Increasing the Efficiency and Increasing the Resource of the Plasma-Ignition System by Its Modernization at Gusinoozerskaya TPP

Abstract

The article is devoted to a very urgent problem: reducing the cost of the fuel component in the production of electricity at power plants in Russia, namely, abandoning expensive fuel oil during the kindling of the boiler and the transitioning to the use of coal dust for this purpose. One of the ways to organize such kindling is the use of plasma technology to ignite coal dust. This technology is based on the thermochemical preparation of pulverized coal using an electric arc arising between the electrodes of the plasmatron. A stream of air passes through the arc, forming a plasma, which, meeting with the stream of air mixture, heats it, and promotes the release of volatile substances and the ignition of coal dust. Back in 1994, the first experiments on the implementation of such a system were carried out at the Gusinoozerskaya TPP. It turned out to be effective, but it had a number of significant drawbacks that limited its use. The main one was the low service life of the plasmatron cathode and muffle burner. In 2019, work was organized to modernize the plasma system aimed at increasing the resource of the main units of the plasma-ignition system. To solve a complex of problems, the specialists of OAO VTI proposed technical solutions for the design of a muffle burner, a cleaning system, and the automatic regulation of water and air supply to the plasma torch; a software package was developed to control the operation of the oil-free plasma-ignition system and control its parameters. Installation and testing of the modernized system for one of the pilot burners of the TPE-215 boiler was carried out. The specialists of the Institute of Physics and Mathematics (Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences) developed the design of the plasmatron and carried out its start-up testing. It is recommended to apply the results of the work to the rest of the boiler ignition burners. This article is devoted to the experience of upgrading the existing oil-free ignition system at the Gusinoozerskaya TPP.