INTRODUCTION

The Unit 5 at Trombay, Indias first 500MW unit commissioned in 1984 is a multi fuel fired unit (coal, gas and oil). As coal is cheaply available than the other two resources, coal is primarily used for combustion. Earlier, Indian coal was used for power generation. Indian coal contained 15-40 % ash. Hence, the ESP was designed so as to operate at maximum efficiency for 25% ash content. Later, from September 2001, due to stricter emission norms, import of high quality Indonesian coal was started which contained around 2 to 4 percent of ash. The carbon in ash content of Indonesian coal is also very low (1% - 2%) due to better ignition and combustion characteristics. The Bulk Density of ash produced from Indonesian coal is also less (0.8 T/m3) as compared to Indian coal(0.95 T/m3). About 6000 MT of this coal is consumed daily in Unit #5 generating about 120 MT of ash daily. Due to the close proximity of the plant to the city of Mumbai, the amount of ash that is emitted into the atmosphere is very crucial making the Ash Handling Plant of critical importance. The main function of the ash handling plant is to extract the ash content from the exhaust flue gases before releasing the gases into the atmosphere and store it in a convenient location for further disposal. The chemical composition of ash is as follows: - Silica (SiO3) - Alumina (Al2O3) - Ferric Oxides (Fe2O3) - Large quantities of Lime (CaO) In the early days, ash was not considered as a commercially viable product and disposing ash was a difficult task. In those days, ash was disposed by forming slurry of ash and depositing it in the adjacent sea, thus reclaiming land. Due to environmental norms, this form of disposal of ash had to be phased out and a new system was devised for the conveyance of ash. In this system, instead of converting dry extracted ash into slurry, it is directly conveyed to the storage silos. The Ash Handling Plant in Unit#5 consists of: - Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) - 3 Cell Collector - Dry Fly Ash (DFA) Silo - Storage Silo 4

Flue gases exit from the RAPH 5A & 5B at a temperature of about 1400C and enter the Electrostatic Precipitator unit. I.D. fans are arranged after the ESP i.e. on the clean gas side. They convey the flue gases through the precipitators. The cleaned waste gases are discharged into the atmosphere by a stack. In case of failure of one stream, the flue gas flow is led through the remaining three streams by shutting off the corresponding gas lines. In case of failure of one of the I.D. fans the gases cleaned in the four streams are cleared by the remaining three fans. The ESP consists of 4 streams. Each stream consists of 16 hoppers. The total number of hoppers in ESP is 64. One line of flue gases goes from RAPH 5A to ESP Stream I & II. The second line of flue gases goes from RAPH 5B to ESP Stream III & IV. There are 8 ash conveying lines to convey ash from the 64 hoppers to the 4 "3-Cell Collector" systems. Each ash conveying line is fed from 8 hoppers. The ash evacuation rate of each line is around 12.5 tonnes per hour. Ash conveying lines A, B, C, D are fed from the hoppers of ESP Stream III & IV. Ash conveying lines E, F, G, H are fed from the hoppers of ESP Stream I & II. There are 4 "3-Cell Collector" systems - R, S, T, U. Compressed air required in the 3-cell collector is generated with the help of compressors. There are a total of 3 compressors for System R, S, T, and U. The compressed air contains moisture since the input air is taken from the atmosphere. Hence the compressed air is passed through dryers. This dried compressed air is then stored in Air Receivers. Ash from the R, S, and T systems is stored in the Dry Fly Ash (DFA) Silo. From there, it is transferred to the Storage Silo. Ash from the U system is directly transferred to the Storage Silo. Ash from the Storage silo is taken out by unloading it in ash bulkers. The schematic layout of the entire Ash Conveying System is shown on the next page:

PROBLEMS FACED FROM POINT OF MMD