated individually
defined as: during the fluid phase compute. Using a discrete phase model,


@ @ @ @k reacting coal particles can be modeled and can exchange heat,
ðqkÞ þ ðqkli Þ ¼ ak leff þ Gk þ Gb  qe  Y M þ Sk ð3Þ mass, and momentum with the Eulerian frame continuous phase,
@t @xi @xj @xj

 shown as Eq. (6).
@ @ @ @e e
ðqkeÞ þ ðqkei Þ ¼ ae leff þ C 1e ðGk þ C 3e Gb Þ
@t @xi @xj @xj k dlp g x ðqp  qÞ
¼ F D ð l  lp Þ þ þ Fx ð7Þ
e2 dt qp
 C 2e q  R e þ Se ð4Þ
k

Axial flow

Swirling flow

Coal flow

Central flow

Fig. 1. Multi-channel burner.

 M. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 103 (2016) 491–500 493

where lp and l are particle and gas velocities, respectively. aC þ O2 ! 2ða  1ÞCO þ ð2  aÞCO2 ðR4Þ
F D ðl  lp Þ represents drag force per unit particle mass, C þ CO2 ! 2CO ðR5Þ
g x ðqp  qÞ=qp is gravity force, and F x are additional forces. C þ H2 O ! CO þ H2 ðR6Þ
The combustion of pulverized coal is treated as first the burning
of the released volatile matter t and then the burning of the char where a is determined by the kind of coal and ranges from 1 to 2
[14]. The single rate model was used to represent devolatilization. [17], as shown in Eq. (11).
The single rate model supposes that the rate of devolatilization is   E
A0 exp  RT þ1
first-order and depends on the residual volatiles in the particles a¼2  E ð12Þ
A0 exp  RT þ 2
[15]:
dmp
 ¼ k½mp  ð1  f x;0 Þð1  f y;0 ÞmA;0  ð8Þ 2.3. NOx model
dt
where mp is particle mass, mp;0 is initial particle mass, f x;0 is the There are generally three accepted mechanisms for NOx forma-
mass fraction of volatiles initially present in the particle, and f y;0 tion: thermal, fuel, and prompt NOx formation [18]. In this paper,
is the mass fraction of evaporating material. The kinetic rate k is the prompt NOx mechanism is not taken into consideration
shown as the following: because prompt NOx formation accounts for less than 5% of the
total emissions in pulverized coal combustion [18,19].
k ¼ A1 eðE=RTÞ ð9Þ
The primary reactions of the thermal NOx mechanism are as
where A1 is the pre-exponential factor, and E is the activation follows:
energy. The reaction mechanisms are given as Eqs. (R1)–(R3). The
kinetic parameters for reactions (R1)–(R3) are summarized in
O þ N2
N þ NO ð13Þ
Table 1. N þ O2
O þ NO ð14Þ
N þ OH
H þ NO ð15Þ
C1:16 H3:7 O0:6 N0:1482 S0:0186 þ 0:2986O2 ! 1:16CO þ 1:85H2 The expressions for the rate coefficients for these reactions are
þ 0:0741N2 þ 0:0186SO2 ðR1Þ given below. These were selected based on the evaluation by Han-
CO þ 1=2O2 ! CO2 ðR2Þ son and Salimian [20].
H2 þ 1=2O2 ! H2 O ðR3Þ kq;1 ¼ 1:8  108 e38370=T m3 =mol-s ke;1 ¼ 3:8  107 e425=T m3 =mol-s

For char combustion, the kinetic/diffusion surface reaction rate kq;2 ¼ 1:8  104 Te4680=T m3 =mol-s ke;2 ¼ 3:81  103 Te20820=T m3 =mol-s
model was used, which assumed that the surface reaction rate was kq;3 ¼ 7:1  107 e450=T m3 =mol-s ke;3 ¼ 1:7  108 e24560=T m3 =mol-s
determined either by diffusion or by kinetics rate [16]. The model
of the char combustion rate is defined by Eq. (9); Here, kq;1 ; kq;2 , and kq;3 are the rate constants for the forward reac-
tions of Eqs. (12)–(14), and ke;1 ; ke;2 , and ke;3 are the corresponding
dmp D0 R
¼ Ap pox ð10Þ reverse rate constants.
dt D0 þ R
Assuming that the O2, N2, O, and OH concentrations are at their
where Ap is the surface area of the particle, pox is the surrounding equilibrium values, the NO concentrations are much less than their
gas pressure, and R is the kinetic rate defined by Eq. (10); equilibrium values, and the N atoms are in the steady state. Thus,
the NO formation rate becomes:
R ¼ C 2 eðE=RT p Þ ð11Þ
 
k k ½NO2
where E is the reaction activation energy, and C2 is the kinetics- d½NO 1  kq;1e;1½N2e;2kq;2 ½O2 
limited rate pre-exponential factor. The reaction mechanisms are ¼ 2kq;1 ½O½N2   ke;1 ½NO
 mol=m3 -s ð16Þ
dt 1þ
given as Eqs. (R4)–(R6). The kinetic parameters for reactions (R4)– kq;2 ½O2 þkq;3 ½OH

(R6) are summarized in Table 2.

3. Geometry, grid and boundary conditions

The rotary cement kiln is 48 m in length and 3 m in depth, as

Table 1 shown in Fig. 2. Primary air and pulverized coal enters the kiln
The kinetic parameters of volatiles combustion. through the burner, whereas second, air enters the kiln through
Reactant A1 E (J/kmol) Reaction orders Refs. the kiln front end. The process is illustrated in Fig. 2.
The meshes of the burner and kiln are generated by ICEM CFD
Volatile 3.8  107 5.55  107 [Volatile]1[O2]1 [27]
CO 1.3  1011 1.255  108 [CO]1[O2]0.5[H2O]0.5 [28] with 1,700,000 cells, using the structured and hexahedral mesh
H2 1.03  1014 2.84  107 [H2]1.5[O2]1 [29] type (Fig. 3). This type of grid is highly space efficient, has better
convergence, and has higher resolution. The grid size increases

Table 2
The kinetic parameters of char combustion.

Reaction rate r (kmol m3 s3) Reaction rate constant k Refs.

(R4) 6esqsY char 1 [30,31]
r4 ¼ dpqc
 kc C O2 k4 ¼ 8910 ðkg m2 s1 kPa Þ  expð1:4974  108=RTÞ
kc ¼ RT=wc kd ¼ /ShDg wc =dp RT g
1=kd þ1=k1
(R5) k5 C CO2 1 qsYc [32,33]
r5 ¼ 5 5
k5 ¼ 4:89  1010 ðm3 kmol s1 Þ  expð2:68  108 =RTÞ MWc ð1  XÞ
1þkk CO2 C CO2 þkk CO C CO

(R6) k6 C H2 O 5 1 1 8 qsYc [33]

r6 ¼ 6 6 6
k6 ¼ 2:39  10 ðm kmol
3
s Þ  expð1:29  10 =RTÞ MWc ð1  XÞ
1þkk H2 O C H2 O þkk H2 C H2 þkk CO C CO
494 M. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 103 (2016) 491–500

Axial flow L
Swirling flow Second air
Primary air +
(Enriched air) D
Pulverized coal
Coal flow Second air

Central flow Burner Rotary kiln

Fig. 2. Schematic of rotary cement kiln.

Fig. 3. The details of mesh.

Table 4
The ultimate and proximate analyses of the coal.

Ultimate analysis (wt%) Proximate analysis (wt%) Qgr,ad

(MJ/kg)
Cad Had Oad Nad Sad FCad Vad Aad Mad
81.26 4.37 11.24 2.43 0.7 41.53 22.47 28.62 7.38 23.84

Table 5
Coal particle properties.

Distribution type Rosin–Rammler (m)

Min particle size 6  107
Max particle size 1  104
Mean particle size 5  105
Particle spread 1.35

grid number exceeds 1,700,000. Accordingly, the grid with

Fig. 4. Mesh dependence study. 1,700,000 cells are used for accurate compute.
The boundary conditions of primary and the second flows have
been specified with a velocity-inlet, and the direction is normal to
boundary. A pressure-outlet has been specified at the kiln back
Table 3 end. All walls were modeled using no-slip walls. The boundary
The inlet flow parameters. conditions are detailed in Table 3, and the ultimate and proximate
Temperature (K) Inlet velocity (m s1) analyses of the coal used in this paper are given in Table 4. The size
Axial flow 300 240 distribution of coal particles is assumed to fit the Rosin–Rammler
Swirling flow 300 180 diameter distribution and is shown in Table 5.
Coal flow 300 25
Central flow 300 50
Second air 1173 5 4. Results and discussions

gradually along the axial direction of the kiln. A local mesh refine-
ment technique is applied near the burner, where the temperature
and flow field change greatly. The mesh was generated after a
mesh independence study. Fig. 4 shows the temperature of moni-
toring point with different grid numbers. The monitoring point is
located on the centerline of kiln and 7 m away from burner exit.
It can be seen that the temperature reveals a slight difference when
In this section, the results and discussions are based on five dif-
ferent combustion environments, and the mass flow rate of the
coal particles remains a constant.
4.1. Flow fields
The increase of O2 causes a composition change of the primary
airflow. It is necessary to determine whether this will result in
significant changes in the overall flow field. The simulation results
 M. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 103 (2016) 491–500 495

Velocity,m/s 0 50 100 150 200 250 300

1.5

Radial distance from burner centerline,/m

1

Inside 0.5

recirculaon
0

-0.5

-1
Outside
recirculation -1.5

0 2 4 6 8 10
Distance from burner tip,/m

Fig. 5. Velocity vectors of air combustion near burner.

indicated that the increase of O2 did not lead to velocity field nearly the same flame shape. The flame shape is not significantly
change in the kiln. The velocity vectors of air combustion near affected when the oxidant stream composition changes. It is easily
the burner region are shown in Fig. 5. determined that a local low-temperature region exists near the
It can be seen clearly from Fig. 5 that both a strong inner recir- burner, which is beneficial for protecting the burner. As the volume
culation zone and an outside recirculation zone exists due to the concentration of O2 increases from 21% to 33%, the maximum tem-
swirl vanes in burner. It is evident that there exists a strong perature rises, thereby suggesting that a higher temperature can
entrainment phenomenon near burner, which the second air is easily be achieved through oxygen-enriched combustion. Increas-
entrained by primary air. The outside recirculation mainly entrains ing the O2 concentration reduced the amount of combustion air,
the second airflow of high-temperature to preheat the coal parti- thus the nitrogen concentration in the furnace atmosphere was
cles, where the inner recirculation can entrains coal particles and significantly reduced, thus leading to the temperature rise.
high-temperature gas. These phenomena contribute to the ignition Fig. 7 gives the center-line temperature profile of different O2
of coal and the stabilization of the flame [6,7]. rates in the swirling flow. The temperature rises as the O2 concen-
tration increases. At a lower oxygen content (<30%), the tempera-
4.2. Temperature predictions ture rises sharply with an increased oxygen content, but the
enhancement is slight when the oxygen content exceeds 30% in
Fig. 6 shows the temperature contour along the axial section of volume. Fig. 8 is local amplification figure. Fig. 9 presents the
the rotary kiln. The results indicate that each of the five cases had max and average temperature of five different oxidant stream

Fig. 6. Contours of temperature with different O2 concentrations in the swirling flow. (a), (b), (c), (d), (e).
496 M. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 103 (2016) 491–500

The comparisons between the total heat transfer rate and the
radiation heat transfer rate of different O2 concentrations are dis-
played in Fig. 10. The results indicate that the heat transfer rate
rises as the O2 concentration increases. This phenomenon can be

Fig. 7. Temperature along the kiln center-line.

Fig. 10. The heat transfer rate of different O2 concentrations.

Fig. 8. Temperature along the kiln center-line from 010m.

Fig. 11. The mole fraction of O2 along the kiln center-line.

Fig. 9. Maximum and average temperature of different O2 concentrations.

conditions. It can be seen that the max temperature rises as the O2

concentration increases. However, there is little change in the
average temperature, which reflects the uniformity of a worse
combustion temperature.
Fig. 12. The mole fraction of O2 along the kiln center-line from 08m.
 M. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 103 (2016) 491–500 497

Fig. 13. The mole fraction of CO along the kiln center-line. Fig. 15. The mole fraction of CO2 along the kiln center-line.

Fig. 14. The mole fraction of CO along the kiln center-line from 010m. Fig. 16. The mole fraction of CO2 along the kiln center-line from 08m.

Fig. 17. NOx concentration contours of cross-section along rotary kiln. (a), (b), (c), (d), (e).
498 M. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 103 (2016) 491–500
Fig. 18. NOx concentration contours of cross-section (z = 5 m) (a), (b), (c), (d), (e).
explained that heat transfer from a flame in the kiln is primarily by
thermal radiation [21], which leads to the heat transfer rise with
the increase of O2 concentration in kiln. In an oxy-fuel combustion,
the concentrations of H2O and CO2 increase significantly due to the
elimination of nitrogen, and these gases (CO2 and H2O) are primar-
ily responsible for thermal radiation [21–23].
4.3. Species concentration
The mole fractions of O2, CO and CO2 are presented in Figs. 11,
13 and 15, respectively. Figs. 12, 14 and 16, is local amplification
figure respectively. According to the data shown in Fig. 13, it can
be concluded that the CO concentration decreases as the O2 con-
centration increases. Less CO is produced when the O2 concentra-
tion is greater than 27%. Though the O2 concentration increases
in the primary flow, all five cases exhibit a complete lack of oxygen
at the center-line of the kiln, as displayed in Fig. 11. It can be found
that at one point, the CO concentration increased, but the O2 con-
centration was not reduced. The phenomenon mainly stems from
the fact that the combustion has not yet started, and the CO pri-
marily comes from the release of volatile matter. All this indicates
Fig. 19. NOx concentration along the kiln center-line.
that the combustion of pulverized coal is first the burning of vola-
tile matter and then the burning of the char.
The NOx concentration contours of the cross-section along the
rotary kiln and cross-section (z = 5 m) are displayed in Figs. 17
and 18. Fig. 19 shows the NOx concentration along the center-
line. Fig. 20 is local amplification figure. The comparison between
the total NOx emissions and the thermal NOx emissions are shown
in Fig. 21. Both Figs. 19 and 21 indicate that the NOx concentration
increases as the O2 concentration increases when the mass flow
rate of the coal particles is kept constant, which seemingly agrees
well with previous oxygen-enhanced combustion research [24].
Additionally, it can be seen from Fig. 17 that the growth rate of
NOx slowly increases as the O2 concentration rises from 21% to
27%; however, the NOx emissions increase rapidly when the O2
concentration is greater than 27%. The total NOx emissions at
33% O2 concentration are 55 times more than the total NOx emis-
sions at 21% O2 concentration. The key factor leading to the
increase in NOx is that the elevated O2 concentration and the ade-
quate N2 coupled with a high temperature promote the formation
of thermal NOx [25]. Thermal NOx is considered unimportant
for temperatures below 1800 K [26]; however, thermal NOx
Fig. 20. NOx concentration along the kiln center-line from 010m.
 M. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 103 (2016) 491–500 499

Fig. 21. Comparison of total NOx and thermal NOx.

Fig. 23. NOx concentration of simulation data and experimental data.

production doubles for every 90 K temperature increase when the
flame temperature is about 2200 K [25].

5. Experimental validation

Experiments were conducted at in Kunming Jiahua Cement

Building Material Co. Ltd in China. It was difficult to measure the
internal temperature of kiln due to the rotation. However, we
can validate the maximum temperature position through
looking-fire-hole. The maximum temperature was judged by the
shape and brightness of flame in the kiln through a looking-fire-
hole on kiln wall. The exhaust temperature was measured to com-
pare with the simulation data, as shown in Table 6. NOx, CO2 and
CO concentrations in the exhaust were measured by a gas analyzer.
Though the experimental conditions were not as same as in the
present simulation, the results were still able to qualitatively
validate the internal temperature and species distribution in the

Table 6
Temperature of simulation and experiment. Fig. 24. CO concentration of simulation data and experimental data.

O2 rations Simulation (K) Experiment (K)

0.21 1321 1312 kiln. The measurements were conducted after the combustion
0.24 1326 1330 was stable. However, the CO content was slight, and the equipment
0.27 1332 1328 was incapable of measuring the CO concentration when the O2
0.30 1340 1350
0.31 1338 1330
concentration was greater than 27%. Experimental results revealed
that the brightest part of the flame was located about 7.5 m far
away from the burner exit, which reasonably agreed with the sim-
ulation data. The comparisons between the simulation data and
the experimental data of the exhaust are shown in Figs. 22–24.
The results are good for qualitatively validating the combustion.

6. Conclusions

The principal purpose of the present study was to investigate

Fig. 22. CO2 concentration of simulation data and experimental data.
the characteristics of oxy-coal combustion in a cement kiln with
a specially designed burner. Five cases were studied in which the
O2 volume concentrations in the swirling flow ranged from 21%
to 33%. The simulation results were validated by experimental
results and showed good agreement. The results indicate that both
an inner recirculation zone and an outside recirculation zone exist
due to the specially designed burner. Though the composition of
the primary air is different, there is no significant effect to the over-
all flow field. The maximum temperature increases from 1930 K to
2300 K; however, the average temperature is almost constant
(about 1450 K), which reveals that the combustion temperature
is uniformly worse when the O2 concentration is increased from
500 M. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 103 (2016) 491–500
21% to 33%. The temperature rises sharply as the oxygen content is
increased; however, the enhancement is slight when the oxygen
content exceeds 30%. At a lower oxygen content (<27%), the NOx
emissions slowly increase as the oxygen content increases,
whereas the NOx increases sharply when the oxygen content
exceeds 27% in volume. Furthermore, less CO is produced when
the oxygen content exceeds 27%. This suggests that the optimal
oxygen content is no more than 27%, which strikes a balance
between energy efficient and environmentally friendly. This study
will help future researchers better understand the oxy-coal com-
bustion of the cement kiln.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial supports
received from the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(Grant number 51566005).
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