Decoupling Investigation of Furnace Side and Evaporation System in a Pulverized-Coal Oxy-Fuel Combustion Boiler

Abstract

A distributed parameter model was developed for an evaporation system in a 35 MW natural circulation pulverized-coal oxy-fuel combustion boiler, which was based on a computational fluid dynamic simulation and in situ operation monitoring. A mathematical model was used to consider the uneven distribution of working fluid properties and the heat load in a furnace to predict the heat flux of a water wall and the wall surface temperature corresponding to various working conditions. The results showed that the average heat flux near the burner area in the air-firing condition, the oxy-fuel combustion with dry flue gas recycling (FGR) condition, and the oxy-fuel combustion with wet flue-gas recycle condition were 168.18, 154.65, and 170.68 kW/m2 at a load of 80%. The temperature and the heat flux distributions in the air-firing and the oxy-fuel combustion with wet FGR were similar, but both were higher than those in the oxygen-enriched combustion conditions with the dry FGR under the same load. This study demonstrated that the average metal surface temperature in the front wall during the oxy-fuel combustion condition was 3.23 °C lower than that under the air-firing condition. The heat release rate from the furnace and the vaporization system should be coordinated at a low and middle load level. The superheating surfaces should be adjusted to match the rising temperature of the flue gas while shifting the operation from air to oxy-fuel combustion, where the distributed parameter analytical approach could then be applied to reveal the tendencies for these various combustion conditions. The research provided a type of guidance for the design and operation of the oxy-fuel combustion boiler.