Applied Thermal Engineering 36 (2012) 464e471

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Applied Thermal Engineering

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

Development on a small scale industrial CFB boiler with an evaporating loop seal
Xuanyu Ji, Xiaofeng Lu*, Xiaolei Xue, Honghao He, Quanhai Wang, Jianbo Li
Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems (Chongqing University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400044, PR China

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

Article history: Most of the small scale industrial CFB (SICFB) boilers in China work at low operating pressure. Compared
Received 30 March 2011 with the big scale CFB boiler in power plant, the heat ratio of water evaporation is higher in the SICFB
Accepted 30 October 2011 boiler. Consequently, evaporating submerged tubes are always installed in the furnace emulsion zone in
Available online 11 November 2011
order to avoid overheating of flue gas at the furnace outlet. The boiler metal consumption could also be
reduced because of the higher heat transfer coefficient of submerged tubes. But serious erosions are
Keywords:
brought to the submerged tubes as the furnace emulsion zone always works at turbulent fluidized bed
CFB boiler
state with higher fluidization velocity. In the study, for alleviating the erosion to the submerged tubes, all
Submerged tubes
Loop seal
the evaporating submerged tubes are set in the loop seal instead of in the furnace emulsion zone, and the
Industrial application loop seal is enlarged accordingly to be an evaporating loop seal (ELS). An 11t/h SICFB boiler with an ELS
Operating characteristics has been put into industrial application, the design consideration and operating characteristics of the
boiler are systematically discussed in the paper.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction submerged tubes as the furnace emulsion zone always works at

In the field of clean coal combustion technologies, Circulating
Fluidized Bed (CFB) combustion technology is the only one which
has been put into commercial and large-scale application [1e4].
Since the first CFB utility boiler was imported into China in 1980s,
the CFB combustion technology has been greatly developed and
about forty 300 MWe CFB boilers are being manufactured or
operated currently [5e8]. Being the major energy resource in China,
the consumption ratio of coal to the total energy resource is more
than 70%. As a result, the total number and capacity of CFB coal-
fired boilers in China have exceed those of any other country in
the word [9,10]. In the recent years, for meeting the requirement of
burning inferior fuels and reducing pollutant emission, several
types of small scale industrial CFB (SICFB) coal-fired boilers were
developed such as the Three Vortex Inner-Separation CFB Boiler
[11], the CFB boiler with downward exhaust gas cyclone [12], the
high, low mixed flow speed circulating fluidized bed boiler [13] and
the circulating double fluidized bed boiler [14]. Since the heat ratio
of water evaporation is higher in the SICFB boiler with low oper-
ating pressure, evaporating submerged tubes are always installed
in the furnace emulsion zone in order to avoid overheating of flue
gas at the furnace outlet. The boiler metal consumption could also
be reduced because of the higher heat transfer coefficient of
submerged tubes. But serious erosions are brought to the
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ86 23 65102475.
E-mail address: xfluke@cqu.edu.cn (X. Lu).
turbulent fluidized bed state with higher fluidization velocity. On
the other hand, the furnace height of a SICFB boiler is limited, the
combustion time of coal in the furnace isn’t enough, thus the
carbon content of solids at the furnace outlet is relative higher.
There would be considerable combustion fraction existent in the
external circulation loop and the possibilities of overheating and
slagging in the external circulation loop increase accordingly.
In order to solve the problems above, an arrangement scheme is
put forward: all the evaporating submerged tubes are set in the
loop seal instead of in the furnace emulsion zone, and the loop seal
is appropriately enlarged to be an evaporating loop seal (ELS). As
illustrated in Fig. 1, a conventional recycle pipe could be employed
to connect the furnace and the ELS, and a compacter system could
also be obtained by sharing the furnace back wall. Different with
the external heat exchanger employed in CFB utility boiler, the ELS
recycles all the circulating solids to the furnace without solids
distribution; only evaporating submerged tubes are installed in the
ELS which could be employed as a setup for burning out the carbon
in circulating solids. Because the ELS works at bubbling fluidized
bed state with lower fluidization velocity, the erosion to the
submerged tubes could be alleviated accordingly. The relative
larger size of ELS is effective on increasing the combustion time of
carbon and the evaporating submerged tubes is also helpful to
prevent the external circulation loop from overheating. An 11t/h
SICFB boiler with an ELS has been put into industrial application,
the design consideration and operating characteristics of the boiler
are systematically discussed in the paper.

1359-4311/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2011.10.065
 X. Ji et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 36 (2012) 464e471
Furnace Cyclone
outlet
Standpipe
Recycle
pipe
Submerged
ELS tubes
Furnace
bottom ELS inlet
(on the sidewall)
employing the recycle pipe
Fig. 1. The connection between the furnace and the ELS.
2. Design and manufacture of an 11t/h CFB coal-fired boiler
with an ELS
2.1. Design consideration
Because all the circulating solids return the furnace via the ELS,
the temperature at furnace bottom isn’t able to be controlled by
regulating the mass flow of cooled circulating solids as in the CFB
utility boiler with external heat exchangers. Therefore the
submerged tubes area needs to meet the heat balance in the
furnace emulsion zone, and keep the temperature at furnace
bottom reasonable at 850 w 950  C. Meanwhile, the total area of
submerged tubes and water walls also needs to meet the heat
balance of the whole circulation loop and keep the temperature at
cyclone outlet reasonable. Generally speaking, the heating surfaces
arrangement should match the combustion characteristics of the
circulation loop well for avoiding local overheating.
The size of ELS is mainly determined by its heat load and
combustion fraction. When the submerged tubes area is deter-
mined, the ELS volume could be confirmed accordingly. Two
schemes on the ELS configuration could be adopted as follows. In
scheme 1, ELS with smaller cross-sectional area and higher vertical
height is employed; And in scheme 2, contrary to the former, ELS
with larger cross-sectional area and lower vertical height is
employed. Since the fluidization velocity in the ELS is almost
constant, the effect of fluidizing air in the ELS on the combustion
status in furnace could be limited by adopting scheme 1, but the
standpipe height is difficult to be ensured at the same time.
Adopting scheme 2 is able to ensure the standpipe height, but the
ELS is more similar to a L-valve and its sealing performance
decreases [15]. Meanwhile, the higher flow of fluidizing air in the
ELS would affect the combustion status in the furnace remarkably.
In the study, scheme 1 is adopted for ensuring the ELS sealing
performance. The partition in the ELS is abolished and flexible air
on the standpipe is employed to reduce the solids flow resistance in
the ELS. Hence the solids height in the standpipe could be reduce
accordingly and shorter standpipe is also available.
Limited by the furnace height, the fuel burnout rate in the
furnace is lower. So more circulating solids with unburned carbon
are expected to be collected. The cyclone thus needs to be opti-
mized for increasing its efficiency. Several effective methods could
be employed as follows: 1. Gradient inlet duct of the cyclone is
employed, and the gas enters the cyclone tangentially at the speed
465
Furnace Cyclone
outlet
Standpipe
Recycle
wall
Submerged
ELS tubes
Furnace
bottom ELS inlet
(on the sidewall)
sharing the backwall of the furnace
of 25 m/s [16]; 2. The insertion depth of vent-pipe is 0.4 w 0.5 times
to the height of inlet duct [17]; 3. Bottom-contracted and edge-
sloped vent-pipe is employed, and the vent-pipe is offset to the
cyclone center [18,19].
2.2. Introduction of the boiler
An 11t/h CFB coal-fired boiler with an ELS has been put into
operation (Fig. 2). The design specification of the boiler is listed in
Table 1. Bituminous coal and charcoal are utilized as main fuel and
ignition fuel respectively, the fuels components are shown is
Table 2. Conventional refractory and thermal insulation materials
are utilized for manufacturing the furnace emulsion zone
which is an adiabatic combustion zone, while the furnace dilution
zone is surrounded by water walls. All the submerged tubes
(451 mm  5 mm) are installed in the ELS with 15 horizontal
angle. Two drums including a steam drum and a water drum are
employed in the boiler. Convection banks are installed between the
two drums to increase the area of evaporating surfaces.
The steamewater system flowchart is illustrated in Fig. 3.
The feed water enter the low-temperature economizer made of
cast iron before thermal de-aeration, and then flow into the
steam drum via the high-temperature economizer. The working
fluid in the submerged tubes are supplied by the water drum,
heated in the ELS and then flow into the back water wall of the
furnace. All the working fluid return back to the steam drum
finally after absorbing heat in the water walls. Two screw feeders
are employed and installed at the furnace front wall side. The
fluidizing air and secondary air in the furnace are both provided
by a centrifugal blower, while the fluidizing air in the ELS is
supplied by a Roots blower. The on-line control and parameters
acquisition of the boiler are realized by an industrial control
console.
3. Investigation on the boiler operating characteristics
3.1. Ignition
Because the furnace emulsion zone is an adiabatic combustion
zone, only 10 kgs charcoal are consumed in ignition process. The
main fuel could be fed into the furnace earlier as the temperature at
furnace bottom Tfb rise quickly at the beginning (Fig. 4). The ELS is
put into operation when Tfb reaches 800  C. Cooled in the ELS by the
466 X. Ji et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 36 (2012) 464e471

Steam
Convection
drum
bank of tubes
S2

S1

Waterwalls Cyclone High-temperature

economizer
Water
drum

Standpipe

Low-temperature
economizer

Furnace
S4 S3
ELS
Submerged Tubes

ELS inlet
To induced draft fan
Fluidizing air
Fluidizing air

S1 Sampling point at furnace outlet S2 Sampling point at cyclone outlet

S3 Sampling point at ELS inlet (standpipe bottom) S4 Sampling point at ELS outlet

Fig. 2. Sketch of an 11t/h industrial CFB boiler with an ELS.

submerged tubes, the circulating solids restrain the temperature 3.2. Combustion characteristics of the circulation loop
rise at furnace bottom, and keeps Tfb at around 950  C finally. As
shown in Fig. 5, because the initial inventory in the ELS is much In order to investigate the combustion characteristics of the
considerable and the mass flow of circulating solids is lower, the circulation loop, a custom-made device (Fig. 6) is employed for
temperature at ELS outlet (Teo) is almost constant in the early stage sampling the gas and solids at representative locations in the
of ignition process. With the increase of circulating solids mass circulation loop. The sampling probe is made of stainless steel as
flow, the Teo increases obviously, especially after the average the shell and corundum as the inside lining. The particle size
temperature in the ELS exceeding the coal ignition point at around distributions and carbon contents of the solids samples could be
600  C. Under the cooling effect of submerged tubes, Teo could be analyzed by conventional methods, while the gas components are
kept at around 770  C finally. analyzed by a “MGA5” infrared gas analyzer.
It’s also found in the temperature variation curves that when the The relationships between the concentrations of O2/CO at three
temperature at furnace bottom is almost unchanged, the temper- representative positions and the boiler load are shown in Figs. 7
ature at ELS outlet still increases continuously and the difference and 8. With the increase of boiler load, the feed coal mass and
between Teo and Tfb decreases accordingly. However, because the fluidizing/secondary air flow in the furnace both increase. Limited
flows of circulating solids and fluidizing air both increase in the by the furnace height, the combustion time of coal in the furnace is
ignition process, the furnace emulsion zone could be prevented inadequate. Consequently, the concentrations of O2 and CO at the
from overheating at higher Teo. furnace outlet both increase with the boiler load. Compared the gas
component at furnace outlet with that at cyclone outlet, it is found
that the concentrations of O2 and CO at the cyclone outlet are both
Table 1 lower than those at furnace outlet, with the differences of 1% w 2%
Design specification of an 11t/h industrial CFB boiler with an ELS. and 300 w 500 ppm respectively. The phenomena proves
Items Values combustion existent in the cyclone. Since only 0.5 mol O2 would be
consumed for burning out 1 mol CO, the O2 consumption for
Main steam flow 11t/h
Main steam pressure 1.27 MPa
Main steam temperature 194  C
Exhaust gas temperature 162  C Table 2
Low heat value of feed coal 15.2 MJ/kg Proximate and ultimate analysis of fuels.
Boiler total height (from the furnace air distributor 8.8 m
to the center line of the steam drum) Ultimate analysis Proximate analysis Proximate analysis
Boiler total length (from the furnace front wall to 9.6 m of coal of coal of charcoal
the rear wall of back-end ductwork) Car 39.98% Mar 6.5% Mar 3.2%
Boiler total width (from furnace left wall to right wall) 2.5 m Har 1.72% Aar 45.4% Aar 2.3%
The furnace cross-sectional area 1.92 m2 Oar 2.24% Vdaf 16.7% Vdaf 11.6%
The effective area of furnace air distributor 0.70 m2 Nar 0.75% Qnet 15.2 MJ/kg Qnet 31.7 MJ/kg
The effective area of ELS air distributor 1.92 m2 Sar 3.39%
 X. Ji et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 36 (2012) 464e471 467

to user

high-temperature steam waterwalls

economizer drum (front/side)

thermal water
deaerator drum

feed
water low-temperature submerged waterwall
economizer tubes in ELS (back)

Fig. 3. Steamewater system flowchart.

burning out CO in the cyclone is less than 0.025%. Therefore it could

be concluded that most of the O2 consumption in the cyclone is
caused by the burnout of char particles. Meanwhile, the O2
concentrations at ELS outlet are always less than 21%. It also proves
that char particles are combusted in the ELS. The measurement
results indicate that with the increase of boiler load, the concen-
trations of O2 and CO at the ELS outlet decreases and increases
respectively. It is because the mass flow of circulating solids
increases with the boiler load, while the fluidizing air flow in the
ELS is kept constant. As a result, the mass flow ratio of char particles
to oxygen in the ELS increases with the boiler load, hence the O2
consumption and CO production both increase accordingly.
Because the ELS is operated at bubbling bed state, the mass transfer
resistance between the bubble phase and the emulsion phase is
relative smaller [16,20]. Additionally, the fluidizing air flow as well
as the O2 flow in the enlarged ELS are relative higher, thus the CO in
the ELS would be easily translated into CO2 via further oxidation
[21]. As a result, the CO concentrations at ELS outlet are always kept
less than 500 ppm. It is concluded that most of the consumed char
particles in the ELS are burned out into CO2.
For investigating the combustion fractions distribution along
the circulation loop, oxygen consumption fractions are introduced
in equations (1)e(3). Since the combustions existent in cyclone
and ELS are mainly come from the burnout of char particles, while
the volatile content of coal is relative lower, the oxygen
consumption fractions distribution in the circulation loop would
be almost accordant with the combustion fractions distribution.
Fig. 5. Temperature variation curve at the ELS outlet during the ignition process.
Thus the oxygen consumption fractions are employed to reflect
the combustion fractions approximately in the study. Several
assumptions are put forward as follows: 1. The volatile of coal are
burned out in the furnace; 2. All the fluidizing air in the ELS return
to the furnace via the recycle pipe, the air flow in the standpipe are
ignored; 3. In the circulation loop, the changes of flue gas standard
volume are ignored.
In the following equations, Rels, Rcyc and Rfur are the oxygen
consumption fractions in the ELS, cyclone and furnace respectively,
while Ofo, Oco and Oeo represent the O2 concentrations at the outlets
of furnace, cyclone and ELS respectively. The flow ratio of air in the
whole circulation loop to fluidizing air in the ELS is represented by
b. For keeping the fast fluidized bed state in the furnace, higher
fluidization velocity is required even at lower boiler load.
sealing material stainless steal tube

corundum tube
probe

cyclone
filter

vacuum
pump

particles
collector

gas analyzer

Fig. 4. Temperature variation curve at the furnace bottom during the ignition process. Fig. 6. Gas and particles sampling apparatus.
468 X. Ji et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 36 (2012) 464e471

Fig. 7. The relationship between O2 concentration distribution and boiler load.

Fig. 9. Variation curve of b with boiler load.

Consequently, b could not change proportionally with the boiler
load as shown in Fig. 9.
Rels ¼ ð21  Oeo Þ=½ð21  Oco Þ*b

.
Rcyc ¼ Ofo  Oco ð21  Oco Þ
Rfur ¼ 1  Rels  Rcyc
The variations of oxygen consumption fractions in the external
circulation loop are illustrated in Fig. 10. Rels increases obviously
with the boiler load, while Rcyc decreases. Since the fluidizing air
flow in the ELS is almost constant, Rels could not increase propor-
tionally with the boiler load. At full load, Rcyc and Rels reach 6.4% and
6.9% respectively. It is also found that with the increase of boiler
load, the total oxygen consumption fraction (RcycþRels) changes
smoothly from 11.5% to 13.3%. The results indicate that the total
combustion fraction in the external circulation loop is considerable.
Therefore, for matching the higher combustion fractions in the
external circulation loop, especially in the ELS, the submerged
tubes should not be simply displaced from the furnace emulsion
zone to the ELS, the area of the submerged tubes also needs to be
(1)
increased. It is concluded in the previous studies that in a typical
CFB boiler, the combustion fraction of furnace emulsion zone is less
(2) than 50% at full load [16,21]. As a result, compared with the area of
submerged tubes installed in a conventional CFB boiler with the
same parameters, ignoring the difference of heat transfer coeffi-
(3)
cients between furnace bottom and ELS, the area of submerged
tubes here should be increased by 14% at least. The area of water
walls here could be reduced accordingly, thus the metal
consumption and furnace cross-sectional area of the boiler are able
to be reduced.
3.3. Calculation method of circulating solids mass flow based on the
carbon balance in the ELS
After the boiler being operated at full load for 3 h, the particle
size distribution and carbon content of the circulating solids in any

Fig. 8. The relationship between CO concentration distribution and boiler load. Fig. 10. The O2 consumption fractions of cyclone and ELS at different loads.
 X. Ji et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 36 (2012) 464e471
regions would be constant. The circulating solids are sampled at the
furnace outlet, the inlet and outlet of the ELS. The particle size
distribution of the samples are analyzed by employing standard
sieves (sieve pore diameter (um): 63, 75, 90, 150, 210, 300), while
the carbon content of each group of solids is measured individually.
The results indicate that the sizes of circulating solids are concen-
trated in the range of 75 um w 300 um (Fig. 11). The particles with
diameters below 75um at the furnace outlet could not be collected
by the cyclone effectively and turn into fly ash finally. As a result,
the mass fraction of fine particles at ELS inlet is much lower than
that at furnace outlet. Because of the solids combustion and erosion
in the ELS, the average size of particles at the ELS outlet is smaller
than that at the ELS inlet, and the mass fraction of fine particles
increases.
Among the groups of solids at furnace outlet, the solids with
minimum average diameter (31.5 um) hold the highest carbon
content as shown in Fig. 12. It is because the fuel combustion time
in the lower furnace is inadequate; additionally the fine particles
are difficult to be collected by the cyclone for circulating combus-
tion. Meanwhile, the carbon content of fine particles at ELS outlet
decreases obviously because the solids combustion and erosion in
the ELS result in lower carbon content of solids and more fine
particles. In all the groups of circulating solids with different
average diameters (82.5umw255um), the carbon contents are
much lower because the circulating solids have been combusted
repeatedly in the furnace. In addition, since the circulating solids
with smaller particles size could be combusted more completely,
the group of circulating solids with smaller average diameter holds
lower carbon content.
At the present, it is also difficult to measure the mass flow of
circulating solids directly [22e24]. For the SICFB boiler with ELS,
since considerable combustion exists in the ELS, the circulating
solids mass flow is able to be calculated based on the carbon
balance in the ELS. In equation (4), Mcir is the mass flow of the
circulating solids; Vels is the fluidizing air flow in the ELS; Cei and Ceo
represent the carbon contents at ELS inlet and outlet respectively;
COeo and CO2eo represent the concentrations of CO and CO2 at ELS
outlet respectively. Considering the oxygen balance in the ELS
(equation (5)), Mcir could also be calculated in equation (6).
Mcir ðCei  Ceo Þ=12 ¼ Vels ðCOeo þ CO2eo Þ=22:4
0:5COeo þ CO2eo ¼ 21  Oeo
Fig. 11. Particle size distributions at full load.
469
Fig. 12. Carbon content distributions of particles at full load.
Mcir ðCei  Ceo Þ=12 ¼ Vels ð21  Oeo þ 0:5COeo Þ=22:4 (6)
In the SICFB boiler with ELS, the ratio of fluidizing air flow in the
ELS to the total air flow in the circulation loop could reach17.5% at
full load, which is much higher than that in a conventional CFB
boiler [19]. So the CO concentration at ELS outlet is much lower
accordingly. The measurement results indicate that the CO
concentration at ELS outlet is less than 500 ppm at full load, and the
Vels is a constant with the value of 1800 Nm3/h. Consequently, the
equation (6) could be simplified into equation (7) by ignoring the
item of COeo
Mcir ¼ Vels ð21  Oeo Þ=1:87ðCei  Ceo Þ (7)
At full load, Cei and Ceo are equal to 1.49% and 1.25% respectively.
The corresponding Mcir is calculated to be 23.83t/h, and the circu-
lation ratio k is equal to 10.32. The separator efficiency h could be
calculated by employing equation (8), in which the Aar and af
represent the ash content in fuel as-received basis (Aar ¼ 45.42) and
(4) the mass ratio of carbon-free fly ash to total feeding ash (af ¼ 0.57)
respectively. The separator efficiency h is hence calculated to be
(5) 97.56% at full load.


h ¼ k= k þ vf  Aar =100 (8)
3.4. Relationship between the temperature distribution in
circulation loop and the boiler load
The temperature distribution in the circulation loop is affected
significantly by the combustion characteristics of the circulation
loop. As shown in Fig. 13, the temperatures at furnace bottom,
furnace outlet, cyclone outlet and ELS outlet all increase with the
boiler load, and the temperature at ELS outlet Teo increases much
more obviously. As analyzed above, with the increase of boiler load,
the combustion fractions of cyclone and ELS decreases and
increases respectively. Meanwhile more fuel would be combusted
in the furnace dilution zone with the air flow increase in the
furnace, the combustion fraction of the furnace dilution zone thus
increases. As a result, the temperatures different between the
furnace bottom and outlet (Tfb  Tfo), as well as the temperature rise
in the cyclone (Tco  Tfo) decreases accordingly. In conclusion, the
temperature distribution in the circulation loop becomes more
uniform with the increase of boiler load.
470 X. Ji et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 36 (2012) 464e471
Fig. 13. Temperature distributions in the circulation loop at different loads.
The mass flow of circulating solids is less at low load, while the
initial inventory in the ELS would result in considerable thermal
inertia of the ELS. On the other hand, the fluidizing air flow in the
ELS is constant, but the mass flows of circulating solids in the ELS
and working fluid in the submerged tubes both increase with the
boiler load. Consequently, the rise rate of Teo at low load and high
load are both limited. The highest rise rate of Teo exists within the
load range of 50% w 70%. It is also found that Teo is only 150  C at
low load (30%), even lower than the saturation temperature of
working fluid in the submerged tubes. The solids in the ELS are thus
heated by the submerged tubes instead of being cooled. This
characteristic is beneficial to ensure Tfb at low load. Meanwhile, the
saturation ratio of working fluid in submerged tubes decreases
accordingly. As a result, the boiler is able to be operated steadily at
low load.
3.5. Boiler operation status at full load
The operating parameters of the boiler at full load are listed in
Table 3. The boiler combustion efficiency hc, as well as the heat
losses of the chemical incomplete combustion q3 and the
mechanical incomplete combustion q4 could be calculated by
employing equations (9)e(11).
hc ¼ 100  ðq3 þ q4 Þ
Table 3
Boiler operating parameters at full load.
Items
Main steam flow
Main steam pressure
Main steam temperature
Exhaust gas temperature
Coal consumption rate
Mass ratio of carbon-free bottom ash to total feeding ash
Mass ratio of carbon-free fly ash to total feeding ash
Carbon content in bottom ash
Carbon content in fly ash
O2 content in the dry exhaust gas
CO content in the dry exhaust gas
H2 and CH4 content in the dry exhaust gas
RO2 content in the dry exhaust gas
Heat loss of the mechanical incomplete combustion
Heat loss of the chemical incomplete combustion
Combustion efficiency
q3 ¼ ðCar þ 0:375Sar Þ=Qnet  236CO=ðRO2 þ COÞ  ð100  q4 Þ
(10)
h
 i
q4 ¼ 32700Aar =Qnet  vf Cf = 100  Cf þ vb Cb =ð100  Cb Þ
(11)
The results indicate that q3 is very low and q4 is much higher
which reaches 10.94% at full load. Because the carbon content and
mass fraction of the fly ash are both higher than those of the bottom
ash, q4 as well as hc is mainly affected by the properties of fly ash.
Improving the separator efficiency and employing fly ash recircu-
lation are able to reduce the mass flow and carbon content of the fly
ash, hence the boiler combustion efficiency hc could be further
improved accordingly. The submerged tubes in the ELS operate well
without rupture in 18 months. It proves that the arrangement is
effective on alleviating the erosion to the submerged tubes and
increasing the boiler operating reliability.
4. Conclusion
1. An 11t/h SICFB boiler with ELS has been put into operation
successfully. Its operating performance could meet the
requirement of industrial application. The practice proves
that the arrangement is effective on alleviating the erosion to
the submerged tubes and increasing the boiler operating
reliability.
2. Coal combustion exists in the whole circulation loop. The
combustion fractions of cyclone and ELS decreases and
increases respectively with the increase of boiler load, while
the total combustion fraction of the external circulation loop
increases smoothly. The circulating solids mass flow and the
separator efficiency are both able to be calculated based on the
carbon balance in the ELS. The submerged tubes should not be
simply displaced from the furnace emulsion zone to the ELS,
the total area of the submerged tubes needs to be increased for
matching the higher combustion fraction in the external
circulation loop.
3. With the increase of boil load, the temperatures along the
whole circulation loop increase and the temperature distribu-
tion becomes more uniform. The circulating solids in the ELS
would be heated by the submerged tubes instead of being
cooled at low load. Thus the boiler is able to be operated
steadily at low load.
(9) 4. The heat loss of chemical incomplete combustion, as well as the
carbon content of the bottom ash is lower. The boiler
combustion efficiency is mainly affected by the higher mass
flow and carbon content of the fly ash. In the further works, the
boiler combustion efficiency would be improved by improving
the separator efficiency and employing fly ash recirculation.
Values
11.17t/h Acknowledgment
1.27 MPa
193.6  C
Authors wish to acknowledge the financial contributions from
171.2  C
2.31t/h Chongqing Science & Technology Commission (No. 2011BA4068)
42.8% and Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher
57.2% Education , Ministry of Education of China (No. 20100191120017).
2.46%
15.03%
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