Numerical investigation of the oxy-fuel combustion in large scale boilers adopting the ECO-Scrub technology

Abstract

The present paper presents a three-dimensional numerical investigation of a pulverized-fuel, tangentially-fired utility boiler located at Florina/Greece under air, partial and full oxy-fuel conditions. Heat and mass transfer and major species concentration, such as CO 2, CO and O 2 are calculated; whilst the results for the reference air case scenario studied are in good agreement with the corresponding operational data measured in the plant, both for combustion calculations and NO x emissions. Results for the partial and full oxy-fuel operation scenarios are in line with similar experimental and numerical investigations found in the recent literature. This numerical investigation of oxy-fuel conditions scenarios prior to their implementation under real scale conditions demonstrates the utmost of its importance, since significant results regarding the operation of a boiler in terms of lignite particle trajectories and burning rates are attained. Furthermore, NO x calculations have been performed for all the examined case studies.