3.

IMPROVING BOILER EFFICIENCY AT BORL- CFBC CYCLONE VORTEX

MODIFICATION
Piyush Agarwal
Preface
During operational phase of power plant, monitoring the performance efficiencies, corrective
and improvement measures to sustain the performance efficiencies is very critical. This article
describes the problem encountered in BORL Power plant boiler, its analysis and inferences and
recommended remedial actions to sustain and improve the plant efficiency.

Details of the Boiler and Design Parameters are as below.

Type of boiler Circulating fluidized bed combustion
Make BHEL based on M/s Lentjes technology
Design Fuel Pet coke
Steam temp at MSSV Outlet 515 OC
Steam Press at MSSV Outlet 110 Kg /cm2 (g)
Flow at MSSV Outlet 275 TPH
FW Temp 110 OC
Predicted Fuel Consumption 30 TPH @ 100% MCR
Lime stone Consumption 28 TPH (max)

Problem

In BORL CFBC Boiler, there was problem of second pass metal temperatures getting high and
bed material carryover.

Problem Analysis:

In a typical CFBC boiler process the bed material is considered as heat carrying material to heat
exchanger surface. During site visit and discussion high bed material carryover was reported.
The CFBC boiler is a first generation from M/s Lurgi. Present generation is 4 th and with
considerably different cyclone design than 1 st generation. Typical boilers having such 1 st
generation cyclones have high bed carryover.
Initially, site was of the opinion of recycling eco hopper and ESP ash back to combustor. At that
time the problem was referred to CTDS.
The cost effective option is to retain the material in cyclone itself than to let it go to second pass.
This also helps in maintaining boiler bed height and lower bed temperatures.
The existing cyclone was studied based on standard Muschelknautz cyclone system. The
fundamental principle was to improve the performance of the cyclone with minimum
modifications, resulting in reduction of amount of fines entering in the second pass. These fines
contain both fuel as well as ash and bed material, which settle in various hoppers across
second pass and ESP.
Burning of fines add to increase in second pass pressure-part temperatures. Reducing
carryover will partially resolve the problem of high metal temperatures and will further improve
inventory of bed material around Fluidized bed Heat Exchangers inlet valves (Spiess Valve).
Brief about the cyclone process

Vortex Finder

The flue gas enters through the tangential inlet and swirls along the surface of cyclone and the
vortex and by virtue of momentum tend to separate out and move to cyclone surfaces. There
due to friction the particle loses its momentum and falls down.
Since velocity at inside surface of cyclone body and just at the outer surface of vortex finder is
different, the cut size of particle separation is different. The ash as well as bed material has
various diameters of particle distribution. The cut size is the diameter of the particle in particle
distribution, whose separation efficiency is 50%.
For the existing cyclone at BORL, the efficiency varies from 95% to 99.99%.
We find that the cut size of particle drastically drops for the vortex, when the length of the vortex
is increased. Lowering of the cut size value shows that more number of finer particles will be
separated. Improvement in lower size particles will accomplish better bed height management
more uniform heat transfers in combustor and maintaining better DP in lower, middle and upper
portions.
Configuration for Existing cyclone
Existing dimensions of the cyclone installed at BORL are as shown below:-
(Dimensions are taken after excluding refractory dimensions to arrive at Cyclone effective
dimensions- refer above figure)
Geometry Abbreviations Unit Configuration Dimensions
Diameter of Cyclone Cylindrical section D M 6.55
Height of the Tangential inlet A M 4.88
Inlet width B M 1.625
Vortex Length S M 0.5
Vortex Outlet Diameter De M 2.87
Cylinder height H M 5.935
Overall height of cyclone H M 15.014
Bottom Outlet to Loop Seal B M 1

Analysis of Cyclone
Calculations were carried out based on Muschelknautz system. Based on the calculations a
tables for ‘without modification and with modification’ have been prepared and shown below.
From tables it can be inferred that improvement in cyclone performance can be accomplished
by providing longer length of the vortex tube.
Existing length of the vortex is 500 mm excluding the space used by refractory. This length can
be extended to 3250 mm excluding the refractory width, to get the required improvement.
Sufficient space is available in existing cyclone to accommodate the vortex.
There are two approaches to carry out the analysis. Mathematical and CFD based approach.
In this case, mathematical approach is used which is of a bit lower accuracy compared to CFD
based approach. The analysis has been carried out in order to determine the quantity of fines
leaving the cyclone in the current scenario and the same after carrying out the vortex
modification.
Total 4 no. of Cases are created each for Pet coke and Indonesian Coal are given below:-
Case A- Bed material as per BORL Spec and Fines - 20%
Case B- Bed material as per BORL Spec and Fines - 40%
Case C- Bed material as received and tested by BORL and Fines-20%
Case D: Bed material as received and tested by BORL and Fines - 40%
The information available from BORL specs and test carried out by site on the bed material
sample have been used as basis. Fine sizes of 63 µm, 106 µm and 150 µm have been selected.
Analysis shows that mass of material travelling per unit mass of flue gas reduces by around
20% in case of Indonesian coal. More amount of PA air flow will be required to fluidize the bed
material to get better lower, middle and upper DP. The reason is change in dense and lean
zones along the combustor height. A conservative value of 60 % PA and 40% SA is preferable.
FUEL - PETCOKE
Case A B C D
Particle Size(µm) 150 63 150 63 150 106 150 106
Cyclone Vortex
0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3
Height(m)
Material leaving the
cyclone/Day 13.5 8.7 2.4 1.7 13.9 9.4 2.3 1.6 7.6 5.1 12.3 8.5 9.0 6.1 11.2 7.8
(T)
Increase in Solid
4.8 0.7 4.5 0.6 2.5 3.8 2.9 3.4
Inventory(T)

FUEL - INDONESIAN COAL

Case A B C D
Particle Size(µm) 150 63 150 63 150 106 150 106
Cyclone Vortex
0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3 0.5 3.3
Height(m)
Material leaving the
cyclone/Day 9.9 6.7 1.8 1.3 10.7 7.3 1.7 1.2 5.8 4.0 9.4 6.6 7.0 4.7 8.6 6.0
(T)
Increase in Solid
3.2 0.5 3.4 0.5 1.9 2.9 2.2 2.6
Inventory(T)

Salient Inferences from the Analysis and recommendations

 It is clear that increase in the length of the vortex, increases the separation of finer particles
(particle size less than 150 µm are fine)
 An approximation of the tonnage of material separation is also estimated. We find that
some material will be available in spiess valve for FBHE and as carryover of bed material is
reduced, this will give rise to lower down metal temperatures in second pass.
The above analysis has been presented to BORL management. It was cross verified with other
boiler experts. The analysis and recommendation has been accepted by the BORL and
appropriate action plans are being worked out.