Preparation schemes of crushed coal for combustion in fluidized bed boilers using a gravity separator

The low concentration of nitrogen oxide during coal combustion in fluidized bed furnaces is due to the limited proportion of primary air in the combustion zone. The schemes applied for the preparation of crushed coal are mostly for the use of coal breakage screens with a fixed maximum particle size in the mixture. The primary air flow is limited to the conditions of the fluidization of the bed and can be reduced only by reducing the size of the particles fed into the furnace. With a constant particle size and lower boiler loads, the proportion of primary air and thus the concentration of nitrogen oxides in the flue gas increase. The use of separators to change the particle size has never been considered, since it is a priori assumed that the separators cannot provide the required disperse composition of crushed coal. To assess the possibility of using separators in the schemes of preparing crushed coal for combustion in a fluidized bed and to determine the necessary separation boundaries, variants calculations were carried out in respect to the coal preparation scheme for boiler No. 9 of the Novocherkasskaya hydro-power plant. It is shown that the disperse composition of the fine separation product in the gravity separator with overturning shelves along the 5 mm boundary is identical to the disperse composition of crushed coal obtained in the scheme with a screen and crusher. The dependence of the maximum particle size of crushed coal on the separation boundary of the separator is given. It is shown that in the scheme of preparation of crushed coal for combustion in a fluidized bed, replacement of screens with gravity separators will not lead to violation of the requirements for the dispersed composition of crushed coal. At the same time, the proposed replacement allows you to quickly change the maximum particle size of crushed coal during operational activity and thereby to maintain the optimal fraction of primary air when the boiler load changes.