Circulating Fluidized Bed Technology 
Provides Multi‐Pollutant  
Removal Capabilities 
 
Robert Giglio 
Foster Wheeler Global Power Group 
 
Rolf Graf 
Foster Wheeler Graf Wulff 

Presented at PowerGen International 
 
Orlando, Florida 
December 11‐13, 2012 
 
 

ABSTRACT

Reduction of emissions of heavy metal including mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases such
as hydrochloric (HCl) and hydrofluoric (HF) acids is now within the primary focus of the nation’s coal fired
power plants by virtue of the EPA Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule enacted in December
2011. The EPA’s 2011 Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), while vacated in August 2012, will likely
be re-proposed and adopted further mandating SO2 reductions on owners of coal fired power plants who
will continue to evaluate the merits of adding back-end air quality control systems (AQCS) versus shutting
down units that would otherwise be out-of-compliance.

Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) Scrubbing technology, developed and patented by Graf-Wulff GmbH
(Friedrichsdorf/ Frankfurt, Germany) and acquired by Foster Wheeler in 2011, offers a viable pathway for
addressing multi-pollutant control in a cost effective manner. Combining lime hydration and storage
equipment, a circulating fluidized bed upflow reactor/absorber, and downstream fabric filter or ESP, all
CFB scrubber system equipment can be installed in one building or outdoors. Construction costs can be
reduced as the major system components can be pre-assembled on the ground and lifted into place
during system erection.

Foster Wheeler’s CFB scrubbing technology provides high pollutant removal efficiencies to 99% for SO2,
SO3, HCl and HF. Further, the absorber/fabric filter arrangement is highly adaptable for sorbent injection
for removal of heavy metals including mercury.

CFB scrubber installations at a coal-fired utility boiler in the US and an oil-fired refinery boiler in Europe
will be discussed.

A New Direction for Environmental Regulations

Emission limits for conventional pollutants such as SOx, NOx and particulate matter continue to tighten
for power plants and industrial facilities around the world. For power plants, Europe’s new Industrial
Emission Directive (IED) has tightened both SOx and NOx emission limits by 50 mg/Nm3 and particulate
limits by 10 mg/Nm3 compared with Europe’s prior Large Combustion Plant Directive.

This year China has lowered its SOx, NOx and particulate emissions limits for power plants to levels even
less than those in Europe’s IED. The US Cross State Air Pollution Rule has triggered a country-wide
debate on how low US states should go with their SOx, NOx, and particulate emission limits, raising
concerns about power reliability if excessive coal plants retirements occur.
 

But now a new trend is on the horizon with regulation expanding to new compounds never before
regulated. The US is leading this trend by including metals, acid gases and organic compounds to the list
of pollutants that must be controlled under the USEPA’s new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.

Europe is not too far behind with its IED requiring a best available technology standard for these
additional compounds as well. These compounds have always been regulated for certain waste fuel
applications such as waste-to-energy plants and incinerators, but now regulators are applying them to all
boilers, right up to large utility coal boilers.

The trend is clear: environmental concerns will continue to drive stricter limits for an expanding range of
pollutants.

A Better Way to Clean Flue Gases

Due to its proven large scale and high capture ability of sulphur dioxide (SO2) over a wide range of fuel
sulphur levels, wet flue gas desulphurization (FGD) scrubbing technology has been the most popular
choice for removing sulphur from boiler flue gases in large power plants and industrial facilities.

The technology has a low operating cost since it utilizes low cost limestone as the reagent and can
produce gypsum for sale to wallboard manufacturers. However, on the downside, wet FGDs are the most
expensive to build, use the most water, occupy the largest amount of real estate and can keep a full crew
busy maintaining its large number of pumps, pipes, valves and vessels.
But, more importantly, due to chemistry and process, wet FGDs do not do a good job of capturing metals
like mercury or acid gases like sulphur trioxide (SO3), hydrogen chloride (HCl) or hydrogen fluoride (HF).

The Emergence of Dry FGD Technology

Now, with the US Mercury & Air Toxics Standards (MATS) requiring capture of mercury, acid gases,
dioxins and furans in addition to SO2 and particulates, dry FGD technologies are becoming more popular
due to their ability to capture this expanded set of pollutants.

There are different types of dry technologies ranging from a simple injection of a sorbent into the boiler
flue gas (called direct sorbent injection or DSI), to the more established spray dryer absorber (SDA)
technology, which sprays a fine dry mist of lime into the flue gas, to newer circulating fluidized-bed
technology (CFB) which circulates the boiler ash and lime between an absorber reactor and fabric filter.
 

The different dry FGD technologies have their pros and cons, but for many mid- to large-scale power and
industrial facilities, CFB scrubbers are growing in popularity. This is most evident in the pipeline of US
retrofit scrubber projects where more and more projects are selecting this technology over others.

In the past, dry scrubbing technology was typically chosen over wet FGD technology for its much lower
capital cost and water usage, provided that the boiler size was not too large and the fuel sulphur level
was not too high. Today, CFB scrubber technology has broken through these limitations with single unit
designs up to 700 MWe backed by operating references on coal power plants of over 500 MWe and on
fuels with sulphur levels above 4%.

FWGW CFB Scrubber – Proven in many Applications

As illustrated in Figure 1, the Foster Wheeler Graf-Wulff multi-pollutant CFB scrubber is a flexible and
economical technology that has been applied to a wide array of boilers in power plants, steel mills,
petroleum refineries, waste-to-energy plants, CHP, and many other industries.

Figure 1.Application of Foster Wheeler/Graf Wulff CFB Scrubbing Technology

CFB Scrubbing Principles of Operation

As shown in Figure 2, boiler flue gas enters at the bottom of the CFB scrubber’s up-flow absorber vessel.
The gas mixes with hydrated lime and water injected into the absorber, as well as recirculated solids from
the downstream fabric filter (or electrostatic precipitator). The turbulator wall surface of the absorber
causes high turbulent mixing of the flue gas, solids and water to achieve a high capture efficiency of the
vapor phase acid gases and metals contained within the flue gas.
 

The CFB scrubber process achieves a very high solids-to-gas ratio which dramatically improves the ability
of vapor phase pollutants to find absorption sites on the colliding solid particles. The water plays the
important role of cooling the gas to enhance the absorption of the vapor phase pollutants onto the solid
particles.
The process does not require peripheral equipment such as rotary atomizers, spray spargers, or mist
eliminators utilized in conventional dry or wet scrubbers. From the fabric filter or ESP, clean flue gas is
directed to the stack.

Fig. 2. CFB Scrubber Process Flow Schematic

 

Major Components

CFB Absorber

Multiple flue gas venturies, shown in Figure 3, provide the required fluidizing gas dispersion and adequate
suspension of the solids across the full diameter of the absorber vessel. The multi-venturi design allows
a wide capacity range with little scale-up risk.

Water injection nozzles provide an atomized spray cloud of water droplets enhancing heat and mass
transfer rates over the large surface area of solids churning some 75 feet within the confines of the vessel
walls. Residence time for gases entering the tall and narrow CFB absorber can be as high as five
seconds providing excellent capture efficiency for multiple gas pollutants while maintaining a small
absorber footprint.

The CFB absorber maintenance costs are minimal as the vessel is self-cleaning. Water spray nozzles
can be replaced, if necessary, while the unit is on-line. The absorber is fabricated from carbon steel
avoiding expensive liners or alloy metals.

Fig. 3. Venturi Flue Gas Inlet at Bottom of Absorber

 

Fabric Filter

Multi-compartment fabric filter baghouses are located downstream from the absorber vessel to allow
recirculation of particulate solids. The separate compartments are each lockable on the flue gas side for
maintenance purposes. It is possible to shut down one compartment for maintenance while running the
remaining compartments with 100% boiler flue gas flow.

Solids from the absorber entering the baghouse are completely dry given the small amount of water
added and the long flue gas and solids residence time in the absorber. Low gas velocity and the baffle-
free design result in pressure drops several times lower than conventional baghouses. Thus the
baghouse itself is free of wetted solids and the housing is very clean. The penthouse area is shown in
Figure 4.

Fig. 4. Baghouse penthouse above pulse-jet fabric filters

The baghouse is equipped with a Pulse Jet type cleaning system with differential pressure and flow rate
controlled online cleaning, using intermittent compressed air bursts. Optimized pulse pressure and
frequency across filter sections ensures efficient ash collection, dust capture and long bag life.
The baghouse hoppers serve as temporary storage bins for the large portion of the material that is fed
into the solids recycling system. This is accomplished by means of a control valve via air-slides back into
the CFB absorber. A small percentage of the scrubber by-product is continuously discharged from the
insulated filter hoppers by means of a control valve and material transport system to the product silo for
further utilization.
 

Dry Lime Hydration System

Hydrated lime [Ca(OH)2] used in the CFB scrubbing process can be purchased directly from suppliers.
However, for high sulfur fuel applications requiring larger quantities of reagent or in locations where
hydrated lime suppliers are limited, owners can purchase less costly quicklime (CaO) and hydrate it on
site.

A dry lime hydration system can be located near the CFB absorber vessel. As shown in Figure 5, lime
and low pressure steam are injected into the hydration reactor for conversion to calcium hydroxide.
Hydrated lime product from the hydrator is separated from the hydrator exhaust vapors in a downstream
cyclone and then collected in an ash hopper. From the product hopper, the hydrated lime can be sent
directly to the CFB absorber or to a hydrated lime storage silo.

Figure 5. Dry Lime Hydration System Schematic

 

The dry lime hydration system does not require a dedicated fabric filter to handle the cyclone overflow as
this stream is sent directly to the CFB scrubber. The hydration system is low maintenance with no
rotating equipment except for a screw conveyor to meter lime to the hydrator. The hydration system has
25% turndown capability for following the boiler load.

The largest CFB scrubber in the world

In June 2011, a 520 MWe coal power plant at Basin Electric’s Dry Fork station (Figure 6) went on-line in
Gillette, Wyoming, USA (due to its 1,350-metre site elevation, the actual net plant output of the Dry Fork
power plant is rated at 420 MWe). Behind its pulverised coal boiler sits a Graf-Wulff CFB scrubber, the
largest single absorber dry scrubber operating in the world today.

Since it went into operation, the CFB scrubber at the Basin plant has exceeded its design performance,
reducing SOx by 95% - 98% to levels below 0.06 lb/MMBtu (50-60mg/m³).
It also passed a 30-day mercury removal compliance test by meeting the permitted emission limit of 20
lb/TWh (2.35μg/m³) with a mercury removal rate of over 95%.

Figure 6. Basin Electric Dry Fork Unit 1

 

FWGW CFB Scrubber Technology – The Right fit for Dry Fork Station

The northeast Wyoming location of Basin’s Dry Fork Station is arid and water supply taken from deep
wells must be pumped a significant distance, thus the limited water availability represented a major factor
in FGD technology selection.

Further, very strict emission limits associated with the facility’s close proximity to various BART Class I
areas influenced the FGD technology choice. The emission requirements were designed directly or
indirectly to limit a broad array of compounds designated as pollutants such as SOx, HCl, HF, particulate
matter (PM10 and PM2.5), mercury and other heavy metals.

However, for plants like Dry Fork firing lower sulfur sub-bituminous PRB coal, SDA is often selected as
capital costs are lower than WFGD and fuel sulfur levels are lower than those for bituminous coals. But
the SO2 capture of a SDA is limited by the amount of slaked lime slurry that can be introduced into the
absorber vessel through rotary atomizers located at the top of the absorber. Given the stringent SO2
permit limits for the Dry Fork Station, SDA was deemed insufficient.

The PRB coal fuel for the plant will be variable in sulfur content by as much as 20% as it will come from
multiple seams. Thus the preferred FGD technology choice required quick response times to sudden
increases in coal sulfur content. While WFGD is capable of accommodating spikes in fuel sulfur content
by increasing flow rates of fresh reagent, SDA designs do not have the ability to affect short term sulfur
content spikes due to limitations in slaked lime reagent injection.

During the project planning phase, Basin Electric hired Sargent and Lundy to evaluate and recommend
the FGD technology based on the criteria of achieving these strict emission limits while delivering the best
economics and reliability.

After months of study and evaluation, Sargent & Lundy recommended CFB FGD technology for the Basin
plant due to the following key factors:
• CFB scrubber’s can achieve higher SO2 collection efficiencies than SDA
• CFB scrubber’s can achieve the same SO2 collection efficiencies as WFGD with 30% less water
consumption
• CFB scrubber’s footprint is 80% less than that of a WFGD
• CFB scrubber’s capital cost was about half that of a WFGD
• CFB scrubber’s ability to simultaneously capture metals and acid gases
 

• CFB scrubber’s do not require high maintenance components like wet slurry circulation systems
(WFGD) or rotary atomizers (SDA)
• CFB scrubber’s by-product can be used to fill and stabilize a nearby open-pit coal mine.

Construction/Installation Sequence

The major components for the Basin Dry Fork CFB scrubbing system are the absorber vessel, a 6-
compartment pulse-jet fabric filter, two lime hydration units, and storage silos for pebble lime, hydrated
lime, and product ash. The total system is very compact with a footprint requirement of only about 20% of
that for a comparable WFGD and 70% of that for a comparable SDA.

While the fabric filters must be elevated for recirculation of particulates and reagents, the structure
required to do this provides space at grade and middle elevations sufficient for installing and maintaining
the auxiliary equipment. As the major system components were fabricated on the ground, they were lifted
into place as pre-fabricated sections as shown in Figure 7. Nearly all of the components are contained in
a single building (Figure 8) with a footprint of 190 ft. x 100 ft.

Prefabrication of the absorber and baghouse components began in 2008 and system erection
commenced in February, 2009. Erection was completed in 21 months.

Fig. 7. Lifting of Baghouse Prefabricated Modules

 

Fig. 8. CFB Scrubbing System Building Shown at Left

Start-up and Commissioning

From the date of cold start-up through May, 2011, the first tests under full operation were successfully
demonstrated in June 2011. During startup, only two major CFB Scrubber adjustments were made. One
adjustment focused on optimizing the fluid dynamics and the other adjustment addressed response time
within the CFB absorber for the final boiler outlet conditions.

Stable operation was maintained through a flue gas flow turndown to 33% of full flow, and the CFB
scrubber system exceeded all contracted and permitted emission levels with more than 98% SO2
removal, opacity <1%, less than 3 ppm PM emissions and up to 70% mercury removal (without injection
of activated carbon). Flue gas properties and emission reduction levels are presented in Table 1.
 

Table 1. Flue gas properties and emission reductions (Design Data)

Units Inlet Outlet

Flue Gas Flow ACFM 1,792,000 1,550,000
m3/h 3,045,000 2,630,000
Temperature ⁰F 294 155-175
⁰C 146 70-80
SO2 lb/MMBtu 0.66-1.79 0.06
mg/m3 800-2200 60-75
ppmv 280-770 20-25
SO3 mg/m3 25-42 1-2
ppmv 8-14 0.3-0.6
HCl mg/m3 8-15 4-6
ppmv 5-9 2-3
Dust lb/MMBtu 3-5 0.012
mg/m3 4,000-6,000 14-20

CFB Scrubbers for Petroleum Refineries

Today, we are seeing refineries being squeezed between two opposing trends: tightening environmental
regulation and increasing sulfur content in the crudes they process.

In Europe, sulfur emissions limits for boilers in refineries have been slashed in half from 400 to 200
mg/Nm3 which include both SO2 and SO3 forms of sulfur oxides. In the US, the limits are much more
stringent based on a maximum available control philosophy instead of a single fixed pollutant limit in the
stack gas.

At the same time, refineries around the world are processing heavier and higher sulfur crude oils resulting
in increasing sulfur concentrations in the refinery residues they use to fuel boilers for power and steam
production.

Historically, wet FGD scrubbers have been the preferred choice for cleaning the flue gas from power and
steam boilers within oil refineries due to their high capture ability of sulfur dioxide (SO2) over a wide range
 

of fuel sulfur levels typically found in refinery boiler fuels (can be as high as 6%), such as heavy fuel oil,
liquid residues and tail gases from vacuum units, solvent deasphalting units, and hydro-treaters. Until
now, dry scrubbers were unable to handle fuels with sulfur levels above 2% and were seldom chosen for
refinery applications.

But today, we are seeing wet FGD technology struggling to meet the tightening emissions standards as
the sulfur content grows in refinery fuels due to the wet FGDs limited capability to capture SO3. Further, a
number of existing wet FGDs operating in refineries have been experiencing high levels of corrosion and
unsightly acid plumes from their stacks due to elevated SO3 levels in the flue gas. Both problems are
difficult and expensive to fix since they require expensive material changes, installations of non-metallic
liners for the large gas path components and/or the retrofit of a wet ESP. Some refiners are actually
considering replacing their existing wet FGD units with dry CFB scrubbers.

Reaping the benefits

Refineries are selecting CFB scrubbers more and more for both new and retrofit applications due their
ability to effectively capture 98-99% of both SO2 and SO3; meeting the higher SO3 capture requirement
while avoiding the corrosion issue.
But it is not always only about SO3 capture. Refiners are choosing CFB scrubbers for the many other
benefits they offer over wet FGDs, such as:
 High capture of metals
 Low installed cost
 Low water use
 High reliability
 Low maintenance
 Compact foot print
 Wide fuel sulfur flexibility
 Flexibility to use low quality lime and water
 Fast response to cope with rapid refinery operational changes

Outstanding performance at a German Refinery

In May 2012, a FWGW CFB scrubber successfully began commercial operation at a large refinery in
western Germany and a few weeks later another Graf-Wulff CFB scrubber will begin operation at this
same refinery.
 

Each scrubber is attached to separate boilers that provide the refinery with steam and power (175 MWth
capacity each) firing a mix of heavy fuel oil, oil residue, methanol-water mixture and refinery gas with
aggregate sulphur levels reaching 5%. The ash product from the scrubbers is recycled for multiple uses,
such as in brick and cement block manufacture, as a road base, and as a fill to stabilize abandoned deep
well coal mines.

After months of study and evaluation, the refinery owner selected the Graf-Wulff CFB scrubber due to the
many benefits already outlined above and the fact that a Graf-Wulff CFB scrubber has been successfully
operating on a 300 MWe boiler in Austria firing natural gas and heavy fuel oil since 2000. Both the
Austrian and German refinery units have demonstrated high reliability and an ability to achieve emission
levels well below those specified while meeting all other consumption values such as power, water, and
lime. Flue gas properties and emissions data are presented in Table 2, and the final installation is shown
in Figure 9.

Table 2. Refinery Flue Gas and Emissions Data

Parameters
Boiler and FGD 1 Heavy Fuel Oil Fired Boiler + 1 SCR train+ 1
Configuration FGD train
Firing-capacity 175 (MWth)
Fuel Sulfur Content 1 – 5 (% daf)
FGD-scrubber type CFB Scrubber with single venturi
Particulate-Collector Baghouse with 2 compartments - online cleaning
Air to cloth ratio: 2.7-3.3 ft/min
FGD Reagent Hydrated lime produced from lime in a Foster
Wheeler/ Graff Wulff lime hydrator
CFB Scrubber Design 98 % within 12 months
Reliability
CFB Scrubber Inlet CFB Scrubber Outlet
Flue gas (ACFM) 225,000 215,000
flow, each
CFB FGS
 
 

Flue gas (°F) 360 180 – 230

temperature
SO2-content (lb/MMBtu) 0.66-1.79 0.06
SO2-content, (ppmv) 600-2,600 70
6% O2
SO3-content, (ppmv) 14-270 0.1-1.4
6% O2
Particulate (lb/MMBtu) 0.03 0.01
content

Fig. 9. CFB Scrubber Building (center) with Silos

Conclusion

The CFB scrubber has stepped out in front of other technologies due to five key advantages:
• High multi-pollutant capture capability
• Low installed cost
• Low water use
• Large scale
• Wide fuel sulfur flexibility
 

It also offers many other benefits, as Table 3.

Table 3. Wet FGD, SDA, and CFB System Capabilities Comparison

The Foster Wheeler Graf-Wulff multi-pollutant CFB scrubber is a flexible and economical technology
capable of removing a wide array of pollutants such as SOx, particulate matter, acid gases and organic
compounds from flue gases from almost any combustion and industrial process. It does all this while
using the least amount of water, a vital resource.

The technology has been applied widely in power plants, steel mills, refineries, waste-to-energy plants,
combined heat and power plants, and plants in many other industries. It has been demonstrated over a
range of flue gas flow rates from small industrial boilers to large coal power plants with capacities over
500 MWe.
 

Several companies have developed and commercialized CFB scrubber technology but the technology
development pathways can all be traced back to the German-based Graf-Wulff company, which holds
several patents on the technology. Over the years, the Graf-Wulff company has optimized and refined the
CFB scrubber technology to make it the most advanced CFB scrubber in the industry today.