Performance improvement and reduction of emissions from coal-fired utility boilers in China

An international partnership between Canada and China was established to improve performance and reduce emissions from coal-fired utility boilers. A well-tested computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling tool was used to identify the improvement strategies for 11 selected units ranging from 200 to 600 MWe, to increase operation availability and realize the reduction of coal consumption, acid rain precursor NOX and green house gas CO2 emissions. Sustainability measures were introduced to promote replication of project results by the Chinese partners to maximize impact beyond the duration of the project. It is estimated that the study results could potentially be extended to 23% of the 2005 coal-based power generation capacity in China to achieve significant CO2 emissions reduction prior to implementing advanced clean coal technologies like Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) and oxy-coal combustion with CO2 capture.