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U.S. Department of Energy
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Development of reactivity parameters for characterization of coal in fluidized bed combustion

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6535137

A new method to measure apparent reactivity, which accounts for all the effects of coal type on reaction kinetics in fluidized bed combustion (FBC), has ben developed to characterize and rank various coals according to overall burning rates in a fluidized bed environment. This method estimates FBC reactivity by means of a parameter called mean carbon conversion time, which can be related to the carbon inventory of practical FBC systems. An easy and rapid experimental technique, which burns coal batchwise in a bench-scale fluidized bed combustor, has been developed to determine the mean carbon conversion time. This technique was employed to examine five different coals and rank them according to FBC reactivity. To differentiate between devolatilization and char combustion, a turning point on the experimental burning rate curve was used instead of the common method of observing the volatile flame. Char mean carbon conversion times were also measured and compared. The effects of coal particle size and bed temperature on FBC reactivity and combustion efficiency and the effects of particle fragmentation on experimental results were investigated. Efforts were made to correlate the FBC reactivity with other coal parameters such as volatile content, carbon content and free swelling index.

Research Organization:
Energy Research Labs., CANMET, Energy, Mines and Resources Canada, Ottawa K1A 0G1
OSTI ID:
6535137
Report Number(s):
CONF-861146-
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English