COAL-FIRED GENERATORS

COAL. It is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock with a high amount of carbon and
hydrocarbons.

TYPES OF COAL
ANTHRACITE. contains 86%97% carbon, and generally has the highest heating value of all ranks of coal.
BITUMINOUS. contains 45%86% carbon. Bituminous coal is between 100 and 300 million years old.
SUBBITUMINOUS. contains 35%45% carbon, and it has a lower heating value than bituminous coal.
LIGNITE. contains 25%35% carbon. It is young and were not subjected to extreme heat or pressure.

HOW IT WORKS
HEAT IS CREATED. Before the coal is burned, it is pulverized to the fineness of talcum powder. It is then mixed
with hot air and blown into the firebox of the boiler. Burning in suspension, the coal/air mixture provides the most
complete combustion and maximum heat possible.
WATER TURNS TO STEAM. Highly purified water, pumped through pipes inside the boiler, is turned into steam by
the heat. The steam reaches temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius) and pressures
up to 3,500 pounds per square inch, and is piped to the turbine. The turbines are connected to the generators and
spin them at 3600 revolutions per minute to make alternating current electricity at 20,000 volts.
STEAM TURNS THE TURBINE. The enormous pressure of
the steam pushing against a series of giant turbine blades
turns the turbine shaft. The turbine shaft is connected to the
shaft of the generator, where magnets spin within wire coils
to produce electricity.
STEAM TURNS BACK INTO WATER. After doing its work in
the turbine, the steam is drawn into a condenser. In this
important step, millions of gallons of cool water from a
nearby are pumped through a network of tubes running
through the condenser. The cool water in the tubes converts
the steam back into water that can be used over and over
again in the plant.

COAL FIRED POWER GENERATION TECHNOLOGIES

PULVERIZED COAL SYSTEM. The concept of burning coal that has been pulverized into a fine powder stems. The
feeding rate of coal according to the boiler demand and the amount of air available for drying and transporting the
pulverized coal fuel is controlled by computers. Pieces of coal are crushed between balls or cylindrical rollers that
move between two tracks or "races." The raw coal is then fed into the pulverizer along with air heated to about 650
degrees F from the boiler. As the coal gets crushed by the rolling action, the hot air dries it and blows the usable
fine coal powder out to be used as fuel. The powdered coal from the pulverizer is directly blown to a burner in the
boiler. The burner mixes the powdered coal in the air suspension with additional pre-heated combustion air and
forces it out of a nozzle similar in action to fuel being atomized by a fuel injector in modern cars. Under operating
conditions, there is enough heat in the combustion zone to ignite all the incoming fuel.
CYCLONE FURNACES. Cyclone furnaces were developed after pulverized coal systems and require less processing
of the coal fuel. They can burn poorer grade coals with higher moisture contents and ash contents to 25%. The
furnace is basically a large cylinder jacketed with water pipes that absorb the some of the heat to make steam and
protect the burner itself from melting down. The hot combustion gases leave the other end of the cylinder and
enter the boiler to heat the water filled pipes and produce steam. Like in the pulverized coal burning process, all
the fuel that enters the cyclone burns when injected once the furnace is at its operating temperature. Some slag
remains on the walls insulating the burner and directing the heat into the boiler while the rest drains through a
trench in the bottom to a collection tank where it is solidified and disposed of. This ability to collect ash is the
biggest advantage of the cyclone furnace burning process. Only 40% of the ash leaves with the exhaust gases
compared with 80% for pulverized coal burning.
Cyclone furnaces were originally designed to take advantage of four things:
1. Lower fuel preparation time and costs
2. Smaller more compact furnaces
3. Less fly ash and convective pass slagging
4. Flexibility in fuel types

According to EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration)....

The amount of fuel used to generate electricity depends on the efficiency or heat rate of the generator (or power
plant) and the heat content of the fuel. Power plant efficiencies (heat rates) vary by types of generators, power
plant emission controls, and other factors. Fuel heat contents also vary.
Two formulas that can be used to calculate the amount of fuel used to generate a kilowatthour (kWh) of electricity:
=

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Amount of coal used to generate 1 kilowatthour (kWh): 0.00052 short tons or 1.05 pounds
Kilowatthour generated per unit of coal used: 1,904 kWh per ton, 0.95 kWh per pound
Power plant heat rate = 10,089 Btu/kWh
Fuel heat contents = 19,210,000 Btu per short ton (2,000 pounds)
Note: heat contents of coal vary widely by types of coal