six of the most common causes of boiler slagging and fouling in our experience:

■ Low furnace excess oxygen

■ Extreme stratifications of the FEGT flue gas lanes

■ High primary airflows

■ Burner damage and deficient mechanical condition/tolerances

■ Poor coal pulverizer performance

■ Inconsistent fuel properties and chemistry

Low Furnace Excess Oxygen

The No. 1 cause of furnace slagging is low furnace oxygen content. Most boilers are designed for
115% to 120% theoretical combustion air. This is generally expressed as 15% to 20% excess air.
For coal furnaces, the oxygen levels would be 3% to 3.8%. Note the location of the oxygen
analyzers at the economizer exit in Figure 2. This location is often subject to reading higher
oxygen levels than the actual furnace oxygen content, due to air in-leakage between the furnace
and the air heater flue gas inlet.
2. Location, location, location. Furnace oxygen content instrument readings can be inaccurate
due to the location of the analyzers. Source: Storm Technologies Inc.

It is extremely important to apply the attention necessary to optimize the furnace burner belt
“inputs,” because combustion must be completed within the furnace cavity. Of absolute
importance is providing sufficient combustion airflow to the fuel before the products of
combustion exit the furnace. One of the most common causes of slagging and fouling is
secondary combustion at the upper furnace. The most common cause of secondary combustion is
insufficient excess oxygen within the burner belt.

Why is this so common? There are two reasons. First, most U.S. boilers have some age on them,
and the boiler settings have allowed air in-leakage to increase over the years. Because the oxygen
analyzers are usually located at the economizer outlet, the excess oxygen that is measured at the
economizer exit includes any ambient air that has leaked into the boiler setting after combustion
should have been completed. This lack of excess free oxygen at the furnace causes the active
combustion to stretch out and actively continue into the superheater section. The flue gas
temperature, due to such secondary combustion, can and has been measured to be well over
1,000F above optimum.

The second factor is that when the coal ash has an iron content of over about 10%, the melting
temperature of the ash is lower in a reducing atmosphere. In other words, not only does the
secondary combustion elevate the FEGT, but also, if the coal ash contains significant amounts of
iron, the fusion temperature can be drastically lower as a result of the ash chemistry. That is, the
ash will melt at a much lower temperature in a reducing atmosphere from what the fusion
temperature would be in an oxidizing atmosphere. As noted previously, the ash fusion
temperature can be reduced by as much as 500F.

These two factors combined are particularly serious for eastern U.S. plants that burn bituminous
fuels. The iron content in the ash has not been a large factor with Powder River Basin fuels, but
secondary combustion affects all boilers and all fuels.

Extreme Stratifications of the FEGT Flue Gas Lanes

The limited residence time of large utility boilers demands that the furnace inputs of fuel and air
be optimized (Figure 3). If not properly controlled, fuel/air inconsistencies can contribute to
slagging and fouling issues due to secondary combustion and elevated FEGTs. Optimizing the
fuel and air inputs to the furnace and making certain that the furnace exit is an oxidizing
atmosphere are the first steps in reducing furnace slagging.
3. Time is not on your side. With residence times as short as a couple of seconds, there is not a
lot of time for heat to be absorbed in the furnace. When secondary combustion is present, the
furnace exit gas temperature can exceed the ash fusion temperature, which is the primary reason
that furnace slagging occurs. Source: Storm Technologies Inc.

Fuel input optimization includes ensuring that:

■ Coal fineness meets the following guidelines: At least 75% passes a 200-mesh screen and less
than 0.2% remains on a 50-mesh screen with representative and isokinetically removed coal
fineness samples.

■ Coal distribution to each burner must be balanced plus or minus 10%.

Combustion air optimization includes ensuring that:

■ Primary airflow quantities are optimized and air/fuel ratios are repeatable.
■ Measured and controlled secondary airflow is uniformly distributed to the individual burners.

■ Measured and controlled overfire airflow is optimized.

FEGT and excess oxygen can be measured with a water-cooled high-velocity thermocouple
(HVT) probe. The measurements by HVT probe should be a minimum of 3% excess oxygen
with maximum temperatures about 100F to 150F below the ash fusion temperature. It is when
the FEGT approaches the ash fusion temperature that slagging occurs.

Often, the most useful data obtained by using a water-cooled HVT probe is the furnace exit,
excess oxygen levels, and profiles. All points at the upper furnace should be oxidizing and
preferably above 3% excess oxygen.

The word “slagging” is usually used to describe slagging in the furnace, whereas fouling is
generally used to describe cinders or ash that have carried over into the convection pass and
created flow obstructions due to the deposition. As discussed previously, fouling of the
convection pass, SCR, and air heater are the result of ash accumulations on the leading edges of
superheater and reheater tubing that is removed by long retractable sootblower operation.

Minimizing slagging and fouling begins by optimizing the burner belt combustion performance.
This is necessary because there is only about 1 or 2 seconds of residence time between the top of
the burner belt and the superheater flue gas inlet. At the furnace exit, the superheater and reheater
tube spacing becomes closer and closer, resulting in narrowing gas flow lanes.

The typical FEGT is about 2,150F to 2,250F, assuming that the prerequisites for optimum burner
belt combustion are present for the inputs. In the superheater shown in Figure 4, the peak furnace
flue gas temperatures were well above the melting temperature of Alloy 310 stainless steel
(about 2,780F). The active secondary combustion peak temperatures were truly about 1,000F
above the FEGT with optimized burner belt inputs. When optimized, the FEGT was a uniform
1,950F to 2,100F across the boiler width. Prior to optimization, temperatures of 2,850F to 3,100F
were present. These extremes have been documented in numerous cases.
4. A bridge to nowhere. This superheater was slagged over because the furnace exit gas
temperature was about 1,000F above optimum. Courtesy: Storm Technologies Inc.

The cause of the high temperature in this case was threefold. First, primary air velocities were
high, which drove the fuel deep into the furnace, away from the secondary air provided at the
burners. Second, the burner belt suffered from combustion air starvation due to the overfire
airflow being too high and exceeding 20% of total airflow, with only about 115% of total
theoretical airflow to the boiler. In other words, the burner belt was deeply staged at sub-
stoichiometric excess oxygen levels. Third, fuel fineness and distribution was not optimized. The
flue gas temperatures were over 3,000F at the superheater gas side inlet. At this temperature, the
ash condition was fluid, and it only took a couple of shifts to completely slag the furnace exit.

It is common to find between 0.5% and 1% oxygen rise from the furnace to the air heater inlet
flue gas. Why? Well, for one reason, the average 500-MW pulverized coal–fueled boiler is more
than 30 years old. Therefore, the potential for air infiltration is increased due to age alone, even
when diligent and thorough maintenance repairs are practiced. The only excess oxygen that
matters from a slagging and fouling viewpoint is the excess oxygen present at the furnace exit.
Keep in mind that the available residence time from the top to the burner belt may be less than
1.5 seconds.

High Primary Airflows

High primary airflow, especially on wall-fired boilers, contributes to poor fuel balance, poor fuel
fineness, and longer flame lengths. Primary air is basically transport air and provides 15% to
25% of the total air for combustion. Therefore, when the primary airflow is very high, the fuel
particles “outrun” the secondary air and result in longer-than-optimum flames (Figure 5).
5. Don’t out-kick your coverage. When primary airflow is too high, fuel gets driven deep into
the furnace. Source: Storm Technologies Inc.

High primary airflow on nearly any modern low-NOx burner will drive the fuel deep into the
furnace, thus outrunning the secondary airflow. As a consequence, fuel-rich zones can form in
the upper furnace, resulting in secondary combustion, elevated temperatures, and zones of
localized reducing atmosphere—all of which contribute to slagging and fouling.

Burner Damage and Deficient Mechanical

Condition/Tolerances
One of the 13 essentials of optimum combustion is burner tolerance at plus or minus one-quarter
inch. The photographs shown in Figure 6 offer some examples of typical as-found burners.
6. Out-of-spec. Damaged burners must be repaired in order to optimize combustion. Courtesy:
Storm Technologies Inc.

Most of the damage to burners results from overheating of idle burners due to radiant furnace
heat. One way to monitor for burner overheating is to attach thermocouples to the burner nozzles
and provide cooling air through the burner nozzles to keep below 800F when out of service.
(Burner cooling is a topic for another day.)

Poor Coal Pulverizer Performance

The most frequent cause of extreme fuel imbalances at the furnace exit is coal pulverizer
performance. Poor fuel fineness nearly always contributes to poor fuel balance. At best,
pulverized fuel balance will be in the range of plus or minus 5% to 15% deviation.

When classifiers are not set for best fineness (usually to substitute more coal pulverizer
throughput for reduced fineness), the fineness may deteriorate to less than 70% passing 200
mesh. Along with the reduced fineness, there will be less-uniform fuel balance. Poor fuel
fineness nearly always results in poor fuel distribution. It is not unusual to find fuel deviations of
plus or minus 25% when the pulverizers are not optimized.

The coal pulverizers are the heart of a pulverized coal–fueled boiler. About 75% of the
opportunities for improvements in tuning are with the coal mills, primary airflow, and fuel line
balancing. Figure 7 shows the important points for achieving optimum combustion with
minimum slagging and fouling.