See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/259308765

CFB Technology for Retrofitting Aged Supercritical Power Plants in Russia

Conference Paper · March 2004

CITATIONS READS

0 1,843

1 author:

Serena Danesi
Zurich University of Applied Sciences
11 PUBLICATIONS 23 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Serena Danesi on 24 October 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

CFB TECHNOLOGY FOR RETROFITTING AGED SUPERCRITICAL
POWER PLANTS IN RUSSIA

George N. Stamatelopoulos, ALSTOM Power Boiler GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany

Joachim Seeber, ALSTOM Power Boiler GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany
Serena Danesi, ALSTOM Power Boiler GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany
Mark Palkes, ALSTOM Power Inc., Windsor, CT, USA

1. Introduction

In Russia and the CIS region over 230 supercritical power plants are installed and in
operation the last 30 years. This is worldwide the highest concentration of supercritical power
plants in one region followed by the USA, Europe and Japan and represents more than 40 %
of the installed electricity generation capacity of Russia and the CIS region. These plants have
moderate supercritical parameters – typically 240 bar for the high pressure and 565/565 °C
for the high pressure superheater and reheater respectively. Many of these power plants burn
coal and some have exceeded their lifetime. Many utilities under the RAO umbrella consider
the replacement of the aged boilers in order to extend the lifetime of the power plants,
increase their efficiency and availability, and improve their environmental performance.

Hard and brown coal play an important and 210 GW

stabilising role in the European generation Nuclear Hydro
industry. Coal contributes to about 20 % to the (21.2 GW) (43.2 GW)
Russian power generation (see Figure 1). In
Oil
Germany the equivalent number is 50 % and in (15.3 GW)
the EU it is in the range of 30 %.
Russia has the advantage of the own natural
Coal
gas resources and a share in the fuel mix of (39.3 GW)
over 40 % for natural gas. But coal is
regionally very important, especially in the Others Natural gas
(0.04 GW) (91 GW)
Urals, Siberia and Eastern Russia. The Russian
coal quality varies from heating values of

Fig. 1: Electricity Production in Russia

7 MJ/kg for the Bikinsk brown coal, up to 25 MJ/kg for the Nyurengri bituminous coal. This
wide variety in coal quality favours the use of the Circulating Fluidised Bed (CFB)
technology for power and heat production.
The CFB technology is a relatively young technology for power and heat generation
compared with PC and stoker firing. The first application for coal was in the 1970´s and the
development since then led from the bubbling bed to the circulating fluidised bed for the
power generation scale of application. The commercial breakthrough of the CFB came in the
middle of the 1980´s and was based on:
• the stringent environmental regulations
• and the fuel flexibility offered by the CFB.

1
Today almost 500 CFB plants are in operation, or under construction globally. The highest
capacity for a single unit in operation is 250 MWel and 460 MWel for a single unit under
construction. Table 1 gives an overview over the emissions achieved in CFB boilers in
relation to the fuel type.

Fuel Type NOX SO2 Desulphurization

Efficiency
mg/m³stp, 6 % mg/m³stp, 6 % %
O2 O2
Anthracite & Anthracite
70 220 80
tailings
Petcoke 100 200 97
Slurry 110 140 95
Bituminous Coal 80 200 95
Eastern US Bituminous
60 100 97
Coal
High Moisture Lignite 140 200 90
High Sulphur Lignite 160 200 97
Biomass 100 - -
Table 1: Emissions achieved in CFBs

Local fuel supply is especially important in cases where the infrastructure does not allow
transportation of gas or coal. Such applications generally cover medium size power plants of
about 50 MW to 300 MW. Most of the local fuels exhibit higher moisture content and / or
lower heating values than international steam coals. Therefore, they are commonly not
beneficiated in washery plants as is done for steam coals.
Besides the low emission levels and the high fuel flexibility, CFB plants have shown that
furnace slagging and backpass fouling does not occur even when burning high sulfur lignites.
More than 5 years operating experience with the boilers in Wählitz / Germany, Tisova /
Czech Republic and Gardanne / France, showed that slagging can be avoided in the
combustion system, due to the low combustion temperatures of approx. 850 °C [1].
Fuel preparation is of significant importance for each combustion system. A CFB boiler does
not require a high fineness as required by PC furnaces. Nevertheless, especially with high ash
fuels at least a maximum particle coal size has to be achieved. Higher losses due to unburnt
carbon can occur on PC units depending on the achieved fineness. Limited residence time in
the furnace especially for coarse fuel particles is the main reason for that. CFB firing systems
avoid that since even coarse fuel particles are converted completely due to sufficient
residence times.
Additionally, a CFB can be designed for lower exit gas temperatures, since the SO3 content of
the flue gas is very low due to the high reactivity of SO3 with CaO. A typical flue gas exit
temperature would be 125 °C or less. The higher carbon conversion and the lower stack
temperature can give the CFB boiler an efficiency advantage against PC boilers. Finally the
achievement of low NOX and SO2 emissions without secondary measures gives an additional
economical advantage to the CFB technology.

Due to the increased age of the units and the changes in the coal properties compared with the
design fuel, several conventional PC units in Russia and the CIS countries suffer from
decreased availability and are derated, not operating thus at their nominal capacity.

2
In the present paper a design study for the power plant Novocherkasskaya is presented, which
is supported by the EU. The technical challenges linked with such projects are also discussed,
as for example:
• the supercritical CFB design
• fitting of the new boiler into an existing infrastructure
• and the further utilization of the ash produced
The paper, based on a design study, gives also brief insight of the necessary elements of a
successful project in Russia, such as close co-operation with the customer and the importance
of local part supply.

2. The Novocherkasskaya study

The Novocherkasskaya power plant consists of 8 x 300 MWel coal-fired blocks built
between 1964 and 1972 and is located in the vicinity of the Rostov city close to the Ukrainian
border. To each block corresponds one steam turbine and two boilers of slag tap firing type,
burning anthracite. The original manufacturer of the boilers is the Russian company
Taganrog. The steam turbines are fed with steam of moderate supercritical conditions; 250
bar, 565 °C / 565 °C. The power plant is operated at full load only during winter time. The
rest of the year two to four blocks are in operation depending on the demand. It is the
intention of the operating utility Novocherkasskaya GRES to gradually modernise all the
boilers and upgrade the steam turbines.
For the first phase of the project it was proposed to replace two of the existing aged slag tap
boilers with a 300 MWel CFB type boiler, a technology that can cover the objectives of
lifetime extension, efficiency and availability increase, and environmental performance
improvement. Within the framework of the Carnot program - an EU program aiming at the
promotion of Clean Coal Technologies (CCT) - the design study of this modernisation is
partly funded by the EU. Besides the clear advantages of the CFB technology as a CCT, the
replication potential of this solution for other power plants in Russia and the CIS countries
was one of the reasons for securing the EU funding.
As stated above, the fuel burnt today in the Novocherkasskaya power plant is anthracite with
a volatile matter content of 4 % daf, ash content of 26 % and sulphur of 1,56 %. CFB offers
for anthracite an increased load range of operation between 50 to 100 % without the need of
supporting firing with oil, or gas, allowing thus a stable and economic operation. Furthermore
CFB offers for anthracite good combustion efficiency with relatively low carbon in fly ash
due to:
• high cyclone efficiency required to achieve complete combustion
• adequate combustion temperature of ca. 885 °C
• intense mixing of coal and ashes ensuring ignition of anthracite
Additionally the CFB technology enables good load variation without the risk of losing flame
and achieves low NOX and SO2 emissions due to low and even combustion temperatures.
This is an advantage compared to double arch firing concepts. A wealth of experience of CFB
applications with anthracite exists, as can be shown from the 2 x 220 MWel power plant in
Tonghae / Korea and the 2 x 50 MWel in Cao Ngan / Vietnam (Figure 2 and 3).
A further technical challenge in modernisation projects is to fit the new equipment into the
existing infrastructure, while exploiting the available space. Typically, the turbine and
feedwater pumps, coal bunkers and stack are re-used, while the boiler house and the
electrostatic precipitators may be maintained, but need to be adapted to the new equipment.
Completely new are typically the steel structure and pressure parts, auxiliary equipment and
control equipment.

3
 • Largest anthracite fired CFB
• Customer: Korean Electric Power
Company (KEPCO)
• Fuel: Local anthracite (4 % volatile
matter, 37 %ash)
• Commissioning: 1998 and 1999
• Capacity: 2 x 693 t/h
• Pressure: 172 bar
• SH/RH Temperature: 541/541 °C
Figure 2: 2 x 220 MWel Tonghae power plant

+ 53.0 m

Live Steam
115 bar (design pressure)
538 °C
66 kg/s (237.6 t/h)
Feedwater
223 °C
Fuel
Vietnamese Lean Coal
Customer
VINACOAL, Vietnam
± 0.0 m

Figure 3: 2 x 50 MWel CaoNgan CFB boiler

Similar modernization of older PF fired boilers by modern CFB boilers have been performed
by ALSTOM and its CFB licensees previously for other power plants. An example is the
Zeran power plant in Warsaw, Poland, were Rafako, an ALSTOM CFB licensee, replaced 4
old PF fired units by 2 modern CFB units of 450 t/h steam capacity. Also in this case the new
CFB boilers could be fitted into the limited available space due to the compactness of the
CFB. The existing turbine and turbine hall, feedpumps, coal silos and stack were further used
and required only little adjustments [2].

3. Scale Up and Supercritical CFB Design

Increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel fired power plants will be one key option to
significantly contribute to the reduction of world-wide CO2 emissions. PC fired boilers
achieve lower CO2 emissions largely by using supercritical steam conditions and elevated
feedwater, superheater and reheater outlet temperatures. Conservative estimates show 8 %
reduction in CO2 emissions when changing from drum-type natural circulation to supercritical
sliding pressure water-steam design. Furthermore the potential CO2 emissions reduction from
the current EU efficiency average to efficiencies corresponding to the state-of-the-art
supercritical is in the range of 20 %.

4
A major step in developing supercritical CFB technology was ALSTOM’s participation in a
program launched by EDF, targeting 600 MWel supercritical CFB power plants [3]. This
program included a detailed design study where special emphasis was given to the following
items:
• Scale-up from 4 cyclones to 6 cyclones. This included detailed cold flow studies as well
as CFD analysis to optimise the flow approach into the different cyclones.
• Scale-up of FBHE sizes. The key objective was to determine the flow pattern within
FBHEs to predict the behaviour when increasing the dimension beyond existing
dimensions.
• Components design with special emphasis on minimizing the amounts of refractory
required.
The cold flow studies for 3 parallel cyclones revealed that separation of ashes and gases starts
already in the cyclone inlet duct. It is of key importance to arrange the inlet ducts in a way
that the pre-separated particles are led to the outer wall of the inlet duct at an early stage
within. Also the length and direction of the inlets ducts relative to the furnace outlet were
addressed, as they also impact the cyclone separation efficiency.

Scale-Up Principles
Figures 4 and 5 depict the scale-up strategy for a large CFB boiler with 6 cyclones. At this
boiler size the use of a pant-leg lower furnace design is required to ensure proper combustion
conditions. Three cyclones and up to 3 FBHEs are attributed to each pant-leg side.
Downstream of the cyclones the flue gases are led to the steam cooled backpass via two
overflow ducts. An optimized arrangement of the cyclones and their respective inlet ducts
ensure that gas and solid loading of the cyclones will be within a proven range. The equal gas
/ solids distribution in combination with the high separation efficiency of the cyclone ensures
that enough hot ashes can be extracted from the loop seals under all operating conditions to
supply the connected FBHEs with the required heat.

ALSTOM ALSTOM ALSTOM 600 MW

SULCIS 340 MWe RED HILLS 250 MWe Arrangement

+ =

Primary air grid Pantleg

Figure 4: Scale-Up Principle for 600 MWel CFB with 6 Cyclones

Once-Through Concept
Supercritical once-through boilers, which operate under sliding pressure conditions are
subject to a wide range of fluid conditions in the evaporator. Depending on the location along
a furnace tube and depending on the boiler load, the water-steam conditions range from sub-
cooled water at the inlet to two-phase mixtures and superheated steam flow in the upper
furnace part. For once-through boilers, the flow regime and flow distribution, the cooling

5
conditions and the pressure loss within the evaporator are different from the conditions that
exist in the natural circulation designs. The key differences between these boilers are in the
waterwall design, the start-up system and the dynamic response of the circulation system.

Figure 5: ALSTOM 500-600 MWel Supercritical CFB using 6 Cyclones

Waterwall Design
The two major considerations for the waterwall design for once-through furnaces are to
provide adequate cooling flow for the waterwall tubes under all operating conditions and to
minimize tube temperature differences between the furnace tubes. The differences in tube
temperatures are a result of imbalances in heat absorption of different tubes and/or the
difference in tube length and pressure loss, and since the fluid outlet of the furnace walls is
slightly superheated different outlet temperatures can prevail.
A natural circulation boiler, in contrast, always has equal “boiling” temperatures for all tubes,
even in case of imbalanced heat absorption or pressure loss. For once through designs, in the
dry-out region at the end of the 2-phase flow, the inside heat transfer coefficient is low which
results in unfavourable cooling conditions. The dry-out typically results in the highest tube
and fin metal temperatures. While for natural circulation boilers, the mass flow is slightly
increasing with decreasing load, the massflow for once-through systems is linearly decreasing
with load. Thus at part load, smaller mass flow in the water walls of once-through boilers
occur in comparison with a natural circulation boiler. Therefore detailed investigation about
the proper cooling of the tubes and the determination of the minimum allowable mass flow
through the tubes must be performed over the complete load range. Evaporator tube sizes, as
used for natural circulation drum type boilers, e.g. with 51 mm to 63.5 mm diameters, will
not be adequate to ensure the required mass flux in the waterwall tubes.
While for PC fired boilers, inclined waterwall tubing is commonly used to provide the
required mass flux, which is needed to cool the tubes, this design alternative can not be
adopted for CFB boilers due to potential erosion problems which would arise with inclined

6
tubing. It is therefore mandatory, that the furnace enclosure is formed by vertically oriented
tubes. One alternative to avoid excessive tube metal temperatures could be the use of rifled
tubes instead of smooth tubes for the water walls. In principal, rifling shifts the dry-out point
to higher steam quality due to the vortex formation, which facilitates improved cooling.
Detailed heat transfer calculations and FEM analysis, however, have shown that the rifling
effect is not so beneficial for CFB fired boilers. Since for CFB boilers the highest heat flux is
smaller than in PC fired furnaces and since it occurs at a lower elevation, the differences in
the cooling characteristics of rifled tubes and plain tubes are almost insignificant. ALSTOM’s
preferred solution for the furnace waterwalls is therefore a parallel arrangement of all
waterwall tubes using small tube diameters to keep the mass flow within acceptable limits.
As is depicted in Figure 6 there are clear differences between the heat flux profiles of PC
fired boilers and CFB boilers: The heat flux differs in principal [4]. While for PC fired boilers
the heat flux is directly depending on the flame temperature and radiation and thus has a
distinct belly shaped curve over height, the heat flux for CFB is a combination of radiation
and particle convective heat transfer. While the radiation in CFB is nearly constant with
furnace height, due to the constant temperature profile, the particle convection is slightly
decreasing with furnace height due to the higher suspension density in the lower furnace.

40,0

35,0
Height above Lower Hopper [m]

30,0

25,0

20,0

15,0

10,0

5,0

0,0
0 100 200 300 400
Heat Flux (average) [kW/m2]

CFB Furnace PC Furnace

Figure 6: Average Heat Flux over Height for PC and CFB furnaces

The heat transfer to the water walls in CFB furnaces is not reduced due to slagging or fouling.
The walls stay clean due to low furnace temperatures, which are below ash melting
temperatures and by the cleaning effect of the downward moving ash layer along the water
walls.
Consequently, heat absorption is nearly uniform since also the lateral and vertical temperature
distribution within the CFB furnace is more uniform compared to PC. The highest heat flux is
found in the lower part of the furnace directly above the transition from the refractory lined
hopper to the vertical water wall and not higher in the furnace. The fluid temperature behaves
just the opposite way. Therefore, the coldest fluid “sees” the highest heat flux. This condition
is very favourable to the wall tube metal temperatures.
As is evident, CFB water walls therefore require significantly smaller – compared to PC fired
furnace walls - mass flux to provide good cooling. To achieve an overall cost effective
design, the furnace height is increased only slightly with increasing boiler capacity. Therefore

7
the surrounding walls cannot supply sufficient evaporator surface for large boiler and
additional evaporator heating surface is required. Different solutions can be applied for this:
Additional evaporator heating surface within the furnace and / or additional evaporator
heating surfaces in external beds.
As mentioned before, the additional heating surface is preferably arranged in parallel with the
surrounding water walls, but limited by the minimum required mass flux in the tubes. If,
depending on plant size, heating value and flue gas volume of the fuel, further evaporator
heating surface is required, this additional heating surface must then be arranged in series
with the enclosing evaporator walls. Such evaporator heating surface could be arranged in an
external fluidized bed heat exchanger. A key aspect for properly distributing the water-steam
mixture of the second stage evaporator is a reliable design for the water-steam distributor.
ALSTOM has built different large supercritical PC fired units where such distributors are
successfully in operation.
Good distribution under all operating conditions is achieved for steam contents in excess of
about 70 %. Despite the series arrangement of evaporator stages and the installation of
distributors, the overall pressure drop of CFB evaporators is typically lower than for PC fired
furnace, due to the low mass flow density.

System Requirements for Start-up and Shut-down

To ensure sufficient mass flow through the evaporator tubes during part load and start-up, a
start-up system must be installed. The start-up system is closely integrated with the
circulating system and has the same simplicity as for traditional PC fired once-through steam
generators. It is commonly based on a circulating pump in stand-by mode to provide
sufficient cooling flow during start-up and low load operation only.
The steam separators, which are integrated between evaporator outlet and the first
superheater, separate water from steam during start-up and subcritical low load operation and
transfer it to a vessel, which is connected to the circulation pump. The steam separators are
cyclone separators with multiple inlets and separate the water droplets from the steam with a
high efficiency due to the strong vortex formation in the separator. The number of separators
depends on the unit size. The separator capacity is usually limited by the separator wall
thickness.
The circulation pump, a centrifugal pump, which is powered by a wet motor, operates only
during start-up and low load. The flow is controlled in the same manner as in once-through
PC designs. The design considerations and the capacity for the start-up pump are similar as
for PC fired once-through boilers also.
Once-through boilers contain only about 40 % of the water in the evaporator system in
comparison to drum-type boilers. This fact, in combination with the high amount of heat that
is stored in the circulating ashes as well as in the refractory of the furnace and cyclone,
requires special attention to prevent overheating of pressure parts during shut-down,
especially black-out conditions. Besides proper material selection for the relevant pressure
part areas, a main design criterion is to minimize the heat that is stored within the refractory
by minimizing the refractory masses. Typically this is achieved by using thin refractory lining
for the cyclones and ducts and cool the refractory by a steam or water cooled substructure.
The cooling of the superheater heating surfaces during shut-down or black-out conditions is
performed by the remaining steam in the system. The time that sufficient cooling steam flow
is available can be expanded by reducing the pressure in the water / steam system. During
black-out an independently operated emergency boiler feedwater pump may be beneficial for
improving the cooling but it is often not mandatory. The reheater heating surfaces are cooled
by steam from the HP bypass system in a conventional manner. While the requirements for

8
the start-up systems are similar for once-through boilers with CFB or PC firing system, CFB
boilers require for special technical solutions to ensure also smooth operation during shut-
down.

4. Boiler Design for Novocherkasskaya

In the first stage 2 of the existing 16 pulverised coal boilers in the Novocherkasskaya
power plant will be replaced by a supercritical CFB unit. To ensure that the operation of the
existing boilers is not affected during the replacement as well as after the modernization, the
customer selected unit 8 for the modernization program. It is located at one side of the power
plant complex and thus it is ensured that the existing repair cranes for the ESP and boiler
house can be further used for the PC fired units. The selection of unit 8 has also the smallest
impact on the other existing auxiliary components.
Concerning the available size for the new CFB boilers, the new 300 MWel supercritical CFB
boiler must fit into the existing space of the boiler house, meaning the overall length from the
coal silo bay to the ESP crane structure must not exceed 38 m and the width must be less than
48 m.
To make use of the existing components to a large extent a site visit with main focus on
structural questions took place in 2003. It is thus intended that the coal bunkers, the chimney
as well as the smaller parts of the boiler house and the coal preparation can be further utilized
with some smaller modifications. As the CFB requires the coal particle size to be less than
approx. 6-8mm maximum size, the installation of 3 coal crushers downstream of the
3 existing coal silos will be necessary.
Figure 7 shows the general arrangement of the CFB boiler. It is a “pantleg” design boiler with
four steam cooled cyclones, four Fluidized Bed Heat Exchangers (FBHE) and two
regenerative air preheaters. The feedwater is preheated in the economiser located in the
backpass and evaporates in the waterwalls and the box type panels located above the pantleg.

Figure 7: 3D-View of the 300 MWel supercritical CFB boiler for Novocherkasskaya

Figure 8 shows a detail of the furnace sectional view. The panels are hung in parallel to the
waterwalls and the box type construction enables the one side heating and allows the design

9
of the panels with the same tube diameter and pitch as the waterwalls. The evaporation is
completed in a FBHE and the cyclones and the ducts from the cyclone outlet to the backpass
are arranged as the first superheater stage. The intermediate superheater stage and the final
reheater are located in the FBHEs and the rest of the heating surfaces in the backpass.

Cyclone refractory lining Cyclone

upper sec.air
Expansion joint
Coal feeding lower sec.air

wing walls
Loop Seal Loop Seal

RH2 EVAP

prim. air nozzels

bed ash extraction

Figure 8: Furnace sectional view – Detail low furnace

Water / Steam Data 300 MWel CFB Table 2 summarises the main water/steam
Flow rates in [t/h] data of the boiler.
Feedwater flow rate 1000
SH Steam flow rate 1000 Emissions
RH Steam flow rate 830 Besides the ability to burn a wide range of
SH spray attemperation 60 fuels including difficult to burn fuels with
RH spray attemperation 0 very low volatile matter content as Russian
Pressures in [Mpa] anthracite, CFB´s have achieved best
Feedwater inlet pressure 28,1 environmental performance, especially low
SH outlet pressure 25,0 NOX emissions and economic in-furnace
RH inlet pressure 3,8 desulfurization by limestone addition.
RH outlet pressure 3,6
Temperatures in [°C] The emissions required by RAO for the new
300 MWel CFB boiler are given in the
Feedwater inlet temperature 280
Table 3 below:
SH outlet temperature 565
RH inlet temperature 290
RH outlet temperature 565

Table 2: Water/Steam Data

10
 CO mg/m3 NTP ≤ 300
SO2 mg/m3 NTP ≤ 700
NOX mg/m3 NTP ≤ 350
Particulates (downstream ESP) mg/m3 NTP ≤ 150

Table 3: Emissions required by RAO

The very low NOX emissions that are achieved with CFB combustion without any secondary
measures, can be attributed to the following reasons:
• relatively low and uniform furnace temperature of approx. 850 °C to 900 °C;
• air staging in the lower furnace by equal primary air and secondary air introduction at
appropriate levels, resulting in substoichiometric combustion conditions in the lower
furnace hopper;
• equal distribution of fuel and air by the intense mixing inside the furnace;
• positive impact of high efficient cyclones that enhance the temperature homogeneity.
It is expected that even lower NOX emissions than the required 350 mg/m3 will be achieved,
which is a clear advantage over down shot firing, or other PC technology options to burn
anthracite, or lean coal.
When equipped with high efficient cyclones, CFB boilers are typically able to capture up to
95 % of the SO2 generated by the combustion of the fuel at moderate limestone addition rates.
In the case of Novocherkasskaya, the required SO2 limit value of 700 mg/m3 NTP in
combination with the moderate sulphur content of approx, 1.5 % results in a desulfurization
rate of approx. 83 %.

Ash utilization
The products from the CFB furnace consist of the fuel ashes, the sulphated lime as well as
some excess lime (CaOfree). Considering the ashes, the main differences between PC and CFB
ashes are:
• total ash flow for CFB is larger due to limestone addition and desulfurization,
• CFB produces less fly ash and more bottom ash than PC fired boiler,
• the unburned carbon content in the ashes is in the same range or slightly smaller than
for PC fired plants,
• fineness of fly ashes for CFB and PC fired furnaces is similar,
• bottom ash particle sizes differ for CFB and PC ( slag )
• CFB ashes contain higher SO3, total CaO and CaOfree than PC fired ashes.

Despite the differences in composition, particle size and properties, various applications for
CFB ashes have been established, as reported in many VGB research projects [5]. Commonly
CFB ashes are used for re-filling of mines, as roadbed material, or as additive for cement.

5. Conclusions
CFB technology is a Clean Coal Technology that can contribute to the modernisation of the
Russian power plant fleet. The low emission performance and the wide range of solid fuels
utilisation ensures a high replication potential of the Novocherkasskaya test case for the many
aged coal-fired power plants in Russia and the CIS countries. The current paper focused
mainly on technical aspects, such as supercritical design for CFB, emissions and ash
utilisation. A similarly important aspect for a project in Russia is the commercial and
financial framework that governs business opportunities. For Russia, being an economy in
transition to a market economy, it is important to secure a Hermes - or similar - coverage for

11
 financing and insurance. Therefore the partners´ selection should fulfil this criterion.
Furthermore it is important to involve at an early stage a local partner and take advantage of
both the favourable cost structure and the experience of executing projects for Russian
customers.

6. References

[1] Hickey, R.; Semedard, J.-C.; Scheffknecht, G.: Clean Solid Fuel Power Generation:
Circulating Fluidised Bed Technology for the Future. Power-Gen Europe 2001, 29.-
31. May 2001, Brussels, Belgium.
[2] Lalak, I.; Seeber, J.; Kluger, F.; Krupka, St.: Operational experience with high
efficient cyclones: Comparison between Boiler A and B in the Zeran Power Plant
Warsaw, Poland. VGB Workshop "Operating Experience with Fluidised Bed Firing
Systems", 20.-21. June 2002, Cologne, Germany.
[3] Semedard, J. C., Gauville, P., Morin, J.-X.: Development of Ultra Large CFB Boilers.
16th International Conference on Fluidized Bed Combustion, CIBO (Council of
Industrial Boiler Operators) and ASME, 13.-16.05.2001, Reno, Nevada, USA
[4] Skowyra, R. S., Czarnecki, T. S., Sun, C. Y., Palkes, M.: Design of a Supercritical
Sliding Pressure Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler with Vertical Water Walls.
International Conference on Fluidized Bed Combustion, CIBO (Council of Industrial
Boiler Operators) and ASME,1995, Orlando, Florida, USA
[5] Theis, K.: Kurzbericht über die Tätigkeit der VGB 2002/2003. VGB PowerTech
9/2003, pp. 46-77

12

View publication stats