500 mg/Nm3 NOx at 10% O2 with 100% Petcoke for ILC and SLC Plants with

no SNCR via
Trie Smart Flow and 3rd Generation NOx post Processor

By Tom Lowes and Joana Bretz

 Why Joana and I dedicate our time to help Cement
Plant reducing NOx emissions?
Tom Lowes, PhD
Principal Process Engineer

NOx in terms of toxicity to the MEI for typical levels of emissions of all pollutants is the most toxic in terms of % of the WHO
tolerable limits for 24/7 exposure.

India has a high level of excellent low energy 5 and 6 stage PH/Calciner Plants.

BUT also, some of the highest NOx emissions in the world that I have come across.

Why?
It goes back to the late 90’s when Mr Jajoo the then CEO of Grasim walked into my office in the UK and asked me to tell him why his
Plants could not get above 25% Petcoke without Jamming.
I explained my technology, within a month I was at Aditya followed by Vikram and working with them over a couple of years – support
by Mr Jajoo for efforts and investment – they got to 100% high S petcoke, which was then replicated to other plants and generally
followed by some other Companies.
Now many Plants in India have high petcoke use which is a very HIGH NOx producer in SLC in particular of which there are many.

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So how do we fix it?
understand the real Fundamentals of NOx generation and destruction
Need to first in Cement Plants and then apply
them in an optimum low-cost way, without resorting to SNCR

While the NOx generated in the kiln is important and can be responsible for 40% of the stack emissions, these are controllable via calciner
optimisation.

Hence knowledge of how NOx is generated and controlled in

the calciner is of paramount importance to getting the stack
NOx down to < 500 mg/Nm3 at 10% O2 without SNCR.

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NOx in calciners can be considered to be generated solely from the fuel N.

Thermal NOx cannot be produced due to the temperature being < 1700oC and prompt NOx if generated is small compared to the fuel NOx.

The simple schematic describes it well:

The Volatile fuel N2 evolves in the from of NH3 or HCN

and then either reacts with NO to form N or O2 to form

NO. The N remaining in the char either reacts with O2 or

NO in the boundary layer to form NO or N2

In the presence of hydrocarbons and low O2 reburning can take place to form more HCN, which can then go down the appropriate pathway.

To get a low NOx calciner one must first understand these fundamentals them develop the practical means to exploit them.

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NOx in calciners
Typically, the Fuel N for coal and petcoke is in the range 1 to 2%. For AFR the range can be as low as 0.5 to > 3%.

While AFR generally can have higher Fuel N they also come with higher volatiles, which allows the conversion of the fuel N to be more
readily staged and also AFR can make a good reburn fuel.

Usually, the volatiles as determined from the proximate analysis carried with them the same % of fuel N, but can be up to a 1.5 factor
when the fuel is heated rapidly. For example, a 30% volatile fuel which has 1% fuel N, the fuel N in the volatiles can be between 0.3 and
0.45%.

The remainder going to the char, which generally contributes little to the NOx emissions, except in the case of low volatile fuels.

The table on the next slide show typical emissions ranges

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 NOx in calciners
The table shows a typically set of coal and Petcoke NOx emissions, with and without TRIE reburn and staging low cost calciner modifications.

The trick is to design the fuel injectors so that the optimum mixing takes place well below any meal and TA duct to allow both kiln NOx reburn and volatiles fuel
N staging to form HCN then react with NO to form N2, before meeting the TA which would reconvert the HCN to NO.

NOx Emissions: predictions as function of reburn, air staging and Char NOx contribution for Fuel N of
1.5 and KBE NOx of 1200 ppm
Volatiles Reburn Staging Char NOx KBE NOx Calciner Calciner Exit NOx Stack NOx
30% 0 0 10 375 932 1112
30% 80 50 10 75 406 484
10% 10 10 50 338 1139 1358
10% 30 50 25 263 669 798

Petcoke is the trickiest and for SLC < 800 is not possible without fuel and meal staging plus air staging via an extra TAD OR the use of coal or AFR as a 30%
reburn fuel.

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 NOx Assessment IEEE paper

To get to < 500 mg/Nm3 without AFR or SNCR requires either luck or a good hot reburn design either in the plant build or
retrofit afterwards
The concept of reburn is not new, however as developed by Hupa and applied by TML/JBS is, as detailed in its 2011 IEEE
paper above, namely :

➢ 1200 oC reburn and staging for @1sec at a SR for vols at < 0.9
(locally)
➢ 1300 oC for 0.15 sec followed by @ 0.5 sec with low meal addition
for a customized retrofit for calciners at a SR for vols at < 0.9

to further react to form N2 and not with O2 to reform NO. The next 4 slides show the important of hot reburn
temperature

The reason for the RT before, the TA is to allow the CHi reburn of NO to HCN compounds and time before mixing with the
TA to allow a good reburn. Followed by a practical plant schematic recently developed by Trie Smart Flow.

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NOx Assessment
Time to Drop KBE NOx from 1000 to 200 ppm with CxHy
as fn Temperature
1.2

0.8
Time secs

0.6

0.4

Hot reburn
0.2

0
800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400

Temperature C
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NOx Assessment
Time to drop 1000 ppm HCN to 100 ppm with NO reaction
10.00

9.00

8.00

7.00

6.00
Important to not quench
Time secs

5.00
too much with meal after
reburn and staging
4.00

3.00

2.00

1.00

0.00
800 850 900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 1250
Temperature C

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NOx Assessment
TAD mods/Reburn Burners Stack NOx vs Kiln NOx
1000

Before and after the

S
t
900 Stack NOx = 0.29* KBENLOx + 645 TAD modifications,
a
@ 25% reburn no
c 800 Stack NOx = 0.32*KBENOx + 569 staging
k
700
m
g
/ 600
N
Burners Down
m reburn 73%,
500
3 staging - 50%

a 400
t Stack NOx = 0.12*KBENOx + 294
300
1
0
% 200

O
100
2

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
KBE NO ppm
Reburn Burners Before TAD After TAD

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Prediction for Hot Reburn Burners

O2 (kg/kg) Fuel-vol. (kg/kg)

0.230 0.050
0.207 0.045
0.184 0.040
0.161 0.035
0.138 0.030
0.115 0.025
0.092 0.020
0.069 0.015
0.046 0.010
0.023 0.005
0.000 0.000

12m

0.65(25m/s)

➢ 0.15 sec at 1300oC+, before @ 15%

lower meal
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Schematic of ILC with Hot Reburn and Fuel N staging
Injector Design. Location and angle critical for optimum success

Remaining meal 1m above the TAD to avoid fast

quenching of the combustion

TAD 0.7 secs above the

injectors
Lower Meal 0.5 secs below TAD with meal 15%
max designed to allow at least 1000oC to allow
Fuel N staging from HCN to N2 and reburn HCN to
go to N2

2 fuel injector design to get 1300C with 0.15

secs before lower meal to reburn the KBE NOx
by at least 80%

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NOx from Low Volatile Coals
When it comes to petcoke, South African Coal and Anthracite hot reburn does not work quite as well due to the low
volatiles.

However, the main issue is that the Fuel N that stays in the char is high and unlike bituminous coals react for form Char N
due to the lower SSA developed due to the low Vols and hence does not react with NO and CO in the boundary layers to
finally evolve at N, but NO instead.

The next slide shows NOx produced with RSA coal in a modern FLS calciner guaranteed to 600. With lower meal on and
off.

To get to < 600 the coal injectors will need to be moved as far as possible below the meal.

Unfortunately, the calciner is not build with the possibilities of @ 0.7 secs RT below the TA, so it will need to run hot for
longer than the 0.15 sec guidelines to drive off more N in the volatile and aim for an even better reburn and staging

If this does not work, then fuel or air staging will be needed.

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NOx from Low Volatile Coals
Stack vs KBE NOx LM On and Off
1200

1000

Stk NOx = 0.15*KBE NOx + 912

800
Stack Nox mg/Nm3 at 10% O2

Stk NOx = 0.1* KBE NOx + 755

600
Stk NOx
Lower Meal Off LM Off 826
Kiln NOx reburn % 70 LM On 996
400
Cal Vol N staging % 70
Char NO % Char N 50
Stack NOx 837
200

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
KBE NOx ppm

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LM Off LM onn Linear (LM Off) Linear (LM onn) 14
NOx from Low Volatile Coals
The next slide shows NOx from a Polysius calciner that is 100 % high S petcoke fired.

While the reburn is quite good at 48% , the low vol fuel N means little real staging of the fuel N, and with the 51%
conversion of the char N giving @ 1100 mg/Nm3 at 10% O2 at the stack.

Hence to get to 800 will be tricky for 100% petcoke, even with fuel staging and running the reburn section hotter and 500
will be impossible.

The best option – apart from using a volatile coal and or AFR in the calciner – for an ILC 100% petcoke to reach is air
staging with the additional option of fuel staging for an SLC.

The second slide show the air- staging needs, which is 50/50 split of the TA, which TSF has recently developed and shown
on a SCC calciner designed with air staging.

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NOx from Low Volatile Coals
Petcoke Fired Calciner
1800

KBE NOx 842

1600
Stack NOx 1084
1400

1200

1000

800

600

Stack NOx = 0.22 KBE NOx+ 966

400
Kiln NOx reburn % 45
Cal Vol N staging % 45
200
Char NO % Char N 51
Stack NOx 1094
0
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IFRF Work on Air Staged Combustion
NOx drop 50% with Air Staging

TSF has shown that 0.7 is more

optimal for air staging and 1 sec RT
is ideal

This means that the TA needs to be

split @ 50/50 to allow for the O2 in
the KBE and the petcoke transport.

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IFRF Work on Air Staged Combustion how is this bests exploited for Cement Plants???

1. Reburn the kiln NOx with sub – stoich vols (λ - 0.9)

2. Stage the volatile fuel NOx with sub – stoich vols

3. Minimize char NOx by sub – stoich ( λ – 0.7) char combustion for 0.7
to 1 sec

For Bituminous Coals they can potentially reach < 200 mg/Nm3 at 10% O2 , by applying
the above design idea in all ILC type calciners and even get SCC to as low as 500.
The next slide shows modelling results of fuel staging with a 2-step meal in a 100% petcoke
fired SLC. It shows a drop of > 25%.
It should be noted that without a 2-step meal, no drop in NOx was predicted.

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Impact of Meal and Burner Fuel Split on NOx for Petcoke in SLC

NOx (ppm)

Base Case 1100

ppm NOx

No change without Meal and Fuel split

meal split
800 ppm NOx

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SLC/ILC Low NOx Petcoke a TRIE Generic Solution
1. Add 02 RST Injectors for 50% of fuel designed to optimise mixing and drive off max Fuel N
0.2 sec before lower Meal

2. Add 02 RST Injectors to Hot Reburn the Fuel NOx, need 0.4 Sec RT above lower
injectors

3. Lower of 02 step meal with 30%

4. 02 directly opposed TAD optimally designed to achieve a λ of 0.7 in air staging zone for 1 sec
RT. It should mix the stratified combustion gases and petcoke to minimise CO and NOx and
maximise fuel burnout and Calcination

5. Upper 02 step meal with 70%

6. Variable Orifice to stop meal drop through

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Conclusions
To get a NOx of 500 mg/Nm3 at 10% O2 and lower needs a comprehensive understanding of process data on:

How NOx is generated in a each individual calciner

The level of reburn and staging currently taking place

The level of NOx generated by the char

With the above and a detailed understanding of the calciner design in terms of dimensions, meal and fuel injections modes, plus TA design
and layout…

TRIE via detailed process experience backed by fundamental know can get any calciner to 500 and lower
with any fuel via the judicious application of TSF with its unique 3rd Generation NOx post processor and
CxHy predictions.

However, one must remember the last words of DeSoete to TML on Reburn:
“REBURN IS LIKE BEING ON A TIGHTROPE – VERY GOOD UNTIL YOU FALL OFF - THE LINE BETWEEN SUCCESS
AND FAILURE IS VERY NARROW. “

TRIE allows the Plant walk this fine line 21

 U P F R O M T H E R O OT S

trie@trieengineering.com Trie Engenharia

+55 31 3190.0505 @trieengenharia