Pneumatic transport characteristics of coarse size pulverized coal for the application of fast circulating fluidized bed gasification

The pneumatic transport characteristics of pulverized coal with very coarse grain size were investigated, especially related to fast circulating fluidized bed gasifier. The lock hopper system was used along with the top discharge blow tank technology to examine the transportation characteristics of pulverized coal. The most important factors among the pulverized coal transportation properties were mass flow rate of pulverized coal and the solid loading ratio, which changed with the amount of fluidization nitrogen and differential pressure between injection hopper and gasifier. The mass flow rate of the pulverized coal and the solid loading ratio were linearly proportional to changes in differential pressure, and were inversely proportional to changes in the amount of fluidization nitrogen. In the case of extended transport line, similar feeding characteristics were obtained by increasing the differential pressure while the level of fluidization nitrogen was kept constant. Pressure losses were observed with changes in the mass flow rate of pulverized coal, solid loading ratio, and the transport gas density in horizontal and vertical, both upward and downward, straight pipelines and at bends. Characteristics of pressure losses under various operating conditions were correlated with the nondimensional numbers such as the Reynolds number, Froude number, solid/gas density ratio, and solid loading ratio. Such correlations were reasonably consistent with the experimental results.