Comprehensive study of the effect of a developed co-firing burner and its front-wall, opposed-wall, and tangential firing arrangements on the performance improvement and emissions reduction of coal-natural gas combustion in a boiler

Abstract Boilers have contributed significantly to the production of energy and other processes in industry. Understanding the combustion characteristics inside a boiler is essential to increase the efficiency and reduce environmental-related concerns. The novelty of this work is associated with a detailed analysis of the effectiveness of a developed co-firing coal-natural gas burner and the arrangements of the burners in the boiler for efficient combustion. Comparisons were made between the front-wall, the opposite-wall, and the tangential firing types. The characteristics of the flow, the coal particle motion, the temperature distribution, the concentrations of species, and NOx emission levels are examined. The results showed that each burner in the front-wall-fired type creates independent long flame zones. In an opposite-wall fired type, the flames of burners impinge upon the center of the furnace to create turbulence. Results show that front-wall and opposite-wall firing configurations exhibit hot peak zones and temperature imbalances near the furnace sidewall. This emphasizes the need for heavily swirling vanes in the main burner to shorten the flame length and mix the fuel and oxidant well for efficient combustion. The state-of-the-art tangentially fired configuration produced a fireball, ensuring thorough mixing in the furnace and allowing for the complete combustion and uniform distribution of the temperature such that NOx reduction occurs preferentially. Additionally, these results confirm the advantage of combusting coal with natural gas in the main burner, as doing so reduces NOx emissions up to 19%. The technological options identified offer potential for interested manufacturers, researchers, and others in related industries to improve the performance and reduce the emissions of industrial dual-fuel-fired combustion utilities.