Numerical simulation of the influence of over fire air position on the combustion in a single furnace boiler with dual circle firing

The Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code PHOENICS is applied to simulate and evaluate the combustion process within the furnace of a 1,000 MW dual circle tangential firing single furnace lignite-fired ultra supercritical (USC) boiler. The dependence on overfire air (OFA) positioning on the combustion process is studied. The results show that the highest temperature appears on the upside of the burner zone close to the front wall, and the high temperature zone rises with elevated OFA positions. However, the temperature field distributions are similar despite differing OFA positions. The char content near the rear wall is higher than that near the front wall, and below the furnace arch, coal particles concentrate towards the front wall. Also with elevated OFA positions, nitrogen oxide (NOx) concentrations at the outlet fall, but char content increases. In regard to NOx emission and char burnout, the suggested optimal distance from the OFA center to the center of the uppermost primary air nozzle should be 6 meters.