Evaluation of bed-to-tube heat transfer in a fluidized bed heat exchanger in a 75 MWth CFB boiler for municipal solid waste fuels

Journal article, 2023

Bed-to-tube heat transfer has been investigated for a tertiary superheater in a 75 MWth Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boiler in Norrköping, Sweden. The boiler is used for incineration of solid waste fuels. Two fluidized bed heat exchangers are located in loop seals, connecting the cyclones and the furnace. The heat exchangers are placed in series, with respect to the steam side, and in parallel, with respect to the particle side. The total heat transfer surface area is roughly 44 m2, distributed over 72 tubes. The total effect transferred most often is in the range 2–6 MW. The incoming steam temperature in the first superheater is 380–400 °C, while the exiting steam temperature from the second is around 450°, at 65 bar pressure. The bed temperature in the Fluidized Bed Heat Exchanger (FBHE) is 850–875 °C. The analysis is based on operational data from two time periods (2002–2005 and 2014–2021). The two periods use different heat exchanger designs, following a retrofit in 2005. The aim of the study is to establish the bed-to-tube heat transfer coefficient in an industrial FBHE unit and investigate how it varies over different time periods, for two different bed materials and for two different designs. Also, the experimentally determined heat transfer coefficients are compared with an established heat-transfer correlation, for prediction of heat transfer from bubbling fluidized bed to tubes. Operation with two bed materials were evaluated, namely silica sand and crushed and beneficiated ilmenite. Both materials are classified as Geldart B particles. Air is used as fluidization gas in the FBHE. The analysis show, with a few exceptions, comparably low heat-transfer coefficients from bed to tube of 100–150 W/(m2K). The results were similar for silica sand and ilmenite, but the highest measured heat transfer coefficient was for a period with ilmenite. The heat transfer was lower than expected based on literature data from FBHE units and fluidized bed boilers in general, and much lower than bed-to-tube heat transfer coefficients from lab-scale experiments and empirically derived predictive expressions. The difference could be related to one or more of several factors, such as the effect of very small tube spacing, unknown thermal conductivity of one of the layers in the tube bundle, the effect of lateral particle flow and the effect of fouling due to ash layers forming on the tube surfaces. It is suggested that it should be possible to significantly increase the bed-to-tube heat transfer by increasing the tube pitch, which is expected to improve bed mixing without increasing the risk of corrosion.