To achieve maximum fuel combustion efficiency, complete
combustion of fuel inside the boiler furnace is essential. This
requires a sufficient supply of air and proper mixing with fuel. It’s
also important to maintain an adequate supply of fuel particles for
proper burning.
The combustion process should consistently produce and maintain
the designated temperature of the steam boiler.
Additionally, methods of firing steam boilers should be easy to
handle with minimal operation and maintenance. There are two
main methods of firing steam boilers with coal: solid fuel firing
and pulverized fuel firing.
Let us discuss one by one.
There are mainly two types of solid fuel firing system
1. Hand Firing
2. Mechanical Stroke Firing
Smaller boilers can be operated using a hand firing system, which
was commonly used for coal engine locomotives in the past. In this
system, coal chips are frequently added to the furnace with shovels.
Mechanical Stoker Firing
When fuel i.e. coal is put into the steam boiler furnace by means of a
mechanical stoker, the firing of boiler method is referred as
mechanical stoker firing. There are mainly two types of
mechanical stoker firing systems.
Under Feed Mechanical Stoker Firing
Here, combustion takes place on the grate. The primary air is fed
below the grate. The secondary air is allowed at the top of the
grate. When the coal is burnt, it is pushed down by fresh coal. The
fresh coal is pushed on the grate using rams as shown.
The ignition occurs downwards against the primary air flow. The
volatile matter filters through the bed and is completely burnt. The
combustion rate is high. The light ash contents and combustion
gases fly away to the atmosphere along with primary air. Heavier
ash contents come down over the grate and ultimately fall into the
ash pit.
Travel Grate Stoker Solid Coal Firing
Here, the coal is burnt on a chain grate which continuously travels
forwards slowly, and combustion takes place during the journey of
coal from the first end to the last end of the furnace. At the end of
the combustion, heavier ash contents fall into ash pit by
gravitational force as the grate chain moves like a conveyor belt.
The lighter ash particles and combustion gases fly away with
primary air.
Pulverized Fuel Firing
To get the most calorific value from coal, it is pulverized into a fine
powder and mixed with air. This mixture is then fired in the steam
boiler furnace, achieving the most efficient combustion process.
Pulverized fuel firing is the most modern and efficient method of
boiler firing.
Due to pulverization, the surface area of coal becomes much larger,
and in this method air required for combustion is much less. As the
quantity of required air and fuel both are less, loss of heat in this
method of boiler firing is much less. Hence temperature can easily
be reached to the designated level. As the combustion is most
efficient pulverized coal firing increases the overall efficiency of a
steam boiler. As handling of lighter coal dust is much easier than the
handling of heavier coal chips, it is quite easy to control the output
of the boiler by controlling the supply of fuel to the furnace. Hence
fluctuation of system load can smoothly be met.
In addition these advantages, pulverized coal firing system has
many disadvantages. Such as
1. The initial cost of installing this plant is very high.
2. Not only initial cost, running cost of this plant is quite high as
separate pulverisation plant is to install and run additionally.
3. High temperature causes high thermal loss through flue gas.
4. This type of method of boiler firing has always a risk of
explosion.
5. This is also difficult and expensive to filter fine ash particles
from exhaust gases. Moreover, the quantity of ash particles in
the exhaust gases is more in pulverized system.
Pulverization Process
The process of pulverization is discussed here in brief.
1. First the coal is crushed by preliminary crasher. The coal is
crushed to 2.5 cm. or less.
2. Then this crushed coal is passed through a magnetic
separator to separate any iron content from the coal. Iron
must be removed, otherwise during pulverizing iron particles
will cause spark which results in unwanted fire hazard.
3. After that, crushed coal is dried properly before pulverization.
The moisture content must be less than 2% after drying
operation.
4. Then the coal is crushed again in fine particles in a ball mill.
This process is referred as pulverization.
5. This pulverized coal is then puffed with air and put into
furnace as fluid.
