11-08-2012, 12:18 PM
FBC BOILERS
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Introduction
The major portion of the coal available in India is of low quality, high ash content and low calorific value. The traditional grate fuel firing systems have got limitations and are techno-economically unviable to meet the challenges of future. Fluidized bed combustion has emerged as a viable alternative and has significant advantages over conventional firing system and offers multiple benefits – compact boiler design, fuel flexibility, higher combustion efficiency and reduced emission of noxious pollutants such as SOx and NOx. The fuels burnt in these boilers include coal, washery rejects, rice husk, bagasse & other agricultural wastes. The fluidized bed boilers have a wide capacity range- 0.5 T/hr to over 100 T/hr.
Mechanism of Fluidised Bed Combustion
When an evenly distributed air or gas is passed upward through a finely divided bed of solid particles such as sand supported on a fine mesh, the particles are undisturbed at low velocity. As air velocity is gradually increased, a stage is reached when the individual particles are suspended in the air stream – the bed is called “fluidized”.
With further increase in air velocity, there is bubble formation, vigorous turbulence, rapid mixing and formation of dense defined bed surface. The bed of solid particles exhibits the properties of a boiling liquid and assumes the appearance of a fluid – “bubbling fluidized bed”.
At higher velocities, bubbles disappear, and particles are blown out of the bed. Therefore, some amounts of particles have to be recirculated to maintain a stable system – “circulating fluidised bed”.
This principle of fluidisation is illustrated in Figure 6.1.
Fluidization depends largely on the particle size and the air velocity. The mean solids velocity increases at a slower rate than does the gas velocity, as illustrated in Figure 6.2. The difference between the mean solid velocity and mean gas velocity is called as slip velocity. Maximum slip velocity between the solids and the gas is desirable for good heat transfer and intimate contact.
If sand particles in a fluidized state is heated to the ignition temperatures of coal, and coal is injected continuously into the bed, the coal will burn rapidly and bed attains a uniform temperature. The fluidized bed combustion (FBC) takes place at about 840OC to 950OC. Since this temperature is much below the ash fusion temperature, melting of ash and associated problems are avoided.
The lower combustion temperature is achieved because of high coefficient of heat transfer due to rapid mixing in the fluidized bed and effective extraction of heat from the bed through in-bed heat transfer tubes and walls of the bed. The gas velocity is maintained between minimum fluidisation velocity and particle entrainment velocity. This ensures stable operation of the bed and avoids particle entrainment in the gas stream.
Types of Fluidised Bed Combustion Boilers
There are three basic types of fluidised bed combustion boilers:
1. Atmospheric classic Fluidised Bed Combustion System (AFBC)
2. Atmospheric circulating (fast) Fluidised Bed Combustion system(CFBC)
Pressurised Fluidised Bed Combustion System (PFBC).
AFBC / Bubbling Bed
In AFBC, coal is crushed to a size of 1 – 10 mm depending on the rank of coal, type of fuel feed and fed into the combustion chamber. The atmospheric air, which acts as both the fluidization air and combustion air, is delivered at a pressure and flows through the bed after being preheated by the exhaust flue gases. The velocity of fluidising air is in the range of 1.2 to 3.7 m /sec. The rate at which air is blown through the bed determines the amount of fuel that can be reacted.
Almost all AFBC/ bubbling bed boilers use in-bed evaporator tubes in the bed of limestone, sand and fuel for extracting the heat from the bed to maintain the bed temperature. The bed depth is usually 0.9 m to 1.5 m deep and the pressure drop averages about 1 inch of water per inch of bed depth. Very little material leaves the bubbling bed – only about 2 to 4 kg of solids are recycled per ton of fuel burned.
Air Distributor
The purpose of the distributor is to introduce the fluidizing air evenly through the bed cross section thereby keeping the solid particles in constant motion, and preventing the formation of defluidization zones within the bed. The distributor, which forms the furnace floor, is normally constructed from metal plate with a number of perforations in a definite geometric pattern. The perforations may be located in simple nozzles or nozzles with bubble caps, which serve to prevent solid particles from flowing back into the space below the distributor.
Bed & In-Bed Heat Transfer Surface:
Bed
The bed material can be sand, ash, crushed refractory or limestone, with an average size of about 1 mm. Depending on the bed height these are of two types: shallow bed and deep bed.
At the same fluidizing velocity, the two ends fluidise differently, thus affecting the heat transfer to an immersed heat transfer surfaces. A shallow bed offers a lower bed resistance and hence a lower pressure drop and lower fan power consumption. In the case of deep bed, the pressure drop is more and this increases the effective gas velocity and also the fan power.
in-Bed Heat Transfer Surface
In a fluidized in-bed heat transfer process, it is necessary to transfer heat between the bed material and an immersed surface, which could be that of a tube bundle, or a coil. The heat exchanger orientation can be horizontal, vertical or inclined. From a pressure drop point of view, a horizontal bundle in a shallow bed is more attractive than a vertical bundle in a deep bed. Also, the heat transfer in the bed depends on number of parameters like (i) bed pressure (ii) bed temperature (iii) superficial gas velocity (iv) particle size (v) Heat exchanger design and (vi) gas distributor plate design.