Controlling CO boilers

Kurt Kraus and Minwoo Kwon UOP Callidus

U
OP Callidus supplies and installs complete conventional industrial steam generating boiler.
systems and various subsystem compo- In the industrial boiler, steam supply is the inde-
nents for CO boilers and other FCC related pendent control variable. Increased steam
ancillary equipment. The exhaust emissions demand requires increased air and fuel flow into
from the CO boiler must be controlled reliably the boiler to maintain a constant combustion
and predictably to meet operating company excess air set point while the bulk flue gas
requirements. Principal constituents for control temperature is allowed to vary. However in the
in the exhaust emissions include carbon monox- CO boiler, all of the CO in the flue gas stream
ide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulphur delivered to the boiler must be burned thereby
oxides (SOx) and particulate matter. The design requiring a relatively constant combustion
of UOP Callidus CO combustors ensures chamber temperature. The steam output from
complete conversion of CO to CO2 while mini- the boiler becomes a dependant variable tied to
mising NOx emissions with post-combustion the input requirements necessary to ensure
treatment of sulphur and particulates. complete combustion of the CO in the flue gas
stream.
The UOP Callidus CO combustor While the CO content of the flue gas stream
The Fluidised-Bed Catalytic Cracking (FCC) from the FCC unit may vary rapidly and consid-
process is the principal means of converting low erably over time, the total mass flow of the flue
value heavy oils into more profitable gasoline gas stream is relatively constant and slower to
and lighter products in petrochemical refineries. change. To respond quickly to the changing CO
During the cracking process, carbon coke is content of the flue gas stream, make-up, auxil-
deposited internal and external of a catalyst iary or supplemental fuel gas is precisely
support structure thereby reducing the catalyst modulated. By modulating the make-up fuel gas,
activity. To regenerate the catalyst in a continu- the heat input from fuel into the boiler is main-
ous process, the FCC regenerator burns the tained relatively constant.
residual carbon from the catalyst. Air is injected Meanwhile, the combustion air is modulated
in the regenerator converting the coke from the to principally control the bulk combustion cham-
catalyst to CO and CO2. The air also is used in ber temperature and secondarily to maintain the
controlling the temperature of the resulting proper excess air limits.
regenerator flue gas. Depending on the regenera- The combustion air and fuel control is the key
tor design, a significant portion of the carbon for the control logic for CO combustor control.
may not be fully reacted to CO2 in a “partial The main oxidiser (combustor) must be
burn” process. The partially burned residual controlled on temperature to ensure complete
carbon requires further processing, or combust- CO destruction. To achieve complete CO destruc-
ing, before being vented through a stack. The CO tion and to meet environmental regulations, a
combustor with boiler is used to oxidise the CO temperature well above the auto-ignition
to CO2 to meet environmental regulations while temperature of all constituents is used as the
facilitating the recovery of valuable energy from design normal operating temperature set point.
the flue gas. As the CO combustor temperature decreases
below the set point, the output of temperature
Combustion air and fuel control controller, TIC, increases, calling for additional
The combustion air control scheme for a CO combustion air flow. In a “lead-lag” configura-
boiler is fundamentally different from that of a tion, based upon the additional air flow

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 An oxygen analyser is also
used to monitor the flue gas O2
level to make sure that there is
enough O2 in the combustion
chamber. Any excess combus-
tible or hydrocarbon could
result in unacceptable
after-burning in the CO boiler
section. It is very important to
keep the O2 level to a preset
minimum level. If the oxygen
analyser is used to control the
air flow rate, it should be used
only for override not for trim.
If oxygen is added in the
temperature control loop as
controlling variable, the
temperature controller might
not be stable as CO flue gas
combustible contents will vary.
There are two different
combustion air inlets to this
CO combustor application, one
for primary combustion air and
the other for secondary
combustion air. Typically, the
primary combustion air inlet is
dedicated to main burner
control. The primary air
control loop is tied with the
main fuel gas flow meter,
controlled by ratio control to
maintain and insure the stabil-
Figure 1 ity of the main burner flame.
The secondary air inlet main-
measured, the fuel gas flow is increased, which tains the constant air flow rate to the entire
ultimately increases the thermal oxidiser system. As CO flue gas heat content (amount of
temperature. The controller will automatically CO or combustible) continually varies, it is very
adjust fuel flow to maintain the set point difficult to control the air with the CO flue gas.
temperature in the combustor section. Similarly, The best way to handle this is to set the air flow
upon a decrease in heat demand, fuel flow is rate in the Distributed Control System, DCS, by
reduced first, followed by combustion air. the Hand Indicate Control, HIC. The DCS opera-
A density analyser, often used to measure fuel tor sets the total air flow rate while the primary
gas specific gravity, may be provided to correct air flow rate is controlled by fuel gas flow rate.
for varying fuel gas composition. It is essential The secondary air flow rate is set for CO flue gas
to control the ratio of the fuel gas and combus- combustion and temperature control purposes.
tion air to the main burner for NOx control. This The combustion air for CO regenerator flue gas
analyser is sometimes used with a compensation is introduced through this secondary air flow
tool to provide an accurate flow rate. Combustion inlet and into the multipoint injection point with
air is compensated with temperature and pres- specially designed inducing pipes for proper
sure to provide the most accurate flow rate to mixing. Figure 1 shows a simple diagram for a
the combustor. typical CO combustor control scheme.

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CO flue gas injection and refractory selection controlling flame temperature is different for
Due to presence of SOx and catalyst particles in each combustion zone. A small portion of the
the flue gas, the refractory lining must be care- total fuel is fired in the first combustion zone
fully selected for each combustor zone. The most that is designated as the “primary” combustion
important criteria for the selection will be the zone. This primary combustion zone is just
erosion factor due to the high velocity and ther- downstream of the burner tile “throat”.
mal conductivity in the primary combustion Nearly half of the total fuel is fired in the
zone. Typically, the primary combustion zone is second combustion zone that is located around
where the velocity and temperature is the high- the circumference of the combustion chamber
est inside the combustor. Catalyst fines also just downstream of the burner tile. The fuel for
could cause some refractory failure on the high this zone is called secondary fuel and is injected
velocity zone. The FCC CO flue gas injection port around the circumference of the discharge end
is designed to achieve good mixing with the of the burner tile. This secondary combustion
combustion air. The design provides rows of zone extends into the quench air injection
multi-point injection points giving the incoming portion of the vessel.
air and regenerator flue gas a vigorous turbu- The tertiary or third combustion zone begins
lence creating an intense mixing atmosphere in at the discharge of the quench air injection
the combustion chamber. This resulting inten- portion of the vessel. The balance of the fuel is
sive mixing of regenerator flue gas and air injected into this zone through radial tips that
ensures complete oxidisation of combustibles in are located around the circumference of the
the flue gas. For this reason, refractory must be quench air chamber.
selected with high erosion resistant material.
Improper selection of the refractory could lead NOx reduction-primary combustion zone
to sulphuric acid corrosion of the steel shell. The method of NOx reduction used in the
primary combustion zone is rapid fuel/air
Description of UOP Callidus burner operation mixing with very high excess air to achieve the
and NOx control majority of the primary combustion at low flame
The main burner for the CO boiler utilises gase- temperature. Because all of the combustion air
ous fuel during operation. The NOx generation required for the primary combustion zone and
when firing a gaseous fuel with no bound nitro- the secondary combustion zone enters the vessel
gen is a result of the high temperatures that are through the throat of the burner, relative to the
found in the burner flame known as thermal primary fuel, the excess air in the primary
NOx. The traditional methods of controlling this combustion zone is as high as 250%. Uniform
type of NOx generation are reduction of the air mixing with all of the fuel prior to combus-
flame temperature and low excess air operation. tion that takes place in this zone does not occur.
The low excess air operation limits the availabil- If the total air were uniformly mixed with the
ity of the oxygen to combine with the nitrogen. primary fuel, the adiabatic combustion tempera-
However, the major reduction in thermal NOx is ture may be too low for stable combustion.
normally achieved by various methods of reduc- Instead, mixing is sufficient for an adiabatic
ing the flame temperature. flame temperature high enough for good burner
During the start-up phase of the CO boiler, stability, but too low for high thermal NOx
excess air is used to control the flame tempera- formation.
ture to approximately 982°C. Because of the
physical configuration of the burner and NOx reduction – secondary combustion zone
combustion chamber, the use of quench air elim- The purpose of staging a portion of the fuel is to
inates the possibility of low excess air operation. delay the combustion until some convective heat
Therefore, the NOx emissions are controlled or transfer occurs to the mixed and unmixed flow
minimised by a reduction in flame temperature. stream and incoming streams which together
For the UOP Callidus CO combustor and reduce the flame temperature. Conduction
burner, there are three distinct combustion between masses occurs as the quench air
zones in which fuel gas and fuel (CO) from flue injected downstream of the secondary fuel injec-
gas are burned during operation. The method of tion mixes in the secondary combustion zone. As

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 Figure 2

Figure 3

uniform mixing of the primary combustion zone is not possible; but, mixing is sufficient to
products, the secondary fuel, the excess air from give the proper adiabatic flame temperature.
the primary combustion zone and a portion of
the air injected into the quench zone occurs, the NOx reduction –tertiary zone
adiabatic temperature is controllably reduced. The final portion of fuel is injected at the
Complete mixing of the components prior to all discharge of the quench air injection zone. The
of the combustion that occurs in the secondary perfectly mixed adiabatic temperature is fairly

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low for thermal NOx formation and may be efficient modelling of complete systems includ-
below the temperature for stable flame as there ing details of physical features of less than one
is no proper flame in this region. Non-combusted cubic millimetre in size. Access to hundreds of
fuel and CO in this region burn “flameless” as high-speed processors on Honeywell computer
they might in similar regions of a typical thermal clusters mean that simultaneous large-scale
oxidiser. models are continuously and rapidly driven to
solution.
Computational fluid dynamic modeling of CO
boilers Conclusion
Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis of The CO boiler system is critical for complete
complete boiler systems from the let-down valve heat liberation and maximum heat recovery in a
at the regenerator through to the stack, includ- partial burn FCC unit. The UOP Callidus CO
ing combustion chemistry, yields robust design boiler meets the customer’s needs by delivering
validation and optimisation of system efficiency, on environmental emissions requirements using
emissions and materials (see Figure 2). Multiple a well developed flue gas combustor and an effi-
waste streams and varying operating conditions cient control scheme combined with UOP
are modelled to determine the optimal locations Callidus on-site construction, installation and
and methods of injection and mixing of the start-up capabilities.
combined streams (see Figure 3).
Unique situations such as the combination of LINKS
full-burn and partial-burn flue gas streams from
multiple FCC units to a single boiler can be stud- More articles from: UOP Callidus
ied. The proper injection location and control of More articles from the following categories:
multiple streams and the resulting effects on the Emissions Control
overall system performance emissions are deter- Fluid Catalytic Cracking
mined. Proprietary modelling processes allow

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