At present, unless a boiler is especially designed to burn biomass, the levels of co-firing are generally limited to around 5% by mass. Higher levels of substitution sometimes lead to burner instability and other issues. In order to co-fire higher concentrations of biomass, a technique is required which can monitor flame stability at the burner level and optimize the combustion to ensure that local NOx is maintained below set limits. This paper presents an investigation of a system that monitored the combustion flame using photodiodes with responses in the ultraviolet (UV), infrared (IR), and visible (VIS) bands. The collected data were then processed using the Wigner–Ville joint time–frequency method and subsequently classified using a self-organizing map (SOM). It was found that it was possible to relate the classification of the sensor data to operational parameters, such as the burner airflow rate and NOx emissions. The developed system was successfully tested at pilot scale (500 kWt), where the ability of the system to optimize the combustion for a variety of unseen coal/biomass blends was demonstrated.
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December 2016
Research-Article
Optimization of Co-Firing Burners
Palaniappan Valliappan,
Palaniappan Valliappan
School of Engineering,
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science,
University of South Wales,
Wales CF37 1DL, UK
e-mail: palaniappan.valliappan@southwales.ac.uk
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science,
University of South Wales,
Wales CF37 1DL, UK
e-mail: palaniappan.valliappan@southwales.ac.uk
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Steve Wilcox,
Steve Wilcox
School of Engineering,
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science,
University of South Wales,
Wales CF37 1DL, UK
e-mail: steve.wilcox@southwales.ac.uk
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science,
University of South Wales,
Wales CF37 1DL, UK
e-mail: steve.wilcox@southwales.ac.uk
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Krzystof Jagiełło,
Krzystof Jagiełło
Thermal Processes Department,
Instytut Energetyki,
Mory 8, Warszawa 01-330, Poland
e-mail: krzysztof.jagiello@ien.com.pl
Instytut Energetyki,
Mory 8, Warszawa 01-330, Poland
e-mail: krzysztof.jagiello@ien.com.pl
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Yimin Shao
Yimin Shao
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission,
Chongqing University,
Chongqing 400044, China
e-mail: ymshao@cqu.edu.cn
Chongqing University,
Chongqing 400044, China
e-mail: ymshao@cqu.edu.cn
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Palaniappan Valliappan
School of Engineering,
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science,
University of South Wales,
Wales CF37 1DL, UK
e-mail: palaniappan.valliappan@southwales.ac.uk
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science,
University of South Wales,
Wales CF37 1DL, UK
e-mail: palaniappan.valliappan@southwales.ac.uk
Steve Wilcox
School of Engineering,
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science,
University of South Wales,
Wales CF37 1DL, UK
e-mail: steve.wilcox@southwales.ac.uk
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science,
University of South Wales,
Wales CF37 1DL, UK
e-mail: steve.wilcox@southwales.ac.uk
Krzystof Jagiełło
Thermal Processes Department,
Instytut Energetyki,
Mory 8, Warszawa 01-330, Poland
e-mail: krzysztof.jagiello@ien.com.pl
Instytut Energetyki,
Mory 8, Warszawa 01-330, Poland
e-mail: krzysztof.jagiello@ien.com.pl
Yimin Shao
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission,
Chongqing University,
Chongqing 400044, China
e-mail: ymshao@cqu.edu.cn
Chongqing University,
Chongqing 400044, China
e-mail: ymshao@cqu.edu.cn
1Corresponding author.
Contributed by the Heat Transfer Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF THERMAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS. Manuscript received July 14, 2015; final manuscript received May 3, 2016; published online June 1, 2016. Assoc. Editor: Alexander L. Brown.
J. Thermal Sci. Eng. Appl. Dec 2016, 8(4): 041001 (7 pages)
Published Online: June 1, 2016
Article history
Received:
July 14, 2015
Revised:
May 3, 2016
Citation
Valliappan, P., Wilcox, S., Jagiełło, K., and Shao, Y. (June 1, 2016). "Optimization of Co-Firing Burners." ASME. J. Thermal Sci. Eng. Appl. December 2016; 8(4): 041001. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4033582
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