B&W IR-CFB Boiler Operating Experience

Update and Design

M. Maryamchik
D.L. Wietzke
Babcock & Wilcox
Barberton, Ohio, U.S.A.

BR-1691

Presented to:
POWER-GEN International 99
November 30-December 2, 1999
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.

Abstract
type solids separator arranged as an array of U-shaped beams
(U-beams) located at the furnace exit. It is followed by the secondary separation stage located after the convective superheater
in the lower gas temperature region (varies from 150C to 500C
by project) and employing either a mechanical dust collector
(MDC) or the first field(s) of an electrostatic precipitator (ESP).
While the bulk of circulating solids collection is carried out by
the U-beams, the secondary separator is used for collecting the
finest fraction of those solids. The evolution of B&W CFB solids separation system design and corresponding typical solids
balances is shown in Figure 1.
The first generation of B&W CFB technology was represented by the wood-fired boilers featuring a U-beam separator
installed externally to the furnace. Solids collected by the Ubeams were returned to the furnace through non-mechanical flow
controllable L-valves.

This paper presents an annual update of experience with the

B&W IR-CFB boiler product. Included in the update is experience from Ebensburg Power, Southern Illinois University, and
Kanoria Chemical.
Additionally, the IR-CFB boiler process and design is described in this paper. Process features included in this review
are the two-stage solids separation system, furnace density and
temperature control, boiler turndown ratio, auxiliary power consumption, space requirements, etc. The paper provides a CFB
technology comparison of those design features and applications to various fuel and repowering situations.

Background
A unique and distinct feature of B&Ws CFB boiler is a twostage solids separation system. The primary stage is an impact-

95%
95%

Cumulative Efficiency
Component Collection
Efficiency

5.0

100

5.0

70%
70%

Cumulative Efficiency
Component Collection
Efficiency

99.5%
90.0%

99.7%
90.0%

3.0

30

100

0.5

97.0%
90.0%

3.0

95

Solids
Flow
Control

0.3

97.0%
90.0%

3.0

30

100

99.7%
90.0%

3.0

Fly Ash

Fly Ash
70

Solids
Storage Hopper

70%
70%

Cumulative Efficiency
Component Collection
Efficiency

Multiclone
Dust Collector

Solids
Storage Hopper
27

4.5

A. First Generation

Multiclone
Dust Collector

Solids
Flow
Control

0.3
Fly Ash

70
27

Solids
Transfer
Hopper

Solids
Storage
Hopper

2.7

2.7

B. Second Generation

C. Third Generation

Mechanical
Dust Collector
Solids
Flow
Control

Note: Illustrated values are based on 100 units of solids exiting the furnace shaft.

Figure 1

B&W CFB solids circulation schematics.

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Figure 4
Range of overall grade efficiency of B&W CFB solids collection system.
Figure 2

Ebensburg CFB boiler.

In the second-generation coal-fired CFB boilers (Figure 2),

the first two rows of U-beams were installed inside the furnace
(in-furnace U-beams). Solids collected by those rows fall down
along the furnace rear wall. Particles collected by the following
rows are still recycled externally through the L-valves though
the rate of this recycle was reduced several times as compared
to the first generation L-valve.
In the third (current) generation of B&W CFB boilers all
solids collected in the U-beams are Internally Recycled within
the furnace, thus the name IR-CFB. The IR-CFB U-beam
design is shown in Figure 3.
The in-furnace U-beams collect from 60 to 75% of all entering solids. Particles collected by the U-beam rows external to
the furnace, located after the furnace exit plane (three to four
rows), go through a particle transfer hopper that drains solids to
the furnace through discharge ports in the upper furnace wall.
This second set of U-beams collects from 75 to 90% of the sol-

ids that pass the in-furnace U-beams. Therefore, in-furnace and

external U-beams collect 90 97% of all entering solids.
The fine solids fractions passing the U-beams are collected
in the secondary stage of the solids separation system (MDC or
the first fields of ESP). This stage captures typically from 90 to
95+% of solids passing the U-beams resulting in the overall
efficiency of the two-stage solids separation system of up to 99.8%.
Solids collected at the secondary separation stage are recycled
to the furnace at a controlled rate with a variable speed screw or
rotary valve. The recycle rate is set to maintain furnace solids
inventory and upper furnace solids density. Achieving the desired furnace solids density profile thus results in maintaining
the target bed / furnace temperature. Material being collected
in excess of the recycle rate is purged from the system. While
the overall collection efficiency of the solids separation system
is affected by the purge rate, it normally remains in the range of
99.3% to 99.7%. The range of overall grade efficiency of the
B&W CFB solids collection system is shown in Figure 4. The
system effectively captures and recycles all particles coarser
than 80 micron.

Furnace Roof
Gas Flow

In-Furnace U-Beams
U-Beam Support

External U-Beams

In-Furnace U-Beams
External U-Beams
Solids Transfer Hopper
Solids Transfer Hopper
Furnace

Figure 3

IR-CFB primary particle collection system.

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Table 1
CFB Boiler Comparison

Solids Separation System

B&W IR-CFB

Hot-Cyclone CFB

FW Compact

Cold-Cyclone CFB

Two-stage
(100% efficiency
for particles of
d>80 micron*)

Single-stage
(100% efficiency
for particles of
d>100 micron)

Single-stage
(100% efficiency
for particles of
d>100 micron)

Single-stage
(100% efficiency
for particles of
d>100 micron)

*Recycling finer particles increases furnace heat transfer rate, improves combustin
efficiency and limestone utilization.
Upper Furnace Density,
lb/ft3 (kg/m3)

0.7-1.0
(11-16)

0.5-0.7
(8-11)

0.5-0.7
(8-11)

0.3-0.5
(5-8)

Furnace Temperature
Control

Desired temperature
can be maintained
within +/-5C interval
for wide range of
fuels and operating
conditions by
adjusting secondary
recycle rate.

Temperature is predetermined by
furnace and heat
exchanger design
along with fuel and
limestone
properties/sizing.

Temperture is predetermined by
furnace and heat
exchanger design
along with fuel and
limestone
properties/sizing.

Lower bed temperature

is controlled by
adjusting cold cyclone
ash recycle rate.
Temperature span
across furnace height
is up to 100C.

Boiler Turndown Without

Auxiliary Fuel

5:1

3.5 : 1

3.5 : 1

3.5 : 1

0.6-2.0 (15-50)

~3 (~75)

~3 (~75)

~2 (~50)

Lower furnace,
U-beam zone
enclosure walls

Lower furnace,
cyclone, recycle
loop (5-10 times
more than @ B&W
CFB)

Lower furnace,
cyclone, recycle
loop (3-5 times
more than @ B&W
CFB)

Entire furnace,
cyclone (3-4 times
more than @ B&W
CFB)

Hot-Temperature
Expansion Joints

None

3-5 per cyclone

Number varies with

arrangement

None

Furnace Shaft Velocity,

ft/s (m/s)

16-24
(4.9-7.3)

16-18
(4.9-5.5)

16-18
(4.9-5.5)

13-15
(4.0-4.5)

Furnace Exit Velocity,

ft/s (m/s)

21-32
(6.4-9.8)

75-85
(22-26)

75-85
(22-26)

NA

High-Pressure Air

Not required

Required for
J-valves

Required for
J-valves

Required for siphons

6-8 (1.5-2.0)

~6 (~1.5)

4-6 (1.0-1.5)

Higher

Higher

Moderate

Refractory:
Thickness, in. (mm)
Covered Areas

Total Pressure Drop

4 (1.0)
Across Solids Separator(s), (U-beams + MDC)
in. wc (kPa)
Aux. Power Consumption

Lower

CFB Boiler Technology Design & Performance Comparison

A comparison of B&W IR-CFB design and performance features with those of other major commercial CFB combustion
technologies is shown in Table 1.

Experience Update
There are currently two IR-CFB boilers in operation. The
first one, shown in Figure 5, is located at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, Illinois, U.S.A. and is designed
for 35 MWt output for cogeneration application, utilizing highsulfur, low-ash Illinois coal. The second boiler (see Figure 6) is

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located at Kanoria Chemicals & Industries Ltd. (KCIL) in

Renukoot, India and is designed for 81 MW t output for captive
power requirement, firing high-ash, low-sulfur coal. This boiler
was supplied by Thermax B&W Ltd., a joint venture company
of B&W and Thermax of India. Other B&W IR-CFB projects
ranging up to 125 MWe with reheat are currently in various stages
of contracting and design.
While sharing all IR-CFB design features, the SIU and KCIL
boilers have the following major differences:
SIU boiler features secondary solids recycle from MDC,
and on the KCIL unit these solids are recycled from the ESP.
Bottom ash removal/cooling is carried out with a watercooled screw at SIU and with fluid-bed coolers at KCIL.

Figure 5

Southern Illinois University IR-CFB boiler.

While the KCIL boiler includes a tubular air heater, low

feed water temperature at SIU resulted in not needing an air heater.
Both the SIU and KCIL boilers were put in commercial operation in 1997. Their performance and availability data are
shown in Table 2 and Figures 7 and 8.
Long-term B&W CFB performance can be illustrated by the
operational data from the boiler at Ebensburg, Pennsylvania,
firing waste bituminous coal (Figure 2). This second-generation CFB unit, originally designed for 55 MW e capacity (211 t/
hr steam flow), has operated at ~10% overload (61 MWe; 239 t/
hr) due to increased load demand. The Ebensburg boiler performance and availability are shown in Figure 9 and Table 3, respectively.
While typical furnace full load velocity at B&W CFB boilers is 6 m/s, it ranges from 4.9 m/s for the SIU boiler (per customer specification) to an overload velocity of 7.3 m/s at
Ebensburg. The existing operating experience justifies use of
any furnace velocity from this range to better suit the requirements of a given project.

Design Applications
The wide range of furnace design velocity when combined
with the two-stage solids separation system provides exceptional
flexibility with the B&W CFB boiler design.
In order to accommodate project-specific space requirements
without sacrificing boiler performance, the furnace height and/
or plan area can be adjusted along with the furnace velocity to
provide sufficient residence time for combustion and sulfur capture.
When replacing an existing PC-fired boiler, the B&W CFB
boiler can utilize available plant space while meeting or exceeding the capacity of the unit and burning much lower grade fuels
than the original plant.
For most of the fuels, a cost-optimized IR-CFB design would
utilize a higher-temperature MDC. The higher temperature MDC
is located upstream of the economizer in the gas temperature

Figure 6

Kanoria IR-CFB boiler.

zone of 400 to 500C (as opposed to the 200 to 300C zone, downstream of the economizer). While cost of the MDC increases
slightly due to higher gas volume and possible use of low alloys instead of carbon steel, it provides overall cost benefits for
the following reasons:
Lower cost of economizer because of lower heat duty and
higher possible gas velocity (both resulting from reduced solids loading)
Fewer rows of U-beams (total 5 instead of 6) with increased MDC solids collection
Inclined screws, utilized as a feeding and metering device for secondary recycle solids, also serve to convey solids to
the furnace thus eliminating the need for a separate conveying
system, like air-assisted conveyors.
Those design features are illustrated in Figure 10 showing a
boiler arrangement for one of the new projects. This boiler also
features extensive in-furnace superheating surface providing
effective heat transfer due to high solids bulk density in the upper
furnace. A cavity downstream of U-beams is provided for selective
non-catalytic reduction of NOx by spraying ammonia into the gas flow.
An alternative arrangement may be used when firing fuels
like oil shale featuring such properties as:
High amount of solids generated per unit heat release
High reactivity
High internal Ca/S molar ratio
Extreme fouling tendency of the fine ash fractions.
Massive generation of bed material when firing oil shale allows sufficient furnace solids inventory at reduced solids recycle ratio. High reactivity of the fuel permits the reduced recycle ratio without sacrificing the combustion efficiency. High
internal Ca/S ratio provides excellent sulfur capture without using sorbent, e.g. limestone, thus eliminating concerns about the
efficiency of the sorbent utilization at the reduced solids recycle ratio.
On the other hand, ash fouling properties would demand selfcleaning operation of the boiler convection pass in order to avoid
high-maintenance cleaning of those heating surfaces. Such self-

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Table 2
IR-CFB Boiler Performance @ 100% MCR
KCIL
Design
105,000 (231)
6.4 (913)
485 (905)
180 (356)

Steam Flow, kg/hr (klb/hr)

Steam Pressure, MPa (psig)
Steam Temperature, C (F)
FW Temperature, C (F)
Steam Temperature Control
Range, % MCR
60-100
Turndown
3.5:1
Flue Gas Temperature
Leaving Airheater, C (F)
140 (284)
Flue Gas Temperature
Leaving Economizer, C (F)

Coal Flow Rate, kg/hr (klb/hr)

25,760 (56.7)
Furnace Bed Temperature, C (F)
860 (1580)
Upper Furnace Temperature, C (F)
878 (1612)
Furnace Bottom P, mmwc (in. wc)
610 (24.0)
Furnace Upper P, mmwc (in. wc)
340 (13.4)
Boiler Efficiency (on Higher Heating
Value Basis), %
87.9
Excess Air, %
20
Ca/S Ratio

Performance Coal Analysis

Proximate Analysis, % by wt
Ash 45.0
37.40
Moisture
10.0
Sulfur
0.4
Volatile Matter
18.0
Fixed Carbon
24.0
Ultimate Analysis, % by wt
Carbon
32.00
Hydrogen
2.10
Oxygen
9.82
Sulfur
0.40
Nitrogen
0.68
Moisture
10.00
Ash 45.00
37.40
Higher Heating Value, kCal/kg (Btu/lb)
3500 (6300)
Coal Size, mm (in.)
6.4 x 0 (1/4 x 0)
Mid Size (d50), mm (in.)
0.75 (0.03)
Limestone Size, micron (mesh)

Emissions
NOx, ppm (lb/106 Btu)
100 (0.16)
SO2 w/o Limestone, mg/Nm3 (lb/10 6 Btu) <1600 (<1.27)
SO2, % removal

CO, ppm (lb/106 Btu)

SIU
Test Data
103,000 (227)
6.2 (884)
483 (901)
180 (356)

Design
46,000 (101.5)
4.7 (675)
399 (750)
109 (228)

Test Data
46,000 (101.5)
4.4 (640)
399 (750)
109 (228)

60-100
5:1

50-100
4:1

40-100
5:1

130-140 (266-284)

21,760 (47.9)
865-880 (1589-1616)
865-880 (1589-1616)
600-680 (23.6-26.8)
300-380 (12.0-15.0)

149 (300)
5400 (11.9)
865 (1589)
875 (1607)
610 (24.0)
254 (10.0)

155 (311)
5400 (11.9)
870 (1598)
880 (1616)
610 (24.0)
260 (10.2)

88.8
16-20

86.6
20
2.3

86.6
19
2.3

8.50
9.40
0.22
25.70
27.28

12.23
11.30
3.10
34.00
46.20

7.45
2.71
33.64
46.68

40.00
3.20
8.83
0.22
0.91
9.40
8.50
3910 (7038)
6.4 x 0 (1/4 x 0)
1.2 (0.05)

65.13
4.50
5.96
3.10
1.51
11.30
12.23
6492 (11,686)
12.7 x 0 (1/2 x 0)
3 (1/8)
1180 x 0 (16-)

6505 (11,709)
20 x 0 (3/4 x 0)
9 (3/8)
1180 x 0 (16-)

<75 (<0.12)
<800 (<0.63)

<170 (<0.25)

90
200 (0.18)

90-100 (0.13-0.15)

90
150-200 (0.14-0.18)

Forced Outage

Forced Outage

Commissioning Outage

Planned Outage

Planned Outage

64.75
4.52
7.06
2.71
1.28
7.45

Boiler Available

Boiler Available
0.5*

100

100
10.3

18.4

Boiler Availability, %

90

85

89.7

89.0

81.1

80

8.2

95

Boiler Availability, %

11.0
95

90

7.5

7.7

4.2

1.7

6.8
90.6
88.3

85
85.0
80

0
1997
(July 15-Dec. 31)

1998

1999
(Jan.-July)

0
1997

1998

* not boiler-related reason

Figure 7

SIU boiler availability.

Babcock & Wilcox

Figure 8

1999
(Jan.-July)

KCIL boiler availability.

Forced Outage

Boiler Availability, Percent

100

Planned Outage

1.2

1.9

Boiler Availability

3.9

2.6

5.3

95

9.4

8.4

4.5

2.2

1.4

1.8

1.5

2.8

5.6

4.2

2.9

94.0

95.6

6.6

5.6

90
95.0

85

91.6

89.4

89.7

90.8

89.1

93.0

80
0
1991
(May-Dec.)

Figure 9

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999
(Jan.-July)

Ebensburg boiler availability.

Table 3
Ebensburg Operating Data
Operating Steam Flow, t/hr (klb/hr)

234 (516)

Steam Flow @ MCR, t/hr (klb/hr)

211 (465)

Steam Temperature, C (F)

512 (953)

Steam Pressure, MPa (psig)

10.6 (1540)

SH Steam Temperature Control Range, %

30-110

Load Turndown Ratio Without Auxiliary Fuel

5:1

Emissions
NOx, ppm (lb/106 Btu)
SO2, ppm (lb/106 Btu)
CO, ppm (lb/10 6 Btu)

<100 (<0.14)
<300 (<0.60)
<230 (<0.25)

Ca/S Molar Ratio

2.1-2.4

cleaning can be provided by medium-size particles flowing

through the convection pass.
Boiler arrangement for firing oil shale is shown in Figure
11. Only in-furnace U-beams are utilized as a primary separator allowing coarser solids to the convection pass. No external
U-beams or recycle are needed. The MDC is located downstream
of the economizer thus providing self-cleaning of the convection pass heating surfaces by medium-size particles. Similar
to that of the primary separator, MDC collection efficiency and
recycle can be substantially reduced.

Conclusion
A two-stage solids separation system with controllable secondary recycle provides efficient boiler operation with precise
process control. Coupled with internal recycle of the bulk of
circulating solids and a wide range of furnace velocity, it allows a flexible, compact, cost effective and high performance
CFB boiler design suitable for multiple fuels in retrofit and
greenfield applications.

Figure 10

125 MWe IR-CFB boiler with reheat.

Babcock & Wilcox

Figure 11

IR-CFB boiler for oil shale firing.

Copyright 1999 by The Babcock & Wilcox Company,

a McDermott company.
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