Petrographic Variation in Feed Coal at a Coal-Burning Power Plant

摘要

Over a two year period, samples of low sulfur and high sulfur feed coal were collected on a monthly basis to assess chemical (including trace elements) and petrographic variation in coal feedstock at a large (2000+ megawatt) coal-burning utility. All of the coal is Pennsylvanian in age and comes from the Appalachian and Eastern Interior Basin. Coal from the Appalachian Basin is mainly high volatile A bituminous in rank, whereas coal from the Eastern Interior Basin is high volatile A through C. Presently, no western U.S. coal is being used, either exclusively or in blends, at the plant. The high sulfur feed coal is combusted in a tangentially-fired pulverized air-injection furnace that is equipped with a wet limestone flue gas desulfurization unit. The low sulfur feed is burned in a furnace that employs a wall-fired (front-rear) firing pattern.