Simulation on coal-fired supercritical CO2 circulating fluidized bed boiler: Coupled combustion with heat transfer

Using supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) as the working fluid integrated in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler is a rising technology used to improve the power generation efficiency and reduce gas pollutant emissions in coal-fired power generation systems. This study established a comprehensive 3-D model based on an Eulerian-Lagrangian frame to simulate the combustion process. A new method was presented using constant heat flux as the boundary obtained from the coupled simulation of heat transfer and combustion. The gas phase was described with large eddy simulation (LES). The solid phase used the multi-phase particle-in-cell (MP-PIC) approach. Simulations were carried out in a 10 MW S-CO2 CFB boiler (with cross section area of 3.557 x 3 m(2) and height of 21.01 m). Combustion characteristics obtained in boundary heat flux and excess air ratio were numerically investigated. Results showed that the temperature profile was relatively uniform in the whole boiler and the furnace temperature increased with the increase of boundary heat flux. Emissions of CO2 and SO2 declined with the increase of boundary heat flux while CO emission increased. An increased excess air ratio caused a decrease in furnace temperature and the rise of CO and SO2. The characteristics of combustion and pollutant emissions were optimal with the heat flux at around 25-37 kW/m(2) and an excess air ratio at 1.18-1.25. (C) 2019 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.