Corrosion in low NO{sub x} firing conditions

Rather severe corrosion was observed in the 680 MWe coal fired power unit of Hemweg 8, installed with low NO {sub x} burners. Microscopic examinations of the tube sections showed that corrosion over approximately 30% of the side walls occurred because of: sulfidation, chloride enrichment on the metal-oxide interface, thermal fatigue cracks in combination with sulfidation and chloride enrichment on the crack tips (alligator skin cracking). To stop the corrosion, various countermeasures were taken: installation of gas sniffle points in the waterwalls; the following gases were measured: CO, CO{sub 2}, O{sub 2} and occasionally H{sub 2}S; application of curtain air and adjustments of the burners; curtain air and the burners were adjusted so that the gas environment at the water wall contained less than 2% CO; installation of corrosion probes; the probes can be removed and new ones can be mounted during operation; microscopic examination of the layers formed on the probes; from regular examination of the probes the quality of the layer could be derived from the amount of sulfides and porosity; laboratory corrosion tests in sulfidizing gases; the corrosion rate constants in dependence of temperature and reducing gas composition were determined and by means of these corrosion ratemore » constants the material loss of the waterwall tubes was calculated.« less