Methods of choosing the optimal parameters for solid fuel combustion in stoker-fired boilers

Stoker-fired boilers are used for the combustion of coal and solid wastes. The most important disadvantage is their low thermal efficiency. The authors present methods of choosing the optimal rate of travel of the grid and height of the fuel layer basing on both realscale and laboratory measurements. Basing on industrial-scale experiments the authors calculated the optimal thermal efficiency and main energy losses using the least squares adjustment method. The stepwise regression method was used to correlate the main energy losses as functions of grid operating parameters. These correlations were used in the optimization method to estimate the optimal rate of travel of the grid and height of the fuel layer. The minimum retention time of the coal can be also calculated.