One of WRI’s premier R&D resources is our Combustion Test Facility (CTF). The CTF is a pilot-scale coal combustion system that simulates a pulverized coal-fired utility boiler. It has a nominal coal firing capacity of 250,000 Btu/hour (about 30 lb/hour for a typical subbituminous coal).
The CTF is a balanced-draft system that can be set up to simulate a tangential-fired or wall-fired boiler or other power plant firing configurations. The unit is equipped with heat recovery surfaces to replicate the time/temperature profile of a utility boiler (water-cooled waterwall section, air-cooled superheater, reheater, and economizer simulators). The CTF also provides combustion air preheating to mimic a utility air preheater and over-fire air injection ports for combustion staging. The unit is equipped with a bag filter and solids and gas sampling trains. The gas analysis system includes on-line analyzers for monitoring O2, NOx, SO2, CO, CO2, as well as elemental and oxidized vapor-phase mercury.
Applications for which the CTF can be used include:
- Multi-pollutant control
- NOx reduction processes such as SCR, SNCR, and reburning
- SO2 abatement processes, including in-furnace sorbent injection and dry scrubbing
- Mercury reduction using various technologies, including sorbent injection (e.g. Thief Carbon process)
- Biomass co-firing
- Combustion characteristics of alternate fuels
- OxyCombustion (carbon dioxide reduction)
Over a dozen clients have used WRI’s Combustion Test Facility including BOC/Linde Group, Fuel Management Inc., Minnesota Power, Mobotec USA, and Tucson Electric and Power Company. The CTF is relatively inexpensive to operate; and, its design and capabilities afford great flexibility in testing and analysis. WRI personnel offer extensive power generation expertise to ensure partners gain the insight and advantages sought from all work performed at the CTF. For further information on how this facility and WRI’s projects can support your interest please see the combustion test facility schematic.