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Characteristics of combustion and ash deposition for pulverized coal combustion under various thermal loads: An experimental study in an 80 kWth combustion system

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Abstract

Load-following operations of coal power plants are required to cope with the variability in power generation from renewable energy sources. This study aimed to optimize combustion in coal-fired power plants at low loads by analyzing combustion efficiency, NOx emissions, and ash deposition in a boiler. An experiment was conducted by varying the heat input in a bench-scale combustion system. The combustion performance, in terms of the CO concentration in combustion gas and unburned carbon content in ash, degraded during low-load operation. Consequently, the fuel ratio was found to be a key factor for determining the combustion efficiency during low-load operation. The nitrogen content of the fuel was dominant in terms of the NO conversion ratio. The inconsistency in the ash deposition tendency suggested that it was affected more by the composition of minerals than by the amount of ash or total feed rate of ash in coal.

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Acknowledgments

This work is part of the “Development of boiler combustion and environmental facility optimization technology for flexible operation project (R20GA10)” supported by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carbon Neutral Technology R&D Department, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Cheonan, 31056, Korea

    Hyunggeun Kwak, Jaewook Lee, Youngjae Lee, Taeyoung Chae & Won Yang

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03772, Korea

    Hyunggeun Kwak & Jongsup Hong

  3. KEPCO Research Institute, Daejeon, 34056, Korea

    Jaekwan Kim

Authors
  1. Hyunggeun Kwak
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  2. Jaewook Lee
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  3. Youngjae Lee
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  4. Taeyoung Chae
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  5. Won Yang
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  6. Jaekwan Kim
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  7. Jongsup Hong
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Taeyoung Chae or Won Yang.

Additional information

Hyunggeun Kwak is a M.S. student of the Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests include combustion, heat transfer.

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Kwak, H., Lee, J., Lee, Y. et al. Characteristics of combustion and ash deposition for pulverized coal combustion under various thermal loads: An experimental study in an 80 kWth combustion system. J Mech Sci Technol 38, 979–987 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-024-0142-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-024-0142-9

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