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: John Quirke
Cc
: Archie Go
: August 5, 2015
Re
Review
Action
Approval
This memo is additional information from the report submitted by Henry Wong of AECOM titled
Boiler Type Selection for Semirara Coal dated June 5th of 2015 for internal use only.
It is clear and accepted that sodium (Na2O) content of coal more than 5% has a significant effect
on boiler heat recovery area (HRA) or also known as convection back-pass if the boiler unit is not
properly designed affecting boiler efficiency, steam temperature control, and reliability.
Quote From page 7 of 35:
A circulating fluidized bed boiler would not necessarily immune to HRA fouling
For the same amount of alkalis a CFB may be more problematic. Because of the fact that there is
a constant recirculation of bed material and ash from the hot cyclone back to the furnace the bed
alkalis tend to concentrate. This is exacerbated by the fact that the Semirara coal is low in sulfur
and a lesser amount of fresh limestone is needed to be injected per pound of coal. Therefore, to
keep the alkali % low inert material such as PC ash would need to be fed into the CFB to flush the
bed of alkalis. Increased inert material reduces the fouling potential by keeping the alkali % in the
bed from building up.
Unquote:
No boiler is immune to inherent quality of coal ash that will result either to low fouling or severe
fouling tendencies, there will always be a gas-side localized fouling and, worst case, plugging the
entire superheater tube bundle blocking the flue gas as flow.
Having the CFB unit with same amount of fuel specification and mass flow with same 3% - 5% or
greater Alkali content, same boiler design for both furnace and HRA as with the PC units, CFB
units will have fouling problem more than that of the PC units. This is primarily due to ash
agglomeration forming at CFB operating temperatures.
Design the CFB boiler considering fuel and limestone with high Alkali content to sustain steady
operation before planned shutdown maintenance.
Post EPC:
With boiler design in place and fixed, introduce an inert material to be fed with the bed
material to counter or dilute the concentrated Alkalies and disrupt the bonding or catalytic
reaction between ash particles and reduce ash agglomeration.
Reference Experience:
Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) Northside Generating Station (NGS) 2 x 300 MW CFB Boiler
built in 2002 and the biggest CFB boilers at that time.
Riddled with problems for the first 6 years of operation due to combustion quality and ash
agglomeration. Problems include:
Chronic problem of bottom ash removal system, resulting in unit load reduction and unit
trips.
JEA went to capital improvement and modifications with little success including:
-
Problem still exist when Intrex final superheater and back-pass reheater assessment had a
significant ash buildups in only 2 3 months of operation after shutdown maintenance.
JEA turned their direction into Six-Sigma based process optimization method and found the
root cause is due to rapid ash agglomeration due to high levels of Alkalies.
JEA tapped Microbeam Technologies Inc. to determine the mechanism of ash agglomeration in
FW CFBs.
NGS looked for suitable inert additives that would disrupt the bonding chemical reaction,
improve ash chemistry, and reduce agglomeration.
NGS tested Imerys Aurora fuel additive, a kaolin-based product for 30 days.
Aurora fuel additive chemically captures the Alkalies before they form low-melting point
compounds. Aurora forms an intermediate compound at boiler operating temperatures that is
highly porous and reacts with high efficiency. The intermediate compound then reacts with
Alkalies to form Alkali Alumino-Silicates, which exhibit much higher melting point
temperatures and lack the stickiness of the alkali compounds at CFB temperatures.
Result:
-
NGS CFB Boilers have not experience any significant ash buildup related incidents such as
cyclone plugs, unit derating, and forced shutdowns since the use of additive began in June
2008.
The HRA or back-pass of the boiler, prior to 2008 used explosive blast cleaning every 3 6
months, has not been cleaned in any form in almost 3 years.
Unit forced outage rate was improved from over 13% to 1% by 2011.
The loop seals and portions of the furnace grid that required up to 10 days of jackhammering to remove agglomerated ash are now cleaned with a vacuum truck in few
hours.
Convection tubes are found to be cleaned with drastically reduced scale buildup.
CFBs are operating for 3 years without HRA cleaning and zero cyclone plugs.
Note:
To be confirmed, DMCI Plant Manager stated before that they use fuel additive and improved
the operation of the CFB boiler including heat rate and output.
Sources:
AECOM Report
Alstom Combustion Engineering (CE)
B&W Steam 41sth edition
BV Power Plant Handbook
PowerMag: Reducing Ash Agglomeration in JEAs CFB Boilers, Oct 2012.
Other web references