Fuel 83 (2004) 693–703

www.fuelfirst.com

Numerical analysis of pulverized coal combustion characteristics

using advanced low-NOx burner
Ryoichi Kurosea,*, Hisao Makinob, Akira Suzukic
a
Yokosuka Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric
Power Industry (CRIEPI), 2-6-1 Nagasaka, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 240-0196, Japan
b
CS Promotion Office, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Otemachi Bldg., 1-6-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8126, Japan
c
CD-adapco JAPAN Co., LTD, Yokohama Landmark Tower 37F, 2-2-1-1 Minato Mirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 220-8137, Japan

Received 5 March 2003; revised 7 July 2003; accepted 7 July 2003; avalilable online 3 December 2003

Abstract
A three-dimensional numerical simulation is applied to a pulverized coal combustion field in a test furnace equipped with an advanced
low-NOx burner called CI-a burner, and the detailed combustion characteristics are investigated. In addition, the validities of the existing
NOx formation and reduction models are examined. The results show that a recirculation flow is formed in the high-gas-temperature region
near the CI-a burner outlet, and this lengthens the residence time of coal particles in this high-temperature region, promotes the evolution of
volatile matter and the progress of char reaction, and produces an extremely low-O2 region for effective NO reduction. It is also found that, by
lessening the effect of NO reduction in Levy et al.’s model and taking the NO formation from char N into account, the accuracy of the NO
prediction is improved. The efficiency factor of the conversion of char N to NO affects the total NO concentration downstream after the
injection of staged combustion air.
q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Pulverized coal combustion; Numerical simulation; Advanced low-NOx burner

1. Introduction combustion. In this method, some of the combustion air

Coal is an important energy resource for meeting the
future demand for electricity, as coal reserves are much
greater than those of other fossil fuels. Coal-fired thermal
power plants mainly involve pulverized coal combustion,
for which environmental pollutants, particularly NOx
emissions, must be reduced. Although, NOx emissions
have been lowered by improving the combustion
technology and using catalytic denitrification facilities,
further reduction by means of combustion technology is
required, since catalytic denitrification facilities require
high cost. In utility boilers, low-NO x combustion
technologies such as low-air-ratio combustion, flue gas
recirculation combustion, and staged combustion have been
used in combination with catalytic denitrification facilities.
Among these low-NOx combustion technologies, the staged
combustion method is the most effective for pulverized coal
* Corresponding author. Fax: þ 81-468-56-3346.
E-mail address: kurose@criepi.denken.or.jp (R. Kurose).
0016-2361/$ - see front matter q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2003.07.003
separated from the burner is supplied via injection ports
mounted on the rear of the furnace, and hence the generation
of NOx near the burner is suppressed due to the weakened
oxidation atmosphere. However, unburned carbon tends to
increase, which decreases the combustion efficiency and
makes it difficult to utilize fly ash as a component of
cements or concretes. It has therefore been desired to
develop a new combustion technology, by which NOx can
be reduced without the increase of unburned carbon.
To meet this severe demand, we investigated issues such
as pulverized coal particle behavior and reaction, and NOx
formation and reduction near the burner in a furnace, and
developed an advanced low-NOx burner called CI-a
(CRIEPI-IHI Advanced Low-Pollution High-Ability
(CRIEPI: Central Research Institute of Electric Power
Industry, IHI: Ishikawajima –Harima Heavy Industries Co.,
Ltd)) burner [1,2]. The main concept of the CI-a burner is
that the residence time of the pulverized coal particles in the
high-temperature field near the burner is lengthened through
the use of recirculation flow, and volatile evolution and char
694 R. Kurose et al. / Fuel 83 (2004) 693–703
reaction of the coal particles are accelerated. By repeated
experiments, we have achieved a further 30% NO x
reduction compared to conventional low-NOx burners
without any increase of the unburned carbon. However,
the behaviors of the flow and the coal particles in the furnace
have not been sufficiently evaluated yet because of the
difficulty of measuring them in high-temperature fields.
To develop the further advanced coal combustion technol-
ogies, it is of great importance to clarify their behaviors.
In this study, we apply a three-dimensional numerical
simulation to the pulverized coal combustion field in a
furnace equipped with the CI-a burner and investigate the
combustion characteristics in detail. Although, similar
numerical simulations of the pulverized coal combustion
fields have been conducted so far, most of the burner
configurations were strongly simplified in spite of the fact
that subtle differences in the burner shape significantly
affect the coal combustion characteristics. Hence, the
configuration of the CI-a burner is faithfully duplicated
here. In addition, the validities of the existing NOx
formation and reduction models for the combustion fields
produced with this CI-a burner are examined. In particular,
the determination of two parameters, the ratio of char N to
total N in coal and the conversion of char N to NO, has been
the major subject of coal combustion research. In this study,
the effects of these parameters are discussed.
2. Concept of CI-a burner
Generally, conventional low-NOx burners have been
designed to suppress the mixing of secondary and tertiary
combustion air with primary air, which includes pulverized
coal, in order to reduce NOx generation. In contrast, the CI-a
burner is designed to promote mixing near the burner by
means of recirculation flow produced by the straight motion
of primary air and the strong swirling motion of the
secondary and tertiary air (Fig. 1). This recirculation flow
lengthens the residence time of pulverized coal particles in
Fig. 1. Concept of the CI-a burner.
the high-temperature field near the burner outlet and
accelerates the evolution of volatile matter and the progress
of char reaction (the formation of recirculation flow in
the furnace has been evaluated only by the cold flow test
using NO gas as tracer gas [2]). Therefore, the amount of
unburned carbon is effectively reduced, but the NOx
concentration increases in this region. However, NOx is
immediately reduced to N2 in the reduction flame existing
after the recirculation zone. Furthermore, this NOx reduction
effect is promoted by the staged combustion method, in
which some of the combustion air separated from the burner
is supplied via injection ports mounted on the rear of the
furnace. Detailed descriptions of the CI-a burner and its
performance can be found in our previous papers [1,2].
3. Numerical simulation
3.1. Computational domain and conditions
The test furnace used is that at the Yokosuka Research
Laboratory of CRIEPI, in which the CI-a burner with a coal
combustion capacity of about 0.1 t/h is installed (Fig. 2).
The test furnace is a water-cooled horizontal and cylindrical
furnace made of steel. The diameter of this furnace is 0.85 m
and the length is 8 m. Refractory materials are placed on the
inside wall. Fourteen ports are mounted on the furnace
sidewall for staged combustion air injection and for
the measurement of temperature and gas concentration
distributions in the furnace.
The configurations of the computational domain and the
CI-a burner are shown in Fig. 3. These are designed to
faithfully match the actual configurations. The
computational domain is half of the furnace, and a periodic
condition is applied in the azimuthal direction. Combustion
air is injected into the furnace through the burner and staged
combustion air ports located 3.0 m from the burner outlet.
The air passing through the burner is divided into primary
air, secondary air and tertiary air. Primary air has a straight
 R. Kurose et al. / Fuel 83 (2004) 693–703 695

Fig. 2. Schematic of pulverized coal combustion test furnace.

motion, and secondary and tertiary air have strong swirling The gas-phase turbulence is represented by the renorma-
motions. The swirl vane angles for secondary and tertiary air lization group (RNG) k – 1 model [6,7], which is believed to
are set at 818 and 728, respectively, which are optimum give more accurate results for swirl and other highly
values for bituminous coal (these values are zero when the strained flows than the generally used k – 1 two-equation
swirl force is zero). The pulverized coal is carried by the model [8]. The gas-phase time-averaged continuity equation
primary air. and conservation equations of momentum, turbulent kinetic
The computational conditions are given to correspond energy, dissipation, enthalpy and species in cylindrical
with our experiment [1 – 3]. The thermal input of the coal coordinates are
combustion test furnace is 2.725 £ 106 kJ/h (the coal feed
› › ›
rate is about 97 kg/h). The air ratio is 1.24, and the excess O2 ðrUfx Þ þ ðr rUfr Þ þ ðrUf u Þ ¼ 0 ð1Þ
›x r ›r r ›u
concentration at the furnace outlet is 4.0%. The staged
combustion air ratio is set at 30%. The mass ratio of the › › ›
ðrUfx fn ; Þ þ ðr rUfr fn ; Þ þ ð rU f u f n ; Þ
pulverized coal (dry base) to the primary air is 1:2.2, and the ›x r ›r r ›u
mass ratio of secondary air to tertiary air is 1:6. The test fuel



› ›f › ›f › ›f
is Newlands bituminous coal, the properties of which are ¼ Gf v þ r Gf v þ Gf v
listed in Table 1. ›x ›x r ›r ›r r ›u r ›u

3.2. Mathematical models and numerical method
The computation is performed using the STAR-CD code.
The mathematical models and numerical method employed
here are as follows [4,5].
þ Sf þ Gfr ; ð2Þ
where fv denotes the generalized variables expressing fluid
velocity components Ufi ; turbulent kinetic energy k; rate of
eddy dissipation 1; fluid enthalpy h and mass fraction of
chemical species Yi : Gf denotes the turbulent exchange

Fig. 3. Schematics of computational domain and the CI-a burner.

696 R. Kurose et al. / Fuel 83 (2004) 693–703

Table 1 study), and absorptivity of coal particles (– ). q00p is the

Properties of Newlands coal surface heat flux defined by q00p ¼ hðTp 2 Tg Þ where h; Tp
and Tg are the heat transfer coefficient (J/(m2 s K)) and
Proximate analysis (wt%)
particle and gas temperatures (K). Regarding the heat gain
Moisturea (2.5)
Volatile matterb 28.4 due to the char combustion Qp (J/s), the fraction of heat of
Fixed carbonb 56.4 residual char combustion liberated on or close to the particle
Ashb 15.2 surface is assumed to be 0.3 [12]. QR is calculated as
Fuel ratio (– ) 1.99 QR ¼ ðI=4sÞ1=4 where I is radiant intensity (J/(m2 s)).
Ultimate analysisb (wt%) The radiant intensity I is calculated by the discrete transfer
Carbon 71.8 radiation method of Lockwood and Shah [13], which
Hydrogen 4.5 simulates the radiative heat transfer among the gas, particles
Nitrogen 1.59
and wall. In this study, the absorptivities of the coal particles
Oxygen 6.4
Total sulfur 0.54 and wall are assumed to be 0.85 and 0.4, respectively.
Combustible sulfur 0.48 Also, the absorption coefficient of the gas is set at 0.075.
Heating value (low)b (MJ/kg) 28.1 The interaction of the conserved properties between the gas
a phase and coal particles is calculated by the Particle-Source-
As received.
b
Dry basis. In Cell technique [14].
The schematic diagram of the pulverized coal
coefficient, and Sf and Sfp represent the gas-phase source combustion simplified for this calculation is shown in
terms additional to the convection and diffusion terms and Fig. 4. Coal devolatilization is simulated by a first-order
particle-phase source terms, respectively. The actual forms single reaction model (arrow (1))
of these terms are provided in other papers [6 – 9]. The dV
continuity and momentum equations are solved using ¼ Kv ðV p 2 VÞ ð7Þ
dt
the SIMPLE algorithm [10]. The nonlinear terms in the !
conservation equations are approximated by a first-order Ev
upwind scheme, and a second-order central difference Kv ¼ Av exp 2 ; ð8Þ
RTp
scheme is employed for other derivatives.
The equation of motion for the representative coal where V p and V indicate the total volatile matter content in
particles is given by the coal (kg) and volatile mass released from the coal (kg),
dUpi 1 and R is the universal gas constant ( ¼ 8.31 J/(mol K)).
mp ¼ Cd rp Ap lUfj 2 Upj lðUfi 2 Upi Þ ð3Þ Kinematic parameters of pre-exponential factor Av and
dt 2
activation energy Ev in Eq. (8) are 2021 (1/s) and
24ð1 þ 0:15 Re0:687
p Þ 3.11 £ 104 (J/mol), respectively, [15].
Cd ¼ ð4Þ Gaseous combustion between the volatilized fuel and air
Rep
is calculated using the combined model of kinetics and eddy
Dp lUfi 2 Upi l
Rep ¼ ; ð5Þ
n
where mp ; Upi ; rp ; Ap and Dp are the particle mass (kg),
velocity components (m/s), density (kg/m3), projected area
(m2) and diameter (m), respectively. Cd and Rep represent
the particle drag coefficient (– ) and particle Reynolds
number ( –), where n is the kinematic viscosity of fluid
(m2/s). The effect of the turbulence of the gas phase on
particle motion is modeled by a stochastic method [11].
The particle temperature Tp is calculated by considering the
heat transfer due to convection, radiation, heat loss due to
devolatilization in coal and heat gain due to char
combustion, using the follow equation
dðcp;p Tp Þ dmp
mp ¼2As q00p þAs 1p sðQ4R 2Tp4 Þþhfg þQp ; ð6Þ
dt dt
Here, As ; cp;p ; s; hfg and 1p are the particle surface area (m2),
specific heat (J/(kg K)), Stefan – Boltzmann constant
( ¼ 5.670 £ 1028 J/(m2 s K4)), latent heat of the phase
change of moisture (J/kg) (this term is negligible in this Fig. 4. Concept of pulverized coal combustion.
 R. Kurose et al. / Fuel 83 (2004) 693–703 697

dissipation models [16] (arrows (3) –(5)). The chemical Table 3

mechanism consists of two global reactions Initial diameter, mass fraction and number of pulverized coal particles

Ca Hb Oc þ 0:5O2 ! aCO þ bH2 O ð9Þ Dp (mm) MFp (–) Np (–)

CO þ O2 ! CO2 ; 5 6.76 500

where a; b; c; a and b are governed by the coal constituent
given in Table 1. Regarding the kinetics, the rate of reaction
for reactants such as Ca Hb Oc and CO is given as an
Arrhenius expression
!
Eg
Rg ¼ Ag exp 2 ½Reactantd ½O2 e ; ð10Þ
RTg
Here, ½c means the mol fractions of chemical species c:
The values of the pre-exponential factor Ag ; activation
energy Eg ; and orders d and e are listed [17] in Table 2.
The char burning rate is calculated using Field et al.’s
model [18] (arrow (2))


dC Kc Kd
¼2 P pD2 ð11Þ
dt Kc þ Kd g p


5:06 £ 1027 Tp þ Tg 0:75
Kd ¼ ð12Þ
Dp 2
! HCN, and the minor evolution of NH3 is neglected.
Ec
Kc ¼ Ac exp 2 ; ð13Þ
RTp
where C is the char mass (kg), Kc and Kd are the surface
reaction rate coefficient and diffusional reaction rate
coefficient ((kg/m2 s)/Pa), and Pg is the partial pressure of
oxygen in the bulk gas (Pa). This model is obtained under
the assumption that the char burning rate is controlled by
both the chemical reaction rate and the diffusion rate of
oxygen to the surface of the char particle. The values of the
kinematic parameters of the pre-exponential factor Ac and
activation energy Ec in Eq. (13) are set at Ac ¼ 8:0 £ 1023
(kg/m2 s)/(N/m2) and Ec ¼ 5:0 £ 104 (J/mol), respectively.
The NOx formation model is typically employed in a
‘post-processing’ fashion, where a converged combustion
flow field solution is first obtained before performing the
NO prediction [9]. For the formation of NOx, three
different mechanisms are employed, namely Zeldovich
NOx, prompt NOx and fuel NOx formation mechanisms
indicated by arrows (6) –(9), respectively, in Fig. 4.
Zeldovich NOx and prompt NOx are classified into
thermal NOx. Here, only the production of NO is taken
into account because the NOx emitted to the atmosphere
from combusting fuels consists mostly of NO, with much
20 26.81 300
40 24.00 200
60 16.25 100
80 12.20 100
100 13.98 100
lower concentrations of NO2 and N2O. Zeldovich NO
(arrow (6)) is evaluated by applying the quasi-steady-
state approximation for N species to the extended
Zeldovich mechanisms (N 2 þ O ! NO þ N,
N þ O2 ! NO þ O, N þ OH ! NO þ H) with the rate
constants used by Baulch et al. [19]. The O concentration
required is given by Westenberg’s expression [20].
Prompt NO (arrow (7)) is predicted using the models
given by De Soete [21], and fuel NO (arrows (8) and
(9)) is also calculated using De Soete’s models [21,22].
Fuel NO originating from volatile N is assumed to be
formed through instantaneous evolution in the form of
The reduction of NO for char burning is taken into
account using Levy et al.’s model [23] (this NO
reduction model is incorporated into the original
STAR-CD code as a user subroutine). The details of
the models of fuel NO emission and reduction will be
discussed later.
It is assumed that the pulverized coal particles consist
of particles with diameters Dp of 5, 20, 40, 60, 80 and
100 mm. The mass fractions MFp of coal particles with
Dp ¼ 5; 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 and their representative
coal particle numbers Np are shown in Table 3.
The temperature and velocity of the particles at the
burner inlet are equal to those of primary air.
The temperature of primary combustion air and coal
particles is set to be 348 K, and that of secondary and
tertiary combustion air is 598 K. Regarding the boundary
condition on the wall, the temperature outside the furnace
is assumed to be 308 K and thermal resistance is set at
0.04 (m2 s K/J).
The number of grid points is about 140,000, and the grid
spaces near the burner are compressed. The CPU time
required for this computation is about 72 h on a DELL PC
DIMENSION 8100.

4. Results and discussion

Table 2
Parameters for Arrhenius expression [eq. (10)]
4.1. Flow and coal particle behaviors
Reactant Ag [1/s] Eg [J/kmol] d ½2 e ½2
Fig. 5 shows the predicted gas velocity vectors in the
Ca Hb Oc 2:8 £ 109 2:023 £ 108 20.3 1.3
CO 9:0 £ 1013 1:676 £ 108 1 0.25
CI-a burner and near the burner. It is observed in Fig. 5(a)
that the secondary and tertiary combustion air introduced
698 R. Kurose et al. / Fuel 83 (2004) 693–703
Fig. 5. Gas velocity vectors in and near the CI-a burner.
from the outside in the normal direction are shifted in the
azimuthal direction by swirl vanes and the swirling velocity
reaches up to 30 m/s. On the other hand, Fig. 5(b) shows
that, as expected from the previous experiment for coal flow
using NO tracer gas [2], recirculation flow can be seen in the
region near the burner. The swirling air, which is ejected
along the burner throat with the maximum velocity of about
18 m/s, is divided into upstream and downstream flows near
the side wall, and small recirculation flow around the burner
(arrow A) and large recirculation flow in the central region
along the z-axis (arrow B) are formed. This recirculation
behavior can be seen more clearly in Fig. 6, which shows the
contour plot of the streamwise gas velocity near the burner.
In the region near the burner at z , 1:5 m, the streamwise
gas velocity is high in the vicinity of the side wall, whereas
that in the central region indicates a negative value. The CI-
a burner was designed so that the large recirculation flow
forming in the central region lengthens the residence time of
pulverized coal particles in the high-temperature field,
which accelerates the evolution of volatile matter and the
progress of char reaction.
To verify the above concept, the coal particle
distribution near the burner at z # 2:0 m in the furnace
is shown in Fig. 7. The trajectories for 50 typical coal
Fig. 6. Contour plot of streamwise gas velocity.
particles with diameters of 5, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 mm
(Table 3) are shown separately. Here, only the coal
particles containing unburned carbon are plotted and the
ash particles are not shown. It is found that all particles
tend to be caught by the swirling flow irrespective of the
particle diameter, and that the small particles with
diameters of 5 and 20 mm vanish due to the evolution
of volatile matter and char reaction in this near-burner
zone, whereas the larger particles are carried downward
while undergoing reaction. Although, the large coal
particles with diameters of 60, 80 and 100 mm move in
a regular manner, irregular deviating motions are evident
for the coal particles with diameters of 20 and 40 mm,
particularly in the zone of z ¼ 0:5 2 1:5 m in the furnace.
In particular, the number of 40 mm coal particles clearly
becomes low after passing through this zone. This is
attributed to the fact that these particles are caught by the
recirculation flow, which appears in the central region
(arrow B in Fig. 5(b)) and their residence times in this
zone are lengthened. On the other hand, the regular
motions for the larger coal particles are due to the fact
that they have large inertias and hence are hardly affected
by the recirculation flow. As also shown in Table 3, for
typical pulverized coal combustion, the sum of the mass
fractions of the coal particles with diameters of 20 and
40 mm is over 50%. Therefore, it can be concluded that
the recirculation flow formed by the CI-a burner
effectively increases the particle residence time in the
region near the burner.
4.2. Distributions of gas temperature and concentrations
of chemical species
Figs. 8 and 9 show the computed and experimentally
obtained contour plots and axial distributions of gas
temperature and chemical species mole fractions.
Overall, the calculated contour plots (the gas temperature
and the O2 and CO mole fractions) and axial distributions
(the gas temperature and the O2 mole fraction) are in
agreement with the measurements [3], although there are
some quantitative discrepancies, for example, the pre-
dicted gas temperature rises earlier and higher, the O2
mole fraction shows larger values around the region just
after the position where staged combustion air is injected
ðz ¼ 3:0 mÞ; and the CO mole fraction shows smaller
values throughout the region.
 R. Kurose et al. / Fuel 83 (2004) 693–703 699

Fig. 7. Distributions of coal particles with different diameters.

The differences of gas temperature and CO mole fraction is considered to be due to the inlet condition of
fraction are attributed to the models used for coal the staged combustion air and the limitation of the RNG
devolatilization (Eqs. (7) and (8)) and gaseous combus- k – 1 turbulent model [6,7]. That is, it is possible that
tion (Eqs. (9) and (10)), whereas that of the O2 mole the maximum velocity of the injected air is less than

Fig. 8. Computed and experimental contour plots of gas temperature and O2 and CO mole fractions.
700 R. Kurose et al. / Fuel 83 (2004) 693–703
Fig. 9. Computed and experimental axial distributions of gas temperature
and O2, H2O and CO2 mole fractions.
the experimental value [3] because the velocity profile is
not set for flow in the ports, and that the numerical
method using the RNG k – 1 turbulent model [6,7]
overestimates the swirl strength, which prevents the air
(O2) from reaching the central region in the furnace.
However, the essential characteristics of an extremely
low-O2 zone near the burner is simulated well.
A comparison of the distributions of the coal particles
in Fig. 7 and the gas temperature in Fig. 8(a) shows that
the region of high particle number density, where the
coal particles are caught by the recirculation flow and
their residence time is long, corresponds closely to the
region of high gas temperature. This coincidence
promotes the evolution of volatile matter and char
reaction of the coal particles and produces the extremely
low-O2 zone.
Fig. 9(b) shows that the O2, H2O and CO2 mole fractions
remain almost constant after the injection of staged
combustion air at z $ 4:0 m.
4.3. Distribution of NO concentration
As mentioned previously, since NOx formation models
are typically employed in a post-processing fashion [9],
the NO concentration is calculated on the basis of the
distributions of the gas temperature and the concentrations
of the major chemical species obtained above. Although, NO
includes thermal NO and fuel NO, fuel NO accounts for
75– 95% of the total NO in coal combustors. Hence, it is
much more important to precisely predict the amount of fuel
NO. As shown in Fig. 4, the fuel NO is formed from volatile
N and char N. The conversion rates for the gas phase
reactions [arrow (8)] are given by [21]
d
½X  ¼ n1 2 n2 ð14Þ
dt NO
d
½X  ¼ n2 ð15Þ
dt N2
!
E
n1 ¼ Ano;1 XHCN XOf 2 exp 2 no;1 ð16Þ
RTg
!
Eno;2
n2 ¼ Ano;2 XHCN XNO exp 2 ; ð17Þ
RTg
where Xi is the mole fraction of chemical species i (– ), and
Ano;i and Eno;i are the pre-exponential factor (1/s) and
activation energy (J/mol). The order f in Eq. (16) varies with
the O2 mole fraction [21]. On the other hand, the rate of
formation of NO from char N, SNO;CH (kg/s), (arrow (9))
is expressed as [21,22]
SNO;CH ¼ SC mN;CH Fc h; ð18Þ
where SC is the mass combustion rate of char given using
Eq. (11) (kg/s), mN;CH is the mass fraction of nitrogen in char
( –), Fc is the degree of char burnout (– ) and h is the
coal-dependent efficiency factor of the conversion of char N
to NO (–).
For the prediction of the NO concentration in the furnace
equipped with advanced low-NOx burners such as the CI-a
burner, it is also essential to simulate NO reduction. NO
reduction models for pulverized coal combustion have been
proposed and studied by some researchers [24 – 29].
Levy et al. [23] developed the following NO reduction
model for char burning


d E
½NO ¼ Are exp 2 re AE PNO ; ð19Þ
dt RT
where [NO] is the NO mole fraction (mol), AE is the external
surface area of char (m2/g), and PNO is NO partial pressure
(atm). Are and Ere are the pre-exponential factor ((g mol)/
(m2 s atm)) and activation energy (J/mol), respectively (this
NO reduction model is incorporated into the original
STAR-CD code as a user subroutine). In the Levy et al.’s
experiment [23], AE was measured using N2 BET and the
furnace temperature was T: However, since it is difficult to
give these values in the simulations, AE is calculated under
 R. Kurose et al. / Fuel 83 (2004) 693–703 701

Table 4
Original values of pre-exponential factor and activation energy in Eqs. (16),
(17) and (19)

Ai (1/s) Ei (J/mol)

Eq. (16) 1.0 £ 1010 6.7 £ 104

Eq. (17) 3.0 £ 1012 6.0 £ 104
Eq. (19) 4.18 £ 104 3.47 £ 104

the assumption that the char particles are spherical without

any pores and the gas temperature Tg is used as T:
In conducting the computations, besides the pre-
exponential factors and the activation energies in
Eqs. (16), (17) and (19), whose original values are listed
in Table 4, the ratio k of char N to total N ( ¼ char N/
(char N þ volatile matter N), see Fig. 4), and the
conversion of char N to NO, h; in Eq. (18) are required.
Because of the difficulty of determining these values, k
is set at zero in many computations under the assumption
that all fuel NO is formed from volatile N. In the present
study, the pre-exponential factor for NO reduction Are
(Eq. (19)) is varied and compared with the measured
value [3], and the effects of k and h are investigated.
Table 5 shows the cases examined and the area-averaged
NO mole fraction at the furnace exit Xex;NO (ppm).
Here, k ¼ 0 for Case A means that all fuel NO is formed
from volatile N, and the value of k ¼ 0:67 for case B
corresponds to the mass ratio of fixed carbon to the sum Fig. 10. Computed and experimental contour plots of NO mole fraction.
of the fixed carbon and volatile matter (Table 1). On the
k ¼ 0:67 is closer to the experimental value [3] than that
other hand, although the value of h is considered to be
for k ¼ 0:
associated with char burnout and the equivalence ratio,
Figs. 10 and 11 show the calculated and experimental
the detailed behavior has not yet been elucidated.
contour plots and axial distributions of NO mole fraction.
However, Nelson et al. [30] recently stated that the
Here, the pre-exponential factor for NO reduction Are
overall fractional conversion of 0.5 ^ 0.1 for an
(Eq. (19)) and the ratio of char N to total N, k; are varied (the
equivalence ratio of f ¼ 1:0 presents a reasonable
conversion of char N to NO h is fixed at 0.5). For all cases,
summary of the experimental data, and that the value
the NO mole fraction apparently decreases in the low-O2
increases for f , 1 and decreases for f . 1: Therefore,
zone of z ¼ 2:0 – 3:0 m; which supports the validity of the
cases for h ¼ 0:5 (A1, A2, B1, B2) and those for smaller
NO reduction model. Although, the profiles of cases A1 and
and larger values of h ¼ 0:2 and 0.8 (B3, B4) are
considered. The experimental value of the area-averaged B1 with the original value of Are ( ¼ 4.18 £ 104 (1/s))
NO mole fraction at the furnace exit, Xex;NO ¼ 210; [3] are much lower through the whole area and fail to reproduce
lies between the values for case B2 for h ¼ 0:5 the experimental results [3], they tend to approach the
ðXex;NO ¼ 150Þ and case B4 for h ¼ 0:8 ðXex;NO ¼ 230Þ: experimental values [3] as the value of Are is lowered to
It is found that as Are decreases and h increases, the 4.0 £ 102 (1/s). This may be attributed to the differences in
predicted value tends to increase, and that the value for the given external surface area of char particles AE and
temperature T in Eq. (19) between this computation and
Table 5
Levy et al.’s experiment [23], as shown above.
Cases and area-averaged NO mole fraction at the furnace exit On the other hand, judging from the difference in the
axial NO distribution in Fig. 11, the computation with k ¼ 0
Case Are (1/s) k (–) h (–) Xex;NO (ppm)
seems to give better NO prediction than that with k ¼ 0:67
A1 4.18 £ 104 0 0.5 3.8
because the profile of case B2 decreases to nearly zero
A2 4.0 £ 102 0 0.5 41 around the staged combustion air ports and then increases
B1 4.18 £ 104 0.67 0.5 5.9 again, whereas that of case A2 monotonically approaches a
B2 4.0 £ 102 0.67 0.5 150 constant value; this trend is similar to that of the experiment
B3 4.0 £ 102 0.67 0.2 72
[3]. However, the area-averaged NO mole fraction at the
B4 4.0 £ 102 0.67 0.8 230
furnace exit Xex;NO for case B2 is closer to the experimental
702 R. Kurose et al. / Fuel 83 (2004) 693–703
Fig. 11. Computed and experimental axial distributions of NO mole
fraction.
value [3] than that for case A2 (Table 5). Moreover, in the
experiment [3], the NO concentration after the staged
combustion air ports was found to be higher in the outer
region than in the central region (although the NO contour
plot for z . 3:0 m is not shown here due to lack of data,
the NO mole fractions at z ¼ 4:2 m are 230 ppm at r ¼ 0 m
and 260 ppm at r ¼ 0:3 m; respectively). This trend agrees
well with that computed for case B2. The reason why the NO
mole fraction for case B2 indicated a low value around the
staged combustion air ports is considered to be associated
with the value of the O2 mole fraction in this zone. As shown
in Fig. 9(b), the predicted O2 mole fraction in this zone is
lower than that in the experiment [3] due to the inlet velocity
condition of the staged combustion air and the limitation of
the RNG k – 1 turbulent model [6,7]. Hence, the NO
production, which tends to increase with increasing O2
mole fraction, is considered to be suppressed. It is also
observed that the NO distribution for A2 and B2 almost
coincide with each other in the upstream region of z , 2 m
despite the difference in k: This is considered to be because
much of the NO formation from char N takes place in this
region due to the long particle residence time in the
high-gas-temperature region and that the NO reduction
mechanism acts to balance the NO concentration.
Fig. 12. Effect of conversion of char N to NO for char NO, h; on axial
distribution of NO mole fraction.
Consequently, the formation of NO from char N must be
taken into consideration in order to predict the overall
distribution of the NO mole fraction in the present furnace.
The effect of the conversion of char N to NO, h; in
Eq. (18) on the axial distribution of the NO mole fraction is
shown in Fig. 12 (Are ¼ 4:0 £ 102 (1/s) k ¼ 0:67 (– )).
The difference in the NO mole fraction becomes evident in
the downstream region after the injection of staged
combustion air at z . 4:0 m, and the value tends to increase
with increasing h at a fixed streamwise distance z.
5. Conclusions
The characteristics of pulverized coal combustion in a
test furnace equipped with the CI-a burner developed by
CRIEPI and IHI were numerically investigated. It was
verified that recirculation flow is formed in the upstream
high-gas-temperature region near the CI-a burner outlet,
and this lengthens the residence time of coal particles in the
high-temperature region, promotes the evolution of volatile
matter and the progress of char reaction, and produces an
extremely low-O2 zone for effective NO reduction.
In addition, the validities of the existing NOx formation
models for the combustion fields produced by the CI-a
burner were examined. It was found that, by lessening
the effect of NO reduction in Levy et al.’s model and taking
the NO formation from char N into consideration, the
accuracy of the NO prediction was improved. Also,
the efficiency factor of the conversion of char N to NO
affects the total NO concentration downstream after
injection of the staged combustion air.
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to Mr M. Kimoto, Dr H. Tsuji
and Mr M. Ikeda of CRIEPI for their help in providing the
experimental data. The authors also would like to thank Mr
M. Sato of CD-adapco JAPAN CO., LTD for the many
helpful discussions.
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