CCT Experience of Tong-Hae CFB Boiler Using Korean Anthracite

Jong-Min Lee, Jae-Sung Kim and Jong-Jin Kim Combustion & Thermal Engineering Group, Power Generation Laboratory, Korea Electric Power Research Institute, Korea Electric Power Corporation 103-16 Munji-dong , Yusung-gu, TaeJon 305-380, Korea

Abstract
The 200MWe Tong-Hae thermal power plant CFB boiler (2-units) in Korea is the largest boiler to fire Korean anthracite for electric power generation. The CFB units 1 and 2 have been operated commercially since October 1998, and October 1999, respectively. The initial operation period of the units clearly demonstrated that the full load operation was successful. However, there were apparently some rooms for optimization, particularly regarding a furnace and cyclones/loopseals temperatures and SOx emissions that were somewhat higher than expected. Also, combustion efficiency was somewhat lower than designed. Some modification of the boiler system such as cyclones, fluidizing nozzles and ash reinjection system was carried out to improve the performance of the boiler. It allowed temperatures of the furnace and cyclones/loopseals and the emissions of SOx to be lower. It also achieved the stable operation and increased the combustion efficiency of the CFB boiler.

INTRODUCTION
The design engineering and construction project of the Tong-Hae thermal power plant CFB(Circulating Fluidized Bed) boiler located in Tong-Hae, Korea, was begun by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) to utilize Korean anthracite in early 1993. Combustion Engineering Inc. (ABB-CE) designed a 200 MWe CFB boiler and KOPEC (Korea Power Engineering Company) served as the project architectural engineering. Additionally, Hanjung Heavy Industry Corporation was responsible for the boiler equipment fabrication and procurement [1]. The Tong-Hae CFB boiler was selected over the conventional pulverized coal boiler because of its improved efficiency and air emission capability. The unit of Tong-Hae CFB boiler designed in such a manner that it could be operated more efficiently and could be able to meet the Korean environmental standards without installation of external environmental control systems. Also, the CFB boiler doesnt need to fire supplemental fuel oil during normal operation. The 2 units of CFB boilers utilize the domestic anthracite as its fuel source approximately 1.2 million ton per year. This will encourage the local coal mining industry of Korea. The CFB unit 1 and unit 2 have been operated commercially since October 1998 and 1999, respectively [2]. The initial operation period clearly demonstrated that the full load operation was successful. However, there were apparently some rooms for optimization, particularly regarding a furnace and cyclones/loopseals temperatures and SOx emissions that were somewhat higher than expected. Also, combustion efficiency was somewhat lower than design. It was difficult to maintain the stable operation at high temperature due to the formation of clinker in the cyclones/loopseals. Some modification of the system was carried out to improve the performance of the CFB boiler, and allowed to get stable and efficient operation of the CFB boiler. This paper gives a description of the unit identifying the design features and considerations. The history of operation and modification to improve the performance of the CFB boiler from initial start up to the present is also discussed.

POWER PLAN AND STATUS OF CFB BOILER IN KOREA

Electricity forecast and long-term power plan in Korea Since the available domestic energy source is very limited, Korea mainly depends on imports for the most of the primary energy source. From the viewpoint of energy strategy and global environmental problem, CCT such as IGCC, FBC and FGD will be essential for the 21st century. The stringent environmental regulation has been implemented since January 1999 in Korea. KEPCO is planning to install some CCT units such as CFBC, PFBC or IGCC by the year 2015. KEPCO expects that the annual growth rate of electricity demand will be about 3.3% on average in the long term from 2002 to 2015. To meet future electricity demands, the power development plan requires to build additional 71 power generating units with a capacity of 32,740MW between 2002 and

2015. These facilities will comprise 12 nuclear units (13,600MW), 16 coal-fired plants (8,900MW), 20 LNG combined cycle units (7,570MW), 21 pumped storage power plants and hydro plants (2,520MW), 2 oil-fired plants (150MW) including some units of CCT power plants. According to the above program, the installed capacity by 2015 will be 77,023MW. The composition of capacity will be 26,637MW(34.6%) nuclear, 22,240MW(28.8%) coal, 21,762MW (28.3%) LNG and oil, 6,385MW(8.3%) hydro and pump storage power. This is summarized in Table 1. Table 1. Long-Term Electric Power Plan in Korea [3] 2001 (%) 13,720 15,530 12,870 4,870 3,880 2005 (27.0) 17,720 (30.5) 18,170 (28.6) (29.3) 2010 23,120 24,270 20,440 4,820 6,390 79,020 (29.2) (30.7) (25.9) (6.1) (8.1) (100) 2015 26,640 22,240 19,550 2,210 6,390 77,020 (34.6) (28.8) (25.4) (2.9) (8.3) (100)

Sources / Year Nuclear Coal-fired LNG-fired Oil-fired Hydro Total MW

MW (%) MW (%) MW (%) MW (%) MW (%)

(25.3) 16,810 (27.2) (9.6) (7.6) 4,670 4,490 61,850 (7.6) (7.3) (100)

50 ,860 (100)

Commercial CFB boiler in Korea Table 2 presents the commercial CFB boilers in Korea [4]. Most boilers in operation are utility scale boilers with a capacity of 100-250 steam tons per hour. The common fuel is a bituminous coal imported from abroad. The 200MWe Tong-Hae CFB plant, which is the largest power plant adopted beyond utility scale in Korea, uses Korean anthracite to demonstrate the capability of anthracite burning and thus encourages the domestic coal industry. Table 2. Distribution of Commercial CFB boiler in Korea Category Chemical Textile Textile Capacity Steam (MW) (T/H) 12.5 27 25 9.2 54.1 5.4 23 43.5 200 x 2 120 130 200 120 210 250 60 130 x 3 40 130 80 175 693 x2 Fuel Bitu. Coal, Pet. Coke Bitu. Coal Bitu. Coal, Pet. Coke Pet. Coke Bitu. Coal Bitu. Coal, Pet. Coke Bitu. Coal, Heavy Oil Bitu. Coal Bitu. Coal Bitu. Coal Bitu. Coal, Heavy Oil Bitu. Coal Anthracite Start 1985 1988 1989 1989 1989 1990 1991 1986 1988 1990 1991 1991 1998 1999 Supplier Hyundai /Ahlstrom Samsung/ Babcock Daewoo/ B&W Hanjung/Lurgi Hanjung/ ABB-CE

Company (Location) Oriental Chemical (Inchon) Sunkyung (Suwon) Sunkyung (Ulsan)

Hyundai Oil (Susan) Refinery LG Chemical (Yochon) Chemicals Petrochemical Service Cogen. Co. (Ulsan) Sunil Glucose (Inchon) Dyeing Complex (Taegu) Jeil Sugar (Seoul ) Hansol Paper (Jeunju ) Dyeing Complex (Pusan) Korea Energy (Ulsan) KEPCO (Tong-Hae) Food Dye Food Paper Dye Metal Electricity

TONG-HAE CFB BOILER FEATURES

The Tong-Hae thermal power plant CFB boiler was designed to fire Korean anthracite by Combustion Engineering, Inc. [ABB-CE, 1994]. The Tong-Hae CFB combustor is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of feeding parts of coal and limestone, PA, SA and FA supplier, main combustion part (furnace, cyclones, loopseal, FBHEs and FBAC), and convective backpass. Furnace Special consideration was paid to the 200MWe Tong-Hae thermal Backpass power plant CFB to minimize the erosion potential in the furnace. Gas Flow Design considerations were the use of Gas Flow a low fluidizing velocity, the use of specially designed tubes at the lower Coal Silo furnace refractory/water wall interface Cyclone with super hardened alloy coated, and Boiler the exclusion of the hanging heat Solid Flow exchanger surface in the furnace due to the erosiveness of the fuel. Some CFB designs have employed Solid Flow velocities of 6 m/sec or more, but Tong-Hae CFB is operated at a much lower velocity (at about 4.6m/sec). Air These velocities resulted in lower solid impact velocities and lower FBHE solid fluidization rates; both of which significantly lessened the furnace Air Windbox erosion potential. FBAC The furnace of the Tong-Hae CFB Primary Air Air (19m(W) x 7m(L) x 32m(H)) has a rectangular footprint and is significantly wider than it is deep, Fig. 1. Tonghae CFB Boiler Feature incorporating as an aspect ratio of more than 2:1. As all fuel feed points are aligned on the furnace front wall, the rectangular geometry was chosen to allow for good fuel mixing. Limestone is injected with the fuel in the fuel feed chutes and it is also introduced in two injection ports along the rear wall. Flue gas and solid particles exit the furnace through three openings in the upper rear wall. Solids are returned to the furnace from the cyclones and external fluid bed heat exchangers (FBHE) via the lower front wall. Primary air is introduced to the furnace via the fluidization grate. T-style fluidizing nozzle patented by ABB-CE has relatively large openings to reduce the potential of plugging associated with many nozzle designs, while maintaining a pressure drop to preclude backsifting. Secondary air is introduced at the lower furnace along the front and rear walls. All secondary air nozzles are furnished with butterfly style dampers to maintain a steady secondary air supply-duct pressure. Secondary air is also introduced into four start-up burners. Bottom ash is removed from the bottom of the furnace via two ash control valves (ACV). The bottom ash is introduced into a fluidized bed ash cooler (FBAC) which contains economizer and cooling water heat transfer surface. Heated fluidizing air is returned from the FBAC vents into the CFB combustor at four locations along the front wall. Cyclones and Loopseal Most entrained particles from the flue gas are captured by three cyclone separators and are returned

to the furnace, passed through the loopseals. The loopseals serve to create a pressure seal from positive pressure in the furnace to the negative pressure in the cyclone. This pressure seal prevents the flow of material back up the cyclone from the bottom of the furnace. Fluidized Bed Heat Exchangers (FBHE) The Tong-Hae unit was designed to operate at 35% load without support fuel and at 30% load with minimal co-firing of the start up fuel oil. This stringent boiler turndown requirement, coupled with the difficulty to burn Korean anthracite, resulted in offering external fluid bed heat exchangers. At each of the loopseal, a stream of solid particles is diverged and introduced into FBHE. As the solid particles from the loopseal flow over the FBHE heat transfer surfaces, the ash is cooled. The ash is then returned to the furnace. By placing superheat and reheat heat transfer surface in separate FBHEs into which solids can be introduced in a controlled fashion, optimum turn down control is accomplished. Convective Backpass The total unit heat duty is distributed in a fairly even fashion among the furnace, backpass, and FBHEs. The convective backpass contains the first stages of superheater and reheater heat transfer surfaces. The convective back pass is steam cooled as used on typical utility boiler designs. A typical air-through, gas-over tubular air heater is located below the convective backpass economizer. Properties of Coal and Limestone and Operating Conditions Korean anthracite contains 39% ash, 4% volatile matters(VM), 53.7% fixed carbon(FC) and 3.3% moisture(MS). The coal has relatively low content of S (0.6%) and N (0.2%), and has low heating value and the combustion reactivity. The fraction of coal in the range of 0.1-6mm is over 95% on the design basis. Limestone used as a sorbent for desulfurization, contains 90% of CaCO3 and 4.2% of MgCO3. The particle size of limestone is smaller than 1.0mm (<0.7mm-95%, <0.5mm-90%). The proximate and ultimate analysis of the anthracite is shown in Table 3. The operation condition with variation of nominal rates is also shown in Table 4. Table 3. Analyses of design coal used in the Tong-Hae CFBC. Proximate analysis wt.% Ultimate analysis C 3.59 Moisture H 4.12 Volatile Matters O 57.80 Fixed Carbon N 34.49 Ash S 4600~4800 (kcal/kg) Heating Value (dry basis) Ash

wt.% (dry basis) 60.41 0.79 2.16 0.42 0.45 35.75

Table 4. Operation conditions in the Tong-Hae CFB boiler. Operation conditions Primary air (kg/h) Secondary air (kg/h) FBHE & loopseal air (kg/h) FBAC air (kg/h) Bed temperature (oC) Pressure drop (mmH2O) Coal (kg/s) Limestone (kg/s)
a

BMCR

MGR

100%cNR

75%NR

50%NR

30%NR

382,700 256,300 40,100 49,300

382,700 334,760 287,740 299,830 180,080 77,320 77,320 77,320 40,100 40,100 40,100 32,210 49,300 49,300 49,300 49,300 830 ~ 880 1400 ~ 1600 (including pressure drop of distributor) 30.1 29.7 27.3 20.7 14.5 7.9 0.92 0.91 0.83 0.63 0.44 0.38

382,700 245,890 40,100 49,300

a: Boiler Maximum Continuous Rating , b: Maximum Guaranteed Rating, c: Nominal Rating

OPERATION EXPERIENCES Basic guidelines for start up and operating the CFB boiler to complement control loop tuning and automatic controls have been prepared via some operating experience. Some changes and modifications were required to the procedure based upon the operating conditions encountered at the time. To improve the performance of the CFB boiler, some values and systems have been added in the combustor and boiler air/gas systems. In the steady-state CFB operation at 100% NR, the achieving conditions are as follows: - Furnace low temperature: 830-880oC - loopseal dipleg temperature: 900-970oC - Furnace overall differential pressure (including grid pressure): 1,400-1,600 mmH2O - Furnace upper differential pressure (L=23.3m; from 6.9 to 30.2m): 100-300 mmH2O - loopseal dipleg pressure: 500-1,000 mmH2O Initial Experience and Technical Problems During the initial operating period of the CFB, the following problems were found; longer time initial heat-up of bed material, formation of clinkers in loopseals and cyclones, higher emission of unburned carbon in fly ash, higher temperature profiles and higher SOx emission. These problems may be due to lower combustion reactivity and particle size distribution of Korean anthracite. The ignition temperature of the coal sized of 43m was about 510oC, and rose with increasing particle size. This was about 100oC higher than that of bituminous coal under same condition. The activation energy, determined in TGA, was about 51 kcal/mol in the chemical reaction control regime. It showed similar trend obtained in previous study [5]. However, combustion rate of anthracite char was much slower than that of bituminous coal char as compared with previous work [5]. Consequently, the temperature of hind part of the CFB, such as freeboard, cyclones and loopseals, was made to increase by low combustion reactivity and post combustion reaction of the anthracite. The particle size distribution of the coal, as well as low combustion reactivity, may cause to increase the temperature of freeboard, cyclones and loopseals. The coal included finer (<0.075mm) and coarser (>6mm) particles than PSD designed and is shown in Table 5. Especially, the fine particles were considered more important when the full circulation of the bed material was not achieved. At this time, the temperature of the hind part of the CFB also increased, because the heat of coal combustion was not transferred and distributed well to the wall membrane tube due to low fraction of the bed material in the freeboard. Consequently, the high temperature operation caused to form clinkers in the loopseals, and to deactivate the sorbent (CaO) for desulfurization reaction. The unburned carbon fraction in the fly ash was also high because of short residence time of fine particles in the combustor. Table 5. Particle size distribution of design and sampled coal (#1, 2, 3) in field. Size distribution (mm) Design PSD (wt.%) #1-PSD (wt.%) #2-PSD (wt.%) 0 1.0 0 >9.5 5.0 14.4 0 5.6 9.5 1.2 5.1 1.0 4.75 - 5.6 2.9 12.3 2.0 2.8 4.75 2.4 7.2 16.0 2 2.8 14.0 20.0 31.0 1.0 2.0 20.0 14.6 16.0 0.6 1.0 26.0 14.6 17.0 0.25 0.6 17.9 5.8 10.0 0.1 0.25 3.1 3.0 2.0 0.075 0.1 11.0 2.0 5.0 <0.075

#3-PSD (wt.%) 0 24.4 5.1 11.5 4.0 11.0 6.0 12.0 13.6 2.4 10.0

To solve these problems, it is necessary to reduce the time for initial heat-up of the bed materials, which allows the circulation to be achieved quickly, and to remove the defluidization region in the loopseals, as well as to increase the solid circulation rate allowing the decrease of the temperature of loopseals and cyclones. Therefore, the lance burners were mounted to heat up the bed materials quickly, and the grease air lines in the loopseals were also added to improve the fluidization. The

cyclone was also modified to improve the efficiency by way of extension of the vortex finder and reduction of width of cyclone inlet duct. On the other hand, the fly ash reinjection system was installed to reduce unburned carbon in fly ash, which was relative high than designed. The reinjection system returned a portion of fly ash from electric precipitator (EP) and air preheater (AH) hoppers into the combustor. Also, the T-type nozzles were modified to prevent the backsift of solid particles through the fluidizing nozzles by introducing longer and steeper orifice-tube lines. These modifications increased solid circulation rate and consequently, allowed being lower temperatures of the furnace and cyclones/loopseals and the emissions of SOx as well as increasing the combustion efficiency. Table 6 shows modification items and current status of the boiler. Table 6. Modifications of the device for the Tong-Hae CFBC Item Contents for modifications Grease air line at loopseal(dipleg ) Grease air line around ACVs on FBHE Window for observation at loopseal Duct water spray nozzles at cyclone inlet Injection port of bed media (sand) to bed Injection port of bed media to loopseals Solids drain line at fluidizing air line Solids drain line at FBAC Lance burner Fluidizing nozzles Cyclone modification Fly Ash reinjection system 2.5pipe 35 places at each loopseal 1 and 1.5 10 place at each ACV 1 window at each loopseals 2 pipe 3 places 6 pipe 3 places 6 pipe at each loopseals 2 nozzles 7 places Screw type at FBAC 5 places in the combustor Longer and steeper orifice tube Vortex finder and inlet width from EP and AH hoppers to combustor

Marks Addition/use Addition/use New/use New/not use New/not use New/not use New/use New/use New/not use Exchange Modification Modification

Improvement of the CFB performance after modification of cyclone After the modification of cyclones, the differential pressure of upper part ( L=23.3m from combustor top ) in the combustor, 35 35 regarded as basis of before modification PT complement of solid 30 30 after modification circulation, was about 190-210 25 25 mmH2O, which was higher than that of unmodified. The 20 20 differential pressure of middle part also Pupper, before : 100-160 mmH2O 15 15 increased. These are Pupper, after : 190-210 mmH2O resulted from the 10 10 change of solid hold Pmiddle, before : 400-500 mmH2O up in the combustor PT 5 Pmiddle, after : 450-550 mmH2O due to increase of 5 cyclone efficiency. PT The axial solid hold 0 0 up and pressure 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0 200 400 600 8001000 1200 profiles before and Solid Fraction [-] Pressure [mmH2O] after modification of cyclones are shown Fig. 2. Axial solid hold up and pressure profiles in the combustor
Combustor Height [m] Combustor Height [m]

in Fig. 2, with predicted results by IEA (International Energy Agency) - CFBC model [6-7]. The increases of solid circulation rate and solid hold up in lean phase are estimated from increase of the differential pressure. In the model calculation for the solid hold up and the pressure profiles in the combustor, the predicted results for before and after cyclone modification had good fits [8]. The temperature profiles before and Cyclone inlet T after modification of cyclone in the 30 combustor are shown in Fig. 3 with predictions by IEA-CFBC model. The before modification temperature in the combustor after 25 after modification modification of cyclone was lower than that of before modification of cyclone. 20 The cyclones inlet temperatures as well as loopseals temperatures were also lower 15 than before, and the stable operation and control could be achieved successfully. The emissions of SO2 also became to be 10 lower and its current emission level is about 120~130ppm. annulus 5 core In Fig. 4, the calculated cumulative size fractions of discharged bottom ash, 0 recycle ash and filter ash are depicted with 700 750 800 850 900 950 1000 1050 sample taken from after modification of cyclone. The calculated results predict that Temperature [oC] smaller particles are more circulated, so the particles in all parts appear to be smaller after modification of cyclone. This Fig. 3. Comparison of temperature profiles between is because of the increase of the cyclone before and after modification of cyclones efficiency. Therefore, the modification of cyclone before modification to improve separation efficiency allowed temperatures of the furnace and after modification sample from field cyclones/loopseals and the emissions of SOx to be lower and more stable. 100
Combustor Height [m]

Recirculation Cumulative Weight Faction [%] 80 Filter Bed-content 40 Feed 20 Overflow 100 1000 10000

60

0 10

Particle Size [m]

Fig. 4. Comparison of particle size distribution in the CFB boiler.

Improvement of the CFB performance after installation of ash reinjection system The ash reinjection system for improvement of the combustion efficiency was installed at EP hopper and AH hoppers and a portion of fly ash was reinjected into the combustor. About 2~3% of unburned carbon in fly ash was reduced and the horizontal temperature gradient in the combustor was decreased after installation of the ash reinjection system. The decrease of temperature gradient of the combustor may be caused from the activation of mixing of the particles through adding of fine particles to the bed as well as introducing some air for ash transport to the combustor. Therefore, the installation of the ash reinjection system allowed the combustion

efficiency to increase and the stable operation to be achieved.

CONCLUSIONS
During the initial operation period, the Tong-Hae CFB boiler demonstrated successfully in spite of some problems. The temperatures of the combustor and cyclones/loopseals became to be lower than before cyclone modification, and the SO2 emissions were also reduced. The combustion efficiency was somewhat increased and the temperature gradient in the bed was decreased after installation of the ash reinjection system. Consequently, the stable and improved operation of the Tong-Hae CFB boiler could be achieved.

REFERENCES
[1] Maitland J, Schaker Y. Design of the 200MWe Tonghae thermal power plant circulating fluidized bed steam generator. In: Preto FDS, editor. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Fluidized Bed Combustion, Vancouver, Canada: ASME, 1997. p.191-196. [2] Kim JS, Lee JM. Status of the 200MWe Tonghae thermal power plant circulating fluidized bed boiler using Korean anthracite coal. In : Proceedings of the 2nd Korea-China Joint Workshop, Taejon, Korea: KIER, 1998. p. 445-454. [3] Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy in Korea. The first plan for supply and demand of electric power in Korean, MOCIE 2002-158, 2002. [4] Lee SH, Lee JM, Kim JS, Choi J.H, Kim S.D. Combustion Characteristics of Anthracite Coal in the D CFB boiler. HWAHAK KONGHAK, 2000. p. 516-522. [5] Lee JM, Kim, YJ, Lee WJ, Kim, SD. Coal Gasification Kinetics Derived from Pyrolysis in a Fluidized Bed Reactor, Energy, 1998, 23, p 475-484. [6] Hannes JP. Mathematical modeling of circulating fluidized bed combustion. PhD Thesis, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, 1996. [7] Hannes JP, Bleek CM, Renz U. The IEA model for circulating fluidized bed combustion. In: Heinschel KJ, editor. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Fluidized Bed Combustion, Orlando, Florida: ASME, 1995. p. 287-296. [8] Lee JM, Kim, JS, Kim, JJ. Evaluation of the 200MWe Tonghae CFB boiler performance with cyclone modification, Energy, 2003, 28, p 575-589.