Use of oxygen enriched air combustion to enhance combined effectiveness of oxyfuel combustion and post-combustion flue gas cleanup Part 1 - combustion

Abstract

In this work, oxygen enriched air combustion is addressed. A 0·5 MW Doosan–Babcock burner was used and fired on the RWE npower combustion test facility located on the site of the Didcot ‘A’ Power Station in the UK. The present work concentrated on radiative and convective heat transfer measurements. Oxygen enrichment levels varied between circa 19 and 30% (v/v), dependent on the amount of recycled flue gas to give a constant furnace exit O2 level of 3%, although the furnace exit O2 was varied for carbon-in-ash measurements. Air was also used as comburent for baseline data acquisition. The recycled flue gas was dry and a Russian coal was fired. The results of this work has shown that oxygen enriched air combustion is a viable technique for carbon capture and storage providing CO2 enriched flue gas that will reduce the size of an amine scrubbing plant. The reduced level of oxygen enrichment compared to pure oxyfuel combustion also reduces the potential size of an air separation unit.