Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310

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Journal of the Energy Institute

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institute

Mechanism analysis on the pulverized coal combustion flame stability

and NOx emission in a swirl burner with deep air staging
Chaoyang Zhou a, Yongqiang Wang b, Qiye Jin b, Qijuan Chen a, **, Yuegui Zhou b, *
a
School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, 16 Luojia Hill Road, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China
b
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, People's Republic of China

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

Article history: Low NOx burner and air staged combustion are widely applied to control NOx emission in coal-fired
Received 13 October 2017 power plants. The gas-solid two-phase flow, pulverized coal combustion and NOx emission character-
Received in revised form istics of a single low NOx swirl burner in an existing coal-fired boiler was numerically simulated to
4 January 2018
analyze the mechanisms of flame stability and in-flame NOx reduction. And the detailed NOx formation
Accepted 8 January 2018
Available online 12 January 2018
and reduction model under fuel rich conditions was employed to optimize NOx emissions for the low
NOx burner with air staged combustion of different burner stoichiometric ratios. The results show that
the specially-designed swirl burner structures including the pulverized coal concentrator, flame stabi-
Keywords:
Pulverized coal combustion lizing ring and baffle plate create an ignition region of high gas temperature, proper oxygen concen-
Low NOx swirl burner tration and high pulverized coal concentration near the annular recirculation zone at the burner outlet
Combustion flame stability for flame stability. At the same time, the annular recirculation zone is generated between the primary
Air staged combustion and secondary air jets to promote the rapid ignition and combustion of pulverized coal particles to
NOx emission consume oxygen, and then a reducing region is formed as fuel-rich environment to contribute to in-
flame NOX reduction. Moreover, the NOx concentration at the outlet of the combustion chamber is
greatly reduced when the deep air staged combustion with the burner stoichiometric ratio of 0.75 is
adopted, and the CO concentration at the outlet of the combustion chamber can be maintained simul-
taneously at a low level through the over-fired air injection of high velocity to enhance the mixing of the
fresh air with the flue gas, which can provide the optimal solution for lower NOx emission in the existing
coal-fired boilers.
© 2018 Energy Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

NOx emission in large scale coal-fired power plants is a major burden to the environment, which can result in serious problems such as
acid deposition, ozone depletion and photochemical smog. The stringent standards of NOx emission in different countries in the world have
been promulgated to reduce NOx emission in coal-fired power plants. Since 2014, Chinese government has implemented the NOx emission
limit of 50 mg/m3 at 6% O2 concentration, dry basis for coal-fired boilers named as ultra-low pollutant emissions. The combined combustion
technologies of low NOx burner and air staged combustion are widely applied to control lower NOx emission in the furnace of large scale
coal-fired power plants and to decrease the operation cost of Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR). In general, the low NOx burner is adopted
with air staged combustion in the main combustion zone to inhibit fuel-NOx conversion and to promote the reduction of NOx in flame.
Many researchers have conducted experimental and numerical investigations on the low NOx burners in coal-fired boilers in the past
decades. Zhou et al. [1] investigated the gas-solid two-phase flow characteristics of the single HT-NR3 burner with a particle dynamics
anemometer (PDA) system and found an annular recirculation zone between the primary and secondary air jets. The variance of annular
recirculation zone and particle concentration distribution near the burner outlet were also analyzed by PDA with different vane angles of the
outer secondary air [2]. Sun et al. [3] experimentally studied the combustion characteristics of a novel burner with a non-swirl outer

* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: qjchen@whu.edu.cn (Q. Chen), ygzhou@sjtu.edu.cn (Y. Zhou).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joei.2018.01.006
1743-9671/© 2018 Energy Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310 299

secondary air and concluded that the air staged combustion with the non-swirl outer secondary air could suppress NOx emissions to around
600 mg/m3. Tsumura et al. [4] conducted a single burner combustion test with a NOx reduction load extension (NR-LE) type burner with the
flame stabilizing ring and a special air nozzle to achieve a stable flame with minimum load of 50% and low NOx emission of 200 mg/m3. Xue
et al. [5] performed the pilot tests of two swirl burners in a 1 MW coal-fired chamber to analyze the influences of the burner parameters on
NOx emission and unburned carbon in fly ash, and the results provided important guidance for engineering designs and practical appli-
cations of low NOX swirl burners.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method has become an important tool to predict combustion characteristics of coal-fired boilers
and to develop different low NOx burners. Zhou et al. [6] carried out numerical simulation on the coal particle distribution characteristics in
the primary air pipe of a swirl burner, and concluded that the spindle body could create a fuel-rich area surrounded by the recirculation zone
to stabilize combustion flame and reduce NOx emission. Apte et al. [7] performed the gas-solid two-phase flow in a coaxial jet burner with
Large-eddy-simulation (LES) and found that bigger particles could rapidly penetrate the recirculation zone while smaller particles respond
quickly to the gas phase. Kurose et al. [8] simulated coal combustion performance of an IHI low NOx burner and concluded that the
recirculation flow lengthened coal particle residence time in high gas temperature region and enhanced coal devolatilization and com-
bustion, which promoted a low oxygen concentration region for effective NOx reduction. Zhao et al. [9] modeled coal combustion process in
the petal swirl burner (PSB) and indicated that the special structure of the PSB burner enhanced the mixing of primary air and recirculated
flue gas for reliable ignition and NOx reduction. Modlinski et al. [10] simulated a single rapid ignition JET-burner in a virtual cylinder
chamber and found that rapid ignition phenomenon and stable flame operation were realized even with non-swirl secondary and tertiary
air. Li et al. [11] made an optimization retrofit to a swirl burner and achieved a larger recirculation zone, lower peak temperature and less
NOx production. The effect of the cone lengths of different primary and secondary air jets were numerically simulated by Ti et al. [12], and an
optimized burner outlet structure was presented to achieve excellent performances on both combustion and NOx reduction capacity. Zhou
et al. [13] found that the optimized structure of the primary air pipe in a swirl burner could promote the generation of a large reducing
region to benefit NOx reduction.
On the other hand, air staged combustion technology has been regarded as the main measurement to further reduce NOx emission when
combined with the low NOx burners in coal-fired power plants. Choi et al. [14,15] experimentally investigated the NOx emissions and burnout
characteristics with air-staged combustion in a 15 kW pulverized coal-fired furnace, and found that the staged-air had a positive impact on
NOx emissions but a negative impact on burnout performances. Fan et al. [16,17] studied the NOx and CO formation processes for deep air-
staged combustion in a 20 kW down flame furnace, and found that the NOx concentration in the reduction zone significantly decreased
with the increasing staging degree and a NO reducing saturation phenomenon existed in the reduction zone once the staging level reached a
certain extent. Kuang et al. [18] evaluated the effects of staged air and over-fire air in regulating air-staging conditions within a large-scale
down-fired furnace and found that regulating deep-air-staging conditions to sharply reduce NOx emissions relied on OFA openings rather
than staged air in the down-fired furnace. Recently, Zha et al. [19] evaluated the NOx emissions under deep-air-staging conditions in a 600 MW
tangentially fired pulverized-coal boiler, and distinct NOx reduction was achieved under appropriate vertical air-staging condition.
Although HT-NR series burners have been widely applied in coal-fired boilers for many years, it is still unclear about their unique
combustion concepts to maintain stable flame stability and low NOx emission in the public documents. The deep understanding of the
combustion mechanism is important for the improvement of the burner performance and the development of the next generation ultra-low
NOx swirl burner. At the same time, the deep air staging combustion is one of the most important technologies for further reducing NOx
emission to satisfy more stringent environmental standards. The objective of this work is to simulate gas-solid two-phase flow, pulverized
coal combustion and NOx emission characteristics of a single HT-NR3 type low NOx swirl burner operated in an existing 600 MW coal-fired
boiler in China, and the detailed NOx formation and reduction model under fuel rich conditions is employed to optimize the NOx emissions
for the low NOx swirl burner with deep air staged combustion. The flame stabilization mechanism of the HT-NR3 burner is characterized as
the combustion theory of high gas temperature, proper oxygen concentration and high pulverized coal concentration behind the flame
stabilizing ring near the burner outlet, and the low NOx mechanism of the burner is in-flame NOx reduction in the annular recirculation
zone. And then the air staged combustion with different burner stoichiometric ratios (SRm) was optimized to further achieve lower NOx
emission with the positive impact on coal burnout performance. It will provide the optimal solution to further reduce NOx emission in the
existing coal-fired boilers and the design of new ultra-low NOx swirl burners.

2. Modeling method

2.1. HT-NR3 burner structure and operation parameters

The Hitachi NOx reduction (HT-NR)burner series have an unique combustion concept of in-flame NOx reduction where NOx is subject to
a reduction reaction in the flame [20]. The HT-NR3 type low NOx swirl burner has been widely applied in coal-fired boilers to realize low
NOx performance in recent years. However, the frequent variation of coal types in the actual coal-fired power plants leads to higher NOx
emission and unburnt carbon in fly ash. Therefore, the single low NOx swirl burner was simulated to evaluate the coal combustion and NOx
emission performance and to explore the technical solution to further reduce NOx emission in an existing 600 MW class coal-fired power
plant in China. The schematic of the burner is shown in Fig. 1. The burner connects with a cylindrical combustion chamber with the diameter
of 8 m and the length of 15 m, and it consists of a central primary air stream, an inner secondary air stream and a swirling outer secondary air
stream with the vane angle of 25
. In the burner, a recirculation zone formed after the fuel nozzle is expanded by changing the direction of
secondary air jets outside along the baffle plate, which is equipped on the flame stabilizing ring [21]. The pulverized coal concentrator has
the shape of an artillery shell and is installed in the fuel nozzle of the burner. A simple guide sleeve can effectively separate the NOx
reduction reaction from the outer secondary air.
The proximate and ultimate analyses of Shaanxi anthracite coal used for the simulation are listed in Table 1. The anthracite coal has low
volatile matter content and high ash content. Table 2 shows the operation parameters of the single low NOx swirl burner with the stoi-
chiometric ratio SRm ¼ 0.95 in the main combustion zone. The low NOx swirl burner and the connected combustion chamber are meshed
with different grid numbers to evaluate the grid independent solution, and the simulated flue gas temperature profiles on the centerline of
300 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310

Fig. 1. Schematic of the HT-NR3 burner and the combustion chamber: (a) the combustion chamber; (b) the HT-NR3 burner.

Table 1
Proximate and ultimate analyses of Shaanxi anthracite coal.

Proximate analysis (wt.%, ar) Volatile matters 8.8

Fixed carbon 52.4
Ash 31.5
Moisture 7.3
Ultimate analysis (%, daf) Carbon 83.8
Hydrogen 3.1
Oxygen 8.4
Nitrogen 1.4
Sulfur 3.3
Net heating value (kJ/kg, as received) 18840
e

Table 2
Operation parameters of a single HT-NR3 burner.

Air flow rates (kg/s) Primary air 6.125

Inner secondary air 7.038
Outer secondary air 7.038
Air inlet temperatures (K) Primary air 353
Inner secondary air 618
Outer secondary air 618
Coal mass flow rate (kg/s) 3.281
e
Burner stoichiometric ratio 0.95
e

the combustion chamber with four kinds of the total hexahedral cell numbers (i.e. 342539, 640183, 918193 and 1394597) are compared as
shown in Fig. 2. The results show that the mesh number of 918193 cells is appropriate to reach the grid independent solution with the
balance between numerical accuracy and computation time. Fig. 3 shows the meshes of the combustion chamber used in the present
simulation, and the local grid refinement is conducted to reveal the complex flow structure near the burner outlet.
 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310 301

2000

1800

1600 342539cells
640183cells

Temperature (K)
1400 918193cells
1394597cells
1200

1000

800

600

400

200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Axis (m)

Fig. 2. Comparison on the flue gas temperature profiles at the axial center line of the combustion chamber for different cells.

Fig. 3. Meshes of the combustion chamber.

2.2. Coal combustion and NOx models

The commercial software Fluent 15.0 is used to predict pulverized coal combustion process and NOx emission in the low NOx swirl
burner and the combustion chamber. The turbulent flow, particle motion, coal combustion, homogeneous chemical reaction, gas radiation
models and NOx formation and reduction model are briefly described as follows.
The Realizable keε turbulence model [22] is widely used to predict the turbulent flow of both planar and rotation flow and to provide
more accurate performance for fluid flows involving strong recirculation flow and swirling flow than standard keε model. Therefore, it is
adopted to calculate the turbulent flow in the low NOx burner with strong swirling flow. The trajectories of pulverized coal particles are
simulated to track the evolution of coal particles flow and combustion in the chamber with discrete phase model (DPM). The coal particle
size is set to obey Rosin-Rammler distribution with the mean diameter of 50 mm and the spread parameter of 1.2 and it is classified into 10
groups with the minimum diameter of 5 mm and the maximum diameter of 200 mm. The radiative heat transfer in the combustion chamber
is simulated by discrete ordinates (DO) model and the gas absorption coefficients are calculated with the weighted sum of gray gases model
(WSGGM) [23].
The coal combustion process involves coal devolatilization, volatile matter homogeneous combustion, and char heterogeneous oxidation.
The coal devolatilization process is simulated with two competing rate models [24] to define the production rate of volatile species. The
homogeneous combustion of volatile species released from coal particles is predicted with mixed-is-burnt model [25] which assumes that
gas phase combustion is infinitely fast. The mass fraction of individual species is determined by the mean mixture fraction and the fraction
variables. The interactions between turbulent flow and chemical reactions has been considered with the beta probability density function
(PDF). The coal char heterogeneous oxidation is simulated with a diffusion-kinetics model which assumes the reaction rate is determined by
the diffusion rate of oxygen to the char surface and the chemical kinetic rate [26].
302 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310

The NOx formation and reduction process in the combustion chamber is modeled with a post-processing procedure based on the
predicted flue gas velocity, temperature and species concentration fields when the coal combustion calculation is converged. The NOx
model includes thermal, prompt and fuel-NOx formation as well as NOx destruction by reburning and char-NO reduction reaction in the coal
combustion flame. The formation of thermal NOx is determined by the extended Zeldovich mechanism and the prompt NOx can be
neglected because it is insignificant during coal combustion process. The detailed NOx formation and reduction model is illustrated in Fig. 4
which is employed to simulate the in-flame NOx reduction and deep air staged combustion in the low NOx swirl burner, and the reaction
rate expressions and the corresponding kinetic parameters for R1~R7 are given in Table 3. The fuel-NOx formation is calculated by the global
rates with the conversion of volatile nitrogen and char nitrogen during coal combustion process. In this work, the fuel-bound nitrogen in the
volatiles is released to form two nitrogen intermediates XN (HCN and NH3) as R1 reaction during coal devolatilization process [23]. Then
HCN and NH3 are partially oxidized to NO or reduced to N2 with the formed NO dependent on the temperature and local oxygen con-
centration, and the global reaction rate expressions R2 and R3 proposed by De Soete are used to describe homogeneous NOx formation and
destruction in the pulverized coal flame [27,28]. The remained nitrogen in the char is directly oxidized to NO during the char conversion
through R7 [29], and the heterogeneous reaction of NO reduction on the char surface was modeled as R4 according to Levy et al. [30]. The
additional reduction path for the NOx destruction is the formed NO reduction reaction by CHi radicals to form XN (R5) in the high tem-
perature fuel-rich zone [23,31].

3. Results and discussion

The gas-solid two-phase flow and combustion characteristics of the low NOx swirl burner was firstly analyzed to elucidate the flame
stabilization and low NOx emission mechanisms, and then the air staged combustion in the combustion chamber with different burner
stoichiometric ratios were optimized to evaluate NOx and CO emission levels and to provide the optimal solution to further reduce NOx
emission in the existing coal-fired boiler.

3.1. Flue gas velocity field

Fig. 5 shows the contour and radial distribution of flue gas axial velocities in the combustion chamber. The swirling outer secondary
air flows from the burner into the combustion chamber and a low-pressure zone is formed near the burner outlet. Thus, an annular
recirculation zone is generated in the area between the primary and secondary air jets. It is located at the area where x/d ¼ 0.25e3.25 and

Fig. 4. Detailed NOx formation and reduction model employed in the numerical simulation.

Table 3
Reaction expressions for NO formation and reduction model.

No. Reaction Formula Parameters Ref.

R1 Volatile-N/XN(HCN,NH3) Svol;HCN ¼
Svol YN1 ;vol Mw;HCN
; Svol;NH3 ¼
Svol YN2 ;vol Mw;NH3
;
Mw;N Vcell Mw;N Vcell [23]
R2 XN þ O2/NOþ … d½HCN
¼ k1 XHCN XaO2 ; d½NH 3
¼ k2 XNH3 XaO2 k1 ¼ 1.0  1010 exp(-280452/RT); k2 ¼ 4.0  106 exp(-133900/RT)
dt dt [27]
R3 XN þ NO/N2þ … d½HCN
¼ k3 XHCN XNO ; d½NH3 
¼ k4 XNH3 XNO k3 ¼ 3.0  1012 exp(-251151/RT); k4 ¼ 1.8  108 exp(-113018/RT)
dt dt [27]
R4 Char þ NO/N2þ … d½NO
¼ k5 AE PNO k5 ¼ 4.18  104 exp(-145046/RT)
dt [30]
R5 CHi þ NO/XNþ … d½NO
¼ k6 ½CHi½NO k6 ¼ 2.12  106 T1.54 exp(-27977/RT)þ1.324  1010 T3.33 exp(-15090/RT)
dt [23]
R6 Extended Zeldovich mechanism d½NO
¼ k7 ½N2 ½O2 1=2 k7 ¼ 1.32  1010 T0.5 exp(-65495/T)
dt [23]
R7 Char-N/NO Schar;NO ¼
Schar YN;char Mw;NO
MW;N Vcell [29]
 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310 303

Fig. 5. Flue gas axial velocity distributions in the combustion chamber: (a) velocity field contour; (b) radial distribution of axial velocity at typical cross-sections.

r/d ¼ 0.4e1.7, where x is the axial distance from the burner outlet, r is the radial distance from the centerline of the combustion chamber,
and d is the diameter of primary air pipe at the burner outlet. The recirculation zone reaches maximum at the cross-section of x/d ¼ 0.85,
and then it gradually decreases with the expansion of air jets and the entrainment of surrounding gas. Finally, the recirculation zone
disappears at the cross-section x/d ¼ 3.25. For the low NOx burner, the annular recirculation zone delays the mixing of the primary and
secondary air jets at the early stage of coal combustion and the recirculated hot flue gas quickly heats coal particles. This contributes to
form a region of high gas temperature and low oxygen concentration, which is helpful to rapid ignition of pulverized coal particles and in-
flame NOx reduction.

3.2. Coal particle concentration

Fig. 6 illustrates the distribution of pulverized coal particle concentration when the mixture of primary air and coal particles passes
through the venturi and the pulverized coal concentrator in the primary air pipe. The coal particles tend to move towards the lateral side of
the fuel nozzle at the parallel part of the pulverized coal concentrator. As the result, the pulverized coal particles are concentrated around
the flame stabilizing ring at the outlet of the fuel nozzle. High concentration of pulverized coal particles promotes the rapid ignition and
flame stability. The rapid ignition of pulverized coal just after the fuel nozzle exit can promote a large amount of oxygen consumption and
the NOx reduction zone with deficient oxygen was formed for in-flame NOx reduction.

3.3. Flue gas temperature

Fig. 7 depicts the flue gas temperature field in the combustion chamber. The flue gas temperature is much higher in the annular
recirculation zone than in the central area because the entrainment of high temperature combustion products can quickly preheat coal
particles and enhance particles rapid ignition. Comparing the flue gas temperature field with the gas-solid two-phase flow fields as stated
above, pulverized coal particles are concentrated around the flame stabilizing ring by the pulverized coal concentrator and the coal particles
in the recirculation zone are rapidly ignited to maintain high flame temperature. On the other hand, the baffle plate attached to the flame
304 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310

Fig. 6. Coal particle concentration.

Fig. 7. Flue gas temperature in the combustion chamber.

stabilizing ring magnifies the recirculation region and promotes the mixing of coal particles and hot flue gas. The rapid heating of coal
particles in high temperature recirculation zone enhances coal rapid ignition. The flue gas temperature in the annular recirculation zone is
high at the early stage of coal combustion, and then it is leveled off due to the mixing of the secondary air jets and the entrainment of the
surrounding combustion products.

3.4. Flue gas species concentrations

Fig. 8 illustrates flue gas species concentrations of oxygen and carbon monoxide in the combustion chamber during coal combustion
process. Oxygen in primary air is quickly consumed when coal particles of high concentration is ignited and burned in the annular recir-
culation zone. In the meantime, the oxygen concentration in the core of the primary air jet is high near the burner outlet and it gradually
decreases with coal combustion and flue gas entrainment. The CO concentration in the annular recirculation region is high due to low
oxygen concentration in this area. The large fuel-rich region in the combustion chamber is beneficial to NOx reduction by the evolved
nitrogen intermediates HCN and NH3 and hydrocarbon radicals during the coal devolatilization.

3.5. NOx concentration

Fig. 9 shows the calculated NOx concentration in the combustion chamber. At the early stage of coal combustion, pulverized coal particles
injected into the combustion chamber are quickly heated by the recirculated hot flue gas and rapidly devolatilized to release light hy-
drocarbon mixture and nitrogen intermediates HCN and NH3. The devolatilized species are rapidly ignited to consume oxygen to create a
reducing atmosphere for effective NOx reduction in the region. It demonstrates that the NOx concentration is high near the burner outlet
and decreases dramatically with the reduction of the formed NOx by nitrogen intermediates and hydrocarbon in the fuel-rich region. Then
the secondary air stream gradually mixes into the primary air stream, the NOx concentration at the late stage of coal combustion increases
because of the conversion of partial fuel-N to NOx at the fuel-lean atmosphere with the increasing oxygen concentration.

3.6. Mechanism analysis of flame stability and in-flame NOx reduction in the low NOx burner

It is unclear to some extent why the HT-NR series burners have a unique combustion concept to maintain stable flame stability and low
NOx emission in the public documents although they have been widely applied in coal-firing boilers in the past decade. And the deep
understanding of the combustion design concept and process mechanisms is beneficial for the improvement of the burner performance. The
 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310 305

Fig. 8. Flue gas species concentrations in the combustion chamber: (a) oxygen concentration; (b) CO concentration.

Fig. 9. NOx concentration in the combustion chamber.

profiles of high flue gas temperature, proper oxygen concentration and high pulverized coal concentration after the flame stabilizing ring at
the outlet of the primary air are firstly depicted to elucidate the mechanisms of coal ignition and flame stability and in-flame NOx reduction
in Fig. 10. As mentioned above, pulverized coal particles are concentrated in the annular region after passing through the venturi and the
pulverized coal concentrator in the primary air pipe. The high temperature atmosphere of above 1400 K is also found in the same region of
the hot recirculating flue gas induced by the swirl burner with the flame stabilizing ring and the baffle plate. In this region, high flue gas
temperature, proper oxygen concentration and high pulverized coal concentration promote the rapid pyrolysis and ignition of coal particles,
and make an important contribution to maintain stable flame. The consumption of oxygen is accelerated due to the rapid ignition of coal
particles and a NOx reduction zone with extremely low oxygen concentration is expanded to enhance the in-flame NOx reduction at the
downstream of the burner exit. Therefore, the formed NOx at the early stage of coal combustion process is greatly reduced into nitrogen by
the N-contained intermediates HCN and NH3 and CHi radicals to decrease the NOx emission concentration in the main combustion zone.

3.7. Influences of different stoichiometric ratios in the burner region on NOx emissions

In order to further decrease the NOx emission concentration in the existing coal-fired boiler, numerical optimization on coal combustion
and NOx emission characteristics was conducted with different stoichiometric ratios in the burner region to simulate the effects of air staged
306 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310

Fig. 10. Compared analysis of flue gas temperature, oxygen concentration and coal particle concentration distributions at the burner outlet: (a) schematic of the HT-NR3 burner; (b)
parameters at the cross-section of the burner outlet just after flame stabilizing ring.

combustion. Two over-fired air (OFA) nozzles were oppositely arranged at the cross-section of 8.5 m downstream in the combustion
chamber as shown in Fig. 11. Table 4 illustrates the operation parameters with different burner stoichiometric ratios (SRm) of 0.65, 0.75, 0.95
and 1.18 in the burner region and the overall excessive air coefficient in the chamber is fixed as 1.18 for all simulated cases. The combustion
conditions with SRm ¼1.18, 0.95, 0.75 and 0.65 in the simulated combustion chamber are corresponding to coal combustion process without
air staging, with shallow air staging and with deep air staging in real boiler furnace, respectively.
Fig. 12(a) shows the flue gas temperature distributions along the axial direction of the top primary air outlet at different burner stoi-
chiometric ratios. It can be seen that the flue gas temperature increases dramatically near the burner outlet when coal particles are injected
into the furnace and they burn intensively to release a large amount of heat. Then the flue gas temperature decreases a little when the coal
particle combustion intensity decreases due to lower oxygen concentration in the recirculation zone. The flue gas temperature increases
again with the mixing of the secondary air stream to increase the local oxygen concentration and to promote char particle combustion.
Finally, the flue gas temperature becomes steady with char burnout at the late stage of coal combustion. When the burner stoichiometric
ratio is decreased from 1.18 without air staging to 0.95, 0.75 and 0.65 with different air staging degree, the flue gas temperature gradually
decreases at the main burner zone. And then the flue gas temperatures and the oxygen concentrations increase with the mixing of the
secondary air stream. The flue gas temperature at the location of overfire air (OFA) injection drastically decreases due to the low temperature
of OFA stream. Then the oxygen concentration increases with the OFA injection to promote char particle burnout. The flue gas temperature
after the location of OFA injections increases with char particle combustion, and it gradually becomes steady till char burnout.

Fig. 11. Schematic of the combustion chamber with OFA injections.

 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310 307

Table 4
Operation parameters with different burner stoichiometric ratios in the main combustion region.

Cases 1 2 3 4
Air flow rates (kg/s) Primary air 4.191 4.836 6.125 7.608
Inner secondary air 4.815 5.556 7.038 8.742
Outer secondary air 4.815 5.556 7.038 8.742
OFA stream 11.270 9.144 4.891
e
Air inlet temperatures (K) Primary air 353 353 353 353
Inner secondary air 618 618 618 618
Outer secondary air 618 618 618 618
OFA stream 618 618 618
e
Coal mass flow rate (kg/s) 3.281 3.281 3.281 3.281
e
Burner stoichiometric ratio (SRm) 0.65 0.75 0.95 1.18
e
Total excess air coefficients 1.18 1.18 1.18 1.18
e

Fig. 12 (b) and (c) show the oxygen and CO concentration distributions along the axial direction at different burner stoichiometric ratios.
For SRm ¼ 1.18 without air staging, the oxygen concentration quickly decreases and the CO concentration sharply increases when coal
particles are preheated to release the volatile matter and the volatile matter burns to consume a large amount of oxygen. The oxygen
concentration increases with the mixing of secondary air stream and the CO concentration gradually decreases because CO burns to

2000
OFA-Injection
OFA-Injection SRm=0.65
20 SRm=0.75
1800 SRm=0.95
SRm=1.18
1600 15

1400 SRm=0.65
O2(%)

SRm=0.75
T(K)

SRm=0.95 10
1200
SRm=1.18

1000
5

800

0
600
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
X(m) X(m)

(a) (b)
4000
OFA-Injection SRm=0.65 OFA-Injection SRm=0.65
30
SRm=0.75 3500 SRm=0.75
SRm=0.95 SRm=0.95
25 SRm=1.18 3000 SRm=1.18

20 2500
NOx(ppm)
CO(%)

2000
15

1500
10
1000

5
500

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
X(m) X(m)

(c) (d)
Fig. 12. Flue gas temperature and species concentration distributions along the axial direction of the top primary air outlet at different burner stoichiometric ratios: (a) flue gas
temperature; (b) oxygen concentration; (c) CO concentration; (d) NOx concentration.
308 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310

consume oxygen and to produce CO2 in this area. Then the oxidation of char particle occurs under the combustion condition of high
temperature and low oxygen concentration and the CO concentration increases again. The CO concentration decreases with the residual
combustible gas and char burnout at the late stage of coal combustion. However, the residual CO concentration is high to some extent
because of the weak mixing of secondary air with flue gas. For SRm ¼ 0.95 with shallow air staging, the corresponding oxygen concentration
is lower and the CO concentration is higher than those for SRm ¼ 1.18. The oxygen concentration increases and the CO concentration
drastically deceases to low level with the mixing of OFA injection with flue gas. For SRm ¼ 0.75 and 0.65 with deep air staging, higher velocity
OFA injection enhances the intensive mixing of fresh air with flue gas, which is beneficial for the burnout of unburned combustible gas and
carbon content in fly ash.
Fig. 12 (d) shows the evolution of the NOx concentration along the axial direction at different burner stoichiometric ratios. The NOx
concentration in the main burner zone for shallow air staging with SRm ¼ 0.95 is much lower than that without air staging with
SRm ¼ 1.18 because there are lower oxygen concentration and higher CO concentration in the large annular recirculation zone to enhance
the in-flame NOx reduction by the nitrogen intermediates HCN and NH3 and hydrocarbon radicals. It is also found that the evolution of
NOx concentration with shallow and deep air staging (SRm ¼ 0.65e0.95) is very different from that without air staging (SRm ¼ 1.18). The
NOx concentration with air staging first increases with the conversion of volatile nitrogen to NO at the early stage of coal combustion, and
then it decreases due to the in-flame NOx reduction by the nitrogen intermediates and hydrocarbon radicals in the recirculation zone of
high temperature and low oxygen concentration. Then it increases with the char nitrogen conversion to NOx due to the mixing of
secondary air stream to increase the local oxygen concentration. The NOx concentration after the injection of OFA stream increases again
because higher oxygen concentration promotes char particle combustion to convert the residual char nitrogen to NOx. The NOx con-
centration in the main burner zone for deep air staging with SRm ¼ 0.65 and 0.75 is much lower than that for shallow air staging with
SRm ¼ 0.95. The numerical results quantitatively indicate that the NOx concentration in the combustion chamber can be decreased to
lower level with deep air staging.
Fig. 13 shows the NOx and CO concentrations at the outlet of the combustion chamber for the low NOx burner with different burner
stoichiometric ratios SRm for case 1 to case 4. The averaged NOx concentration at the outlet of the combustion chamber under the
combustion condition without air staging SRm ¼ 1.18 is 1982 ppm. However, the averaged NOx concentration at the outlet of the
combustion chamber is reduced to 989 ppm at SRm ¼ 0.95 corresponding to shadow air staging in the burner zone. It can be further
reduced to 426 ppm at SRm ¼ 0.75 corresponding to deep air staging in the burner zone. It has no obvious effect on NOx emission when
the burner stoichiometric ratio is further decreased to 0.65. It is because the strong fuel-rich reduction atmosphere in the annular
recirculation zone is created when the deep air staging combustion is adopted and it contributes to the reduction of the formed NOx into
nitrogen by N-contained intermediates HCN and NH3 and hydrocarbon radicals. The NOx reduction with the air staged combustion is
more effective when the burner stoichiometric ratio is decreased to 0.75. It is also found that the CO concentration at the outlet of the
combustion chamber is significantly decreased when the burner stoichiometric ratio decreases from 1.18 to 0.75 because the over-fired air
injection of high velocity enhances the mixing of the fresh air with residual combustible gases and unburn carbon in fly ash and promotes
the burnout. This finding shows that it is possible to greatly reduce NOx concentration with deep air staging and to simultaneously
maintain the lower CO concentration by enhancing the intensive mixing of OFA stream with the flue gas to increase the local oxygen
concentration at the late stage of coal combustion. This result is different from the previous results that air staged combustion has a
positive impact on NOx emissions but a negative impact on burnout performance [14e17]. It is noted that the level of CO concentration at
the outlet of the combustion chamber is higher than that in the actual boiler furnace because the length of the simulated combustion
chamber is much shorter than the height of actual boiler furnace. Therefore, it can be concluded that the combined solution of low NOx
burner and deep air staged combustion with SRm ¼ 0.75 in the main combustion zone will significantly reduce the NOx emission
concentration to much lower level without decreasing the boiler efficiency when it is adopted in the retrofitting of the low NOx com-
bustion system in the existing coal-fired boilers.

Fig. 13. Comparison on NOx and CO emission concentrations for different burner stoichiometric ratios: (a) NOx emission concentration; (b) CO emission concentration.
 C. Zhou et al. / Journal of the Energy Institute 92 (2019) 298e310 309

4. Conclusion

The gas-solid two-phase flow, pulverized coal combustion and NOx emission characteristics of a single HT-NR3 type low NOx swirl
burner was simulated with CFD method, and the detailed NOx formation and reduction model under fuel rich conditions was employed to
optimize the NOx emissions for air staged combustion with different burner stoichiometric ratios. The flue gas velocity, temperature, species
concentration fields and coal particle concentration distributions were analyzed to elucidate the mechanisms of flame stability and in-flame
NOx reduction. And the air staged combustion with different stoichiometric ratios in the burner region were numerically simulated to
evaluate their effects on NOx and CO emissions in order to further reduce the NOx concentration in the combustion chamber. The main
conclusions in this work are summarized as follows:

(1) The specially-designed swirl burner structures including the pulverized coal concentrator, flame stabilizing ring and baffle plate created
an ignition region of high gas temperature, proper oxygen concentration and high concentration of pulverized coal particles near the
burner outlet for flame stability.
(2) The large annular recirculation zone was generated between the primary and secondary air jets, and the recirculated hot flue gas in this
region promoted volatile matter release and rapid ignition to form a fuel-rich NOx reduction atmosphere, which can be used to
elucidate the mechanism of in-flame NOx reduction in the swirl burner.
(3) The NOx concentration at the outlet of the combustion chamber was greatly reduced when the deep air staging combustion with the
burner stoichiometric ratio of 0.75 was adopted and the CO concentration could be maintained at a low level through the over-fired air
injection of high velocity to enhance the mixing of the fresh air with the flue gas, which can provide the optimal solution for further
lower NOx emission in the existing coal-fired boiler.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFB0600701, 2016YFB0600702) and
Huaneng Group Science and Technology Project (HNKJ17-G07).

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data related to this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joei.2018.01.006.

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