Experiences with high temperature corrosion at straw-firing power plants in Denmark

By the end of 2009, there will be eight biomass and five biomass co-firing plants in Denmark. Due to the steep increase of corrosion rate with respect to temperature in biomass plants, it is not viable to have similar steam data as fossil fuel plants. Thus for the newer plants, Maribo Sakskobing, Avedore 2 biomass boiler, Fyn 8 and Amager 1 (Fyn 8 and Amager 1 are under commissioning), the steam temperature of the final superheaters are approximately 540 °C and the steel type used is an 18–10 stainless steel, (TP347H). However there is still a need to monitor corrosion rates, and to collate data to enable better lifetime prediction of vulnerable components in straw-firing plants since the corrosion rates are so much faster than in coal firing plants. Therefore, there are continued investigations in recently commissioned plants with test tubes installed into actual superheaters. In addition temperature is measured on the specific tube loops where there are test tube sections. Thus a corrosion rate can be coupled to a temperature histogram. This is important since although a superheater has a defined steam outlet temperature, there is variation in the tube bundle due to variations of heat flux from the flue gas. This paper will describe the corrosion investigations for tube sections removed from Maribo Sakskobing and Avedore 2 biomass boiler which have been exposed for up to 30 000 h. In addition to monitoring the corrosion rates of actual components, there is a need to measure corrosion rates at higher temperatures to assess if there is a possibility to increase the outlet temperature of the plant, thus making the plant more cost effective. For this purpose Avedore 2 biomass boiler has a test superheater loop fabricated in TP347H FG (the same material as the final superheaters). Some results from this test superheater will also be described. Effects of flue gas temperature and flue gas direction on corrosion rates are also discussed.