Development of a 16-MW_th Coal-Water/Heavy Oil Burner for Front-Wall Firing

The Canadian program of coal-water fuel (CWF) technology development has included the demonstration of “commercial” burners for CWF in both coal and oil-designed utility boilers. The demonstrations clearly showed that these burners were prototypes, and were, in fact, modified oil burners that were mismatched to the rheological properties of the CWF. As the demonstrations were proceeding, a simultaneous research program was undertaken by the Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET) of Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR) Canada in which the basic principles governing atomization and combustion of CWF were studied. Key results from the fundamental studies which led to the development of a novel prototype dual fuel CWF/oil burner are described. In the various stages of development, the burner was scaled up from 1.5 MW_th to an industrial scale of 16MW_th for demonstration in a 20-MW_(e) oil-designed industrial utility boiler and for a single-burner commercial operation in an oil designed package steam boiler. A brief summary of the burner performance in these demonstrations is also given in this paper.