Snowbird JR M

Mooney Session 4 Coal Blending
Fuel Quality Conference 2006 page 1-1

Coal Blending for Operational Excellence
James R. Mooney
45 Saint Andrews Drive
Beaver Falls, Pa 15010

ABSTRACT
This paper will review the experiences of the author during and following the
installation of a Digital Fuel Tracking System (DFTS), supporting initiatives to reduce
fuel cost by blending of opportunity fuels, increasing fuel flexibility, and as experience
was gained to address issues with auxiliary equipment that went far beyond the original
expectations for operating with precision. Digital Fuel Tracking is not artificial
intelligence; instead it is a system of compiling all available information from existing
manual records and various software systems installed, making it accessible to plant fuel
handling, operations, and engineers. These people use the information to solve problems
in pursuit of lower fuel costs and higher plant capacity factors.
Operational excellence targets top decile capacity factors (+84%
capacity factor for base load units)
Fuel Flexibility is a program of purchasing least cost BTUs to
accomplish a plants mission
Attempting to meet increased output while simultaneously pursuing lower cost
BTUs or fuels of opportunity require accuracy in fuel blending to accomplish the plant
mission. The increased complexity of power plants through the addition of FGD, SCR,
and waste disposal systems require the fuel recipes be as accurate as possible.

Keywords: Fuel, flexibility, operational, excellence, digital, tracking

I. Introduction

The Digital Fuel Tracking System (DFTS) brought together information from:
Corporate Fuel Management System (accounting system used to
purchase, track and pay for fuel)
Yard Handling manual records
OSI Pi Software inputs from field measurement devices
Through fuel testing in 1997 the plant was keenly aware of the influence
coal quality was having on plant performance since at least one unit would experience a
forced outage each year due to slag falling and creating tube leaks. A fuel calculator
(figure 1) was developed at the plant and modified with predictions for slag based on fuel
characterization investigations into an incident of slag falling in 2000. Elimination of
these incidents was a top priority, and controlling the blends of coal, quickly changing
when necessary, was the solution for this particular problem.
With experience at tracking the coal quality it was found many other derating
occurrences of the plant were fuel related and by knowing the coal quality currently
burned it was possible to recognize negative conditions and create a positive outcome
through changing the fuel quality. In 2004, the Mansfield Plant achieved top decile
performance. First Energy Baseload units capacity factors reportedly averaged 69%
from 00-02, and 04-05 were 85%, with Mansfield at 97.5% CF through the first half of
2005.


II. DISCUSSION

In the 1990s significant changes in preparation for the onslaught of deregulation
were descending on the plant. A number of initiatives were developed to position the
company for the future deregulated environment; two of these were developed in
different areas of the corporation, results dependant on capability to perform. Initiative
one was Fuel Flexibility, deemed important to my plants going forward cost because the
long term contract price for coal was significantly above the depressed spot market coal.
An opportunity existed to buy over 2.0 million tons of higher ash, lower BTU coal, if the
plant could successfully burn it.
The second initiative was to Operate with Precision. In 1997 I was offered the challenge
to first look at various ways to reduce the going forward fuel and lime costs at the plant.
It was after accepting this position I became aware of the second initiative to operate with
precision, defined as being available for full load, eliminating operator errors, improving
Forced Outage Rates and eliminating environmental excursions, spills etc.
Experimenting with changing coal did not seem like a particularly good idea in light of
the Operate with Precision challenges, but it helped justify the installation of the Digital
Fuel Tracking System.

In 1997 almost all of the coal delivered to the plant was by 1500 ton river barges,
under one contract. This long term contract ran from 1980, and was to expire or be
renegotiated by end of 1999. The quality was on a monthly average basis, with premiums

paid for better than average quality, and penalties should the quality be worse than
specified up to a maximum or reject level for BTU/Ash/Sulfur.
In reality the coal is:
Better than the contract specification
Actually hits the specification quality as delivered (rare)
Occasionally is significantly worse than specified
The variability of the delivered coal is what makes life interesting in the plant.
Vendors supplying coal on monthly average have financial incentives to deliver the better
than specified coal and using a monthly average provides them some room to react when
what comes out of the ground is significantly worse than specified. The power plant
needed to react in a similar fashion when the coal delivered quality went from better than
specified to significantly worse, and the solution was to install a Digital Fuel Tracking
System with shared access across the company, and near real time quality information for
as delivered coal.
A Fuel Flex Team of employees made up of corporate and plant personnel
included the fuel purchasing department, the plant yard, operations and technical
services, and were led by conversion economics. The type of information needed was
defined by the Fuel Flex team as a Digital Fuel Tracking System capable of:
Recording and historize field inputs (scales, instrumentation, belt speed) to
track fuel to specific locations within plant or yard storage
Accessible on company LAN
Customizable reports by date/time for delivery, unloading, bunkering,
quality, and quantity (samples, figure 2)

OSI Pi monitoring capability
Minimization of manual recordkeeping
III. RESULTS
The digital fuel quality system received information from various sources
including Fuel Management System data, plant records, and field inputs to
accurately track the coal quality and quantity into each pile and the bunkers. In
addition a pile was created that tracked the floating inventory, at the time over
95% of the coal was received by barge and the remainder was truck delivered.
Truck scales were also tied into the DFTS system for recording deliveries, and
this was typically into the high ash pile. The petcoke was limited to 20% by
weight of the total consumption by the state department of environmental
protection, and was therefore stored and loaded onto belts separately for precision
in blending and control.
To address accessibility the Digital Fuel Tracking System information was
available to all company personnel via the LAN system. Customized reports
(samples attached) were created by the developers, Engineering Consultants
Group-Inc, for monitoring deliveries, bunker loadings, quality, quantity, and
analysis with costs for each of the fuels delivered. DFTS screens were developed
within the OSI Pi screens, mimicking the plant control screens for layouts and
included inventory information where anyone with access to OSI Pi software
could call up and view inventory by pile including the mathematical calculation of
on-the-belt specifications for coal going to the bunkers.

The ability to customize the reports for the various groups using them was
important to the fuel flex team. The diversity of the team selection and proactive support
from corporate leadership insured purchasing departments, plants, transportation issues
that were all of different levels of importance to the missions of each group were
addressed by customization of the reports. Transportation was primarily interested in
how many barges were being emptied for a given period to measure carrier performance
contract items, and could request just the information that was needed for their job
without additional items like quantity unloaded that was of importance to other groups.
The Digital Fuel Tracking System became the tool that tied all of the other available
resources together from the Fuel Management System (accounting and contract
monitoring software) to OSI Pi, and manual entry logs in a one stop customized format.
OSI Pi was already available on the Corporate LAN, making it the logical location for
data storage.
Manual data entry reports from bunker loadings were a frequent source of
error, which were identified as a significant source of inventory discrepancy and
adjustments at annual flyovers. One of the goals for DFTS was elimination of as much
manual data input as possible and reliance instead on the instrumentation, scales and field
inputs to update records. This initiative required that the OSI Pi system reliability be
increased to update reports, and a monitoring system was installed that would catch and
report any gaps in provided information, flagging appropriate personnel to a problem
with the information gathering and the need to perform manual calculations. As a result
of the increased monitoring OSI Pi availability had increased to +99%, and daily reports
are updated automatically for reporting at daily tech team meetings.

As an update to the paper titled Development of Fuel Quality Predictor
delivered at the last Engineering Foundation Conference by M.Valach, et al the plant did
in fact install leading edge sootblowers on the Mansfield units discussed in the paper, and
combined with fuel monitoring has avoided any new incidents of slag fall outages since
the 2000 incident reported on at the 2001 conference on Fuel Quality Impacts. The
ability to eliminate these forced outages by controlling the blends of fuels at the plant
proved the value of digital fuel tracking as a tool for increased capacity out of the plant.
The Fuel Flex initiative also supported the installation of rapid discharge rail unloading
equipment at Mansfield and other plants to increase access to other coal supplies,
enabling security of delivery and increased blending capabilities.
As new systems were installed for NOx and Opacity Mitigation requiring
new commodities the DFTS was upgraded to include quality and quantity monitoring tied
to the OSI Pi software. DFTS was upgraded to include accurate tracking of aqua
ammonia and sodium sulfite, and the use of bar coding with scanners was instituted to
automatically scan the vendor quality information, with reporting functions similar to
coal and automated recording of delivery and unloading times.
In addition to identifying and controlling the slag from the fuel burned coal
tracking revealed solutions to derate in other areas of interest to the technical group.
Some of these were:
Air Quality Control System chemistry
Gypsum Production
NOx
Reagent consumption

Lime area operations
Fuel Inventory Control
As experience with control of the fuel blends to manage inventory or combustion
brought discussions of the blends loaded to the bunkers to the daily technical team
meetings, other areas of the plant took note of the changes, good and bad, that caused
requests for fuel blends from unexpected areas.
Air Quality Control System
It was obvious and well known that the scrubbers were installed at the plant for
the control of SO2 emissions. What was surprising to many of the technical supervisors
was how varied the coal sulfur content was, and that many times they were searching for
equipment malfunctions to explain sudden changes in scrubbing capability prior to the
DFTS and fuel quality discussions they were unaware of how much the coal quality was
changing. A unit may have been happily running along for 6 months receiving a coal
with sulfur content of 3.0 #/MMBTU, only to have the mine hit a pocket of 3.75
#S/MMBTU, causing issues with the ability to transport enough lime to stay in
compliance, problems with slaking equipment keeping up with the higher demand for
lime, discovery that piping that could easily transport enough lime for the lower sulfur
content fuel was partially plugged and looking for the reasons as to why the piping
suddenly plugged, when what actually suddenly changed was the fuel quality. By
tracking the fuel quality into the yard storage it was possible to address issues like this
using precision fuel blending selecting from the lower sulfur content fuel to control the
emissions and avoid the derate.

Gypsum Production
A new facility was constructed to produce gypsum at the plant, called the FOG
system for Forced Oxidation Gypsum. The plant produced high quality gypsum for a
customer to produce wallboard, and the project was very important to both companies
since it was part of the life extension plan for sludge disposal for the power company, and
the gypsum was to be the main ingredient of wallboard for the plants customer. The
original fuel flex team never anticipated requests for specific fuel would be coming from
the FOG plant when the DFTS was installed, but with minimum contract supply
agreements to the customer the plant was thrust into the position of commodity supplier,
with penalties for not meeting monthly and annual targets. One of the units produced
gypsum more efficiently than the others, and was targeted to get higher sulfur content
fuels as a result. Targets were discussed daily and fuel blends adjusted accordingly to
meet the contract minimums.
NOX Control
Combustion engineers responsible for NOx monitoring requested seasonally
adjusted blends of fuel for the NOx season of May September. Consideration was
given to the impact of fuel blends on SCRs and opacity mitigation systems, reagent
consumption, and had the effect of burning more opportunity fuel out of season to save
certain better performing fuels for the critically important NOx season.
Reagent Consumption
Tracking aqua ammonia and sodium sulfite through the DFTS provided similar
benefits to monitoring coal quality. Budget costs for the reagents could be affected by
the coal quality, and blending the coal to produce the overall lowest cost for the plant was

enabled by knowing what we were consuming from actual field inputs. Quality control
was improved as a result of tracking the vendor delivering reagent directly into Pi.
Lime Area Operations
Lime area operations are responsible for delivery of lime slurry at specific
density and temperatures to effectively scrub SO2. Prior to DFTS the operators
frequently placed additional equipment in service to provide response time to control the
occasional spikes that put the unit out of compliance. With better blending control at the
plant the additional equipment was no longer required because advance warning of sulfur
changes in the coal quality was available.
Fuel Inventory Control
Digital Fuel Tracking improved the control of fuel inventory in three
significant ways:
1. By placing the coal into specific piles by quality the annual flyover for
inventory adjustment was made more accurate as to the value of the coal
in each pile
2. The variance report of DFTS comparison with vendor supplied
information for vendor weights provided alarming to the appropriate
employees whenever a variance of more than a set amount, typically >4%,
in the two weights appeared, prompting an immediate investigation to
identify the reason.
3. The DFTS daily numbers from field input devices replaced manual logs
and bunker reports, which were then typed in to the Fuel Management
report. Transcription errors, which unit the coal was delivered to, and

what the quality was were all found to be frequently in error and the cause
of inventory adjustments easily reaching into the millions of dollars
following flyovers to adjust inventory. DFTS accuracy was a profound
improvement.

CONCLUSION
In 2003 the Mansfield Plant, the largest plant in the First Energy system, set
a new generation record of 17.4 million megawatt hours. In 2004 the plant broke this
record, exceeding 18 million megawatt hours, and in June of 2005 was on course to re-set
the record book again with a reported capacity factor of 97.5% for the first half of 2005.
First Energy, in response to a question during the 2
nd
quarter 2006
performance web cast to investors, reported the fleet fossil generation capacity factor was
again top decile at 88.9%, and the company is on target to once again break their
generation record.
Other significant indicators of plant performance include:
2000 through 2003 maintained a 2.0% Plant forced outage rate.
An industry benchmark of 327 days continuous operation set by Unit 3 in
2001.
In 2003 the Mansfield plant forced outage rate was only 1.14%!
Accomplishing all of the above required people, technology, and equipment to
achieve. The people portion is extremely important to these accomplishments and
included commitments from the corporate leadership down through the newest yard
operator pushing in coal, and frequent discussion with fuel purchasing department to

qualifying new fuels. With Digital Fuel Tracking in place identifying root cause of issues
with auxiliary systems becomes possible by utilizing OSI Pi to identify when the coal
quality change occurred and the effect when a blend change is made to address the
problem. This brings theory and reality in close proximity, the more precision used in the
blending the better characterized the impact of the fuel on the specific unit it is burned
on. As a minimum field inputs to an OSI Pi or similar system can provide significant
benefits to a plant in communicating what fuels are available, and in more sophisticated
systems such as Detroit Edisons Monroe station providing an early warning screen based
on output of an On-Line Analyzer, that is continuously advising the Control Room
Operators and Shift Supervisors of the quality of the coal with recommendations of
courses of action, is a significant upgrade.
Utilities seeking to increase plant output while simultaneously seeking lower cost
fuel will benefit by putting all of the tools together in a Digital Fuel Tracking System that
enables people to use the fuel available to them to achieve the best possible output. A
cheap coal that causes a unit derate for slag or emissions is not a good value.

REFERENCES:
Development of Fuel Quality Predictor for Three 900 MW
e
Units, Engineering
Foundation Conference, Snowbird, UT, 2001, M. Valach, et al


Figure 1, Coal Calculator


Sample Report Tables, courtesy Engineering Consultants Group, ECG-Inc, Akron, Oh


Mueller Session 4 Intelligent Cleaning
Intelligent on-load cleaning technology to increase power boiler
performance

Franz Bartels, Stephan Simon, Manfred Frach and Christian Mueller
Clyde Bergemann GmbH, Schillwiese 20, D-46485 Wesel, Germany

Abstract
Slagging and fouling are the most common reasons for reduced boiler availability and
efficiency. The number of unscheduled shutdowns as well as the degree of efficiency loss is
strongly dependent on the fuel quality and increase with the use of low rank fuels and fuel
mixtures. The most efficient measure to increase boiler efficiency and availability is the
selective on-load cleaning of different boiler sections with appropriate cleaning equipment
controlled by intelligent diagnostic systems.
In this paper an efficient on-load cleaning system is presented, combining water cannon
technology with advanced heat flux measurements to a closed loop furnace optimization
system for detecting and cleaning boiler regions with unacceptable high ash deposition. The
main focus is put on the optimized selective cleaning of the furnace region to achieve a low
furnace exit gas temperature since the latter is a direct measure for the evaporator efficiency
and an indicator for fouling on the heat exchanger surfaces in the convective pass.
The on-load boiler optimization system was applied to a 600 MWe utility boiler fired with
lignite and bituminous coal. Already during the first weeks of operation with the optimization
system a significant improvement of the boiler efficiency was observed. The average heat
transfer from the furnace to the steam cycle increased by 30% and the furnace exit gas
temperature decreased by about 80 degrees.

Keywords On-load boiler cleaning, intelligent sootblowing, water cannon technology,
heat flux sensors

Corresponding author: cmueller@cbw.de

1. Introduction
Liberalisation of the energy market was a political milestone for Europe with quite different
impacts on energy consumers and producers. On the one hand the liberalisation led to a
reduction of electricity prices due to enhanced competition. On the other hand it increased the
pressure on the power producers to save production costs and increase production efficiency.
Since the fuel price is a considerable fraction of the production costs, nowadays, whenever
possible, low rank coals from the international market are fired. However, these import coals
show frequently varying fuel characteristics and may have a strong tendency for slagging and
fouling. As a result of non-uniform slagging on the evaporator walls, boiler availability is
significantly reduced, and so is the boiler efficiency. Furthermore, the reduced heat
absorption in the radiative section of the boiler leads to an increased furnace exit gas
temperature (FEGT) which may again lead to enhanced fouling in the convective section of
the boiler.
However, not only imported coals may cause serious operational challenges. For the lignite-
fired utility boilers in the Rheinish region between Cologne and Aachen in Germany a severe
fuel change took place in recent years. Opening of the new Hambach open-cast mine, which
in the years to come will supply a considerable fraction of the lignite for the installed power
plant capacity of overall some 10.000 MW in the Rheinish lignite region, entails a significant
change of the fuel properties [1]. The lignite from the Hambach open-cast mine is
characterised by a particularly high calorific value and a high iron and sodium content
(Tab.1). The higher calorific value leads to higher combustion temperatures and, as a result,
to an increased furnace exit gas temperature. The increased iron content and the
alkaline/silicon ratio lead to a lower ash fusion temperature and enhanced fouling,
respectively [2]. These two processes, especially when occurring together, cause considerable
slagging in the furnace (Fig. 1) and molten ash in the convective heat exchanger region.
Efforts to control this behaviour by means of operational changes were not satisfactory.

Figure 1 Slagging around coal burner mouth.

To limit the rising FEGT it is therefore necessary to increase the heat transfer to the radiative
heat exchanger surfaces in the furnace. Hence intelligent high performance on-load cleaning

of the furnace walls is a precondition for save and efficient operation of a steam generator
fired with demanding fuel or fuel mixtures.

Table 1 Fuel analysis Hambach coal.

2. Optimised furnace cleaning in a 600 MWe unit
The concept for an intelligent high performance on-load cleaning system will be introduced
and described in detail for the steam generator of a plant fired with lignite and bituminous
coal. The steam generator is a tower type boiler with a capacity of 600 MWe, was taken into
service in 1974 and has a membrane wall design with a cross section of 20 x 20 meters
(Fig. 2). Over the years several modifications have been made to this boiler in order to
optimise the combustion conditions and to reduce emissions.

Figure 2 Steam generator.

Data for Rough Coal from Open Mine Hambach
Average Coal Characteristics
Sulphur Calcium Potassium Sodium Iron
[ppm]
Ash
[%]
Calorific Value
[kJ /kg]
0,26 5500 150 700 2700 3,0 to 3,5 9700
[ppm] [ppm] [ppm] [ppm]

2.1 Cleaning equipment
The conventional method to clean furnace walls from slagging is the use of wall deslaggers.
These cleaning instruments are soot blowers with two opposing nozzles that enter the furnace
with a rotating motion while blowing the steam slightly inclined backwards to clean the
furnace wall behind. The result of wall deslagger operation is patterns of clean circles on the
wall. However, in between these circles uncleaned regions remain (Fig. 3). The sum of
uncleaned surface areas with a significantly reduced heat transfer rate amounts to up to 35%.

Figure 3 Cleaning regions for conventional wall deslaggers vs. water cannons.

A novel instrument for furnace cleaning is water cannons (WLB). The water cannon
technology (Fig. 4a) is characterised by a concentrated water jet throughout the furnace,
impinging on the opposite wall. Due to a controlled motion of the cannon, the impinging jet
describes a meander-shaped cleaning pattern on the wall surface that is set up individually
according to the cleaning needs (Fig. 4b).

Figure 4 a) Water cannon [5]. b) Cleaning pattern.
1
0
9
0
1
0
9
0
1
0
9
0
1
0
9
0
Blowing
J et
Installation
Place
Blowing
J et
Installation
Place

The cleaning mechanism of water cannon basically differs from that of a wall deslagger.
While the wall deslagger operates with high pressure steam as cleaning medium, water
cannons operate with water that is injected through high performance nozzles into the
furnace. While impinging on the opposite wall the produced spray of droplets penetrates the
pores of the deposits. Inside the pores the water suddenly evaporates and the volume rapidly
expands. This expansion loosens the deposits from the heating surface and removes it (Fig.
5). The overall efficiency of this cleaning process depends on the optimum penetration of the
deposit by water and is influenced by:
- Velocity and impact angle of water jet at arrival on the opposite wall
- Impinging water quantity
- Characteristic of the deposit surface (porous vs. glassy)

Figure 5 Cleaning concept of water spraying.

Compared to conventional wall deslaggers the use of water cannon technology has significant
advantages for the power plant efficiency:
- Increase of heat absorption in the evaporator and significant reduction of furnace exit gas
temperature
- Reduced operational costs, since water is used as cleaning medium instead of superheated
steam
- Reduced maintenance costs since one water cannon replaces up to 15 conventional wall
deslaggers
The common criticism that water jets impinging on furnace walls may enhance the risk of
thermal impact and the related reduction of life time for the wall tubes of a steam generator is
incorrect. Operational experiences since more than 12 years have shown that the risk of
thermal impact can be excluded if the cleaning parameters for water cannon are correctly
adjusted. This has also been shown by extensive measurements and calculations performed
by others [3].

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2.2 Local detection of slagging on furnace walls
Due to the typical non-uniform deposition pattern on furnace walls it is highly inefficient to
clean the entire furnace anytime a cleaning sequence is started. Hence an on-load detection
method is required that allows to identify the furnace wall regions that are covered with
deposits above an acceptable upper limit. The detection method of choice is a novel heat flux
sensor based system further developed from earlier work by Davidson [4] and especifically
designed for this application (Fig. 6).

Figure 6 Heat flux sensor integrated into an evaporator tube.

For installing the sensor an approximately 400 mm long evaporator tube section is replaced
with an individually manufactured tube sensor with the following design features:
- Two redundant thermocouple pairs on the tube side facing the furnace
- Circular tube surface is maintained
- Thermocouples arranged such that no protruding edges can enhance deposit formation
- Water/steam flowing through the sensor tube section
- Thermocouples inserted into the tube wall ensuring a controlled low pressure drop on the
water/steam flow inside the tube
- All four measuring sections resulting from the redundant arrangement of the thermocouples
calibrated individually for each boiler
- Heat flux sensor designed and introduced such that only vertically incident radiation is
measured
Due to the special design the heat flux sensor is a reliable instrument and has shown very
long lifetimes of more than 5 years.
Combination of the heat flux sensor with an

optimisation system that correlates the
thermocouple measurements delivers the respective local heat flux value in kW/m.
For the evaluation the heat flux data and the decision on the respective cleaning actions not
only the absolute value of the heat flux is relevant but also the characteristic pattern of the
heat flux signal over the operational time (Figure 7):


Figure 7 Time history of measured heatflux.

Period a) For a clean heating surface a high frequency of the signal is measured. A
continuous decrease of the absolute heat flux value indicates the beginning of
deposition. While the heating surface with a first layer of deposits catches more
and more ash particles, the heat flux decreases continuously and consequently the
absolute temperature at the deposit surface rises.
Period b) When the surface temperature reaches the sintering temperature (critical point) the
ash particles adhere to each other and the heat flux decreases suddenly and fast.
Period c) During this period the measuring signal of the heat flux is considerably more
damped because of the slag formation, but the heat flux still decreases
continuously.
Experience has shown that the optimum moment to start cleaning with water cannons is the
beginning of period b).

2.3 Intelligent on-load cleaning concept
The overall concept of an intelligent on-load cleaning system is sketched in Figure 8. The
heat flux sensors are installed at preselected, optimum locations on the evaporator walls. The
measuring signal of the sensors is transmitted through a multiplexer to the data acquisition
system where it is complemented with available plant data such as boiler load, coal mill
operation, etc. The optimisation system is monitoring the situation online and is calculating
and analysing the current slagging situation of the furnace. In parallel, the system is doing the
optimisation calculation following conditions such as:
- Optimum point in time for starting the cleaning action
- Selection of required cleaning zone
- Selection of optimum parameters for the individual cleaning zones (e.g. jet velocity, water
quantity, cleaning pattern)

0 1 2 4 5 3
Time [ h ]
100
80
60
40
20
0
Heat Flux [ kW/m
2
]
a c b
Critical Point
a c b
Critical Point


Figure 8 Furnace optimization system.

As a result, the optimisation system determines the required cleaning actions and controls the
PLC based water cannons.

3. Results
The investigated boiler is equipped with 14 new water cannons replacing 72 conventional
wall deslaggers. The water cannons are installed at three levels, each equipped with four
cannons, and 2 additional cannons in the bottom region, for cleaning the ash hopper section
(Fig. 9).

Figure 9 Positioning of water cannons in the boiler.
SFX-
Sensor s
Furnace Cl eani ng
Wher e?
When?
How?
Engi neeri ng Tool Vi sual i sat i on
PLC
SFX-
Sensor s
Furnace Cl eani ng
Wher e?
When?
How?
SFX-
Sensor s
Furnace Cl eani ng
Wher e?
When?
How?
PLC
Data Aquisit ion/
Optimisation
System
Heat flux
sensors
SFX-
Sensor s
Furnace Cl eani ng
Wher e?
When?
How?
PLC
SFX-
Sensor s
Furnace Cl eani ng
Wher e?
When?
How?
SFX-
Sensor s
Furnace Cl eani ng
Wher e?
When?
How?
PLC
Data Aquisit ion/
Optimisation
System
Heat flux
sensors

4 WLBs
+ 62,500 m
4 WLBs
+ 48,743 m
4 WLBs
+ 36,416 m
Flue Gas
Recirculation
Duct
Burner
4 WLBs
+ 19,371 m
20 m
20 m
20 m
20
m
4 WLBs
+ 62,500 m
4 WLBs
+ 48,743 m
4 WLBs
+ 36,416 m
Flue Gas
Recirculation
Duct
Burner
4 WLBs
+ 19,371 m
20 m
20 m
20 m
20
m

The diagnostic equipment of the on-load cleaning system is based on 22 heat flux sensors that
have been installed during a short shutdown of the boiler (Figure 10). The sensors and the
optimisation system are configured according to the overall requirements of the steam
generator.

Figure 10 Positioning of heat flux sensors and water cannons.

Since the introduction of the fully automatised intelligent on-load boiler cleaning concept
indicated a significant change in operation, an introduction strategy with different phases was
chosen, starting from manual via the first automatised to the final automatised and optimised
operation.
During the first months of operation with the new concept, at the request of the operator, the
measured data of the optimisation

system were only collected, monitored and evaluated. The
water cannons were not yet controlled automatically but by default operated once per
operating shift (8 h). The boiler measurements and the cleaning recommendations of the
optimisation

system in these first weeks already showed that it was quite sufficient to activate
the water cannons at the top level (area of flue gas recirculation ducts) only once or twice a
week, meaning that these areas were cleaned far too frequently in the past. On the other hand,
the collected data also showed that in the burner belt area a water cannon cleaning frequency
of two or three times per operating shift (8 h) was necessary, depending on the coal quality
fired. This means that cleaning in that particular area of the furnace was far too seldom in the
past. As a result, deposits on those walls got sintered or even molten and successful cleaning
was not achieved any longer since the water was not able to penetrate the deposit.
Furthermore, during this initial phase it became obvious that deposition on the various
furnace walls changed depending on the coal mill operation.
After a few weeks of data collection, a manual interface was introduced to transfer the
cleaning recommendations of the optimisation system to the water cannon control system and
to start selective cleaning of specific furnace zones. Figure 11 shows the average heat
absorption of the evaporator. This value is calculated by integration of the 22 heat flux
measurements and therefore reflects the measured effectiveness of the evaporator.
Ri ght Si dewal l Front Wal l Left Si dewal l Rear Wal l
+ 62.500m
+ 48.743m
+ 36.416m
+ 19.371m
WLB
WLB
WLB
WLB
Ri ght Si dewal l Front Wal l Left Si dewal l Rear Wal l
+ 62.500m
+ 48.743m
+ 36.416m
+ 19.371m
WLB
WLB
WLB
WLB
Heat flux sensor
Water cannon
Heat flux sensor
Water cannon


Figure 11 Heat transfer of evaporator walls averaged over 22 heat flux measurements.

The diagram shows an increase of 25 kW/m
2
for the average heat flux of the evaporator. The
increase refers to the former situation where the water cannons have been operated only once
per shift (8h). The 30% higher heat absorption leads to a reduction of the furnace exit gas
temperature (FEGT) by 78 K for this steam generator. This significant drop in furnace exit
gas temperature may lead to reduced deposit formation on the first heat exchangers of the
convection pass since the reduction in FEGT lowers the ash particle temperature.
Furthermore, the reduced temperature level of the fluegas leads to a reduction of the spraying
rates for the reheater and results in a lower boiler outlet gas temperature, which implies
reduced waste gas losses. These two effects may lead to an increase in boiler efficiency of up
to 0.6 %.
After eight months of operation the fully automatised mode was started. In this phase the
optimization system forms a closed loop, controlling the selective cleaning actions in the
furnace with the appropriate measures when and where required.
After total operation of 12 months the collected data and operating experience indicated the
need for more detailed information at selected regions of the burner belt. Therefore six
additional heat flux sensors were installed and integrated into the optimization system.
Further evaluation of the intelligent on-load boiler cleaning system now equipped with 28
sensors showed a reliable monitoring of the slagging situation in the furnace.
However, improvement of the cleaning efficiency was still possible by minor adjustments to
the water cannon control and the optimization of the cannon nozzle geometry which resulted
in a more targeted water jet.

4. Conclusions
Ash deposition in utility boilers increases with the use of low rank fuels and fuel mixtures.
Above a boiler specific critical deposition rate the overall availability and efficiency of the
unit may decrease significantly. A first measure to control the overall slagging and fouling
Figure 11: Average Heat Flux of Evaporator - RWE Rheinbraun PS Niederauem Unit G

06.09.00 09.09.00 12.09.00 15.09.00 18.09.00 21.09.00 24.09.00 27.09.00
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Time
14.09.2000
Know-How-Transfer and
Trai ning of operators
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
14.09.2000
Know-How-Transfer and
Training of operators
A
v
e
r
a
g
e

H
e
a
t

F
l
u
x

[

k
W
/
m

2

]

Start of
optimised
selective
cleaning

situation in a boiler is the optimized and efficient cleaning of the heat exchanger surfaces.
Hereby the furnace exit gas temperature can be controlled and kept below the fuel specific
ash melting temperature. Furthermore, the heat transfer rate of the evaporator will be
increased and so will be the efficiency of the steam generator.
The presented work deals with the installation of an intelligent on-load boiler cleaning system
to a 600 MWe steam generator fired with lignite and bituminous coal. In this closed loop
optimization system water cannons are combined with advanced heat flux sensors to
efficiently clean the furnace depending on the current operational condition of the boiler.
Operational experience over several months indicated that the presented furnace optimization
system enables to minimize furnace slagging and superheater fouling significantly, to reduce
waste gas losses and to increase the overall boiler availability and efficiency.

5. Literature
[1] Glaser, W.; Kulik, L.; Neuroth, M.: New Findings regarding slagging behavior of
different qualities of lignite from Rheinish region, VGB PowerTech 10/2002, pp. 100-
107.
[2] Couch, G.: Understanding slagging and fouling in pf combustion, IEA Coal Research,
Vol. 72, p. 48, 1994.
[3] N.N., Cleaning with the new water lance blower WLB 30, Experience Report RWE
Energie AG, Eschweiler, 1995.
[4] Davidson, I. S.: A practical on-line solution to control ash deposition, Conf. on the
impact of ash deposition on coal-fired plants, Taylor & Francis, pp. 693-702, 1994.
[5] N.N., www.clydebergemann.de, 2006.

Batton Session 4 Oxistop Coatings
A Technical Paper:

Oxistop Coatings
For Boiler Tube Maintenance

Prepared for the:

TECHNICAL CONFERENCE
Impacts of Fuel Quality
on Power Production

October 29 November 3, 2006
Snowbird, Utah

T. E. BATTON - PRESIDENT

OXISTOP, LLC, 6331 MARKET STREET, BOARDMAN, OHIO USA 44512

Introduction

OXISTOP, LLC, an Ohio based Limited Liability Company, is the sole distributor and
applicator of the Oxistop line of ceramic coatings developed specifically for the fossil fuel
power generation and traditional refractory markets. Both markets currently experience failure
and high maintenance costs related to maintaining key components of production.

Power generated from fossil fuel combustion relies on boiler tube integrity. Boiler tube failure
can be related to the destructive nature of slag, oxidation, corrosion, erosion and abrasion.
These issues are becoming increasingly important due to the worldwide demand for more
power and operational controls related to emissions regulations.

At a fraction of the cost of current alternatives, the Oxistop line of coating materials has been
proven to stop or minimize the damage caused by these destructive conditions. As an added
benefit of utilizing these materials, boiler tubes coated with Oxistop coatings will maintain
optimum heat transfer into boiler water wall tubes by replacing the iron oxide protective (and
insulating) layer and residue build-up that occurs when boiler tubes are subjected to high heat
and coal combustion with a ceramic based protective barrier. This protective barrier will resist
slag buildup that will also decrease heat transfer through the boiler tube.

History and use

Oxistop, LLC was formed in the spring of 2004 by a number of partners with extensive power
generation maintenance problem solving experience. The company is the exclusive distributor and
installer of Oxistop coatings and to date, over 30,000 Sq. Ft. of our coating has been installed
nationwide.


As a result of successful early trial applications and high interest in the industry in cost
effective solutions to maintenance issues pertaining to boiler reliability, many repeat orders
have resulted from over sixty (60) initial applications in twenty-three (23) different states.

The ability of Oxistop high temperature metal coatings to reduce both slag and residue buildup,
stop corrosion and oxidation and resist fly ash erosion and abrasion has led our client base to
evaluate benefit regarding issues in the following areas:


BURNERS AND OVER FIRED AIRPORTS SLAG AND CORROSION.

REFRACTORY DOORS AND BURNER REFRACTORY SLAG

ECONOMIZER TUBES CORROSION AND EROSION

TUBE SHIELDS AND DUCT SUPPORTS CORROSION AND EROSION

NOSE AND SLOPE AREAS CORROSION AND SLAG

WATERWALL AREAS CORROSION, SLAG AND HEAT TRANSFER

SUPERHEAT AND REHEAT TUBES FOULING AND HEAT TRANSFER

To date, the types of coals and operations have had little affect on the success in coating
material performance. Whether it is eastern or foreign coals, 100% Powder River Basin (PRB)
or any blend combination, the materials perform equally well.
This is not to say that Oxistop coatings cannot be tailor made to meet specific customer
needs.

Advantages of oxistop
coatings on metal

The advantages of Oxistop coatings compared to other coatings are a history of proven
performance in the circulating fluidized bed boiler (CFB) industry for over fifteen (15) years.
This material was enhanced and refined for specific applications in the mainstream pulverized
coal market in October of 2004. Compared to metallic coatings such as thermal spray or weld
overlay, the advantages include not altering the integrity of the tube itself, thereby preventing
or hindering future repair work to the tubes as the thermal spray and overlay process will.
Stress is not put on the tubes as with an overlay process; in fact Oxistop coatings will improve
heat distribution. Oxistop coatings can be removed by grit blasting or grinding if required.
Whereas thermal spray and overlay will reduce heat transfer, Oxistop coatings will enhance
this process.

Oxistop Coatings Will:

Reduce the oxidation of metals at high temperatures.

Improve the temperature uniformity of boiler waterwall tubes.

Reduce the abrasive wear of fly ash on boiler tubes.

Reduce the buildup of combustion by-products in pulverized coal burning boilers.

Improve heat transfer into boiler waterwall tubes.

Demonstrate excellent corrosion and acid resistance at high temperatures.

Oxistop coatings are installed 3 to 6 Mils thick and will not crack due to expansion and
contraction of the metal substrate. They can be used in conjunction with thermal spray

technology, which will provide a cost effective package and act as a sealer for specific and
severe applications where the attributes of both, in combination, are an advantage.

Case studies

Although boiler runs between planned outages of 1236 months make evaluation of oxistop
coating trials time consuming, a number of repeat applications have been seen based on
favorable observations and measurable data. Examples are as follows:

In June of 2004, the first trial of Oxistop MC-19-GR coating was installed in a 100 MW boiler
burning eastern bituminous coal. A waterwall test area of approximately 120 square feet and two
(2) burners of a sixteen-burner wall were selected to evaluate slag-shedding capabilities of the
coating. Row B burners were identified and coated as eyebrow slagging was heaviest a that level.
Economizer tubes were also coated to eliminate corrosion occurrence between tube shields and the
tubes.

Case study number one

After one year of boiler operation, the coated burners developed no eyebrows and were slag
free. During a planned outage in June of 2005 the coating material was found to be in-tack and
continues to be in operation and performing into year three. As a result of this performance, the
entire burner wall was coated (16 burners) and has continued to provide to date slag shedding
benefits, in addition to corrosion and erosion wear protection. Oxistop a GY-30 Refractory
Coating was utilized to provide a slag shedding protective barrier to the burner refractory. Also
coated were additional waterwall areas, for slagging and corrosion, and the underside of the
upper slope to eliminate clinker buildup.

Oxistop, Year Two:
A Case Study

In April of 2006, Oxistop installed MC-19-GR coating on a 192 MW boiler burning 100%
PRB coal. Oxistop prepared by grit blast and coated less than half of the main combustion area
and most of the radiant zone of the reheat furnace from below the burners to above the
overfired air ports. This totaled a little over 5,500 square feet. The application was comfortably
completed in the time allotted.

After approximately twelve days of base line information compiled in March, the preliminary
data verified that the application of Oxistop coating enhanced heat transfer in the coated area
resulting in an increase in boiler steam output of 5-7 MW. The FEGT (Furnace Exit Gas
Temperature) has decreased by 75 degrees. All this has been accomplished burning slightly
less coal. The waterwall tubes are cleaner and protected from fly ash erosion, corrosion, slag,
and water cannon damage. Payback for the cost of the Oxistop coating application was 24
days. Continual monitoring verifies heat transfer data indicating power output increase
remaining constant after more than five months on-line as a result of the Oxistop coating
application.

The Owner states the following:
Case study number two


1) The water cannon usage in this area is significantly lower.

2) The cordial thermocouple rate of delta-t is notably slower and, more significantly,
stabilizes at a lower number.

3) The furnace exit gas temperatures of the reheat box are below historical data.

4) High temp RH and low temp SH thermocouples are below historical data.

5) Decrease in air heater outlet gas temperature.

6) Lower fuel usage eliminating over firing to make steaming rate.

7) Maximum megawatt output is increased to 198 Mega Watts, with slightly less coal burned.

A subsequent application of 5,520 square feet is scheduled for installation in the superheat
boiler in the fall of 2006 based on impressive results of the spring trial. Similar benefits are
anticipated.
Refractory coating applications

Utilized primarily around burners and refractory lined manway doors, Oxistop GY-30 is a
3,000F coating material designed to give refractory substrates similar slag shedding
characteristics to the Oxistop metal coating.

Recently, Oxistop has developed a system using an unique refractory material that chemically
sets without heat and allows the Oxistop GY-30 coating to remain completely bonded after
initial refractory curing. This is important during outages where time is of the essence and a
one step package is required to address refractory repairs as well as the slag protection being
sought. As a result of packaging the coating with this impressive material, GY-30 sales have
accelerated.


Limitations

Oxistop MC-19-GR is a high temperature, corrosion resistant material that is used on
waterwall and related tube apparatus, such as superheat and reheat tubes where the range of
steam temperatures are not limiting factors.

It had been used in conjunction with the CFB power industry, beginning in approximately
1990, to minimize fly ash erosion, which approximates a low
grade sandblasting affect. When the erosion resistance limits of the ceramic coating are
reached, thermal spray technology has been used as a base and packaged with ceramic coating
to attain excellent results.

The non-catalytic nature of Oxistop coatings provides a protective barrier that prevents the
reaction of combustion by-product adherence to boiler tubes. Upper slope areas and wing-wall
tubes are some areas that have demonstrated the limits to Oxistop coatings in overcoming slag
accumulation due to boiler design issues. On low angle upper slopes, gravity and gas flow
patterns can overcome the advantages of this non-catalytic feature and allow for slag to remain
a problem. Some wing wall designs that have small gaps between the tubes when surrounded
by combustion by-product gas flow streams, allow for slag to bond to itself between the coated
tubes to create the base for clinker formation. Coating of these tubes, in this case has shown to
have little effect on clinker formation.

Even with these observed limitations, slag resistance of Oxistop coatings has been readily
demonstrated around burners, over fired airports, on waterwalls, superheat and reheat platen
and pendant tubes and the undersides of slope areas. Corrosion, tube wastage and erosion
continue to be minimized and in many cases, eliminated by the coating. However, in that these
materials rely on an initial heat curing for bonding and strengths, care must be given when the
practice of washing down scaffolding after an outage is used. After air-drying and before the
heat set the coating will revert back to a wetted state if exposed to water. After initial heat
curing the coating becomes resistant to all acids, salts, solvents, water, and alkalies.

Soot blower type, velocity and particulate pickup during operation, all are mitigating factors
regarding eventual wearing of Oxistop coating around soot blowers. Although defining the
limits of ceramic coating are inconclusive and ongoing in regards to durability in these areas,
thermal spray coating is a proven solution to this problem when combined with the Oxistop
coating.

Given the range and severity of maintenance issues regarding tube integrity and boiler
reliabilityoverlay technology has, and will remain an option for restoring lost tube wall

thickness. Oxistop coatings have been introduced to the power industry to expand the range of
options for tube maintenance practices with additional benefits, including cost effectiveness.

Conclusion

At a cost of approximately one tenth of weld overlay, the industry interest continues to climb
regarding both the Oxistop brand of metal and refractory coatings. While not marketed or seen
as a cure-all, Oxistop coatings do provide proven alternatives and options to current practices
pertaining to high cost maintenance as well as boiler reliability issues. Oxistop coatings are
user friendly due to the fact that they are non-toxic, air drying and quickly applied. Curing of
the material is accomplished during boiler start-up with no holds or separate heating
requirements. Consequently, other repair work in the boiler may continue during the
installation process. Expanded use of Oxistop coatings will reduce maintenance costs and
increase boiler efficiency and reliability over time. Durability has been demonstrated in initial
Oxistop coating trials, beginning in 2004. Each subsequent application has shown staying
power, in many cases outage-to-outage, and continued effective performance to date.

*ADDITIONAL PICTURES, PRODUCT INFORMATION AND USE CAN BE OBTAINED BY ACCESSING THE
OXISTOP WEBSITE AT OXISTOP.COM. REFERENCE ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

Tim E. Batton
President and Senior Managing Partner

Al Bracey
Director of Materials and Installation

6331 Market Street
Boardman, Ohio USA 44512

This technical paper, and other Oxistop archives are available for download at www.oxistop.com.

The authors
Electronic access

Zhou Session 4 Straw Fired Boiler
Shedding of ash deposits in a straw fired boiler

H. Zhou, P. A. Jensen
1
, F. Frandsen, J. Hansen, A. Zbogar

CHEC Research Center, Department of Chemical Engineering, Technical University of
Denmark, Building 229, DK-2800 Kgs, Lyngby, Denmark

Abstract:
The amount of ash deposit present on heat transfer surfaces is influenced by formation
and shedding processes. The shedding process was investigated in the Danish Avedre
straw fired boiler by probe measurements and development of a computer model describing
deposit formation and shedding from a superheater tube. Measurements with and without
sootblowing were performed in the furnace where the flue gas temperature from 900 to
1100 C and in the convective pass where the flue gas temperature from 650 to 830 C
respectively. The main shedding mechanism was observed to be melting on the deposit
surface, and subsequent ash droplet detachment in the furnace. The flue gas temperature
influences the melt fraction in the deposit and thereby, to a high degree, controls the
shedding rate in the furnace. The mechanistic shedding model describes deposit formation
by condensation, ash particle impaction, and thermophoresis, and shedding by melting and
subsequent droplet detachment. The model was validated with the probe measurements and
was used to calculate the influence of changed local parameters on the build-up of the
deposit. Sootblowing was the main mechanism of the deposit removal in the convective
pass. Well-controlled sootblowing measurements were performed in order to determine the
Peak Impact Pressure (PIP) needed to remove the deposits. The influence of a changed
probe metal surface temperature, and the residence time was investigated. At a probe
temperature of 400 C, the deposit could easily be removed by the plant sootblowers. At a
probe temperature of 500C the removability of the deposit by sootblowing decreased with
time. The observed behavior of the deposit on the probe was generally similar to the boiler
deposits, at equal local conditions.

Keywords: Biomass combustion, Deposit, Shedding, Straw, Sootblower
1. Introduction
Thermal conversion of biofuels to produce steam and power has emerged as a viable
alternative to the consumption of fossil fuels. Wheat straw is available in Denmark as one of
the main biofuels and may be applied as a fuel in power plants. High concentrations of critical
elements such as potassium (K) and chlorine (Cl) in straw fuels have been established as the
main reason for the serious problems with slagging, fouling, and corrosion encountered in
straw fired boilers (Jensen et al. 1997, Baxter et al. 1998, Frandsen, 2005).
Several studies have been conducted on deposit formation and shedding in straw-fired power
plant boilers. Jensen et al. (1997) reported that deposit fluxes are in the range of 15 to 160 and
2 to 25 g/m
2
h in the furnace where the flue gas temperature is around 850
o
C and in the
convective pass where the flue gas temperature is around 650
o
C of two Danish straw-fired

1
Corresponding author: Email paj@kt.dtu.dk (PA Jensen), tel. +45 45 25 28 53

power stations. Deposit shedding experiments have been performed by Zbogar et al. (2006) in
the furnace of the straw fired (105 MW
th
) grate-boiler at the Danish Avedre power plant. The
experiments indicated that the behavior of the deposit shedding on the superheaters mainly
depends on the local flue gas temperature. For instance, at flue gas temperatures as high as
1100
o
C or above, the deposit surface layer was completely molten and flowed around a
deposit probe, finally detaching the probe as well-defined droplets.
Generally, sintered deposits are observed in the top of the second draught where the flue gas
temperature is sufficiently low so that the deposit is not removed by surface melting. Deposits
formed on the superheaters further upstream in the boiler is removed mainly by deposit surface
melting, further downstream, the flue gas temperatures are usually so low that the deposit is
often regarded to be loose and easy to remove. Sootblowers are hence applied in the top of the
second draught in order to assist the deposit removal in straw fired boilers. The objective of
this work has been to investigate the behavior of deposit shedding in the furnace and the
convective pass of a Danish straw fired grate boiler. A combined air- and water-cooled
shedding probe and support equipments such as a CCD camera and a sootblower probe were
used. The weight of the probe deposit and the probe heat uptake could be measured by the
shedding probe. Probe measurements were conducted to register the process of deposit
shedding, and to identify the jet Peak Impact Pressure (PIP) needed to remove the probe
deposit as functions of the probe metal temperature and exposure time. Moreover, a
mathematical model has been developed for describing the deposit growth and shedding by
deposit melting and droplet detachment.
2. Experimental
2.1 The boiler
A schematic diagram of the straw-fired grate-boiler, and the probe positions is shown in
Figure 1. The flue gas moves up through the furnace to the secondary superheater (SH2)
located at the top of the boiler, through the tertiary superheater (SH3) in a horizontal pass, and
to the primary superheater (SH1) in the second pass. Fly ash particles rich in K, Si and Ca may
be entrained from the grate combustion zone, and be transported with the flue gas, into the
boiler chamber. The high alkali fly ash severely increases the deposit and corrosion problems,
compared to boilers firing low-alkali biomass or coal.
The boiler was fitted with retractable sootblowers. The sootblowers extend into the boiler
when active and retract outside the boiler wall when idle. The working fluid applied in the
sootblowers is superheated steam at temperature of 573.15 K and a pressure of 19 bar. The
required sootblowing frequency is 3 times per day. The plant sootblowing was activated only
once per day during the experiment.
2.2 The probe system
The applied probe system is shown in Figure 2, and consists of the deposit probe, the
sootblower probe, a CCD camera, an incandescent light source, and a separate thermocouple
used for measuring the flue gas temperature. A weight cell was connected to the probe so that
the deposit weight could be registered on-line. The probe surface temperature was fixed by a
combined air- and water-cooling system. The heat transfer to the probe was determined by
measuring the air and water flows and their temperatures. Moreover, separate systems were
used for the extraction of fly ash particles and measuring flue gas velocity. More details can be
found in Zbogar et al. (2006).

The sootblower probe nozzle is of convergent-divergent shape and the air at the nozzle exit
is fully expanded at an air supply pressure of 6 bar. The removal of deposit by a sootblower
may be related to the jets Peak Impact Pressure (PIP), which is defined as the centerline
stagnation pressure of the jet (Jameel et al. 1994). Figure 3 presents the measured PIP, as
functions of distance from the nozzle exit, and the supplying air pressure at room temperature
condition. The measured PIP increases with the supplying air pressure, and drops off quickly
with the axial distance from the nozzle exit.
2.3 The probe positions and local conditions
The shedding probe positions in the boiler, are shown in Figure 1. The probe was situated
near the secondary pendant superheater in the furnace, and between SH1 and SH3 in the
convective pass. One of the plant sootblowers (see Figure 1) is located about 0.5 m above the
shedding probe, in the convective pass when activated. Table 1 summarizes the local
conditions at the shedding probe positions. The furnace has a higher flue gas temperature, a
higher flue gas velocity, and contains larger fly ash particles than those in the convective pass.
The measured fly ash concentrations in the furnace and the convective pass are almost equal.
Table 2 summarizes the shedding measurement performed. Experiments were in 2003-2005.
The total exposure time of the shedding probe in the boiler was about 2500 h. Probe metal
temperatures of 500
o
C, and 400 to 550 C were applied in the furnace and in the convective
pass respectively. The probe exposure time at different probe metal temperatures varied from 3
to 30 days. In two of the measuring campaigns (number 1 and 2) the boiler was stopped two
and three times respectively.
Simultaneously with the probe shedding experiments, the straw fired was sampled daily.
Table 3 lists the proximate and the ultimate analysis data of the fuel. It contains 0.36 wt % Cl,
0.92 wt % K and 1.1 wt % Si, which are typical levels of Danish wheat straw.
3. Results and discussion
3.1 Shedding of boiler tube deposits
The deposit shedding from the superheater tubes was registered by focusing the CCD
camera on the tubes. Figure 4 presents shedding of deposits from pending tubes in the furnace.
The flue gas temperature is around 1200
o
C and the steam temperature is 475
o
C. The time
range of Figures 4 (a) and (b) is 12 minutes. It can be observed that a massive piece of molten
deposit rolled over the tube surface and moved from the upper to the low side against the
direction of the flue gas flow by its gravity, while some deposits remained on the tube surface.
Figure 5 shows the deposit accumulation on the superheater tubes in the convective pass.
The flue gas temperature is about 800
o
C and the steam temperature is 400
o
C. The
measurement was performed after the outer layer deposits were removed during a boiler shot
down. The time interval of Figures (a) and (b) is 7 days. Figure 5 (a) shows the formed deposit
on the superheater tubes 7 days after the boiler was restarted. It can be observed that an
elliptical and dark grey deposit was formed at the upstream side of the tubes, while a thin grey
deposit wrapped the downstream side of the tubes. The thickness of the deposit increased
gradually with time in the following days, and some bridging deposits were formed as shown
in Figure 5 (b). It seemed like the plant sootblower could not keep a stable low amount of
deposit if boiler shut downs, or manual deposit removal, was not applied.

3.2 Probe deposit shedding in the furnace
3.2.1 Experimental observation
Figure 6 shows an example of an image of shedding from the deposit probe when the probe
was placed in the furnace. The droplets seen always detached at the bottom edge of the probe.
The shedding behavior depends on the flue gas temperature. It was observed that below a flue
gas temperature of approximately 1100
o
C, the deposit contained a certain solid fraction,
whereas above 1100
o
C, the video recording indicated that the deposit surface was completely
molten. At temperatures approximately 1100
o
C, the melt flowed around the probe slowly,
since solid particles increase the viscosity of the melt. At a temperature of approximately 900
o
C, molten phases and shedding by droplet detachment were rarely observed. This difference in
melt flow, can also be detected as a sudden decrease in mass loading on the probe, when the
gas temperature increased to above 1100
o
C. It was found that the change in deposit mass,
caused by an increase in the flue gas temperature, is very fast, i.e. the response to the increased
flue gas temperature is almost immediate. Details are given in Zbogar et al. (2006).
3.2.2 Modeling work
To further investigate mechanisms of the deposit shedding in the furnace, a mechanistic
model including submodels of deposition (impaction, thermophoresis, Brownian and eddy
diffusion, and condensation) and shedding by deposit surface melting has been developed. The
deposit buildup rate at an angular position () on the shedding probe is the difference between
the deposit growth and shedding rates, and can be expressed as:
( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
, , ) , ( , , ,
,
t S t S t I t BE t TH t C
dt
t dm
f
+ + + + =
(1)
where m is the mass of deposit on the probe, t is the time, C, TH, BE, and I represent the
deposition rates by condensation (C), thermophoresis (TH), Brownian and eddy diffusions
(BE), and impaction (I) including deposition of large particle inertia impaction on the upstream
side of the probe, and deposition of intermediated-sized particle by vortex interaction on the
downstream side of the probe. S is the shedding rate by drop detachment, and
f
S is the mass
accumulation rate in a control domain caused by melt film movement. More details of the
shedding model are provided by Zhou et al. (2006).
Figure 7 compares the measured and the calculated probe deposit weight, and the heat
uptake as a function of time, as well as the measured, and the applied input temperature.
Generally, the predictions are in reasonable agreement with the measurements. Three distinct
periods can be distinguished in Figure 7, i.e. a fast increase of the deposit weight and a
correspondingly quick decrease of the heat uptake at an early stage (up to 10 h), then a slow
increase of the deposit weight and a decrease of the heat uptake up to 285 h, and finally a
maturation period in which constant values of the deposit weight and the heat uptake appear. A
sharp decrease of the deposit weight, and an increase of the heat uptake can be observed when
a peak flue gas temperature at 1423 K applied. A discrepancy between the calculation and the
measurement at an early stage (up 80 h) is observed in Figure 7. This is mainly attributed to
large uncertainties in some of the applied submodels.
The shedding model is capable of predicting not only the dynamics of the deposit weight and
the heat uptake as shown in Figure 7, but also the deposit shape, and the contributions to
deposit formation by different mechanisms. A parameter study has been used to quantify the
effects of changed local conditions such as the flue gas temperature and velocity, the probe

metal temperature, and the entrained amount of straw ash on the probe deposit formation and
shedding processes.
3.3 Removal of probe deposits in the convective pass
Figure 8 shows the variations of the measured flue gas temperature, the deposit mass, and
the heat uptake as a function of time in the period of 166 to 190 h, after the probe was initially
placed in the boiler. The probe and the plant sootblowing were performed at 166.7 h and 167.3
h respectively. The jets from the sootblowers caused strong fluctuations of the deposit mass
measurements. The flue gas temperature was quite stable before the boiler was shutdown at
182 h. Some of the deposits were removed by the plant sootblowing, thereby the heat uptake
increased slightly. The deposit mass increased noticeably between the plant sootblowing
periods. The measurements provide information about the change of the deposit mass and the
heat uptake by probe during plant sootblowing, but it was not possible to quantify the amount
of deposit removed by the individual probe sootblowing. The probe sootblowing events caused
a drift in the baseline of the weight measurements, which made it impossible to determine the
weight change accurately.
Figure 9 (a) shows the dynamic process of the removal of the probe deposit by the probe
sootblowing, two days after the deposit probe was placed in the boiler. The white pieces flying
away from the deposit probe denotes the removed deposit, and the background of the figure is
the superheater tubes covered by deposit. The deposit surface became light grey as the cool air
jet impinged the deposit. The removal of the downstream deposit happened mainly as powders
being blown away while the upstream deposit was removed in the large chunks, denoting the
deposit removal mechanisms by brittle fracture and debonding. Figure 9 (b) shows the
configuration of the probe deposit after the probe was removed from the boiler. Along the
probe, the surface has a camelback-like shape. The formation of the shape may arise from the
influence of the surrounding superheater bundles on the local flow field.
The outer layer of the downstream deposit on the probe was always removed easily, and a
portion of or no upstream deposit could be removed by sootblowing in the experiments. The
removability of the deposit is therefore defined as the ratio (area, %) of the upstream outer
layer deposit that was removed by the sootblowing. The amount of the removed deposit was
roughly estimated from the CCD video images. Figure 10 shows results regarding deposit
removal during the 740 hour long measuring campaign 5. The relative amount of probe deposit
that could be removed by either plant sootblowing or probe sootblowing is shown. The top part
of Figure 10 shows the percent of deposit removed by the plant sootblowing, and the bottom
part shows the level of probe jet PIP needed to remove the upstream deposit.
For the plant sootblowing, less and less upstream deposit was removed with increasing
exposure time, before the first boiler shutdown (at 180 h). Almost all the upstream deposits
were removed at t<120 h, around 50 % of the upstream deposit was removed at t=145 h, and
no upstream deposit could be removed when t>167 h. Boiler shutdown is beneficial to the
deposit removal, but the benefit is smaller at subsequent boiler shutdowns.
The probe sootblower was during the first 350 hours operated at a distance of 20 cm from
the deposit probe, so a maximum PIP of 45 kPa was available. However, later the sootblower
probe was moved closer to the deposit probe, and a maximum PIP of 190 kPa was obtained.
For the probe sootblowing, the upstream deposit became harder and harder to remove before
the first boiler stop (<180 h). Most of the deposit was removed at a PIP of 10 kPa about 22 h
after the clean probe was inserted into the furnace. At 167 h, only a small amount of deposit (<
25 %) can be removed at a PIP of 45 kPa. When the probe had resided more than 550 hours in
the boiler the deposit could in some cases not be removed even at a PIP as high as 190 kPa.

Generally, it was observed that increased residence time or probe temperature meant that
less upstream outer layer probe deposit could be removed. For instances, at a probe
temperature of 400 C, all deposit could be removed even at moderate PIP values. At 450 and
500 C the PIP required increased with exposure time, and at 550 C even with the maximum
available peak impact pressure of 190 kPa, no deposit could be removed.
Conclusions
The deposit shedding in a straw-fired grate-boiler has been investigated experimentally and
by modeling. Both quantitative and qualitative information of the shedding processes were
obtained. The observed behavior of the deposit shedding on the probe generally was similar to
the boiler superheater tube deposits, at equal local conditions in either the furnace or the
convective pass.
In the furnace, where the flue gas temperature (900 -1100
o
C) was high enough to cause
deposits to be partially or fully molten, droplet detachment was the main mechanism of
deposit shedding. The local flue gas temperature affects the deposit shedding rate. A higher
flue gas temperature caused a high deposit shedding rate, a lower deposit mass, and a higher
heat uptake. The mechanistic model developed, including submodels of condensation, ash
particle impaction, and thermophoresis, and shedding by droplet detachment is capable of
describing the observed deposit formation and shedding process. Furthermore, the model was
validated by the probe measurements and was used to calculate the influence of changed local
parameters on the development of the deposit weight and heat uptake.
In the convective pass where the flue gas temperature (650 830
o
C) is relatively low that
the deposits are mainly in the solid phase, the removal of the deposit is mainly caused by
external forces i.e. sootblowing. The well controlled probe sootblower quantitatively
determined the values of PIP needed to remove probe deposits as functions of the probe metal
temperature and the probe residence time. A lower probe metal temperature and a shorter
exposure times leads to a lower PIP needed to remove the probe deposit.
Acknowledgements
The deposit probe study was funded by PSO Energinet.dk. The company Dong Energi A/S
is acknowledged for letting us use the straw-fired boiler. This work is part of the CHEC
(Combustion and Harmful Emission Control) research centre funded by the Technical
University of Denmark, Nordic Energy Research, Dong Energi A/S, PSO funds from
Energinet.dk and the Danish Energy Research program.
References
1. Baxter, L.L., Miles, T.R., Jenkins, B.M., Milne, T., Dayton, D., 1998. The behavior of
inorganic material in biomass fired power boilers: field and laboratory experiences.
Fuel Process. Technol. 54, 4778
2. Frandsen, F.J., 2005. Utilizing biomass and waste for power production a decade of
contributing to the understanding, interpretation and analysis of deposits and corrosion
products. Fuel. 84 (10), 1277-1294
3. Jameel, M.I., Cormack, D.E., Tran, H.H., 1994. Sootblower optimization 1.
Fundamental hydrodynamics of a sootblower nozzle. Tappi Journal. 77 (5), 135-142
4. Jensen, P.A., Stenholm, M., Hald, P., 1997. Deposit investigation in straw-fired boiler.
Energy & Fuels. 11, 1048-1055

5. Zhou, H., Jensen, P.A., Frandsen, F.J., 2006. Dynamic mechanistic model of
superheater deposit growth and shedding in a biomass fired grate boiler. Submitted to
FUEL for publication.
6. Zbogar, A., Frandsen, F.J., Jensen, P.A., Glarborg, P., Hansen, J., 2006. Experimental
investigation of ash deposit shedding in a straw-fired boiler. Energy & Fuel. 20 (2),
512-519.

Figure Captions
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the grate fired boiler at the Avedre power plant
Figure 2. The applied shedding probe system
Figure 3. Measured PIP as functions of distance from the nozzle exit and the supplying air
pressure
Figure 4. Deposit shedding on pending superheater tubes in the furnace (campaign 1)
Figure 5. Deposit formation on horizontal superheater tubes in the convective pass (campaign
5)
Figure 6. Probe deposit shedding in the furnace (campaign 1)
Figure 7. Comparisons of the evolutions of calculated and measured probe deposit weight and
heat uptake as a function of time in the furnace
Figure 8. Examples of the measured signals of the flue gas temperature, the deposit weight,
and the heat uptake during experiments with a probe temperature of 500
o
C in the convective
pass (campaign 5)
Figure 9. Removal of deposit by artificial sootblowing and configuration of probe deposit after
the probe was removed from the convective pass (campaign 5)
Figure 10. Relative amount of deposit by plant sootblowing and the level of probe jet PIP
required to remove the front deposit (PIP values are the ones measured in laboratory at 20
o
C,
campaign 5)


Table 1: Measured local conditions in the furnace and convective pass

Furnace Convective pass
Flue gas temperature,
o
C 900 - 1100 650-830
Flue gas velocity, m/s 10 4-7
Fly ash concentration, g/Nm
3
1.2 1
Average particle size, m 58 35

Table 2: Performed shedding measurements

Number/Period Probe metal
temperature
(C)
Total hours
in the boiler
(h)
Boiler
shut-
downs
Number of
plant
sootblows
Number of
probe
sootblows
Furnace 1. 05/11-23/11/2003 500 376 2 -- --
2. 08/06 28/06 2004 400 A 454 0 12 0
3. 13/10 27/10 2005 400 B 332 0 12 5
4. 31/10 11/11 2005 450 263 0 10 8
5. 12/09 13/10 2005 500 A 743 3 22 16
6. 11/11 -14/11 2005 500 B 72 0 3 0
Convective
pass
7. 14/11 27/11 2005 550 272 0 10 3

Table 3: Straw chemical composition (d.b., weight %)

Moisture
content
Ash Volatile Fixed-C
10,2 4,7 76,6 18,7
C H N Al Ca Fe K Mg
47,23 6,34 0,406 0,0084 0,34 0,0077 0,92 0,065
Na P Si S Cl
0,024 0,060 1,1 0,093 0,358


Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the grate fired boiler at the Avedre power plant
SH2
SH3
SH1 probe in
furnace

grate
straw
secondary air
primary air
probe in
convective pass
sootblower


1: balance weight, 2: load cell, 3: CCD camera, 4: boiler wall, 5: artificial sootblower probe, 6:
deposit probe, 7: TC for flue gas temperature measurement, 8: flange, 9: probe hinge
mounting, 10: incandescent light

(Note: 5 and 10 were not used during the shedding experiments in the furnace)

Figure 2. The applied shedding probe system

1
2
3
4
5
6
5, 6
7
8
9
10


0 100 200 300 400 500 600
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
5 cm
7 cm
9 cm
11 cm
13 cm
15 cm
20 cm
P
I
P

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

/

k
P
a
Supplying air pressure / kPa

Figure 3. Measured PIP as functions of distance from the nozzle exit and the supplying air
pressure

(a) falling deposit at 19:17 (b) falling deposit at 19:39

Figure 4. Deposit shedding on pending superheater tubes in the furnace (campaign 1)

deposit
flue gas
flue gas
deposit


(a) - deposit shape on 23/Dec. (b) deposit shape on 30/Dec.

Figure 5. Deposit formation on horizontal superheater tubes in the convective pass

.

Figure 6. Probe deposit shedding in the furnace (campaign 1)
remains
shedding
drops
flue gas flow
direction
flue gas flow
direction


Figure 7. Comparisons of the evolutions of calculated and measured probe deposit weight and
heat uptake as a function of time in the furnace
1
2
3
4
M
a
s
s

/

k
g
/
m
2
200
400
600
800

F
l
u
e

g
a
s

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

/

o
C
boiler shutdown
164 168 172 176 180 184 188 192
0
10
20
30
40
50
Time / h
H
e
a
t

u
p
t
a
k
e

/

k
W
/
m
2

Figure 8. Examples of the measured signals of the flue gas temperature, the deposit weight, and
the heat uptake during experiments with a probe temperature of 500
o
C in the convective pass
(campaign 5)


(a) removal of probe deposit (b) configuration of probe deposit
Figure 9. Removal of deposit by artificial sootblowing and configuration of probe deposit after
the probe was removed from the convective pass (campaign 5)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
0
50
100
150
200
PIP at which the front deposit starts (0-25 %) to be removed
PIP at which most of the deposit (>75 %) could be removed
represents less than 25 % of deposit was removed at max. PIP
P
I
P

/

k
P
a
Time / h
0
20
40
60
80
100
R
e
m
o
v
e
d

d
e
p
o
i
s
t

/

%
(a): little deposit left
by the artifical sootblowing
boiler shutdown

Figure 10. Relative amount of deposit removed by plant sootblowing and the level of probe jet
PIP required to remove the front deposit (PIP values are the ones measured in
the laboratory at 20C, campaign 5)

deposit
probe
probe with
sootblower nozzle
Flue gas
probe with deposit
upstream
downstream

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