The 2nd Joint International Conference on Sustainable Energy and

Environment (SEE 2006)

E-026 (O) 21-23 November 2006, Bangkok, Thailand
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1. INTRODUCTION
The last over two decades, natural gas has been the major fuel for power
generation in Thailand, whereas the share fuel of oil in the national energy
balance has dramatical reduced [1]. By the fiscal year 2003, the government
power generation sector managed
by Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) supplied annually some
60,000 GWh (or about 50% of the national electricity production), and about
30,000 GWh were generated from natural gas and only 2,000 GWh from fuel oil
[2].
Major gaseous emissions from the fuel oil/gas-fired boiler units, such as
NOx, SO2, SO3 and CO2, are known to depend on fuel
composition and major operating conditions (unit load, excess air ratio and flue
gas recirculation) [3,4]. As revealed by experimental data, NOx and SO3
emissions from utility boilers firing pure fuel oil or natural gas are influenced
strongly by combustion conditions in the boiler furnace (temperature and O2
concentration in the post-flame region). Meanwhile, SO2 and CO2 emission
concentrations
(corrected to reference excess air) are almost independent of the boiler load and
air supply [57].
In some engineering practices, computational emission models can be used as an
effective tool for the assessment of environmental performance of individual
boiler units. Emission factors, result of the modeling secure an accurate
environmental risk assessment for the areas surrounding the power plant. A
number of emission models have been developed and applied for firing pure fuel
oil and natural gas in large industrial and utility boilers [8,9]. In these models,
which include the effects of
fuel properties, operating conditions and furnace geometry (the latter being
important for estimating NOx and SO3 emissions), a boiler furnace is as treated
as

the control volume. However, there is a lack of study for determining the
emission characteristics for a boiler co-fired with different fuels.
The South Bangkok Power Plant (SBPP) (co-)firing fuel oil and natural gas
are situated in the suburb of Bangkok. In 2001, threre are
310-MW units of this power plant, originally designed for firing pure fuel oil,
were switched to co-firing of medium-S fuel oil and natural gas with the aim of
reducing environmental impacts. This work was aimed at determining the
emission performance
(emission concentrations and rates) of a selected 310-MW boiler unit of SBPP, for
different mass/energy proportions of the fuel oil
and natural gas in the blended fuel.
2. METHODS AND MATERIALS
2.1 Determining the fuel feed rate and thermal efficiency of a boiler
For a boiler firing fuel oil (FO) or natural gas (NG) at a given unit load, the
fuel feed rate (m& FO , kg/s, or QNG , m3/s at standard
conditions: 0oC and 1 atm), is determined by taking into account available heat
(or heat input to the boiler), Qav, the rate of heat transfer to water/steam
circulating in different boiler components, Q&1 , and thermal efficiency of the
boiler, b [10,11].
However, for this boiler co-firing these fuels with fuel feed rates (m& FO )cf and
(QNG)cf , the energy balance equation can be written by taking into account heat
contributions of the fuels to the boiler heat input and thermal efficiency of the
co- fired boiler:
(b )cf [(Qav )FO(m& FO)cf + (Qav )NG (QNG )cf ]= 100Q&1 . (1)
where the subscript cf stands for co-firing.
In the co-firing practices, the fuel feed rate ratio, FRR, is typically adjusted
at constant value:
FRR = (m& FO )cf (QNG )cf = constant . (2)

Hence, (m& FO )cf and (QNG)cf corresponding to the current unit load (or
boiler thermal power output),Q&1 , can be determined by
Corresponding author: nutsupak@siit.tu.ac.th

Modeling Major Gaseous Emissions from a 310-MW Boiler Unit Co-firing

Medium-sulphur
Fuel Oil and Natural Gas with Variable Ratio of Fuel Feed Rates
Nutsupak Chovichien*, Vladimir I. Kuprianov and Watcharee Kaewboonsong
School of Manufacturing Systems and Mechanical Engineering, Sirindhorn
International Institute of Technology,
Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand
Abstract: This work was aimed at modeling major gaseous emissions (NOx, SO3,
SO2 and CO2) from a utility boiler co-firing fuel oil with natural gas. Models for
predicting the emissions from the boiler fired with single (liquid or gaseous) fuel
included the effects of
fuel properties, operating conditions (load and excess air ratio) and boiler furnace
geometry. Meanwhile, for the co-firing, the emission rates above pollutants were
estimated using the emission rates for burning of each fuel in the boiler on its
own and
take into account the energy fractions (contributions) of fuel oil and natural gas
to the boiler heat input. Emission concentrations
and emission rates of NOx (as NO2), SO3, SO2 and CO2 were quantified for the
310-MW boiler unit co-fired with medium-S fuel oil
and natural gas for difference fuel feed ratios and unit loads. The NOx
emission concentrations were compared with the national
emission standards. Upper limit of the energy fraction of medium-S fuel oil in
the fuel blend was determined with the aim to meet the

national emission standard for SO2.

Keywords: Boiler Unit, Gaseous Emissions, Emission Models, Energy
Fraction
The 2nd Joint International Conference on Sustainable Energy and
Environment
(SEE 2006)
E-026 (O) 21-23 November 2006, Bangkok, Thailand
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coupling Eqs. (1) and (2). Furthermore, for the co-firing, the boiler
thermal
efficiency (b )cf in Eq. (1) is likely ranged
between
(b )FO and (b )NG , depending upon the contributions of the co-fired fuels
to boiler heat input. The energy balance equation [Eq. (1)]
can be then
conditions:

rewritten

satisfying

the

boundary

(b )FO (Qav )FO (m& FO )cf + (b )NG (Qav )NG (QNG )cf = 100Q&1 .
(3)
Comparison of Eq. (1) with Eq. (3) results in:
(b )cf = (1 0.01EFNG ) (b )FO + 0.01EFNG (b )NG,
(4)
where the energy fraction of natural gas in the total heat input to the boiler (%)
is given by:
.
( )
( )
( )
()
1

100
NG cf

FO cf
av NG
av FO
NG
Q
m
Q
EF Q &
+
=
(5)
As the ratio of the available heats in Eq. (5) is (almost) regardless of
boiler operating conditions, the EFNG is correlated adequately
with the specified (or applied) value of FRR [see Eq. (2)] and, thus, independent
of the unit load, excess air ratio, flue gas
recirculation factor and other operating variables.
2.2 Emission models
Like the boiler thermal efficiency, the emission rate of an em-th pollutant (em =
NOx, SO3, SO2 and CO2) from a boiler unit cofired
with fuel oil and natural gas at the particular unit load is determined in this
work based on the EFNG and corresponding
boundary emission rates, i.e. those found for firing single fuel on its own at the
same unit load:
(m& em )cf = (1 0.01EFNG )(m& em )FO + 0.01EFNG (m& em )NG . (6)

In order to estimate the emission rate for a particular pollutant, the

mass concentration of this pollutant in the flue gas and volume
flow rate of the combustion products are required. For firing single fuel (fuel oil
or natural gas), the NOx (as NO2), SO3 and SO2
concentrations at the boiler furnace exit (CNO2, CSO3 and CSO2, all in
g/m3 under standard conditions) are predicted by Refs. [8,9],
taking into account the fuel properties (analysis and heating value),
operating conditions (load and excess air ratio) and boiler furnace
geometry. With these concentrations, the emission rates of the acid rain pollutants
(kg/s) are determined by [4]:
for firing fuel oil:
( m& NOx )FO = 103( CNO2 )FO (Vg)FO mFO &, (7)
(m& SO3 )FO = 103(
SO3 C )FO (Vg)FO m& FO , (8)
(m& SO2 )FO = 103( CSO2 )FO (Vg)FO mFO &, (9)
for firing natural gas:
( m& NOx )NG = 103( CNO2 )NG (Vg)NGQNG . (10)
where (Vg)FO, m3/kg under standard conditions, and (Vg)NG, m3/m3, are the
volumes of wet combustion products at the boiler furnace
outlet for firing fuel oil and natural gas, respectively, determined by Refs. [911].
However, the CO2 emission rate (kg/s) can be directly estimated by using the
fuel
composition (fuel-C content for fuel oil, wt.%,
and volumetric analysis for natural gas) and the fuel feed rate, neglecting
products of incomplete combustion [4,8]:
for firing fuel oil:

(m& CO2 )FO = 0.03667C m& FO , (11)

for firing natural gas:
( m& CO2 )NG = 0.0198(CO2 + CO + CH4 + 2C2H6 + 3C3H8 + 4C4H10 +
5C5H12+ 6C6H14)QNG . (12)
The 2nd Joint International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environment
(SEE 2006)

E-026 (O) 21-23 November 2006, Bangkok, Thailand

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Table 1 Typical analyses of the fuel oils and natural gas fired in boiler units of the
South Bangkok Power Plant

2.3 The boiler unit and fuels

The SBPP power plant is a typical utility with multi-fuel options. Table 1 shows
ultimate analyses of the medium-S fuel oil and
volumetric analysis of the natural gas co-fired in 310-MW units of this
power plant. The LHV of these fuels were determined (based
on the fuel analysis) by Ref. [9,10] to be 40.5 MJ/kg for medium-S fuel oil and
33.9 MJ/m3 for natural gas.
For 100% unit load, the 310-MW boiler unit produces about 280 kg/s of
superheated steam at 540 oC and 155 bar and 250 kg/s of
reheated steam at 540 oC and 37 bar. The furnace with 10.21 12.53 m crosssectional dimensions and 22.4 m height is equipped
with the straight-flow type burners arranged at four furnace corners.
The boiler unit operates with the pressurized draft system. The excess air ratio
at the furnace is controlled at a value of 1.08 for the
full unit load. At this excess air ratio, the CO emission from the high-capacity
utility boiler is reported to be (almost) zero, as revealed

by the experimental results obtained on one of the 310-MW boiler units at SBPP
and elsewhere [46]. The effects of the CO emission
on both thermal and environmental performances of the boilers are
therefore ignored in this work.
Flue gas recirculation technique (with gas injection into the furnace
through bottom nozzles) is used in this boiler for adjusting the
temperature of superheated and reheated steam, as well as for NOx
reduction. However, no gas-cleaning facilities are installed at the
power plant; hence, all pollutants are entirely emitted from the boiler unit into
the atmosphere.
2.4 Essential input
For the first stage of this work, thermal and environmental characteristics of the
310-MW boiler unit co-firing with medium-S fuel
oil and natural gas at different loads were predicted using these characteristics
for firing each fuel (see Table 1) on its own. Apart
from this, design (geometrical) characteristics of the boiler furnace and a number
of operating variables were used in computations.
At the 100% unit load, necessary input data included the design parameters
of steam, flue gas and combustion air. However, for
reduced boiler loads, some parameters (steam flowrate, temperature and pressure
of reheated steam and feedwater, temperature of the
waste gas, excess air ratio, etc.) were assumed in accordance with loadrelated programs obtained from monitoring of this boiler at
50100% unit loads. As an illustration, Table 2 provides the load-related input
variables used for predicting the fuel feed rate and
emission characteristics of the 310-MW boiler unit fired with medium-S fuel oil.
Table 2 Major operating variables for the 310-MW boiler unit firing medium-S
fuel oil at different unit loads

The 2nd Joint International Conference on Sustainable Energy and

Environment (SEE 2006)
E-026 (O) 21-23 November 2006, Bangkok, Thailand

Fig. 1 Predicted NOx as NO2 (a) as well as SO3 and SO2 (b) concentrations (at
0oC and 1 atm) at the furnace outlet of
the 310-MW boiler firing medium-S fuel oil for different unit loads
The same, as in Table 2, variables were generated for the case of firing natural
gas. Most of the variables were close to those for
the fuel oil firing. However, two parameters, the excess air ratio and temperature of
waste gas, were quite different. The waste gas
temperature ranged from 156 to 116oC and the excess air ratio varied from 1.05 to
1.15 were assumed when reducing the unit load
from 100 to 50%, respectively.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Emission concentrations and emission rates for firing pure medium-S fuel
oil and natural gas

Fig. 1 shows the predicted concentrations (at standard conditions) of acid

rain gases (designated in the emission models as CNO2,
CSO3 and CSO2) at the furnace outlet of the 310-MW boiler for firing medium-S
fuel oil in the 50100% load range. As revealed by
special validating tests on similar boiler unit firing medium-S fuel
oil, computational errors in the assessment of these concentrations
were secured within 15% [4].
As seen in Fig. 1a, the contribution of thermal NOx to the total yield of
nitrogen oxides was found to be substantial (about 16%),
which indicated quite low effectiveness of the flue gas recirculation applied on this
boiler. With the reducing boiler load, the thermal
NOx diminished showing negligible contributions to the total NOx at 5060%
unit loads. However, when reducing the unit load from
100 to 80%, the reduction in the temperature at the burner zone resulted in a slight
reduction in the fuel-and-prompt NOx
concentrations. With further lowing the unit load, the concentrations regained
their values (close to those at the full load), basically
due to increasing the excess air ratio at the burner zone. As the result, the total
NOx (as NO2) concentration in the flue gas at the
furnace exit lowered from about 450 to 370 g/m3 (i.e. by 18%) when the
boiler reduced the load from 100 to 50%. Using standard
methodology, the concentrations were converted to volume fractions, whose values
were estimated to be 173193 ppm (on 6% O2
dry gas basis), the highest value being corresponded to the full unit load.
These values were quite close to the national NOx emission
standard (195 ppm, corrected to 6% O2 dry gas) for this boiler type.
When firing natural gas, total NOx were free of the fuel NOx. However,
the contribution of thermal NOx to total NOx yield was
near the same (about 15%) as in the case of firing fuel oil. For 50100% unit
loads, the NOx emissions from the natural gas-fired
boiler were therefore 22.5 lower than those from the burning of medium-S fuel
oil at similar operating conditions (load). The
predicted NOx emissions from this 310-MW boiler fired with the gaseous
fuel were in the range of 7095 ppm (on 6% O2 dry gas
basis) corresponding to 50100% loads.
As seen in Fig. 1b, the SO3 emission from this boiler unit fired with the medium-S
fuel oil was rather low. For the full load and
above specified excess air ratio, the predicted SO3 emission was only 95 mg/m3
or 24 ppm (on 6% O2 dry gas basis), which

accounted for about 4% (by vol.) of the total SOx (SO3 + SO2). When
reducing the unit load from 100 to 50%, the SO3 emission
concentration diminished roughly three times. Taking into account higher
toxicity of SO3 (compared to that of SO2), the contribution
of this acid rain gas to the environmental impacts may become noticeable.
The SO2 concentrations at the furnace outlet in this 310-MW boiler unit
firing medium-S fuel oil were found to be high, about
23002500 mg/m3, for actual values of excess air ratio (see Table 2). Using
standard methodology, these values were converted to the
volume fractions, 766781 ppm (on 6% O2 dry gas basis), whose
values substantially exceeded the national SO2 emission standard
(480 ppm, corrected to 6% O2 dry gas) for this boiler type. Hence, the medium-S
fuel oil can be used as co-fired with the natural gas;
alternatively, the FGD system must be installed downstream from the boiler
unit. For quantifying the emission rates for a boiler fired with particular fuel, the
fuel
feed rate as well as the volume of the wet
combustion products are required. Table 3 shows these characteristics for
both fuels fired within 50100% load range.
Table 3 Fuel feed rate and volume of wet combustion products at the
furnace outlet of the 310-MW boiler fired with different fuels

The 2nd Joint International Conference on Sustainable Energy and

Environment (SEE 2006)
E-026 (O) 21-23 November 2006, Bangkok, Thailand
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Table 4. Emission rates for the 310-MW boiler for firing medium-S fuel oil and natural gas at different unit loads

As seen in Table 3, the dependencies of the fuel feed rate on the unit load
were quite linear for both fuel options. Such results
could be partly explained by quite stable values of the boiler thermal
efficiency over the 50100% load range, 92.9593.19% for
firing fuel oil and 93.3494.47% for firing natural gas.
Using the fuel properties and flue gas volumes (on 6% O2 dry basis), one
can readily estimate the CO2 emission from the boiler
for each fuel option: 10.6% and 11.5% (by vol.) for the medium-S fuel oil and
natural gas. Such unusual elevated CO2 emission from
the combustion of natural gas could be explained by the presence of a
substantial portion of CO2 in natural gas (see Table 1).
Table 4 presents the emission rates of the pollutants for firing (individually) the
medium-S fuel oil and natural gas, required [by
Eq. (6)] for further estimation of the emission rates for the case of co-firing
these fuels. Basically, these dependent variables followed
the effects from emission concentrations, fuel feed rates and volumes of
combustion products.
3.2 Emission rates for the co-firing of medium-S fuel oil with natural gas
Fig. 2 shows the predicted emission rates for NOx, SO3, SO2 and CO2 for the
310-MW boiler unit (co-)firing medium-S fuel oil
and natural gas. Using these computational data, one can readily estimate
the emission rate for the pollutants of interest for any
arbitrary EFNG and unit load ranged from 50 to 100%.

The 2nd Joint International Conference on Sustainable Energy and

Environment (SEE 2006)
E-026 (O) 21-23 November 2006, Bangkok, Thailand
6
However, this 310-MW boiler unit has been basically operated with the
fuel oil/natural gas feed rate ratio FRR = 0.2, corresponding
to EFNG = 0.81[as estimated by Eq. (5)]. As followed from dependencies in Fig.
2, when switching the boiler unit from firing
medium-S fuel oil to the co-firing of this fuel with natural gas at EFNG = 0.81, the
NOx emission rate was substantially reduced, from
0.111 to 0.063 kg/s (or by 43%), while the emission rates of another two acid rain
gases, SO3 and SO2, were diminished by about
80%. Meanwhile, through the co-firing, it was manageable to diminish the
emission rate of the greenhouse gas, CO2, from 62.5 to
54.4 kg/s (or by 13%).
As roughly estimated, in order to meet the national SO2 emission standard, this
310-MW boiler unit must be co-fired with at least
40% EFNG, or, accordingly, at most 60% energy fraction of medium-S fuel oil
in the boiler unit heat input. For these conditions, the
NOx emissions could be apparently below the national NOx emission standard.
4. CONCLUSIONS
By modeling, emission concentrations and emission rates of major pollutants

(NOx, SO3, SO2, and CO2) were quantified for a

selected 310-MW boiler unit of the South Bangkok Power Plant
(originally designed for firing fuel oil as the main fuel) operated at

50100% unit loads for different fuel options (firing medium-S fuel oil,
firing natural gas natural or their co-firing).
Based on the computational results, the following general conclusions have
been made in this work:
contribution of thermal NOx to the total nitrogen oxides emissions from
the boiler unit accounts for 1516% indicating quite low
effectiveness of the flue gas recirculation method applied;
for firing pure medium-S fuel oil or natural gas, the NOx emissions from
the boiler unit complied with the national NOx emission
standard for boilers of this type and capacity;
because of the elevated SO2 emission (significantly exceeding the
national emission standard), the medium-S fuel oil must be cofired
with the natural gas with significant (at least 40%) energy contribution of
natural gas to boiler heat input; alternatively, the
FGD units could be installed downstream from the boiler unit for flue
gas treatment;
through switching the boiler unit from firing medium-S fuel oil to the co-firing
of this fuel with natural gas at the 80% natural gas
energy fraction, the major emissions from this 310-MW boiler unit can
be sensibly/significantly reduced: by 43% for NOx
emissions, by about 80% for SO3 and SO2, and by 13% for CO2.
5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the South Bangkok Power Plant (Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand) for providing
relevant statistical data on boiler performance. They also wish to acknowledge
the financial support from the Thailand Research Fund.
The authors thank to Ms. C. Wongsaenchan for her contribution to data
acquisition.
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