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CFBC & PFBC Technology

1.0 Introduction Circulating Fluidised Bed Combustion (CFBC) and Pressurised Fluidised Bed Combustion (PFBC) are advanced coal combustion technologies available now a day to improve overall cycle efficiency of the system, for generation of electricity. 2.0 Fluidised Bed Combustion During the seventies and also in eighties, it appeared that conventional pulverised coal-fired power plants had reached a plateau in terms of thermal efficiency. The efficiency levels achieved were of the order of 40 percent in the US and the UK. The corresponding figures for India, however, were lower at 36 to 37 percent. An alternative technology, Fluidised Bed Combustion (FBC), was developed to raise the efficiency levels. In this technology, high pressure air is blown through finely ground coal. The particles become entrained in the air and form a floating or fluidised bed. This bed behaves like a fluid in which the constituent particles move to and fro and collide with one another. Fluidised bed can burn a variety of fuels-coal as well other non-conventional fuels like biomass, petro-coke, and coal cleaning waste and wood. This bed contains only around 5 percent coal or fuel. The rest of the bed is primarily an inert material such as ash or sand. The temperature in FBC is around 800-9000 C compared with 1,300-1,5000 C in Pulverised Coal Combustion (PCC). Low temperature helps minimise the production of NOx. With the addition of a sorbent into the bed (mostly limestone), much of the SO2 formed can be captured. The other advantages of FBC are compactness, ability to burn low calorific values (as low as 1,800 kcal/kg) and production of ash which is less erosive. Moreover, in FBC, oil support is needed for 20-30 percent of the load versus 40-60 percent in PCC. FBC-based plants also have lower capital costs compared to PCC-based plants. The capital costs could be 8-15 percent lower. FBCs are essentially of two types bubbling and circulating. While bubbling beds have low fluidisation velocities to prevent solids from being elutriated, circulating beds employ high velocities to actually promote elutriation. Both these technologies operate on atmospheric temperature. The circulating bed can remove 90-95 percent of the sulphur content from the coal while the bubbling bed can achieve 70-90 percent removal.

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FBC thus offers an option for burning fuels economically, efficiently and in an environmentally acceptable way. Currently, size is the only limitation of this technology. While the maximum size of a PCC-based power plant unit could be 1,300 MW, FBC has achieved a maximum unit size of 250 MW. According to some estimates, FBC represents only about 2 percent of the total coal fired capacity worldwide, but is of particular interest and significance for use of those coals which are difficult to mill and fire in PCC boilers. 3.0 Circulating Fluidised Bed Combustion (CFBC) 3.1 Circulating Fluidised Bed Combustion Process: The CFBC boiler is capable of burning fuel with volatile content as low as 8 to 9 percent (e.g. anthracite coke, petroleum etc. with minimal carbon loss). Fuels with low ash-melting temperature such as wood, and bio-mass have been proved to be feedstocks in CFBC due to the low operating temperature of 850-9000 C. CFBC boiler is not bound by the tight restrictions on ash content either. It can effectively burn fuels with ash content up to 70 percent. For fuels with high moisture content and low heating value such as biomass, municipal wastes, paper & pulp industry wastes, sludge etc. and small capacities, bubbling fluidised bed technology is recommended. The circulating fluidised bed technology is considered suitable for waste fuels with a high percentage of noncombustibles (heating value 5-35MJ/kg). The Circulating Fluidised Bed Combustion technology is environmentally benign. The process employs a Circulating fluidised bed combustor that operates at a temperature of around 800-9000C. The fuel(crushed coal) along with the sorbent(limestone) is fed to the lower furnace where it is kept suspended and burnt in an upward flow of combustion air. The sorbent is fed to facilitate capture of sulfur from the coal in the bed itself resulting in consequent low sulfur emission. The combustion air is fed in two stages - Primary air direct through the combustor and Secondary air, way up the combustor above the fuel feed point. Due to high gas velocities the fuel ash and un-burnt fuel are carried out of the combustor with the flue gases. This is then collected by a recycling cyclone separator and returned to lower furnace. The heat transfer surfaces are usually embedded in the fluidised bed and steam generated is passed through the conventional steam cycle operating on Rankine Cycle. Alternatively, without the Fluid Bed Heat Exchanger, the heat transfer surface may be distributed over the combustor and the convective pass CFBC can successfully burn agricultural wastes, urban waste, wood, bio-mass, etc which are the low melting temperature as fuels. The low furnace temperature

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precludes the production of "thermal NOX" which appears above a temperature of 1200 to 1300 C. Besides, in a CFBC boiler, the lower bed is operated at near sub-stoichiometric conditions to minimise the oxidation of "fuel-bound nitrogen". The remainder of the combustion air is added higher up in the furnace to complete the combustion. With the staged-combustion about 90 percent of fuelbound nitrogen is converted to elemental nitrogen (N2) as main product. Fluidised Bed Combustion Process Diagram (Lakeland, USA CFBC)

3.2 Advantages of Circulating Fluidised Bed Combustion Technology

Fuel Flexibility The relatively low furnace temperatures are below the ash fusion temperature for nearly all fuels. As a result the furnace design is independent of ash characteristics which allow a given furnace to handle a wide variety of fuels. Low grade coals, high ash rejects high sulfur coals, lignite, biomass, wastes & other difficult fuels can be burnt easily in the CFBC boiler.

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Improved Combustion Efficiency The long residence time in the furnace resulting from collection/recirculation of solid particulate via the cyclone, plus the vigorous solids/gas contact in the furnace caused by the fluidisation airflow, result in high combustion efficiency, even with difficult-to-burn fuels. 98-99% carbon burnout has been achieved. The very high internal & external re-circulating rates of solids result in uniform temperatures throughout the combustor.

In-situ Pollution Control & Reduced Emissions Desulfurisation is accomplished in the combustion zone itself by addition of limestone in the bed. SO2 removal efficiency of 95% and higher has been demonstrated along with good sorbent utilisation. Low furnace temperature plus staging of air feed to the furnace produce very low NOx emissions. Chlorine & Fluorine are largely retained in ash.

Operating Flexibility Can be designed for cyclic or base load operation. Part loads down to 25% of MCR and load change rates of upto 7% per minute are possible.

Simplified Fuel Feeding Fuel pulverisation not required and only crushing is sufficient for fuel feed.

Proven Technology Foster Wheeler has more than 150 CFB steam generators in operation. The commercial availability of most of these units exceeds 98%.

3.3 CFBC System Components The CFBC systems comprise of the following major components:

Fluidised Bed Combustor & associated systems Fluid Bed Heat Exchanger Solids separation system - Recycling Cyclone, U-beam particle separators Conventional steam turbine systems Fuel Preparation & Feeding System Ash Removal System

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3.3.1 Fuel Feed System Fuel feed system is either pneumatic or wet type. Normally coal is fed as coal water mixture as they have demonstrated to burn more evenly. The optimum system design depends upon ash and sulfur content in coal. For fuels with low ash contents, coal-water mixture has found favours since large quantities of water are needed for coals with high ash, which affects its efficiency. The fuel is fed in the form of coal-water paste with 25% water by weight. The fuel feed size is lower than 0.75 in. 3.3.2 Sorbent Feed System Sorbents are not combustibles and are generally fed either continuously or intermittent. In the latter case, lockhoppers are used. The sorbent is crushed to around 3 mm top size, dries and fed in lock hoppers. 3.4 Technological Advancements In addition to external particle recirculation CFB, internal recirculation CFB has been developed. Internal recirculation CFB uses U-Beam separators installed in the flue gas exit path to collect and recycle the solids directly to the bottom of the furnace. U-beams are a staggered array of stainless steel channels in the furnace exit plane which capture most of the solids suspended in the flue gas. In addition, the multi cyclone dust collector captures finer solids which pass through the U-beam and recycles them to the lower furnace in a controlled manner. The regulation of this secondary recycle system offers furnace temperature control resulting in improved boiler performance. The manufacture claim to achieve >99.8% particle collection efficiency for the two-stage particle separation system. The IR-CFB operates at low flue gas velocities of 8 m/s as compared to 27 m/s with external recirculation CFB. This reduces erosion problems in the furnace which are a major cause for maintenance problems in CFBC. This design uses significantly less amount of refractory due to elimination of hot gas cyclone path. This IR-CFB technology is exclusively patented by Babcock & Wilcox. The CFBC process has been integrated with Advanced Pressurised Fluidised Bed Combustion system. The fuel & sorbent are fed into a PFB either Circulating or Bubbling. Combustion is aided by compressed air usually under a pressure of 10 to 14 bars at around 8710C. A cyclone separates particulate from pressurised flue gas stream and returns them to the bed. The flue gas undergoes a final clean-up through ceramic candle filters before entering the combustion turbine at around 8160C. The waste heat from the combustion turbine is recovered in a HRSG that generates steam to drive the steam turbine of the combined cycle. Pressurised Circulating Fluidised Bed (PCFB) process has been preferred by Foster Wheeler over the Bubbling bed. It offers higher combustion efficiency due to more carbon burnout in circulating mode. Low sorbent consumption for the

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same sulfur removal because of increased efficiency. Better NOx control from ease of staged combustion, since a circulating unit is taller and more slender. A higher velocity in the circulating mode results in units of smaller size for the same capacity. 3.5 Technology Status CFBC technology has been proven for all type of fuels including high ash coal, lignite, wood wastes, refinery residue etc. There are over 310 operating CFBC boilers worldwide. Foster Wheeler has more than 150 CFB steam generators in operation. The commercial availability of most of these units exceeds 98%. M/s Lurgi Lentjes Babcock Energietechnik Gmbh (LLB), Germany has 42 CFBC steam generators (>8700 MW) in operation worldwide. M/s Babcock & Wilcox have about 40 operating CFB units worldwide. LIST OF CFBC TECHNOLOGY SUPPLIERS WORLDWIDE S. No. Name Of Technology Supplier 1. Foster Wheeler, USA (47%) 2. 3. Lentjes Energietechnik, Germany (7.7%) Babcock & Wilcox, USA Technical Collaboration ------------Lurgi ------------No. Of Operating Remarks Plants 150 Circulating fluid bed technology 42 (870 MW) Circulating fluid bed technology 40 Internal Circulation & Bubbling fluid bed technology 19 150 Bubbling, External/Internal Circulating FB Cymic Advanced CFBC/ Bubbling Bed

4. 5. 6. 7.

ABB (14.5%) BHEL GEC Alstom Stein Industrie, (8.5%) Austrian Energy & Environment Kvaerner Pulping Oy, Finland (8%) Deutche Babcock (4.5%)

Lurgi Lurgi -------------

8. 9.

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The list of some major plants based on this technology worldwide is as below: LIST OF MAJOR PROJECTS EMPLOYING CFBC TECHNOLOGY S. No. NAME/COUNTRY SIZE MWe 110 95 125 110 100 FUEL COMM. DATE 1987 1990 1990 1992 1992 1992 1993 1995 1995 1995 1996 1998 1998 1998 1999 2003 1990 1995 REMARKS

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17 18

Tri-state Generation & Trans. Co. USA Kainuun Voima Oy Finland Vasikiluodon Voima Oy, Finland ACE Cogeneration USA Rheinisch-Westfalisches Elect. Works, Germany Nelson Industrial Steam Company, USA Nova Scotia Power Inc. Canada IVO International Oy Finland Colver Power Project USA Northampton Energy, USA CMIEC/Neijiang, China Turow Power Station Poland National Power Supply Thailand Asian Pulp & Paper Co. China EC Katovice S.A. Poland Jacksonville Emile Hutchet, Lorraine, France Provence/Gardanne power plant, France

Coal Coal, Peat, Sludge Coal, Peat Coal Brown Coal

Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler (largest petcoke CFB) Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Repowering Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Foster Wheeler Alstom Stein Industrie (Lurgi Tech.) Alstom Stein Industrie SOx-380, NOx-280 & Dust-20 mg/Nm3 Alstom Stein Industrie Babcock & Wilcox

2 x125 Petroleum Coke 180 Coal 110 Peat 100 Bituminous Waste 100 Anthracite Waste 100 Anthracite Coal 3x 235 Brown Coal 2x 150 2x 100 180 300 125 250 Coal, Bark Coal Coal Coal Coal

19 20

Red Hills, Mississippi, USA, 2 X 250 lignite Choctaw Generation Ultra Power, West Enfield, Maine, 77 Wood wastes USA

2000 1986

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21 22 23 24

Ebensburg Power Co. 172 Pennsylvania, USA Kanoria Chemicals Ltd. Renukoot, 81 India Montana Dakota Utilities, USA 215 Bowater Inc, Tennessee, USA 144

Waste Coal

1990

Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox Bubbling Fluidised Bed Babcock & Wilcox BFB retrofit Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox

High Ash Coal 1996 Lignite Bark, Natural Gas, Paper Mill Sludge Bituminous Coal High Sulfur Coal, Waste Coal High Sulfur Bituminous Coal High Ash Anthracite Coal biomass Coal 1986 1998

25 26

AES Beaver Valley, Pennsylvania, 121.5 USA Southern Indiana Gas Co Indiana, 299 USA Changguang Coal Mine Co. Zhejiang, 155 China Rostovenergo-Nesvetay Russia Vapo Oy, Lieska, Finland 163 30

1999 2000

27

2000

Babcock & Wilcox

28 29 30 31 32

2000 1994 1999 2001 1999

Babcock & Wilcox 8 MWe + 14 MW heat + 8 MW steam. 1st Cymic CFBC Kvaerner Pulpings Cymic CFBC Kvaerner Pulpings Bubbling CFBC High ash, highly erosive coal;

Elektrocieplownia Tychy S.A. Poland 37

Clonbulloge, Offaly, Ireland, Edendry 120 peat Power KEPCO, Seoul, Korea 2X 200 anthracite

3.6 COSTS The investment costs of projects based on the CFBC technology are much lesser than the conventional PC based plants. ($900-$950/kW) 3.7 Indian Scenario Fluidised Bed Combustion is a proven & established technology (not new, in contrast to general perception). Pilot and experimental FBC boilers were in operation as early as 1977 in India at BHEL, Trichy ; CFRI, Dhanbad etc. All these plants are still in operation. However FBC plants are economical only for poor quality fuels which can not be fired in conventional boilers. Initially these boilers were used for co-generation and process gas/steam applications at industrial installations. Later small size captive power plants also used FBC

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boilers. The common Indian fuels used include high ash coals, coal washery rejects, biomass and lignite. All initial FBC boilers, before 1992, were invariably supplied by BHEL and based on obsolete Lurgi bubbling bed FBC technology licensed to BHEL by Lurgi Lentjes Babcock. Later Foster Wheeler, USA supplied few Circulating FBC boilers in 1992-95 through its Indian licensee, ISGEC John Thompson. Currently Foster Wheeler is directly executing two new orders from Rain Calcining, Vizag(25MW, petroleum coke) and Mysore Paper Mills, Bhadravati(20MW, multifuel). Babcock & Wilcox has also supplied few bubbling bed FBC boilers in India since 1992. The most important of these is the Kanoria Chemicals, Renukoot 81MW captive power plant based on the most advanced Internal-particle recirculation FBC. Interestingly, B&W currently does not have any new order on hand in India. Another notable fact is that B&W does not have any experience with petroleum-coke fired FBC within or outside India. Recently, B&W has formed a joint venture with Thermax Ltd. to supply B&W boilers of all types in India as Thermax Babcock & Wicox Ltd. This company has supplied the FBC boilers to Kanoria Chemicals, Renukoot and Central Pulp Mills, Surat. Currently most Indian oil refineries are planning to set up refinery residue fired captive power plants. Foster Wheeler is the only experienced pet-coke fired CFBC supplier in India, currently. However with pet-coke, IGCC is also technoeconomically competitive with FBC. Due to this Essar Oil, had floated an open tender for their proposed power plant with options both for FBC & IGCC. The bidders include IHI, Snamprogetti for IGCC and Foster Wheeler, Lurgi for FBC. Other PSU oil companies are planning on similar lines. HPCLs proposed refinery at Bhatinda in Punjab plans to go for IGCC. 3.8 Status of CFBC technology development In India, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has developed bubbling fluid bed boilers up to capacity rating of 150 tonne per hour for high ash coals and washery rejects. For units of capacity higher than 30 MW, circulating fluidised bed combustion (CFBC) technology is more economical for high ash coals and / or high sulfur coals. For higher capacity CFBC boilers, BHEL has entered into a technical collaboration agreement with M/s Lurgi Babcock Energy Technik, Germany to make boilers up to 200 MW. BHEL is currently executing an order for two units of Lignite fired CFBC boilers of 125 MWe each (390 tph steam flow) in Gujarat and has commissioned one coal fired unit of 30 MWe (175 tph) capacity in Maharashtra in 1996. The first CFBC power plant of 110 MW at Nuclu. Colorado, USA is operating since 1990. Several such CFBC power plants are operating in Germany, UK, Canada and Japan using various kinds of coal and bio-mass fuels. The largest CFBC power plant is the 250 MWe units in Gardane, France, commissioned in 1996. Presently, 350 MWe units are being constructed in Canada and Japan.

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CFBC is a mature technology with more than 300 CFBC boilers in operation world wide ranging from 5 MWe to 250 MWe. With line stone addition, 90 percent of the sulfur emission can be retained. With staged combustion and with relatively low combustion temperature of 850 / 9000 C, NO2 formation is about 300 to 400 mg/Nm3 only against 500 to 1000 mg/Nm3 in conventional PF fired boilers.

4.0 Pressurised Fluidised Bed Combustion Combined Cycle (PFBC) 4.1 Pressurised Fluidised Bed Combustion Combined Cycle Process: A new type of fluidised bed design, the pressurised bed, was developed in the late eighties to further improve the efficiency levels in coal-fired power plants. PFBC Process Diagram (Tidd, USA)

The Pressurized Fluidised Bed Combustion Systems employ a combination of Rankine Cycle and Brayton Cycle with the objective of achieving high cycle

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efficiency and also lower emissions. The technology is environmentally benign. The process employs a pressurized fluidised boiler which operates at a temperature of around 860 0C, pressure of around 16-18 bars and generates the flue gases at pressure. The fuel is fed along with the sorbent and is maintained in fluidised condition in the pressurized combustion chamber. The sorbent is fed to facilitate capture of sulfur from the coal in the bed itself resulting in consequent low sulfur emission. The pressurized flue gases are cleaned off all the suspended particulate by means of high efficiency cyclones and are expanded into a gas turbine. This expansion of flue gases in the gas turbine generates power. In addition, the excess air requirements of the boiler are met by the gas turbine compressor. Since the gas turbine also supplies the excess air requirements of the boiler, it sets the limitation on gas turbine output. The excess air requirements are maintained at around 20% and thus the PFBC plant size is determined by the gas turbine sizes available. This also produces a power split between power generated by steam cycle and that generated by gas turbine which is of the order of 80:20. On the steam cycle side, the fluidised boiler, the heat transfer surfaces are embedded in the fluidised bed and steam generated is passed through the conventional steam cycle operating on Rankine Cycle. Thus a combination of Rankine Cycle & Brayton Cycle results in higher cycle efficiencies which are projected to be higher than conventional steam plants by 4-5%. In this concept, the conventional combustion chamber of the gas turbine is replaced by a pressurised fluidised bed combustor. The products of combustion pass through a hot gas cleaning system before entering the turbine. The heat of the exhaust gas from the gas turbine is utilised in the downstream steam turbine. This technology is called pressurised fluidised bed combustion combined cycle (PFBC) The bed is operated at a pressure of between 5 bar and 20 bar and operating the plant at such low pressures allows some additional energy to be captured by venting the exhaust gases through a gas turbine which is then combined with the normal steam turbine to achieve plant efficiency levels of up to 50 percent. The steam turbine is the major source of power in PFBC, contributing about 80 percent of the total power output. The remaining 20 percent is produced in gas turbines. PFBC plants are smaller in size than the atmospheric FBC and PCC plants and therefore have the advantage of meeting in urban areas. The fuel consumption is about 10-15 percent lower than in PCC technology. PFBC has been used only over the last few years. The development of this technology is dependent upon the compatibility of the hog gas clean-up system

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with the gas turbine inlet temperatures and maximum particulate size. Improvements on these two fronts would lead to greater acceptance of PFBC. 4.2 Status of PFBC Technology Development The first demonstration plant of capacity of 130 MWe (+224 MW, co-generation) has been operating in Stockholm, Sweden since 1991 meeting all the stringent environmental conditions. Another demonstration plant of 80 MWe capacity is operating in Escatron, Spain using 36% ash black lignite. The third demonstration plant of 70 MWe at TIDD station, OHIO, USA was shut down in 1994 after a eight year demonstration period in which a large amount of useful data and experience were obtained. A 70 MWe demo plant has been operated at Wakamatsu from 1993 to 1996. Presently, a 350 MWe PFBC power plant is planned in Japan and another is on order in USA (to be operated at SPORN). UK has gathered a large amount of data on a 80 MWe PFBC plant in Grimethrope during its operation from 19801992 and is now offering commercial PFBC plants and developing second generation PFBC. ABB-Sweden is the leading international manufacturer which has supplied the first three demonstration plants in the world and is now offering 300 MWe units plants. In India, BHEL-Hyderabad has been operating a 400 mm PFBC for the last eight years and has collected useful research data. IIT Madras has a 300 mm diameter research facility built with NSF (USA) grant. A proposal by BHEL for a 60 MWe PFBC plant is under consideration with the Government of India.

4.3 Advantages Of Pressurised Fluidised Bed Combustion Technology

Improved Cycle Efficiency (lower heat rate) The major advantage of PFBC process is that plant efficiency can be significantly improved by combining Rankine Cycle & Brayton Cycle. For the first generation PFBC combined cycles, efficiencies approaching 40% and heat rates of about 8500 Btu/kWh can be achieved. Second generation advanced combined cycles is expected to attain efficiencies more than 45% and heat rates as low as 7500 Btu/kWh.

Reduced Emissions & Improved Combustion Increasing the process pressures results in several advantages in addition to combined cycle operation and higher combustion rate. The increased pressure and corresponding air/gas density allow much lower fluidising velocities (around 1m/sec) which reduce the risk of erosion for immersed

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heat transfer tubes. At elevated pressures the heat released within the combustors increases and deeper beds are needed to accommodate the required heat transfer surface. The use of compressors for combustion air takes care of the higher pressure drop across these deep beds. Full load bed depths range from 3.5-4.5 m depending upon pressure. The combined effect of lower velocity and deeper beds results in greatly increased in-bed residence time which reduces emissions of SOx and thus improves combustion efficiency. In fact, the deeper beds allow 50% of the total residence tome to be in the bed where it is more effective compared to 10-15% in the shallow atmospheric bubbling beds PLANT Output MWe Coal Type SO2 emission NOx % removal emission mg/MJ 94-99 10-50 91-93 75-90 90 90-95 75-90 15-40

Vartan Tidd Escatron Wakamatsu

135 70 79 71

Bituminous Bituminous high sulfur black lignite Bituminous

Reduced Boiler Size Since air mass flow m= VA, the high air/gas density results in much lower required bed plan area. For the same m, a bubbling bed PFBC at 174 psi with a superficial velocity of 3ft/s will require 28% of the bed plan area of an atmospheric fluidised bed.

Modularity Because the gas turbine compressor capability sets the requirement of the boiler and major components, PFBC lends itself to a high degree of standardization. The range of PFBC design sizes is set by the compatible gas turbine sizes.

4.4 PFBC Plant Cycles 4.4.1 Combined Cycle The gas leaving the boiler is cleaned and sent directly into the gas turbine. This produces the gas turbine inlet conditions in the range of 175 to 240 psi at approx. 840 0C. This produces a power split between the gas and steam cycles which results in about 80% generation from steam cycle and 20% generation from gas turbines. The power to the gas turbine is sufficient to drive a compressor to provide the preheated, pressurized air to the Fluidized bed boiler for the combustion process.

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Air cooled PFBC cycle: A part of the air supplied by the compressor is heated in tubes within the PFBC and is mixed with the flue gas stream at the gas turbine inlet. Alternatively all the cooling can be achieved by increasing the excess air levels to upto 400%. This type of arrangement has not proved competitive with the steam cooled PFBC cycle. Steam cooled PFBC cycle: The steam is raised by tubes in the fluidisedbed and exhaust gas from the GT is used only to preheat feed water. An additional steam-cooled heat exchanger can be added at combustor exit to control the GT inlet gas temperature.

4.4.2 Advanced Combined Cycles In the case of PFBC, to prevent ash slagging, minimize the formation of thermal NOx, maximizing the sulfur capture and avoid formation of alkalis in the gas stream, the bed operates at about 8600C. This produces the gas turbine entry temperature of around 8300C. To further increase the contribution of the gas turbine in the plant efficiency, the turbine inlet temperature needs to be increased. Conventional gas turbines operate at upto 10930C inlet temperatures with new designs in the range of 12600C. By increasing the gas output temperature from PFBC, higher output from gas turbines can be produced. The most popular approach is to combine partial gasification with PFBC and use topping cycle. Application of this however, requires hot gas cleaning system to remove particulate from syngas and the gas leaving PFBC before sending to gas turbine. 4.5 PFBC System Components The PFBC systems comprise of the following major components:

Boiler & associated systems Conventional steam turbine systems Gas turbine Hot Gas Cleaning System Fuel Preparation & Feeding System Ash Removal System

4.5.1 PFBC Gas Turbine Requirements As the gas turbine is driven by hot pressurized gases from the boiler and simultaneously supply combustion air to boiler and generate electricity, certain characteristics are desirable:

It should provide a volumetric flow characteristics which would permit nearly constant fluidising velocity; excess air ratio and velocity into gas cleaning system (important for cyclones)

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It should balance the opposite requirements for a low air flow to boiler, a high air flow to gas turbine at low load; Withstand particulate loading in gases without significant damage; Throughout the load range, accept relatively low inlet gas temperature (around 8400C).

Typically at Tidd Power Station, gas turbine is a two-shaft machine. On one shaft, the variable speed, low-pressure turbine is coupled to low pressure compressor. On the other shaft, the high-pressure turbine drives both the compressor and generator. There is an intercooler between low and highpressure compressors. The advantage of two-shaft design is that the free spinning low-pressure turbine can accommodate reduced gas temperature and resulting reduction in airflow as load is reduced while maintaining constant speed at generator. 4.5.2 Fuel Feed System Fuel feed system is either pneumatic or wet type. Normally coal is fed as coal water mixture as they have demonstrated to burn more evenly. The optimum system design depends upon ash and sulfur content in coal. For fuels with low ash contents, coal-water mixture has found favours since large quantities of water are needed for coals with high ash, which affects its efficiency. The fuel is fed in the form of coal-water paste with 25% water by weight. This has been typically followed at Tidd. The fuel feed size is lower than 0.75 in. 4.5.3 Sorbent Feed System Sorbents are not combustibles and are generally fed either continuously or intermittent. In the latter case, lockhoppers are used. The sorbent is crushed to around 3 mm top size, dries and fed in lock hoppers. 4.5.4 Gas Cleaning System Gas cleaning systems have not yet been proven in PFBC systems and present a limitation. Typically the following type of gas cleaning systems are being employed:
o o

High efficiency cyclones -- these have been successfully tested. Candle filters and ceramic tube filters -- these are still under test conditions.

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4.6 PFBC Technology Status The following is the list of major technology suppliers for PFBC. S. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Technology Supplier ABB Carbon AB, Sweden MHI, Japan Hitachi, Japan Ahlstrom Pyropower, Finland Lurgi Lentjes Babcock, Germany Licensees IHI, Japan Remarks Bubbling Bed

Circulating Bed Bubbling Bed & Circulating Bed

The PFBC technology is still at demonstration stage worldwide. Only a few plants are being set up in Europe, USA and Japan to demonstrate the technology out of which five are currently in operation. Almost all these plants have come up during the current decade only. The list of various plants based on this technology worldwide is as below: 4.7 List of Projects Employing PFBC Technology S. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. NAME/COUNTRY Vartan, Stockholm, Sweden Tidd, AEP, Ohio, USA Escatron, ENDESA, Spain Wakamatsu, EPDC, Kyushu, Japan Tomato-Atsuma, HEPCO, Japan Trebovice, Czech Republic Karita, KyEPCO, Kyushu, Japan Osaki, Chugoku, Japan HKW Cottbus, KFB/SWC, Germany SIZE MWe FUEL 135 (2x P200) 73 79.5 71 85 70 350 250 71 Bituminous Coal Bituminous Coal COMM. DATE 1990 1991 REMARKS ABB-Carbon, Power & Heat Asea-Babcock (ABB-Carbon and B&W Joint Venture) ABB Carbon, Babcock & Wilcox Espanola, Demonstration plant Demonstration plant supplied by IHI, Licensee of ABB MHI, Japan; began commercial operation in Feb 1998; tubular ceramic filters Power, Steam & Heat Under Construction Hitachi, Under Design Stage ABB Kraftwerke AG, Under Design Stage

Black Lignite Nov,1990 Bituminous Coal Coal Hard Coal Hard Coal Dec,1994 1995 trial operation 1996 1999 1999 Local brown 1999 coal

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4.8 Costs The investment costs of projects based on the PFBC technology are projected to be around $ 1300 to $ 1400 per kW which is around 25-30% higher than the conventional PC based plants. However, these costs may have upward revision to account for various refinements in the technology during the demonstration stage. Once the technology is fully demonstrated, and reaches the maturity stage, the costs may show a downward trend.

5.0 Merits of Advanced coal combustion systems

Parameters Conventional pulverised fired Super critical pulverised fired PFBC /CFBC IGCC Hybrid Cycle (Gasification in combustion) Still at R&D stage

Maturity of technology

Completely proven and commercially available with guarantees

Substantially proven and commercial plant available with guarantees

Substantially proven and commercial plant available with guarantees

Mainly demonstration plant operational where coal is the fuel source 250-300 MWe, currently limited by the size of large gas turbine units available

Range of units available

All commercial sizes available (common unit size in the range 3001000 MWe) Burns a wide range of internationally traded coals

All commercial sizes available

Upto 350 mw sizes available

Demonstration plant proposed at around 90 MWe

Fuel flexibility

Burns a wide range of internationally traded coals

Will burn a wide range of internationally traded coals, as well as low grade coals efficiently; best suited for low ash coals

Should use a wide range of internationally traded coals, but not proven; Not really designed for low grade, high ash coals Around 43% currently possible, but

Should use a wide range of internationally traded coals; designed to utilise low grade, high ash coals efficiently

Thermal efficiency (LHV)

Limited by steam conditions

At least 45% now possible and over 50%

Around 44% possible, some

Around 43% should be obtainable,

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around 41% with modern designs

subject to successful materials development i.e. further R&D Can operate at low load, but performance would be limited

increases likely with further R&D and/or with supercritical steam cycle Can operate at low load but performance would be limited

over 50% possible with advanced gas turbines and further R&D

but over 50% possible with advanced gas turbines and further R&D

Operational flexibility

Can operate at low load, but performance would be limited

Realistically could only operate at base load

Design suggests would have reasonable performance at low load

Environmental Performance CO2 (g/KWH) SO2(mg/KWH NOx(mg/KWH)

830 600 600

810 585 585

460 150 300

Availability

Proven to be excellent

Proven to be good

Limited experience

Demonstration so far not satisfactory

Not yet demonstrated

References:

http://envfor.nic.in/cpcb/newsletter/coal/ccombs.html www.oecd.org/env/cc www.coalindia.nic.in/coalreservesindia.htm www.diehariandian.com/infra/poer.htm www.indiacore.com www.worldcoal.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/coal www.fossil.energy.gov

www.futuregenalliance.org www.iea-coal.org.uk www.worldenergysource.com www.bbc.co.uk www.financialexpres.com www.cleancoalcentre.org www.caer.uky.edu

P.S. Jalkote, EA-0366