Focus on India - Supercritical CFB boilers, why they make sense for India.

In a developing nation like India, the power sector plays a pivotal role as an increase in per capita
consumption of power directly translates into increased national productivity. The Indian utility
power sector is expected to grow at the rate of 6-7% annually, with coal the dominant fuel (currently
accounting for over 57% of installed capacity, see Figure 1).
Projections show that coal based power generation will continue to dominate the power sector in
years to come. Other resources are either uneconomic, unreliable (as in the case of renewable
sources of energy) or are simply too complex and expensive (nuclear and hydroelectricity) to usurp
coal as the major source of power.
Coal is also abundant in India, which has the fourth largest coal reserves in the world, but the true
potential of this huge indigenous asset is not being fully realised. This is largely due to the quality of
coal available in India, which is either lignite or high ash bituminous. Therefore, it is necessary to
locate power plants in the vicinity of coal extraction sites (pit heads) as transporting this poor quality
fuel over long distances is not economic.
Neither coal production nor electricity generation has been able to keep up with the needs of this
power hungry nation. Coal India Limited has projected an 80% shortfall in its coal supply
commitment for financial year 2012 (see Figure 2).
There has been heavy investment in the coal mining sector to increase the pace of domestic coal
production, but India's coal supply is inadequate. Therefore, in order to tackle the deficit, Indian
power producers are left with little choice but to import coal. Coal imports are therefore projected to
significantly increase in the next 20-25 years (see Figure 3), which may have direct implications for
India's energy and financial security.
Reforms to address coal availability are one way of tackling the situation. But, if there is no
improvement in coal use technology and economics, India could end up reducing the life time of its
coal resources from 40-50 years to a mere 10-15 years.
Investment in more efficient power generating plant - in particular supercritical technology -
assumes great importance as it offers fuel savings as well as emissions reduction.
Government policies
The Indian government is under enormous pressure to cater to the growing demand for power and
the coal deficit is only aggravating the situation.
In order to partly address this issue, the Indian government has mandated that power plant
equipment is to be designed for burning at least 30% imported coal. This calls for either a blending
of imported and Indian coals or 100% imported coals.
Another major policy framed by the government is that power plants must use coal with less than
34% ash if they are located more than 1000 km from the mine sites or in critically polluted areas,
urban areas, and ecologically sensitive areas. This reflects the fact that transportation of high ash
coals over long distances adversely affects power plant economics.
In addition to these policies, there is a push for efficient power producing technology, with
preference given to supercritical plants.
Concerns for the Indian power producer
Given the above policy framework established by the Indian government, certain key areas of
concern arise for the Indian power producer.
When it comes to importing coal, Indonesia has been the prime supplier of coal to India in the
recent past. But now the Indonesian government has announced a 25% tax on coal exports, adding
to the complexity of the situation.
A closer look at Indonesia's coal export patterns reveals that it is prioritising the export of low rank
coals having high moisture (in the range of 35 to 45%). Indonesian coal also has a somewhat higher
sulphur content than Indian coal.
High moisture coals present challenges to power plant owners, from handling issues to efficiency of
burning in the boilers. Also, importing coal with higher sulphur content requires additional
downstream flue gas desulphurisation equipment to comply with the emission norms laid down by
the government.
On the other hand, the requirement that only coal with ash quantity less than 34% can be
transported over distances of over1000 km creates the need for coal washing plants, which, in turn,
produces vast amounts of coal rejects. This could still be used to generate power in the vicinity of
the washeries. But the burning of washery rejects poses many further challenges to power
producers if they plan to use conventional pulverised coal (PC) fired boiler technology.
Circulating fluidised bed (CFB) technology
However, there is another approach to coal burning, the circulating fluidised bed, which has become
well established over the last 30 years and which could address a number of the issues arising in
India. Also, like pulverised coal technology this has matured to utility scale.
In a CFB boiler (Figure 4) a bed of fine solids is fluidised in the furnace using high pressure air. The
solids elutriate from the bed owing to the high velocity maintained in the furnace. Loss of solids
causes non uniform temperature distribution in the furnace. So to capture and recirculate the
coarser solids back to the furnace a cyclone or U-beam separator is used. The high pressure air
imparts fluid-like properties to the bed and the turbulence in the bed causes effective mixing and
efficient combustion, producing low levels of unburnt carbon at optimum levels of excess air.
Limestone can be added to the furnace as required to capture the SOx within furnace and reduce
the emissions from the plant.
The efficiency of a CFB boiler is comparable with that of a PC fired boiler.
The strongest selling point of CFB technology is that it offers a high degree of fuel flexibility, which
minimises fuel related risks for the plant owners. Features of the CFB boiler, such as multi fuel
firing, ability to burn a wide range of fuels, in situ sulphur capture and staged combustion for
reducing NOx emission levels, have the potential to provide customised solutions to the set of
unique challenges faced by the Indian power producer.
There are already CFB units operating in India, see Figures 5a and 5b.
Integration of supercritical and CFB technologies
It is a well established fact that overall plant efficiency increases when a power plant operates at
supercritical parameters, with the attendant benefits of cost and fuel savings and lower emissions of
the greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Integration of supercritical and CFB technologies gives
us the best features of both these technologies. The high degree of fuel flexibility coupled with the
lower plant heat rate is indeed proving very attractive for power producers.
One of the critical areas of concern associated with pulverised coal firing in a supercritical boiler
employing the once through concept is variation in heat flux with furnace height, with, for example,
implications for reliable cooling of the furnace waterwall.
These variations in heat flux are much less of a concern for the CFB boiler, which operates with
heat fluxes that are reasonably uniform over the height (Figure 6) and around the periphery of the
furnace. Hence, a CFB boiler is inherently more suited to the once through configuration.
Unlike supercritical PC boilers CFB technology can achieve emissions levels that comply with
stringent pollution standards for almost any fuel without any downstream equipment. Integration
with CFB brings these emissions benefits to supercritical boiler technology.
Supercritical turbines are not available below the size of about 300 MW as they would not be
economic at capacities less than this. This dictates a minimum size for the integrated supercritical
and CFB plant, which can be achieved by using a suitably scaled up CFB boiler or by using two
smaller supercritical CFB boilers connected to one turbine.
Scale up of CFB boilers to supercritical sizes
Over the years, circulating fluidised bed boiler technology has been scaled up (Figure 7), with a
supercritical CFB unit of 460 MWe now in operation (the Lagisza plant), and a total world CFB
installed generating capacity of some 200 GW. Thus, the circulating fluidised bed has established
itself as a utility scale boiler technology.
Subcritical units of up to 350 MWe are already in operation today, while a 330 MWe supercritical
CFB is under construction in Russia, a supercritical CFB plant with four 550 MWe units is under
construction in Korea and a 600 MWe supercritical CFB unit - currently the world's largest CFB - is
being built at the Baima power plant in China, due to be commissioned this year. Looking to the
future, supercritical CFB designs with a unit size of 800 MWe are on offer.
All these supercritical units employ a low mass flux BENSON technology with a special design of
vertical wall tubes for the evaporator section, developed by Siemens.
So large scale CFB is a reality. But among Indian power producers there is a mindset that CFB
boilers are only proven at industrial sizes and at the lower end of the utility size range, unlike PC
technology, which of course has well established credentials in large capacity supercritical plants.
In reality, there is no technological barrier preventing scale up of CFB technology to supercritical
sizes. The only barrier is the size of the market. Nevertheless, when scaling up CFB boilers, a
modular approach is recommended to minimise the technology risks (Figure 8).
This can be done by adding additional modules in the boiler, eg by increasing the number of
cyclones, bunkers, feeders etc, and by changing the width to depth ratio of the furnace. Such a
modular approach minimises the changes made to the configuration of the boiler from the well
proven existing designs and guarantees performance at the increased capacity.
While the modular approach can be used to scale up the boiler, the concept of two boilers
connected to a single turbine can be used to scale up the power plant size (Figure 9). The
integration of two boilers to power a single turbine requires boilers half the capacity of the turbine
and hence mitigates all cause for concern and risks related to the scale up.
Also, a single turbine used in the place of two, enhances the economics of the plant. With this
scheme, overall plant availability is not compromised when one of the two boilers trips. This is not
the case when a single boiler is used to power a turbine.
However, two boilers connected to a single turbine is not without its downsides as well. The scheme
requires a dedicated control system designed specially for this mode of operation. In addition, the
outage of one of the two boilers causes the turbine to operate at lowered efficiency due to part load
conditions. However, it can be seen that the merits of this scheme make it a commercially viable
proposition.
Supercritical CFB boilers - tailor-made for India
The supercritical CFB boiler combines the best of both worlds, providing better efficiency and a high
degree of fuel flexibility thus directly addressing the complex challenges faced today by power
producers in India.
It meets the government's initiative to promote supercritical technology and has the potential to
meet stringent pollution control norms in future without any additional investment.
Such an integration of the technologies offers a very attractive way to produce power in the 300 to
800 MWe size range.
There are certain concerns about the scale up of power plants using CFB boilers. But a modular
approach towards scale up and the concept of two boilers powering a single turbine answers these
concerns.
The supercritical circulating fluidised bed boiler promises to have a major impact on the future of the
power generation business in India.
Q&A with Dr Joachim Franke, for many years Senior Principal and Head of Siemens BENSON
boiler technology, now executive director, technical, supercritical boilers, Cethar Ltd, an Indian
boiler OEM.
What, in your opinion, are the most significant challenges the Indian power industry is facing?
I would say the most significant challenge to the industry is related to fuel. India's coal production is
far below current requirements and this gap is expected to get wider still. This situation makes coal
imports inevitable. But experience tells us that burning blended imported coal has its own risks and
complications. In fact, most Indian utility plants are designed to burn only a specific fuel, with a
narrow band of variation. As the quality of the fuel changes over the years, either plant performance
is compromised or the required fuel must be purchased at higher cost. In existing projects this
erodes the profit margin of the developers and for new plants this becomes a huge risk even
affecting the very viability of the project.
What could be done at the generating end to avert grid blackouts similar to those that occurred in
July?
Overdrawing of power can be managed only by operating with sufficient operating reserves.
Operating reserves can be created by adding new plants. But the larger the units the more severe
the impact when if they fail. One needs to build the grid with midsized units, preferably in the 500
MW range. Furthermore, the superior dynamic load response of supercritical units can contribute
towards grid stability.
Is supercritical technology the way ahead for India?
The policy decision to adopt supercritical technology for utility capacity additions and the
requirement that plants should be designed to burn a minimum of 30% of imported coal are, in my
view, steps in the right direction. But, I would not say it is the complete solution.
Environmental concerns cannot be confined just to CO2 abatement. Most countries aim to reduce
SOx and NOx too. But, this has not been the case in India.
The increase in plant efficiency achieved by using a supercritical boiler certainly helps, but there is a
still a need for significant reduction of other emissions, most probably by adopting FGD and SCR for
PC boilers.
There has always been an argument that Indian coals have low sulphur and hence there is no need
for any SOx control. This is not really true, particularly considering the low heating value of Indian
coals. CO2 emissions are harmful, no doubt, but in the longer term, whereas SOx and NOx have
imminent harmful effects. The current policy in India allows developers to merely provide space for
future addition of emission control equipment, but that is not enough.
What you would suggest as an alternative?
I would advocate the integration of CFB and supercritical technologies. It is a comprehensive
solution that can address both the fuel related challenges as well as the commitment to provide
environmentally responsible power. The big advantage is that this can be done without the
installation of space and power intensive equipment like FGD and SCR downstream of the boiler.
CFB is a mature technology now, available in sizes that perfectly fit the Indian grid system, and
having features that are inherently very suitable for supercritical applications.
India is a country with a huge power demand, but a number of obstacles in the way of meeting it,
not least "Coal-gate". How positive are you about the future?
India has undergone a major shift from a protected to liberalised economy and such changes are
inevitably problematic. This is common to any economy and India is no exception. Issues such as
"Coal-gate" are, in my view, just short term road blocks. The biggest positive for India remains its
commitment to delivering power. There are clear policies defining the drivers. The country
anticipates a capacity addition of 85 GW in the 12th five-year plan, providing huge opportunities for
power developers and their suppliers.

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