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Coal Blending

Coal blending in power stations involves mixing high and low grade coals to reduce costs while maintaining boiler performance. It can occur at mines, preparation plants, shipping points, or power stations depending on site conditions. Deciding to blend coals requires understanding their organic and inorganic compositions as different formation processes impact quality. Testing is also needed because combustion is complex and plant operations differ from small scale tests. More research is still required to fully understand coal blending's effects.

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184 views

Coal Blending

Coal blending in power stations involves mixing high and low grade coals to reduce costs while maintaining boiler performance. It can occur at mines, preparation plants, shipping points, or power stations depending on site conditions. Deciding to blend coals requires understanding their organic and inorganic compositions as different formation processes impact quality. Testing is also needed because combustion is complex and plant operations differ from small scale tests. More research is still required to fully understand coal blending's effects.

Uploaded by

pvkrishnaji
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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COAL BLENDING IN POWER STATIONS

Coal blending in power stations is mainly adopted to reduce the cost of generation and
increase the availability of coal. The low-grade coals can be mixed with better grade coal
without deterioration in thermal performance of the boiler, thus reducing the cost of
generation.

In many nations, the blending of high grade imported coal with low grade high ash coals has
long been adopted. Many methods may be used. The blending can occur at the coal mine,
preparation plant, trans-shipment point, or at the power station. The method selected depends
upon the site conditions, the level of blending required, the quantity to be stored and blended,
the accuracy required, and the end use of the blended coal. Normally in large power stations
handling very large quantities of coal, the stacking method with a fully mechanized system is
followed.

To decide to blend or not, it is very important to understand the composition of the coals that
are to be blended. This means one will have to understand the origin of coal, the organic and
inorganic chemistry of coal, and the behavior of the coals in questions. It has been established
that coals produced by the drift theory of coal formation and coals formed by the swamp
theory of coal formation have to be blended with caution. The main difference is that coal
formed by drift theory exhibits pronounced regional variation in thickness and quality of
seams. They also have enormously high ash content with varying inorganic chemistry. The
organics of drift origin coal also present problems mainly because the vegetation that lead to
the forming of the coal drifted from different places having different kind of vegetation. In
contrast, the coals formed by the swamp theory have much more uniform organic properties
and much lower ash content with consistent inorganic chemistry.

During combustion, it is necessary to understand the physical conditions and coal properties
during heating of the particles, devolatalisation, ignition and combustion of the volatile
matter, and ignition and combustion of the char. It is also equally important to know the
phase changes in mineral matter and other inorganics present in coal. The combustion
efficiency and carbon loss will have to be also addressed during blending of coals. It is also
necessary to look into the aspects of slagging, fouling, and emission characteristics like NOx,
Sox, and particulates.

Because of the complexity of the combustion process and the number of variables involved
(which are still not fully understood), it is difficult to extrapolate small scale results to a full
scale power plant. Thus, operational experience with a wide range of plant configurations
with a variety of coal feedstock is essential for determining the practical significance of
results from bench – and pilot – scale tests. More published research about how the behavior
of the coals and coal blends utilized in tests differ from their actual performance in power
station boilers is required.

Predicting the risk of spontaneous combustion of coal stocks is another aspect of current fuel
quality research. In addition to the inherent dangers, uncontrolled burning can lead to the
release of pollutants. The economic issues associated with the loss of a valuable energy
resource are also a concern.
For more about the complexities of mixing and burning coal, continue reading on the next
page. For more basic information, read about how coal power plants generate electricity by
burning coal and find some other interesting facts about the process.

The presence of trace elements in coal combustion has also received increased attention
throughout the world during the last few years, with elements such as mercury of particular
concern. One way to reduce trace element emissions is cleaning the coal prior to combustion.
The use of cleaner coals – those with lower ash and sulfur content – can have the added
advantage of substantially reducing operating costs. Again, however, some effects may be
detrimental (ash deposition may be exacerbated, and the effects on corrosion and precipitator
performance are uncertain), which makes testing vital.

It has been found from field data that even if the blended coal closely resembles the design
coal for the boiler, the blend need not perform the same way. This is mainly due to the
transformation of inorganic particles during combustion and the way in which the organics
are dispersed in coal. A limitation to blending coals is the compatibility of the coals
themselves, and problems are more likely when blending petrographically different coals or
coals with different ash chemistry. Non-additive properties make blend evaluation for power
generation inherently complex. More work is required on understanding how the inorganic
components of coals in the blend interact and how it affects ash behavior including its
emissivity, reflectivity, and thermal conductivity.

Blending decisions should be based on the knowledge of the specific behavior of a given pair
of coals, rather than an assumption of linear variation of properties with blend traction. The
ever more stringent constraints placed on coal-fired power stations worldwide and the
continuing development of new technologies means that the issue of fuel quality
improvement will remain a primary factor.

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