Emissions and performance predictions of coal liquids in wall-fired utility boilers. Final report

Babcock and Wilcox's standard methods for predicting performance and emissions were utilized to determine the effectiveness of these methods for use with coal-derived and other synthetic fuels. Four coal-derived distillate fuels and a utility boiler fuel oil (petroleum-derived residual oil) were characterized in the laboratory to determine the physical and combustion-related properties of each. The coal-derived fuels studied were products of the Exxon Donor Solvent, SRC-II, and H-Coal processes. A comparison of the coal liquids to the fuel oil was used to evaluate each fuel's potential as a utility boiler fuel. The laboratory analyses indicated that the coal-derived fuels would have better handling qualities, and should have better combustion properties than the petroleum-derived residual fuel oil. Babcock and Wilcox standard performance models were utilized to predict the performance of three utility boilers using four coal-derived fuels and the unit's design fuel(s). Two of the boilers were also studied using methanol and a 95/5 percent volume methanol and water mixture as the fuels. The results of the predictive study show that the boilers' performance while firing coal-derived fuels should be similar to performance obtained while firing a typical residual-type oil and boiler's performance while firing the methanol fuels should be similarmore » to performance obtained while firing a natural gas. The Babcock and Wilcox performance and emissions models were evaluated by comparing predictions for three coal-derived liquid fuels and a residual fuel oil to actual field test results. The results of this evaluation showed that B and W performance models are well suited for use with the coal-derived liquids studied, but the NO/sub x/ prediction model does not provide accurate predictions for the coal-derived fuels. 2 refs., 50 figs., 9 tabs.« less