Prevention, detection, and control of coal pulverizer fires and explosions: Final report
The utility industry continues to be plagued by fires and explosions in the pulverizer systems of coal fired power plants. With the increased use of low rank reactive coals these events are cause for growing concern. The objectives of the project included an assessment of current fire, explosion, extinguishing, inerting, and detecting experiences in US power plants. A survey of 361 US power plants determined the historical trends and event occurrences in the industry. The survey analysis isolated plant characteristics that define high and low risk. Bench and full scale laboratory experiments were conducted to study the origin and dynamics of fires and explosions in pulverized coal systems. Fires within mills and classifiers, but not those located in coal pipes, were found to be the triggers for pressure events that could exceed 1000 psig. The influence of system geometry, coal characteristics and coal dust concentration in explosion origin and growth were determined. Additional goals included experimental investigation of effective fire detection and extinguishing, and explosion inerting. The benefits and hazards of detection, extinguishing, and inerting systems are discussed and evaluated. In addition, the direction and methods for future research to meet the ultimate goal of explosion free pulverizer systems is presented. 124 figs., 44 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Riley Stoker Corp., Worcester, MA (USA); Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6744826
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-CS-5069; ON: TI87920271
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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