Pilot-scale study on water and latent heat recovery from flue gas using fluorine plastic heat exchangers

Abstract

Over the years, in order to enhance the thermal efficiency, coal-fired power plants have witnessed great improvements in water and waste heat recovery. This paper aims to investigate the water vapor and latent heat recovery from the low temperature flue gases exiting a limestone-gypsum wet desulfurization system. A pilot-scale testing system mainly composed of a two-stage fluorine plastic heat exchanger (FHE) was built in a 660 MW lignite-fired power plant in northern China. The additional FHE configuration was first developed and used for water and latent heat recovery based on the condensation mechanism of water vapor. Results showed that the FHE can overcome the shortcomings of the conventional metal heat exchanger, especially when flue gas temperature is below the acid dew point. The recovered latent heat accounted for more than 80% of the total heat recovered from low temperature flue gases, and the heat supply of 92 MWth was achieved. The overall heat transfer coefficient of the FHE reached up to 275 W/(m2•K). The water recovery efficiency increased with an increase in cooling water velocity and a decrease in flue gas velocity. The water recovery efficiency higher than 70% was reached when the flue gas velocity was less than 5 m/s and the cooling water velocity was greater than 0.24 m/s. The highest water recovery efficiency of the two-stage FHE was 85%, suggesting that this technology has a greater application potential in all industrial processes. The recovered water mass from the flue gas by condensation was nearly equal to, or even exceeded, the equivalent mass of supplemental water for the desulfurization system. The good water recovery performance of the FHE device implied that zero water consumption of the desulfurization system could be achieved, which is of great significance for power plants, especially in water scarce regions. This technology will offer an innovative and feasible solution to resolve the issue of water and heat recovery in the highly corrosive conditions.