ملخص البحث :

This paper presents a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling study to investigate Victorian brown coal combustion in a 550 MW utility boiler under the air-fired (standard) and three oxy-fuel-fired cases. The standard case was modelled based on the real operating conditions of Loy Yang A power plant located in the state of Victoria, Australia. A level of confidence of the present CFD model was achieved validating four parameters of the standard combustion case, as well as the previous preliminary CFD studies which were conducted on a lab-scale (100 kW) unit firing lignite and propane under oxy-fuel-fired scenarios. The oxy-fuel combustion cases are known as OF25 (25vol. % O2 concentration), OF27 (27vol. % O2 concentration), and OF29 (29vol. % O2 concentration). The predictions of OF29 combustion case were considerably similar to the standard firing results in terms of gas temperature levels and radiative heat transfer compared with OF25 and OF27 combustion scenarios. This similarity was because of increasing the residence time of pulverised coal (PC) in the combustion zone and O2 concentration in feed oxidizer gases. Furthermore, a significant increase in the CO2 concentrations and a noticeable decrease in the nitric oxides (NOx) formation were noted under all oxy-fuel combustion conditions. This numerical study of oxy-fuel combustion in a full-scale tangentially-fired PC boiler is important prior to its execution in real-life power plants.

ملخص البحث :

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the pyrolysis of a Loy Yang low-rank coal in a pressurised drop tube furnace (pdtf) was undertaken evaluating Arrhenius reaction rate constants. The paper also presents predictions of an isothermal flow through the drop tube furnace. In this study, a pdtf reactor operated at pressures up to 15 bar and at a temperature of 1,173 K with particle heating rates of approximately 105 K s−1 was used. The CFD model consists of two geometrical sections; flow straightner and injector. The single reaction and two competing reaction models were employed for this numerical investigation of the pyrolysis process. The results are validated against the available experimental data in terms of velocity profiles for the drop tube furnace and the particle mass loss versus particle residence times. The isothermal flow results showed reasonable agreement with the available experimental data at different locations from the injector tip. The predicted results of both the single reaction and competing reaction modes showed slightly different results. In addition, several reaction rate constants were tested and validated against the available experimental data. The most accurate results were being Badzioch and Hawksley (Ind Eng Chem Process Des Dev 9:521–530, 1970) with a single reaction model and Ubhayakar et al. (Symp (Int) Combust 16:427–436, 1977) for two competing reactions. These numerical results can provide useful information towards future modelling of the behaviour of Loy Yang coal in a full scale tangentially-fired furnace.