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1 Introduction furnace depend on the mode of furnace control and steam genera-
tion demand. Up to a certain extent, the variation in the quality of
In the electric power business, cost effective generation with a
input raw coal is taken care of by the factor of safety in design.
high availability factor has always been an important issue 1,2. However, often the variation beyond acceptable limits results in
In 2005, about 40.3% IEA 3 of the global power generation is variation in the quality and quantity of PC output.
met by coal fired thermal power generation. In India, coal fired As such, capacity mapping is a mechanism by which we can
thermal power plants contribute about 73% of the total installed assess the available capacity in terms of the quantitative output of
capacity of power generation. required quality while there is a variation in process inputs from
The PC-firing system is the most adopted technology in coal the usual design conditions and limitations. The main objective of
fired thermal power plants, particularly for higher capacity units. capacity mapping is to optimize the utilization of any equipment
Therefore, a pulverizer plays a pivotal role in the power genera- based on the manufacturers recommended typical conditions of
tion process. For any PC-fired thermal power generating system, input/output. For this, the maximum operating capacity as per
the design and selection of a pulverizer are on available grade or performance guarantee test or standard design capacity can be
quality of coal. The quality and quantity of PC to be fed to the taken as a reference capacity. The impacts of variability of differ-
ent pulverization process inputs are analyzed to ascertain the
maximum available capacity in terms of quantity that can be uti-
Contributed by the Fuel Combustion Committee of ASME for publication in the lized without affecting the quality of the output.
JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received February 8, 2008;
final manuscript received April 2, 2008; published online August 11, 2008. Review
Thus, capacity mapping is to ensure beforehand the decrease in
conducted by Srinivas Katipamula. Paper presented at the ASME Power 2006 efficiency losses that may occur due to overutilization or underuti-
PWR2006, Atlanta, GA, May 24, 2006. lization of the equipments running capacity. It ascertains varia-
Journal of Energy Resources Technology Copyright 2008 by ASME SEPTEMBER 2008, Vol. 130 / 032201-1
1 Raniganj belt 20 33 4 49
2 15 35 4.4 46
3 16 34.7 4.8 633
4 15 34.3 5 42
5 18.6 33.8 6.3 54
6 12.0 36.4 5.8 48
7 20.8 33.0 5.4 42
8 KNagar 13.8 36.6 1.9 56
9 28.9 27.5 6.0 80
10 Bararee 26.4 17.6 1.4 60
11 Loyabad 20.5 22.5 1.2 82
12 Agordih 21.8 19.1 1.3 82
13 Lodhna 24.7 19.9 0.9 73
14 Khas-jharia 25.9 17.3 1.2 75
Taking periodic readings through a dirty pitot tube, the dirty air
curve for various pulverizer loadings can be established for sub-
Fig. 8 Pulverization capacity variation for moisture percent sequent adjustments to maintain the PC quality. This will provide
>15% for a given PA inlet temperature the available pulverizing capacity with respect to pulverizer inter-
nal wears with time. Therefore, the capacity factor for wearing
effect is a function of the progressive running hours, cumulative
ratio in the medium speed pulverizer is in the range of 1.72.2, pulverizer coal input, root mean square value of the input coal
while that in the tube mill is 1.21.5 Clapp, 1991 11. The PA abrasive index, and cumulative quantity of coal rejected from the
requirement reduces with the increase in coal feeding. Therefore, pulverizer.
in the part load operation, the air-coal ratio increases. The air-coal In India, high ash non-caking coals with an ash content of 32
ratio also increases with the decrease in the HGI due to more 45% from different coal fields are used for the coal-based thermal
recirculation and it decreases with the decrease in the fixed carbon power generation with PC-firing system. Most of these high ash
content, implying the less heating value and the more coal input coals contain a significant quantity of abrasive minerals, particu-
requirement. The pulverizer differential is the differential pressure larly alpha quartz free silica. Additionally, the shape and size of
between the PA inlet pressure and the PC-air outlet pressure from the abrasive minerals decide the rate of erosion. In India, erosion
the pulverizer. To maintain the air-coal ratio within the specific in the pulverizer is largely dependent on alpha quartz.
limit, the pulverizer differential versus the PA differential ratio at In a study by Perish 12 on coal abrasiveness using a Yancy
a particular PA flow can be analyzed. This ratio can be utilized to GearPrice machine, the relationship between the wear rate and
find out the maximum pulverizing capacity or the capacity factor the mineral contents of coal is linear. According to the study con-
considering the minimum quantity of the mill rejects, as shown in ducted by Babcock Power, the correlation of the quantity of abra-
Fig. 11 pulverizer differential/PA differential ratio at a given PA sive minerals quartz+ pyrite with wear and tear of the pulverizer
differential value. The air-coal ratio in a particular level of pul- is found as follows: wearing rate is low for less than 2% abrasive
verizer differential is a function of the PA differential. Hence the mineral in coal, medium for 23%, high for 35%, and alarming
capacity mapping with pulverizer differential versus PA differen- for more than 5% abrasive minerals.
tial ratio will help to identify the variation of the throat gap in the The percentage of fed coal rejected in the pulverizing process
vertical spindle mill, short circuiting of static cyclone, imbalance can be analyzed to understand the effect of wear on a particular
in the hot and cold PA inlet damper operations, etc. For E-type pulverizer. If coal characteristics do not vary appreciably, pulver-
mills, a ratio of about 8 is considered favorable for the mill oper- izers operated at the same loading and power input at different
ating range. progressive running hours will deliver the PC depending on the
5.6 Effect of Pulverizer Erosion. The rate of the wear of the health of pulverizer internal elements. The specific gravity of In-
pulverizer grinding elements and the internals are proportional to dian coal of commercial grade varies between 1.45 and 1.65. The
the cumulative PC output and the progressive running hours. The allowable percentage of coal spillage in the rejects should not
performance of the grinding elements deteriorates to produce the exceed 10% as separated floats of rejects sample in 1.8 g/cc
desired PC due to the presence of quartz, pyrites, siderite, and density solution. An increase of coal spillage reflects overfeeding
other high abrasive mineral matters in the coal ash. Besides, with if there are no other reasons, such as the blocked PA flows, the
the degradation of coal quality, the PC input requirement increases low PC-air outlet temperature, the classifier cone choke, the PC
to meet the specific steam generation demand. The pulverizing pipe choke.
capacity is gradually reduced during the pulverizer running life
with a particular set of grinding elements while maintaining the 6 Conclusion
quality of the output, as shown in Fig. 12 capacity factor versus Considering all the factors affecting the performance, we find
progressive running hours mill life/mill wear. that the pulverizer capacity decreases when the input raw coal size
To maintain the PC quality with respect to fineness, air-coal increases. The HGI value of coal decreases, the PC fineness per-
ratio, outlet temperature, etc., the rate of reduction in the capacity cent increases, the total moisture content of raw coal increases, the
between successive pulverizer adjustments can be plotted down. PC outlet temperature decreases, and the pulverizer differential
Acknowledgment
The author wishes to acknowledge the peer review of the paper
done by Dr. B. Sinha, Ex. Director-in-Charge CMERI/CSIR/India,
Professor A. K. Mitra, Deparment of Mechanical Engineering/
National Institute of Technology/Durgapur; Professor A. Dutta,
Ex. H.O.D. Department of Humanities, NIT/Durgapur and the
support and encouragement extended by NPTI authorities to un-
Fig. 11 Pulverizer differential/ PA differential ratio at a given dertake this work. Special thanks are due to the chemical labora-
PA differential value tory and fuel efficiency cell of DPPS/DPL, A Ghosh, Sr. Scientist
NEERI-Nagpur, Dr. H. S. Sarkar, Ex. Chief Chemist, DPL; Ef-
ficiency Cell, Dr. P. S. Tripathy. C.F.R.I.-Dhanbad, Sri Sumit
Kundu, Engineer, NTPC/Vindyachal S.T.P.S. former. P. G. Di-
ploma Trainee NPTI/ER to assist in collection of data and test-
ing of the program part; Khaparkheda TPS/MSEB; CPRI/Koradi
for various short communications to complete this work.
Nomenclature
slagging deposition of fused ash over the
tube of furnace 17
fouling index percent of alkaline salts in coal
ash affecting deposition in con-
vective zone of the boiler
YGP/abrasion index the rate of metal loss from grind-
Fig. 12 Capacity factor versus progressive running hours ing elements
mill life/mill wear caking index propensity to clinker formation
Chittatosh Bhattacharya is a 1990 Mechanical Engineering Graduate and M. Tech (OR & B. Mgt) in 2002
from NIT, Durgapur, Inda. He completed P.G. Dip. (Ecology & Env) in 2001. His eighteen years profes-
sional career is spread over boiler manufacturing planning at ACC-Babcock Ltd.; Boiler Maintenance at
Durgapur Projects Ltd., West Bengal, India and presently at National Power Training Institute, Durgapur
imparting training. He has managed boiler-maintenance activities in DPL. He has coordinated a number of
boiler overhauling, training programs and seminars. He has also worked for R&M on retrofitting higher
capacity ESP, Pulverizers. He has authored a book on Maintenance Planning & Cost Control from NPTI.
He is having research interest in environmental/efficiency aspects of coal fired steam generation and so far
having twelve publications. He holds a patent on developing a Boiler Outlet Steam Attemperation System.