Correlation Study on Operation of the Wet FGD System and Incomplete Coal Combustion

Abstract

A Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization (WFGD) system operating at thermal power plant Rovinari (Romania), was considered in this study in an attempt to establish mutual or uni-directional influences between the performance of the sulphur removal process and the quality of the combustion process. Although in theory the WFGD system operates automatically with parameters controlled in such way that optimum removal efficiency is obtained, some parameters cannot be fully controlled, especially those that could not be anticipated at the design of the WFGD system. Sulphur removal systems are customizable to some extent but cannot provide an optimum solution for any plant, given the large range of differences between various plants. Coal quality is such a parameter, for which a large range of values and high standard deviation exists. Incomplete combustion is a serious issue caused by low coal quality resulting in significant losses. Briefly, incomplete combustion process is equivalent to coal that is injected in the furnace but does not undergo combustion or undergoes a partial combustion, being eventually evacuated from the boiler. This study attempts to identify quantitative and qualitative influence of incomplete combustion on the operation of the FGD system