Abstract
Hard coal is widely used as a source of energy, and a number of catalysts have been developed to minimize the noxious impact of this fuel on combustion. This paper presents the cost-efficiency analysis of a system for improving the combustion of solid fuels, especially fine coal, in power boilers. The system is provided with a control and supervision device. It has been designed for better accuracy in controlling the boiler operating parameters, with a view to improving combustion efficiency due to the use of catalysts. The tests were carried out for system capacities ranging from 3 to 100 MW. It was found that, depending on the size of the system in the range of 3–100 MW, savings in the fuel consumption ranged from 2% to 8% due to the implementation of novel solutions in the boiler plant operation and from 2 to 6% due to the use of the combustion catalysts. Apart from boosting energy efficiency, the use of catalysts and the efficiency-boosting system resulted in the costs of overhauls being cut by about 20%. The payback time depends on system capacities, and it is between 6.75 and 1.74 years for capacities ranging from 3 to 75 MW and 2.0 years for a 100 MW plant.
Highlights
During the last few decades, the consumption of energy has increased, owing to the development of new technology, based predominantly on a limited and unsafe energy structure, composed of such fossil fuels such as hard coal, petroleum and gas [1]
This paper presents the cost-efficiency analysis of a system that improves solid-fuel combustion in power boilers
It was found that the target user group uses mainly hard coal or fine coal as solid fuels
Summary
During the last few decades, the consumption of energy has increased, owing to the development of new technology, based predominantly on a limited and unsafe energy structure, composed of such fossil fuels such as hard coal, petroleum and gas [1]. More than 38% of electric energy globally is generated from hard coal [2]. In 1990, hard coal was produced by 13 member states of the present European Union, compared with only two states (Poland and the Czech Republic) in 2019 [4,5]. Poland produced 61.6 106 t of hard coal, which was 95% of total hard coal production volume in the European Union, whereas the Czech Republic did 3.4 106 t (5%) [6]. In comparison with 123 106 t in the year 2012, when the last peak in the hard coal production volume was observed in the European Union, Poland cut its production volume by 22%, and the Czech Republic did by 70%. All the other former hard coal-producing states had ceased their production by that time
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