Erc Develops Technology for Balancing Burners

In most coal-fired power plants, pulverized coal and primary air flow from the pulverizers through a network of pipes to the burners. For proper operation of the boiler, all the coal pipes connected to any one of the pulverizers should carry the same coal flow rates and the same flow rates of primary air. Instrumentation is available commercially for making on-line measurements of coal flow rates and velocities in individual pipes. In addition, adjustable orifices for on-line balancing of primary air flow rates are available commercially, although, up to now, no reliable methods have been available for making on-line adjustments to the coal flow distribution. Recent work by the Energy Research Center has resulted in the development of a technology which now makes it possible to make on-line adjustments to coal flow rates to individual burners. The research, which resulted in this development, was carried out by a team of investigators, led by Drs. Edward Levy and Ali Yilmaz. The Center has a state-of-the-art laboratory facility for studying the complexities of gas-particle flows within coal pipe networks, and a miniature optical probe developed at the Center was used t o obtain detailed information on coal flow rates and coal flow non-uniformities. The investigators also used CFD software to test out new ideas on design improvements. Using these tools, the team developed a technology for coal flow control involving hardware which can be easily retrofitted into an existing coal pipe network. The app roach, which is applicable to boilers in which the coal pipes are divided at a splitter junction into two or more outlet pipes, involves use of a riffler with specially designed adjustable flow control element s positioned just upstream of the riffler. MANAGING SLAG BUILDUP IN