Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698

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Fuel
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Numerical simulation of brown coal combustion in a 550 MW

tangentially-fired furnace under different operating conditions
Audai Hussein Al-Abbas a, Jamal Naser b,⇑, Emad Kamil Hussein a
a
Foundation of Technical Education, Al-Musaib Technical College, Babylon, Iraq
b
Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia

h i g h l i g h t s

" CFD modeling study was performed for the combustion of the brown coal in a large-scale tangentially-fired furnace.
" Performance of the boiler under ten different operating conditions was investigated.
" The temperature distributions were better when the turned off burners are set in the opposite direction.
" The results showed improvements on the combustion characteristics in comparison with the standard operating case.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In the present paper, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling study was performed for the com-
Received 9 September 2012 bustion of the brown coal in a large-scale tangentially-fired furnace (550 MW) under different operating
Received in revised form 13 November 2012 conditions. The AVL Fire CFD code has been used to model the combustion processes. The mathematical
Accepted 14 November 2012
models of coal combustion with the appropriate kinetic parameters were written and incorporated to the
Available online 8 December 2012
code as user defined functions. These models consist of pulverised coal (PC) devolatilization, char burn-
out, and heat and mass transfer. The simulation of the PC combustion was carried out using multi-step
Keywords:
reaction chemistry mechanisms. The level of confidence of this numerical model was based on the pre-
Coal combustion
Victorian brown coal
vious validations of the lignite combustion in a lab-scale furnace, as well as the validation parameters of
Emissions the present furnace at the standard existing conditions in terms of temperature values and species con-
CFD centrations. Performance of the boiler under ten different operating conditions was investigated. The
strategy of operation schemes for the first six combustion scenarios were based on the change of the
out-of-service (turned off) burners under full load operation, while the rest cases were carried out at
20% lower and 20% higher loads than the standard operating conditions. The validated model was used
to perform the following investigation parameters: furnace gas temperatures, species concentrations
(O2, CO and CO2), velocity distributions, and char consumption. The predictions demonstrated that there
are good temperature distributions in the furnace when the turned off burners are set in the opposite
direction under full load operation. For higher aerodynamic effect, the numerical results showed
improvements on the combustion characteristics in terms of species concentrations and char burnout
rates in comparison with the standard operating case. The findings of this study provide good information
to optimize the operations of the utility tangentially coal-fired boiler with less emission.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction (GHGs) emissions and a high moisture content which is equal to

The brown coal combustion in the tangentially-fired power
plants is the main source of electricity production in Victoria/Aus-
tralia [1–4]. Although the abundance, low-cost, high reactivity, and
low sulfur content of the brown coal [5] the major disadvantages of
this source of energy are its contribution to the greenhouse gases
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9214 8655.
E-mail address: Jnaser@swin.edu.au (J. Naser).
about 60–70 wt% [6]. However, In order to obey the new environ-
mental and political legislation against global warming, it is neces-
sary to find out a cost-effective solution to cut pollution.
The understanding of the brown coal reactivity and behavior
under different operating conditions is required to design clean
and efficient brown coal combustion systems. Computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) modeling studies can comprehensively provide a
wide range of information for optimizing and improving the com-
bustion characteristics and boiler performance that can reduce the
cost of time-consuming experimental tests. The flame structure,

0016-2361/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2012.11.054
 A.H. Al-Abbas et al. / Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698
temperatures distributions, chemical species concentrations, nitric
oxides, radiative heat flux, etc., under different firing conditions
can be carried out using the appropriate CFD code [7–10]. The work
programme covered by this paper achieves the development and
validation of the computational tool applied to the combustion
system which indicates the practical relevance and the long term
viability for such a tool. These developments allowed the complete
simulation of commercial large-scale power plants as an effective
alternative to expensive experimental tests.
In general, after the devolatilization process of the coal particles
finishes, the char combustion subsequently starts in the firing sys-
tem. This combustion process has been considered the dominant
factor constraining several reaction parameters such as the total
burnout time, unburned carbon level, and radiation from burning
char particles [11–16]. A better understanding of the effects of
these parameters on the combustion characteristics and boiler heat
transfer under different operating conditions enables engineers to
optimize the applications of both the existing and new coal power
plants. Ash deposition and slag formation from burning pulverized
coal particles are significant parameters in the thermal boiler de-
sign, particularly on the heat transfer surfaces such as radiation
zone (water–wall furnace) and convection zone (superheater,
reheater, and economizer) [8]. Therefore, it is necessary to under-
stand how these parameters vary when the rates of pulverised coal
(PC) and feed oxidizer gases are changed in the furnace inlets com-
pared to the existing operating conditions. However, the full
knowledge of the effects of these intrinsic parameters on the com-
bustion characteristics and power plant efficiency is still not com-
pletely available.
Tian et al. [17] developed a CFD model to investigate the coal
combustion in a 375 MW tangentially-fired utility boiler, using
ANSYS CFX 12.0 code. Due to the CFD code limitations regarding
the multi-step reaction of hydrocarbon released, the authors uti-
lized carbon monoxide reaction with oxygen to improve the model
predictions. After validating the CFD model with the measured
data obtained from the Yallourn power plant, then they used the
validated model to examine the flame shape, temperature distribu-
tion, and wall incident heat flux. The numerical investigations were
done under different combustion air distribution scenarios and at
different out-of-service firing groups. The predictions showed that
there is a significant difference in the combustion characteristics in
the furnace, and these differences completely dependent upon
which burner groups are turned off under full load operation.
A validated 3D numerical model of the lignite combustion in a
300 MW large-scale utility boiler under the standard firing condi-
tions was used by Karampinis et al. [18] to perform a numerical
investigation for lignite coal and biomass particles at several co-fir-
ing scenarios. The numerical findings showed that the burnout
rates of lignite char coal decreased in the hopper under co-firing
conditions. While for biomass fuel, the small diameter of particles
resulted in an increase in the char burnout for all burner levels
used. The authors concluded on two main concepts for the poten-
tial operation schemes. The first was to mix the biomass particles
with the lignite stream to ensure a better biomass size reduction.
And the second concept was dependent on the fact that the injec-
tion system of the biomass particles should be placed between the
lower and upper main burner to optimize the char burnout in the
boiler.
Up to date, in the field of numerical simulation on the commer-
cial large-scale facility firing unit, there has been unfortunately lit-
tle research work conducted on the brown coal combustion.
Therefore, the objective of this study is to simulate the brown coal
combustion in a large-scale tangentially-fired furnace under
several operating conditions. A computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) code, AVL Fire version 2009.3, was used to model and
analyze ten different combustion environments. The investigated
689
combustion cases were dependent on the scenarios of change in
the mass flow rates and distribution ratios for the PC, mill gases
and air (i.e. 20% lower and 20% higher than the standard combus-
tion conditions). In addition, the operation schemes of turned off
(out-of-service) burners were also examined under full load oper-
ation. The species concentrations (O2, CO2, and CO), furnace gas
temperature distributions, velocity fields, and char consumption
obtained for all combustion cases were compared. The combustion
characteristics and boiler performance are considerably depended
upon the turbulent mixing conditions, residence times of combus-
tibles, and aerodynamic effects used in this numerical study.
2. Geometry and operating conditions of the boiler
Loy Yang A power plant located in the state of Victoria in
Australia was selected to use in the present numerical investiga-
tions. The present tangentially-fired furnace is composed of eight
mill-duct systems, which include six separate burners for each duct
system. On each side of the furnace there are two firing groups,
including three inert burners in the upper location and three main
burners in the lower location of the furnace zone, as well as many
secondary air ducts for each group. The top–bottom sequence
arrangement of each firing group on the furnace wall can be found
in the previous numerical studies [19,20]. In the convection zone,
there are eight sources of heat sink located above the hot gas off
take (HGOT) pipes. The arrangement of the convection tubes in
the boiler are economiser, reheater 1a, superheater 2, reheater 1b,
superheater 3, reheater 2, superheater 4, superheater 1, and their
heat absorption values are 100.2, 121.98, 151.74, 121.98, 192.12,
98.48, 52.27, 68.44 MW, respectively. The heat absorption value
of water wall is 458.75 MW, and its location is beneath HGOT pipes.
The effect of these heat sink sources are considered and taken into
account of the calculation as a cell selection in the computational
domain. Around 430 kg/s of steam flow is produced in this power
unit under full load operation at 16.8 MPa and 540 °C.
The mesh generation with the geometric description of the CFD
model used for the boiler is shown in Fig. 1a. The geometric dimen-
sions of the furnace are taken from the drawings of the power
plant, and CAD tool is employed to construct the 3D geometric
model. The dimensions of the simulated furnace were 98.84 m
(height), 17.82 m (width), and 17.82 m (depth). Under the standard
operating conditions, the mills 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8 are in service, while
the rest mills (3, 4, and 7) are out-of-service, which presented for
the combustion case 1, as illustrated in Table 1. Table 1 presents
the operation scheme of turned off (out-of-service) burners under
full load operation (cases 1–6) and 20% lower (cases 7 and 8) and
20% higher (cases 9 and 10) than the standard operating condi-
tions. Around 81.3 kg/s of PC and 422.8 kg/s of gas mixture are
passed through both the inert and main burners of the furnace at
different flow distribution ratios under the standard operating
conditions (as specified in cases 1–6). More detailed information
about the validated results of the CFD model against the power
plant data and boundary conditions used in the standard
combustion conditions were given in the recent published paper
of Al-Abbas et al. [20].
Table 2 shows the mass flow rates (kg/s) of air for the standard
firing case and investigated combustion cases at each secondary air
duct. The overall number of vapor and PC burners was 48, while 18
of the total burners were practically out of service for all combus-
tion cases examined. Regarding the burner configuration, each bur-
ner ports 1, 3, 5, and 7 were inclined by 24° with the perpendicular
line to the furnace face, while each the remaining burner ports 2, 4,
6, and 8 were inclined by 30°. In the most types of the tangentially-
fired furnaces/boilers, this configuration of the burner set up was
typically used in order to improve flame stability inside the
690 A.H. Al-Abbas et al. / Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698

3. Mathematical models and numerical description

Numerical modeling of the pulverized Victorian brown coal

Fig. 1a. CFD geometrical model of unit 1 at Loy Yang A power plant.
furnace, as schematically plotted in Fig. 1b. The mass flow rates of
both the PC and mill gases (recycled flue gases) through the main
and inert burners for the standard, 20% lower, and 20% higher com-
bustion scenarios are presented in Table 3.
under different combustion conditions were carried out using a
computational fluid dynamics (CFD), AVL Fire 2009.3 code [21].
The CFD code was used to solve the Eulerian partial differential
equations (PDEs) [22] for mass, momentum, enthalpy, a number
of species mass fractions, and turbulent fields in the gas phase
flow. The Discrete Droplet Method (DDM) [23] was employed
solving ordinary differential equations for the solid phase flow.
The subroutines required for the devolatilization and char burnout,
trajectories, convection and radiation heat transfer between parti-
cles and gases were written and incorporated into the CFD code as
sub-models of source terms of PDEs. The standard k–e model is
used modeling the turbulent flow calculation. This model has been
demonstrated a sufficient accuracy in the near-burner region of
previous modeling simulation of lignite coal combustion [24].
The mixing rate of species is controlled using the eddy-breakup
(EBU) turbulent combustion model in this coal reaction process.
The proximate and ultimate properties of the brown coal particle
are listed in Table 4. Regarding the heat transfer models, the
discrete transfer radiation method (DTRM) has been used because
of its ability for a better prediction in participating media,
especially in furnaces.
The chemistry reaction mechanisms for both the volatile mat-
ters and char coal are conducted. In this numerical study, methane
is considered as a devolatilized hydrocarbon fuel because there is
no essential differences can be distinguished between methane
and the gases produced from devolatilization processes of the coal
particles. However, the multi-step reaction mechanisms are car-
ried out in this numerical calculation. The main reactions of the
coal combustion model can be, however, expressed in three homo-
geneous and three heterogeneous chemical reactions, as follows:
The chemical equations for devolatilized methane burned with
oxygen, in a three-step reaction, are given in below:
CH4 þ O2 ! CO þ H2 þ H2 O þ heat ð1Þ
CO þ H2 O ¡ CO2 þ H2 ð2Þ
O2 þ 2H2 ¡ 2H2 O ð3Þ

Table 1
The operation scheme of turned off (out-of-service) burners under full load operation (cases 1–6) and 20% lower (cases 7 and 8) and 20% higher (cases 9 and 10) than the standard
operating conditions.

Combustion case no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Burners turned off 3, 4, and 7 3,4, and 6 3, 4, and 8 1, 3, and 4 3, 5, and 7 2, 4, and 6 3, 4, and 7 3, 5, and 7 3, 4, and 7 3, 5, and 7
Combustion scenarios Standard operating conditions Lower by 20% Higher by 20%

Table 2
The mass flow rates (kg/s) of air for the standard case and investigated combustion scenarios at each secondary air duct.

Secondary air duct Distribution ratio (%) Air standard 20% Lower 20% Higher
Mass flow (kg/s) Mass flow (kg/s) Mass flow (kg/s)
Upper inert 5.0 6.89 5.51 8.27
Upper intermediate inert 5.0 6.89 5.51 8.27
Lower intermediate inert 5.0 6.89 5.51 8.27
Lower inert 5.0 6.89 5.51 8.27
Upper main 20.0 27.55 22.04 33.07
Upper core 6.67 9.19 7.35 11.03
Intermediate main 20.0 27.55 22.04 33.07
Intermediate core 6.67 9.19 7.35 11.03
Lower main 20.0 27.55 22.04 33.07
Lower core 6.67 9.19 7.35 11.03
Total 137.78 110.21 165.38
 A.H. Al-Abbas et al. / Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698 691

Fig. 1b. The schematic representation of the burners’ configurations.

Table 3
Mass flow rates of both the PC and mill gases through the main and inert burners for the standard, 20% lower, and 20% higher combustion scenarios.

Burner duct Mass flow rates (kg/s) of PC for combustion cases Mass flow rates (kg/s) of mill gases for combustion cases
Standard 20% Lower 20% Higher Standard 20% Lower 20% Higher
Upper inert 0.93 0.74 1.11 18.71 14.95 22.42
Intermediate inert 0.54 0.43 0.64 18.22 14.54 21.82
Lower inert 1.57 1.22 1.83 18.19 14.54 21.82
Upper main 4.82 3.86 5.80 10.3 8.25 12.38
Intermediate main 2.78 2.24 3.35 9.34 7.51 11.26
Lower main 5.62 4.50 6.77 9.8 7.85 11.77
Total 16.26 13.01 19.51 84.56 67.65 101.47

While the chemical equations for char burned with oxygen, car-
bon dioxide, and water vapor are written as follows:
Cchar þ 1=2O2 ! CO þ heat
Cchar þ CO2 ! 2CO
Cchar þ H2 O ! CO þ H2
The heats of combustion of the above-mentioned chemical
equations for methane and residual char can be found elsewhere
[22]. This three-step chemical reaction scheme is used in this study
based on the good prediction results against the measured data of
the previous simulation studies of the coal combustion [20,22,25].
Regarding the numerical description, the solutions of the math-
ematical equations of the heat transfer, coal combustion, and tur-
bulence were conducted under transient mode. The numerical
results were run up to 48,000 time-steps, averaging the results
over the final 8000 time-steps which were reached to the stable
quasi steady state. The convergence limitation for all variables
was attained with less than 104. The standard SIMPLE algorithm
was employed solving the combination between the velocity and
pressure in the Navier–stokes equations. For the gas–solid two
phase flow, a Lagrangian/Eulerian approach was utilized. Around
ð4Þ 50,000 particles were used in the present large-scale furnace
simulation. Further detailed information in regards to the mathe-
ð5Þ matical models and numerical description used in this study can
be found elsewhere [20,22,24,25].
ð6Þ
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Temperature distribution
Fig. 2 presents the effects of different operating conditions on
the flame shape in the combustion zone at the 1650 K iso-surfaces
for all combustion cases examined. The effects of different turned
off burners operations under full load are presented in panels
(a–f), while in panels (g–j) the effects of mass flow rates and
distribution ratios for the brown coal particles and mill gases are
investigated. That was done by using the validated CFD model
[20] under two different combustion scenarios: 20% lower (cases
692
Table 4
The proximate and ultimate properties of the brown coal particle.
Proximate analysis (%wt, db) Ultimate analysis (%wt, db)
Fixed carbon Ash content Volatile content C H
47.8 1.7 50.5 67.7 4.63
Fig. 2. Iso-surfaces of the combustion flames at 1650 K: (a) case 1, (b) case 2, (c) case 3, (d) case 4, (e) case 5, (f) case 6, (g) case 7, (h) case 8, ((i) case 9, (j) case 10.
7 and 8) and 20% higher (cases 9 and 10) than the standard com-
bustion case, as shown in Tables 1 and 2. This iso-surface temper-
ature can clearly show the flame distributions in the furnace and
determines, as a result, the boiler performance under different
combustion conditions. The operation scheme of the combustion
cases used in this study was basically dependent on the inclined
angles of each burner ports, as schematically plotted in Fig. 1b.
However, this strategy of testing is used to improve the turbulent
mixing of PC with the feed oxidizer gases in the tangentially-fired
furnace which essentially dependents on the location of the central
vortex in this type of furnaces. This improvement on the combus-
tion conditions can bring several benefits to the combustion char-
acteristics and reduces the fouling and slagging problems on the
surfaces of the heat exchanges. Regarding the cases investigated
under the strategy of turned off burners (cases 1–6 as specified
in Table 1), it can be seen that the flame temperature distribution
of case 2 showed a clear tendency toward the out-of-service burn-
ers (eastern water wall side in the furnace). This feature might be
caused due to the movement of the central vortex toward the
A.H. Al-Abbas et al. / Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698
Specific energy (MJ/ Moisture content (M.C.) (%wt, ar)
kg)
N S Minerals and inorgs O Gross dry Net wet 62.0
0.52 0.3 1.89 24.96 27.6 8.8
turned off burners. A good distribution of the flame was basically
achieved in cases 3, 5 and 6 because of turning off the opposite
burners. In panels (g) and (h), the flames are concentrated in the
near-burner region due to the reduction in the mass flow rates of
combustibles. Whereas the combustion flames are uniformly dis-
tributed in the burner and water wall regions for both cases 9
and 10 due to the higher aerodynamic effects of the PC, mill gases,
and air adopted in these two cases.
Fig. 3 presents the temperature distributions at the cross-sec-
tion cut (X–Y plane) of the lower intermediate main (LIM) burner
for six combustion cases (cases 1–6 as specified in Table 1). In
these combustion cases, the central vortexes of the flames are
highly affected by the turned off burners adopted in this study.
In cases 1–4, there was movement toward the adjacent turned
off burners, this can be clearly seen in the next subsection of the
velocity distribution. This may lead to a significant effect on the
temperature field symmetry and, as a result, on the heat transfer
distribution in the furnace. In contrast, in cases 5 and 6, the central
vortexes are approximately concentrated in the central point of the
 A.H. Al-Abbas et al. / Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698 693

Fig. 3. Temperature distributions on the lower intermediate main burner at the cross-section cuts (X–Y plane) for six combustion cases: (a) case 1, (b) case 2, (c) case 3, (d)
case 4, (e) case 5, (f) case 6.

Fig. 4a. Temperature distributions for combustion cases (1, 7, and 9) along the Fig. 4b. Temperature distributions for combustion cases (5, 8, and 10) along the
central line of the furnace in the burners and water wall regions. central line of the furnace in the burners and water wall regions.

furnace. This can lead to a good turbulent mixing between the PC
and feed oxidizer gases and also helps to improve the stabilization
of the flame position. Therefore, it can be concluded that the pre-
dicted results showed that the turned off burners in the opposite
direction are better than those in the adjacent direction under full
load operation.
The influence of changing the mass flow rates of pulverized coal
particles and feed oxidizer gases (recycled flue gases and air) on
the temperature distribution along the Z-axis (X and Y = 0.0) of
the furnace in the regions of burners and water tube wall is shown
in Figs. 4a and 4b, compared with the standard combustion condi-
tions. In panel a of Figs. 4a and 4b, the numerical results presented
for combustion cases 1, 7, and 9, where the burner numbers 3, 4,
and 7 were out-of-service (see Table 1). While in panel b of the
same figure, the predictions were for combustion cases 5, 8, and
10, where the burner numbers 3, 5, and 7 were out-of-service.
694 A.H. Al-Abbas et al. / Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698

Fig. 5. Gas velocity vector on the upper intermediate inert of the secondary air duct for six combustion cases: (a) case 1, (b) case 2, (c) case 3, (d) case 4, (e) case 5, (f) case 6.

The predictions showed that the effects of combustibles (fuel/ In these last two cases, the tangential distributions of the gas
gases) ratios, decreasing or increasing, have similar trends on velocity vectors (central vortexes) were approximately close to
temperature distributions with the standard operating conditions. the central zone of the furnace compared to the other combustion
In general, in both panels a and b, there were two maximum tem- cases. As a result, this good tangential circulation of the gases led to
perature values in the main burner and inert burner regions. This is improve the flame distribution, as seen in Fig. 2. In contrast, the
because of the higher amounts of coal particles and oxygen avail- central vortex in the case 2 was away from the central position
able in these regions of the furnace. Based on the fuel/gases ratio of the furnace and skews toward the furnace wall. The aerody-
adopted in this study, the combustion scenario (cases 9 and 10) namic effects, applying in cases 7 and 9, on the mean gas velocity
with 20% higher than the standard operating conditions showed along the centerline of the furnace in the regions of burners and
approximately the same temperature values in the burner region water wall (Z = 0.0–40.0 m) are showed in Fig. 6, compared to the
(Z = 0.0–15 m). But, there was a slight decrease in the temperature combustion case 1 that works under the standard operating condi-
profiles of the last combustion cases in the water tube wall region. tions. As reportedly mentioned in Table 3, the values of the mass
This can be explained due to the fact of the heat absorption by the flow rates in the inert burners are approximately double those in
water wall (sink source), as well as the additional cooling from the main burners in all combustion scenarios adopted in this study.
injecting extra cold air in the secondary air ducts. On the other
hand, in cases 7 and 8, the temperature profiles were lower than
the standard combustion conditions due to the reduction in the
aerodynamic flows in the combustion zone. It is interesting to note
that the average values of gas temperatures, in Figs. 4a and 4b,
were 1681.37, 1604.69, and 1647.37 K for combustion cases 1, 7,
and 9, respectively and 1731.95, 1667.2, and 1701.7 K for combus-
tion cases 5, 8, and 10, respectively. Compared to cases 7 and 8, the
average gas temperatures of combustion cases 9 and 10 were more
close to those of cases that work under the standard operating con-
ditions. For maintaining the heat transfer performance of the boiler
with less emission, cases 9 and 10 can achieve that purpose, as will
be shown in the subsections of species concentrations and char
consumption.

4.2. Velocity distribution

Fig. 5 presents the cross-section cuts of the gas velocity vectors

on the upper intermediate inert (UII) of the secondary air duct for
the combustion cases (cases 1–6 as specified in Table 1) that work
under the standard operating conditions. With reference to Fig. 3, Fig. 6. Mean velocity (m/s) along the centreline of the furnace in the region of the
cases 5 and 6 showed good flow field distributions in the furnace. burners for three combustion cases (1, 7, and 9).
 A.H. Al-Abbas et al. / Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698 695

Fig. 7. Oxygen mass fraction (kg/kg) along the hopper and burner regions of the furnace at the mid cut (X–Z plane) for three combustion cases: (a) case 1, (b) case 7, (c) case 9.

This gives a clear explanation why the mean gas velocity is high in
the point Z = 14.0 m, which represents the level of inert burners in
the furnace, and it is low in the main burners region. However, in
Fig. 6, the maximum values of the mean gas velocity were 25.27,
22.59, and 29.41 m/s for combustion cases 1, 7, and 9, respectively.
In the hot gas off takes (HGOTs) region, the reduction in the veloc-
ity is evident for all combustion cases examined.
4.3. Species concentrations
In Fig. 7, the distributions of O2 mass fraction (kg/kg) are pre-
sented along the hopper and burner regions of the furnace at the
mid cut (X–Z plane) for three combustion scenarios 1, 7, and 9. In
the zones of main and inert burners, there was a clear consumption
in the oxygen concentrations for all cases investigated compared to

Fig. 8. Carbon dioxide mass fraction (kg/kg) along the height of the furnace at the mid cut (X–Z plane) for three combustion cases: (a) case 1, (b) case 7, (c) case 9.
696 A.H. Al-Abbas et al. / Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698

Fig. 9. Carbon monoxide mass fraction (kg/kg) along the height of the furnace at the mid cut (X–Z plane) for three combustion cases: (a) case 1, (b) case 7, (c) case 9.

the other regions in the furnace. This reduction in O2 was accom-

panied by high temperature values due to the intense combustion
reaction occurred in this region, as earlier shown in Fig. 4a. The
lower temperature profile observed in the combustion case 7
was connected with the higher O2 content noticed in Fig. 7, and
vice versa for the standard combustion case. Compared to cases 1
and 7, the higher O2 concentration was observed in the hopper
zone of the combustion case 9 because of the higher contents of
oxygen entering through the burners and secondary air ducts, i.e.
20% higher than the standard combustion conditions. Therefore,
it is important to mention here that these O2 concentrations are
strongly dependent on the aerodynamics and reaction conditions.
Fig. 8 shows the distributions of carbon dioxide (CO2) mass frac-
tion along the height of the furnace at the mid cut (X–Z plane) for
three combustion cases 1, 7, and 9. The difference in the CO2 con-
centrations between the standard (reference) combustion case and
two investigated cases are evident, and it is comparable in this
study. In Fig. 8, it can clearly see the reduction in the CO2 for both
combustion cases 7 and 9 compared to the conventional case. The
reasons for this decrease can be explained as follows: in case 7 the
load is decreased by reducing the PC, mill gases, and air flow rates
by 20% for each inlet port burner in comparison with the conven-
tional combustion conditions, and this can essentially increase the
residence time of coal particles in the combustion zone, and there-
by improve the coal reaction with oxidizers. This decrease of the
CO2 concentrations was also observed in the similar numerical
study of Belosevic et al. [26]. They used a comprehensive three-
dimensional mathematical model and CFD code to predict the
complex processes in two-phase turbulent reactive flows of pul-
verized coal particles within a large-scale utility boiler under dif-
ferent operating conditions. Similarly, Agraniotis et al. [27]
numerically investigated the co-combustion of brown coal in large
scale boilers under different operational conditions. In regards to
Fig. 10. (a) Mass fraction (MF) of carbon dioxide for combustion cases (2, 3, 5, 6, 9,
the reduction of CO2 observed in the combustion case 9, it can be and 10) along the central line of the furnace in the burner regions; (b) mass fraction
said that the reduction happened due to the higher O2 content of carbon monoxide for combustion cases (2, 3, 5, 6, 9, and 10) along the central line
available in the furnace which led to efficiently enhance the of the furnace in the burner regions.
 A.H. Al-Abbas et al. / Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698
reaction processes, as shown in Eqs. (1) and (4). However, the con-
centrations of carbon dioxide at the furnace exit were equal to
18.84, 16.65, and 16.19 (wt.%) for combustion cases 1, 7, and 9,
respectively. As mentioned previously, the combustion case 9 can
provide a good opportunity to reduce emissions and maintain
the heat transfer performance of the boiler compared to the exist-
ing combustion case. In contrast to the lower CO2 concentrations
observed in cases 7 and 9, the latter two combustion cases showed
a slight increase in the carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations in the
combustion zone relative to the standard firing case, as presented
in Fig. 9. This was likely due to the thermal dissociating mechanism
adopted in this study that led to an increase in the reactive pro-
cesses between the main (CO2 and H2O) and intermediate (H2
and CO) chemical species. In addition, the three-step reaction
mechanisms used in the heterogeneous reaction of char with the
oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor (see Eqs. (4)–(6)) have a
significant effect on the CO concentrations in the hot furnace zone.
Fig. 10a and b presents the distributions of mass fraction of CO2
and CO respectively along the central line (X and Y = 0.0) of the fur-
nace in the region of combustion zone (burners region) for differ-
ent combustion cases: 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, and 10. Both figures show
that there are two peak values of CO2 and CO concentrations for
all combustion cases examined. The maximum values were firstly
close to the main burners (PC burners), while the second max. val-
ues were in the inert burner region. These two values resulted from
the availability of the higher O2 concentrations in these regions. In
the case 6, the concentrations of CO2 and CO were somewhat lower
than those of the other combustion cases. As mentioned earlier,
this improvement on the emission reduction might be due to the
good mixing condition adopted in this combustion case.
Fig. 11. Char content of the pulverized coal particles (%) of three combustion cases: (a) case 1, (b) case 7, (c) case 9.
697
4.4. Char consumption
In general, the numerical simulation of brown coal combustion
in a tangentially-fired furnace is considered a complex process be-
cause of the higher water content in this type of low-rank coal
(>60% water content in the raw coal). After the evaporation process
from coal particles in the hot gas off take tubes (recirculation pro-
cess), the thermal decomposition and the sequence burnout of the
released volatile matter and char coal are started in the mouth of
the furnace. As previously noted in the lignite coal combustion
within the lab-scale furnace and in the present furnace as well,
the reaction of the released hydrocarbon (volatile matter) with oxi-
dizers was started and totally finished in vicinity to the burner re-
gion. And this resulted in an increase in the gas temperature.
Therefore, the char consumption is the main interesting point that
could be used to distinguish among the examined combustion
cases in this numerical investigation.
Fig. 11 shows the char content of brown coal particles (%) along
the height of the furnace for three combustion cases 1, 7, and 9. A
clear difference can be seen in the char burnout for these examined
combustion cases. This is basically due to the turbulent mixing
conditions, residence times of coal particles, and aerodynamic ef-
fects. Compared to the existing combustion case, cases 7 and 9
showed a considerable increase in the char consumption. The rea-
son of this is that in the case 7 the higher residence time of coal
particles in the furnace zone gave a sufficient time to burn much
char coal, whereas the higher aerodynamics and oxygen content
in the case 9 led to efficiently improved mixing and reaction con-
ditions. This is of a great importance to reduce the slagging and
fouling problems on the heat transfer surfaces. This interesting
698 A.H. Al-Abbas et al. / Fuel 107 (2013) 688–698
result on the char burnout can lead to an increase in the combus-
tion efficiency under these new firing conditions.
5. Conclusion
A 3D CFD model of a 550 MW tangentially-fired furnace at Loy
Yang A power plant has been developed. The validated model was
used to investigate the combustion characteristics and boiler per-
formance under different firing conditions. The combustion sce-
narios of this work were based on the effect of the mass flow
rates and distribution ratios for the PC, mill gases, and air in the
combustion zone compared to the reference scenario. Ten different
combustion cases were investigated. The first six combustion cases
were based on the change of the out-of-service burners under full
load operation, while the rest cases were carried out at 20% lower
and 20% higher than the standard operating conditions, as specified
in Table 1. Temperature distributions, velocity distributions, spe-
cies concentrations, and char consumption are compared for all
examined combustion cases. The numerical results showed that
the turned off burners in the opposite direction are better than
those in the adjacent direction under full load operation, and this
can help to provide an improved distribution of the flames in the
furnace. When the higher aerodynamic effects of the PC and feed
oxidizer gases were used, the combustion flames uniformly distrib-
uted in the furnace zone. The predictions showed that there is a
clear reduction in the CO2 concentrations and char coal under
the suggested operating combustion conditions in comparison
with the reference case. A slight increase in the carbon monoxide
concentrations was evident under the high and low load opera-
tions. These predicted results were associated with the thermal
chemistry mechanism adopted in this study. Based on the above-
mentioned findings, the combustion characteristics and boiler per-
formance can be optimized for less emission. This is also important
to reduce the slagging and fouling phenomena on the heat transfer
surfaces of the furnace.
Acknowledgement
The financial support from the Ministry of Higher Education
and Scientific Research in the Iraqi government (www.mohesr.
gov.iq) is gratefully appreciated.
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