Title: Co-firing Solid Recovered Fuels (SRFs) with brown coal in large-scale pulverised fuel power plants – a simulation approach

Authors: Michalis Agraniotis, Panagiotis Grammelis, Emmanuel Kakaras

Addresses: Laboratory of Steam Boilers and Thermal Plants, National Technical University of Athens, Heroon Polytechniou 9, 15780 Zografou Campus, Greece. ' Institute of Solid Fuels Technology and Applications, Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, 502 00 Ptolemais, Greece. ' Laboratory of Steam Boilers and Thermal Plants, National Technical University of Athens, Heroon Polytechniou 9, 15780 Zografou Campus, Greece

Abstract: The results of the numerical simulations performed in a pulverised fuel boiler co-firing coal and Solid Recovered Fuels (SRFs) are presented. SRFs are initially modelled as a mixture of two different fractions (biogenic and plastic) and further simplifications are proposed to save computational expenses. The SRF submodels are validated with available data obtained from a laboratory-scale combustion facility. The furnace of a 600 MWe brown coal plant is further simulated. The respective boundary conditions are obtained from a performed large-scale measurement campaign during an SRF co-firing demonstration in the specific boiler. The results of the baseline case are in good agreement with the available experimental data for the large-scale boiler. A number of fuel and process-related combustion parameters is further examined, including the co-firing thermal share, injection locations and the Particle Size Distribution (PSD) of SRF particles. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling in large-scale boilers can be a reliable and efficient tool towards predicting specific changes of the combustion behaviour. It is particularly valuable when the intended investigations cannot be easily realised on a large scale, such as increasing the co-firing thermal share or modifying the injection locations of alternative fuels.

Keywords: solid recovered fuels; co-firing; coal firing; SRFs; model validation; computational fluid dynamics; CFD; large-scale boiler simulation; pulverised fuel boilers; brown coal plants; combustion parameters; modelling; alternative fuels.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2009.027084

International Journal of Global Warming, 2009 Vol.1 No.1/2/3, pp.106 - 128

Published online: 14 Jul 2009 *

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