The effects of particle size and reducing-to-oxidizing environment on coal stream ignition

Coal particles experience a transition from a reducing to oxidizing environment in the near-burner region of pulverized coal (pc) boilers. For the first time, we report a fundamental study of ignition of a coal-particle stream experiencing a flame environment that transitions from a reducing to an oxidizing environment (termed reducing-to-oxidizing environment). High-speed videography is used to observe the particles in situ, and scanning electron microscopy is used to characterize the sampled particles. The effects of particle size on ignition are presented for four size bins (63-74 µm, 75-89 µm, 90-124 µm and 125-149 µm) for PRB subbituminous coal at two nominal gas temperatures (1300 K and 1800 K). An oxidizing environment with 20% molar oxygen composition is used as base-case. In contradistinction to single particle studies where particles are reported to ignite heterogeneously at higher temperatures, this study shows that coal streams ignite homogeneously, irrespective of particle size, in the oxidizing environment. By changing nominal gas temperature from 1300 K to 1800 K, ignition time decreases, on average, by a factor of five for each of the particle size bins. For both gas temperatures, the trend in ignition delays as particle size changes is non-monotonic. However, at 1800 K nominal gas temperature, ignition delays are independent of particle size in the reducing-to-oxidizing environment and ignition delays are doubled on average when compared to those in the oxidizing environment. It is more noticeable at the lower gas temperature of 1300 K that homogeneous ignition of coal streams is oxygen-dependent below 90 µm particle size and temperature-dependent above 90 µm. In general, ignition delay is determined by volatile release rate (controlled by the particle temperature) and the local oxygen concentration. Micrographs of particles also confirm that ignition and char burnout times are longer in the reducing-to-oxidizing environments than those in the oxidizing environments.