In China, there are a large number of pulverized coal-fired industrial boilers, whose steam capacities are usually relatively small. These boilers can burn only high-grade coal and have low combustion efficiency. Furthermore, the combustion emissions, such as SO2 and NOx, pollute the environment severely. Therefore it is very important and urgent to adopt economically efficient and environmentally friendly technologies to retrofit these boilers. At the same time, there are many industrial wastes, such as bagasse, wood waste, rubbish, petroleum coke and so on, need burning disposal in China. Fluidized bed combustion technology is a kind of clear combustion technology, which has many advantages, such as excellence fuel flexibility, high combustion efficiency, low pollutant emission and good turndown capability etc. So, adopting fluidized bed combustion technology, retrofitting pulverized coal-fired boiler into fluidized bed boiler can realize pure burning various wastes or co-firing with coal, which should have great economic benefits and social benefits. And the application prospect of the method is also extensive. The State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion has successfully retrofitted a 25t/h pulverized coal-fired boiler into circulating fluidized bed boiler with in-bed tubes and downward exhaust cyclone. The retrofitted boiler can burn mixture of coal and bagasse and the steam capacity reaches 35t/h. This paper presents the retrofitting measures and the operation status of the boiler after retrofitting.
A review of fluidized-bed combustion technology in the United States
