Further Development of an Advanced Low-NOx Combustion System and its Potential Application to Coal-Fired Utility Boilers

Abstract

The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W), under contract with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), has designed and tested an advanced staged combustion system on a four million Btu/hr (4.2-million kJ/hr) scale. Results of these tests showed the potential to limit the emission of nitrogen oxides from coal-fired boilers to 100–150 ppm and identified a new kinetic mechanism for NO destruction. Subsequently, the correlations and initial design parameters derived from the small-scale tests were applied to a conceptual commercial system to ensure that this concept was indeed commercially feasible. These design considerations and the favored preliminary arrangement of a low-NOx combustion system will be discussed herein. Before commercializing this concept, however, further research is necessary. Testing on a nominal 50-million Btu/hr (53-million kJ/hr) prototype system is now in progress. Initial results indicate that NOx emission correlations and design parameters will need only slight revisions before the concept is ready for a field demonstration.