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From Liquor to SludgeConversion of a Recovery

Boiler to a Bubbling Fluid Bed


J.F. Cronin
Babcock & Wilcox
Barberton, Ohio, U.S.A.

Presented to:
1999 TAPPI Engineering Conference
September 12-16, 1999
Anaheim, California, U.S.A.

Introduction
When a mill no longer needs an existing recovery boiler it
is faced with the problem of what to do with the boiler in the
future. The mill may have a new recovery of a larger size or
may have changed from Kraft to recycle product. The sludge
that once was landfilled is now a valuable fuel to generate steam
and can displace other more expensive fossil fuels. A U.S. mill,
having semi-retired a vintage 1964 Combustion Engineering
(C-E) recovery with a larger recovery boiler, wanted to replace
older power boilers with a power boiler capable of firing
papermill sludge; tire derived fuel and wood waste. This paper
discusses the modifications required to convert this recovery
boiler to a power boiler and the considerations that paper mills
need to understand when converting equipment to solid fuel
firing.

Background
This project converted the recovery boiler to a power boiler
and increased steam capacity from 34.5 to 56.7 kg/sec (274,000
to 450,000 lbs/hr) while maintaining steam outlet conditions
at 58.6 bar and 441C (850 psig/825 F). The converted boiler
was designed as a bubbling fluid bed (BFB) boiler capable of
burning wood waste, sludge and tires. The project was done on
an EPC basis (Engineering, Procurement and Construction). In
order to provide our customer with the most technically sound

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BR-1675

and cost-effective proposal for this project, B&W hired an engineering construction company who provided balance of plant
design, procurement, and construction.
The existing unit is a 1964 vintage C-E 600 TPD two drum
recovery boiler. The furnace is 7.5 m (24.7 ft) wide by 7.13 m
(23.4 ft) deep. The wall construction uses 5.08 cm (2 in.) OD
tubes on 5.16 cm (2 1/32-in.) centers. The 168 cm (66 in.)
steam drum and 122 cm (48 in.) mud drums are on 7 m (23 ft)
centers. For about two years prior to its conversion, the boiler
was maintained in a hot standby condition, using the steam
coil air heater to heat air to keep the boiler and precipitator
warm. This was for a corrosion concern. The boiler was operated, at least annually, whenever the newer recovery boiler had
an outage.
Economic and environmental issues justified conversion of
the chemical recovery unit to a bubbling fluid bed. About 60
percent of mill sludge was being sent to the mills on-site landfill, based on hauling 24 hours a day. The converted boiler can
burn all mill sludge 450 tonne (500 ton)/day, thereby essentially eliminating sludge landfill. This will extend the useful
life of the on-site landfill. The mill was able to retire two older
bark boilers and reduce coal usage on their remaining power
boilers. Conversion to a BFB unit allowed existing assets to
be fully utilized, such as the upper furnace, superheater, boiler
bank, precipitator, building, etc. Also, the cost to maintain the
recovery unit in hot standby was eliminated.

History of B&W BFB

Boiler Performance

B&W has extensive experience with boiler conversions and


modifications, including almost total replacement of older recovery boilers with newer recovery units while reusing existing buildings and ancillary equipment. B&W has designed,
manufactured, and constructed complete new facilities with
fluid bed boilers, including circulating fluid bed and bubbling
fluid bed, and has converted other boilers to BFB.
B&W uses the original open bottom design as illustrated in
Fig. 1. This BFB design feature eliminates the problems associated with bed draining, the size of debris a drain can remove,
and the need for water-cooled conveyors. The furnace hopper
is cool and does not require insulation. Further, B&W designs
the hoppers to be bottom-supported while the boiler remains
top supported. This design concept is similar to the water seals
used on many solid fuel top-supported power boilers designed
by most boiler manufacturers. The primary benefit to this design is that the weight (load) of the fluidizing air system, bed
(sand and fuel) and hoppers is not part of the overall boiler
loading. The loading to top supports, and top steel, is considerably reduced. The furnace header-to-hopper seal is based on
similar seals used on water-cooled stokers and similar BFB
installations.
Type and quality of fuel will effect the bubbling bed operation; temperature, combustion staging and air heater requirements. Historically a tubular air heater has been required. In
the case of this project, the fuel combination did not require
heated air to the bubbling bed. This allowed for the elimination of any tubular air heater and the addition of more economizer surface. Flue gas recirculation into the bubbling bed air
system is used to control bed temperature while staging combustion.

The boiler maximum continuous rating (MCR) is 56.7 kg.sec


(450,000 lb/hr) steam at 441C (825F) and 58.6 bar (850 psig)
using the specified fuels, which include hog fuel (bark, wood
chips, etc), paper mill sludge, and chipped tires (or tire-derived fuel, TDF). The bark moisture can vary between 45-55%,
and sludge moisture can vary between 50-60%. Woodwaste is
both purchased and self generated. The boiler is designed to
burn natural gas using the four start-up burners and two load
burners, and produce 34 kg/sec (270,000 lb/hr) steam at rated
conditions. In operation the boiler will fire a wide range of
fuel quality, affected by fuel sourcing and weather conditions.
This BFB is designed to process both good and poor fuels.
The predicted boiler performance is summarized in Table
1. Table 2 provides the fuel specification for each of the four
fuels. Within Table 1, Case 1 presents boiler performance at
MCR with bark, TDF and sludge. The sludge rate is equivalent to 450 tonne (500 ton)/day of sludge, which is the nominal
mill sludge output at this time. Case 2 shows boiler performance at MCR with bark and sludge only, and the sludge rate
is equivalent to 725 tonne (800 ton)/day of sludge, which represents a future sludge condition. This boiler has been operated with 800 ton/day sludge. Finally, Case 3 is the low load
condition with 25.2 kg/sec (200,000 lb/hr) steam flow while
firing bark and 450 tonne (500 ton)/day sludge.
Illustration 1 shows the BFB retrofit boiler side view, with
only the front half of the economizer is depicted. There is also
a second bank of economizer not shown.
Table 3 summarizes the overall scope of supply for this
project.

Bubbling Fluidized Bed (BFB) Boiler


The new lower furnace utilizes a fully membraned wall construction to provide a completely welded, gas-tight enclosure,
stiffened by buckstays, and covered by insulation and external
lagging (see Figs. 2 and 3). The previous furnace wall enclosure was tangent tube.

Lower Furnace and Fluid Bed Bottom

Figure 1

B&Ws open bottom bed design.

The membrane furnace walls were constructed using 7.62


cm (3 in.) OD by 4.57 mm (0.180 in.) minimum wall SA178A
tubes on 10.32 cm (4 1/16 in.) centers. The 10.32 cm (4 1/16in.) side spacing allowed the new 7.62 cm (3 in.) OD tubes to
be swaged and welded directly to every other existing 5.08 cm
(2 in.) OD tube. The remaining 5.08 cm (2 in.) OD tubes were
routed into a new transition header located near the weld line.
These new headers on all four walls provide the transition between the new 7.62 cm (3 in.) membrane-welded lower furnace
tubes and the existing 5.08 cm (2 in.) tangent tubes.
To achieve the desired steaming capacity of 56.7 kg.sec
(450,000 lb/hr) the lower furnace combustion zone was enlarged
from the main furnace shaft to provide a deeper combustion
zone. The bubbling fluid bed plan area requirements were set
to achieve the desired bed velocity and bed temperature. The
new lower furnace depth was increased from 7.09 to 10.21 m
(23 ft 4 in. to 33 ft 6 in.). The furnace width remained the
same as original design at 7.52 m (24 ft 8 in.). This arrangement resulted in both adequate furnace liberation rate and ad-

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Table 1
Predicted Performance Summary
MCR bark,
TDF, sludge

MCR bark,
sludge

Reduced load
450/(500) TPD
sludge, bark

0.06 (450)
30
2

0.06 (450)
30
2

0.03 (200)
40
2

0.02 (131.5)

0.02 (135.5)

6.38x10-3 (50.6)

Sludge Rate, 10 3 kg/s (lb/hr)

5.25x10-3 (41.7)

8.40x10-3 (66.7)

5.25x10-3 (41.7)

Tire Rate, 103 kg/s (lb/hr)

5.29x10-4 (4.2)

0.0

0.0

Heat Available Fuel, W (MBtu/hr)

2.19x108 (748)

2.26x108 (772)

9.87x107 (337)

Flue Gas Leaving ECN, 10 3 kg/s (lb/hr)

0.12 (927.5)

0.11 (909.7)

0.06 (478.8)

Flue Gas Temp. Lvg ECN, C (F)


Flue Gas Recirculation, 10 3 kg/s (lb/hr)

177 (350)
7.06x10-3 (56.0)

177 (350)
0.0

160 (320)
5.67x10-3 (45.0)

59 (860)
441 (825)

59 (860)
441 (825)

59 (855)
441 (825)

0.09 (691.4)
27 (80)
107 (225)

0.09 (694.7)
27 (80)
107 (225)

0.04 (329.8)
27 (80)
99 (210)

Steam Leaving SH, 10 3 kg/s (lb/hr)


Excess air, %
Blowdown, %
Bark Rate, 103 kg/s (lb/hr)

Steam Press, at SH outlet, Bar (psi)


Steam Temp. Leaving SH, C (F)
Air to Furnace, 103 kg/s (lb/hr)
Air Temp. Entering WCAH, C (F)
Air Temp. Leaving WCAH, C (F)

Table 2
Predicted Performance Fuel Specification
% By Weight

Bark

Sludge

Tire

Natural Gas

25.0

14.62

83.87

69.27

H2

3.0

1.93

7.09

22.65

Cl

0.0

0.0

0.0

H2O

50.0

60.00

0.62

N2

0.1

0.17

0.24

O2

20.2

9.75

2.17

0.0

0.05

1.23

Ash

1.7

10.23

4.78

Unknown(2)

8.08

< 1 ppm

3.25
10,000 (4,300)

6,600 (2,841)

36,000 (15,500)

Min. Density, kg/m3 (lb/ft3)

272(17)

400 (25)

609 (38)

NA

Max. Size, cm (in.)

7.62 (3)

7.62 (3)

7.62 (3)

NA

Min. Size, cm (in.)

10% < 0.32 (0.125)

10% < 0.32 (0.125)

10% < 0.63 (0.25)

NA

10% belt, 1% bead

NA

kJ/kg (Btu/lb)

Wire Content
(2)

50,600 (21,800)

Required for analysis to add up to 100%, considered as ash.

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Table 3
General Scope of Work
Convert the boiler from a chemical recovery unit to a BFB
power boiler, and increase capacity
Boiler modifications
New gas burners (start-up and load burners)
New motor driven fluidizing air fan and motor driven
secondary air fan
Ducts
New horizontal economizer
Water coil air heater
Flues and hoppers, from boiler generating bank outlet to
economizer to existing precipitator inlet damper
Flues from precipitator outlet, including new outlet
nozzles, to ID fan
Turbine driven ID fan
Flues to stacks (2 stacks)
Sand feed system
Boiler bed drain system and sand reclaim system
Pneumatic ash removal from economizer hoppers and
precipitator silos
Insulation, lagging and refractory
Solid fuel feed system, including dedicated bark reclaimer,
dedicated sludge reclaimer, belt, magnet, disk screen,
belt to boiler building, belt inside boiler building
Wood bins on north and south sides (boiler right and left
walls)
Wood screw conveyors, to transport material from south
side to north wood bin
Wood chutes and wood spouts
New DCS system and new instrumentation
New transformer
New electrical room for large motor MCCs and DCS
equipment
Reuse electrical room, install new MCCs
Cable and tray
Piping modifications
Platform modifications, including concrete and grating
Civil and structural
Asbestos removal
Demolition
Construction
Commissioning

equate residence time for complete combustion. The new lower


furnace is refractory-lined to control bed temperature and protect the tube walls from the reducing (oxygen deficient) atmosphere. The refractory extends up to the overfire air elevation.
The new construction of the lower furnace enlargement uses
panels fore and aft of the main side wall panels. Each panel
contains 15 tubes and connects to upper and lower wall headers. These panels are directly supplied with water from new
downcomer sections.
The fluid bed bottom uses an open hopper design with one
manual slide gate valve and one pneumatically actuated spheri
valve per hopper for the removal of rocks which enter with the
fuels. There are 12 hoppers (3 wide x 4 deep). To simplify
fieldwork, the hoppers were factory assembled into four ship
units (see Fig. 4). Each ship unit consisted of three hoppers,
fluidizing air pipes and horizontal support steel. The bed debris removal cycle is typically once every 12 hours, requiring
only a small portion of sand to be removed. The bed hoppers
are equipped with internal tables to prevent funneling of material. The hoppers do not require insulation and, therefore,
were furnished with a high-temperature primer and finish coat
of paint.

Figure 2

Bubbling fluidized bed boilerside view.

Figure 3

Bubbling fluidized bed3D view.

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Two natural gas load burners are provided on the front wall,
3.5 m (11.5 ft) above the overfire air nozzles. These load burners are B&Ws low-NO x type XCL-S design, each rated for
1.58x108 kJ (150 MBtu) operation.

Combustion Air System

Figure 4

Hoppers are factory assembled to simplify fieldwork.

The eight large diameter fluidizing air ducts are an integral


part of the hoppers and supply air to the bubble caps to fluidize
the bed. The bubble caps are arranged on a staggered 10.16 by
10.16 cm (4 in. by 4 in.) matrix. Twelve thermowells are provided in the bed and four thermowells are installed on the lower
water walls to monitor bed temperature.
Solid fuel is introduced through six airswept distributor
spouts with three located on the north wall and three located
on the south wall utilizing an interlaced pattern. This arrangement was engineered to provide the proper fuel distribution
required to achieve uniform combustion and uniform flue gas
temperatures leaving the furnace and entering the convection
pass.

The combustion air system consists of one motor driven fluidizing fan, one motor driven secondary air fan (which supplies
air to all burners and OFA nozzles), and one water coil air heater
for the secondary air system. This two-fan arrangement, along
with the flue gas recirculation, provides the flexibility necessary for the specified fuel combinations for bark, sludge, and
tires, as well as the given fuel moisture content ranges. The bed
fluidizing air system uses high static air supplied to the bubble
caps to fluidize the bed material. The overfire air system contains two levels of air nozzles on each of the front and rear walls.
Flue gas recirculation to the bubbling bed is required with
the specified fuel combination and moisture ranges listed in the
project specifications. The recirculated flue gas is taken from
the ID fan outlet and introduced into the fluidizing air system at
the FD fan inlet. The introduction of the flue gas into the fluidizing air system will allow complete bed fluidization while staging sufficient combustion in the overfire air zone to maintain
the bed in the desired 760-871C (1400-1600F) temperature range
throughout the various combinations of fuels and moisture contents.

Furnace Screen
A portion of the original recovery furnace screen platens
were removed to increase gas temperature entering the superheater.

Bed Support
The existing furnace and boiler pressure parts are top-supported and allow for downward expansion during heating from
ambient to operating temperature. The fluid bed combustor is
operated with all of the lower furnace hoppers and the volume
of the lower furnace to a point about 76.2 cm (30 in.) above the
top of the bubble caps completely full of bed material. The
lower furnace hoppers are bottom-supported on dedicated structural steel from grade. A seal system with fabric expansion
joint provides for downward expansion of the boiler.

Buckstays/Rear Wall Support


Three new buckstay elevations were supplied for the new
lower furnace. Constant load hangers support the rear wall and
attach to a buckstay below water drum; front wall and sidewalls
are supported by existing upper furnace tubes and existing top
support rods.

Superheater Arrangement
The existing superheater was reused as much as possible,
but slightly modified, to provide the desired temperature (441C
/ 825F) and pressure (58.6 bar / 850 psig) at the main steam
header. The modifications required were: install six missing
platens in the first two banks, completely remove the third bank,
and provide new jumper tubes to connect the second bank (in
direction of gas flow) to the existing inlet header of the first
superheater bank.
A new, larger interstage attemperator and main steam piping
was required to reduce the steam side pressure drop at the increased steaming rate of 56.7 kg/sec (450,000 lb/hr) and to
maintain 58.6 bar (850 psig) at the main steam header. Spray
water is supplied from the existing water line.

Generating Bank and Drums


No changes were required to the existing generating bank.

Bed Start-Up Burners and Load Burners


Four overbed natural gas start-up burners are provided to
heat the bed from a cold condition to the temperature where
solid fuel combustion occurs. Two burners are located on each
of the front and rear walls. Each burner is rated at 4.22x107 kJ
(40 MBtu) per hour heat input. Each pair of burners operates as
a single burner.

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Economizer
The existing vertical cross-flow economizer was removed
and replaced by a horizontal, bare tube design. The new, continuous in-line, bare tube economizer is constructed of 5.08 cm
(2 in.) OD tubes. The modules are arranged in two gas passes,

each pass utilizing a counterflow design. The flue gas path is


from boiler outlet to the first pass with flue gases flowing vertically down, gases flow above economizer hoppers to the second gas pass, then flue gases flow vertically upward. The economizer gas outlet connects to the existing precipitator inlet dampers.

Water Coil Air Heater


A water coil air heater is installed in the overfire air system.
Feedwater is routed from the new economizer to the new water
coil air heater and then to the steam drum. The new water coil
air heater reduces the temperature of the feedwater entering the
steam drum to maintain the necessary margin of subcooled
feedwater to the drum.

Safety Valves
The existing steam drum and superheater safety valves had
sufficient relieving capacity for the 56.7 kg/sec (450,000 lb/hr) of
steam rate.

the bed, more uniform bed temperature, more uniform heat distribution to the convection pass, and better control of boiler
emissions.

Ash Handling and Sand Reclaim Systems


Bottom ash is removed from the bubbling bed utilizing five
heavy-duty, round link type drag chains. Four drag conveyors
receive ash from the bed drains (or hopper bottom ash outlets)
and discharge into the fifth conveyor, which is a collection conveyor. The collection conveyor transports materials into the sand
reclaim system.
The sand reclaim system separates the sand from rocks, agglomerated sand and debris brought in with the fuels and wire
from the TDF. The sand is returned to the sand storage silo.
Fly ash collected from the economizer and electrostatic precipitator is conveyed by a pneumatic ash system. The pneumatic
conveying system is designed to convey 9.1 tonnes (10 tons)/
hour of fly ash on a continuous basis. The fly ash is conveyed
to a filter/receiver which discharges into the ash silo. An ash
mixer is located at the silo outlet to condition the ash with water before material is dumped into trucks.

Fuel Handling System


The bark reclaimer is a six-wide drag chain reclaimer rated
to discharge 91 tonnes (100 tons) per hour of hogged wood
waste. Material is discharged onto the reclaimer by either a belt
conveyor from the woodyard or by front-end loader. The discharge rate can be varied by controlling the speed of the variable frequency drive unit.
The second reclaimer is identical to the bark reclaimer in
design, but is dedicated to sludge. Sludge is presently loaded
using a front-end loader, but a dedicated sludge conveyor will
be added in the future.
Bark and sludge from the above reclaimers discharge to the
#1 belt conveyor, which is 1.2 m (48 in.) wide by approximately
58 m (190 ft) long. Tramp iron is removed by a self-cleaning
electromagnet, suspended above the conveyor.
A disc screen is provided at the discharge of the #1 belt conveyor. Material less than nominal 7.6 cm (3 in.) will pass through
the screen and onto the #2 belt conveyor, which is 1.2 m (48
in.) wide and approximately 106.7 m (350 ft) long, and terminates inside the boiler house on the seventh floor.
Material discharged from the #2 belt conveyor drops to the
#3 belt conveyor. This is a 1.2 m (48 in.) wide by approximately
18.3 m (60 ft) long horizontal belt conveyor on the sixth floor.
The material discharged from the #3 belt conveyor is normally directed to the #1 screw conveyor and metered to both
the north and south bark bins. In the event of a failure of the #1
screw conveyor, a bypass gate can be manually positioned to
divert material directly into the south bark bin in the event that
a problem prevented the operation of the #1 screw conveyor or
the north bark bin.
The north and south fuel bins are of identical construction,
each consisting of nine 45.7 cm (18 in.) diameter variable pitch
screws to form a continuous live bottom bin. Each bin is made
up of three separate feed zones, each feeding one of the three
windswept spouts located on that side of the boiler. Each speed
zone has a constant torque, variable frequency drive system.
B&W used dual bark bins to provide better fuel distribution to

NOx Reduction System


A Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction (SCNR) system was
provided to reduce the NO x emissions from the boiler. SNCR
uses urea or ammonia injected within a temperature zone of the
furnace to recombine with NOx to form N 2 and water vapor.
There is no catalyst used in an SNCR. The SNCR is a series of
pre-engineered modularized component assemblies, which are
combined to produce a complete urea based chemical delivery
system. The urea can be injected through 20 injection lances.
The injection lances are located at three different boiler zones.
The following are equipment descriptions of the SNCR system:
1. Storage tank: Designed to store 75,700 L (20,000 gal) of
bulk chemical. The storage tank is of fiberglass construction
and includes a heating package to maintain 27C (80F).
2. Circulation Module: This module is used in conjunction
with the storage tank to keep the chemical fluid warm and circulating. It also assures that a proper supply of chemical is
delivered to the metering/mixing module.
3. Metering/Mixing Module: This module provides complete metering and control systems for the chemical and includes an electrically driven, hydraulically actuated diaphragm
pump with steady-flow output. The module is designed for independent level control, which permits a biasing of the chemical to each level of injection. The water supply is adjusted, via
a regulator, to a set pressure that will allow for proper flow to
each distribution module.
4. Distribution Module: This module provides complete
flow to individual injection lances. The modules are placed
just prior to the injectors and are used as a guide and check for
proper injector performance. Air for atomization and cooling
is introduced through this module. One distribution module
controls up to 8 injectors.
5. Injection Assemblies: Injection lances are used to spray
the chemical into the boiler furnace. The injectors are 1.9 cm
(1.14 in.), 316 L stainless steel tubes, with an inner atomization tube. The standard length is 0.76 m (2.5 ft).

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Special Concerns
The project included several unique features and challenges.

Boiler
1. This is the first B&W open bottom bubbling fluid bed
that has bottom supported hoppers connected to top supported
pressure parts. B&Ws other domestic open bottom designed
BFB units are bottom supported.
2. The seal between furnace (top supported) and hoppers
(bottom supported) is similar to other designs, but accommodates 10.8 cm (4.25 in.) of vertical growth down and 2.54 cm (1
in.) of horizontal growth.
3. The sand hoppers were pre-assembled (4 ship units, 3
hoppers each unit). This included fluidizing air pipes (with
bubble caps) welded to the hoppers.
4. Rear wall support: The existing recovery boiler used constant load hangers at the furnace floor to support the floor and
rearwall. A new constant load hanger system was needed for
the rearwall when the furnace floor was removed and replaced
with the fluid bed.
5. The new membraned lower furnace (with 7.6 cm / 3 in.
OD tubes on 10.32 cm / 4-1/16 in. centers) was connected to
the existing tangent tube furnace (with 5.08 cm / 2 in. OD tubes
on 5.16 cm / 2-1/32 in. centers), and new inlet headers reconnect every other existing tube (at cut line) to downcomer circuits.

Auxiliary Equipment and Construction


1. The bark and sludge reclaimers are located in the area
previously used by the mill for bark storage, about 137 m (450
ft) from the boiler building. The #2 belt conveyor is routed under an existing conveyor (behind the boiler house) and the #2
belt conveyor penetrates the building wall on the seventh floor,
southwest corner, at an obtuse angle to building wall (and steel).
2. Inside the building, two woodbins were installed, one on
north wall and one on south wall. Fuel is transferred from south
side to north via four wood screws.
3. Finding locations for two FD fans was challenging, but
solved.
4. The vertical clearance between concrete at grade and the
bottom of platform steel established maximum heights for certain equipment, such as economizer modules and urea storage
tank.
5. The new economizer was shipped in 6 modules, weighing between 43,090 and 65,770 kg (95,000 and 145,000 lb) each.
6. New foundations for fans, ash silo and other equipment
had to consider underground conditions (such as piping) and
unknown subsoil conditions.
7. The only entry into building was at grade, on north wall,
adjacent to an alley.
8. Space had to be found for a new electrical room (MCC
and DCS cabinets) and new transformer.
9. Construction work was performed inside a building, which
had other operating equipment and boilers, without causing accidental trip(s), while maintaining safe working conditions.
10. Hazardous material, mainly asbestos, was identified and
removed (customer removed hazardous material).
11. Safe demolition of existing equipment and material included:
- Electrical equipment
- Cables
- Piping
- Cascade evaporator
- Economizers
- SCAH

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- Platforms, including concrete and steel


- Dissolving tank, liquor pumps, etc.
- Old control room (previously abandoned)
12. After completion of above demolition by the demolition
contractor, the boiler erector demolished boiler and superheater
components, and then installed new equipment and material.
13. Coordination of outages was required, for tie-ins between
new equipment (electrical and piping) to existing equipment.
14. Relocation of cables and piping was needed, either for
access or to create space for new equipment.
15. Planning and execution of economizer module erection
included:
- Transportation to site and to the alley.
- The modules were floated inside the building (used air pads).
- The two largest modules, weighing 65,770 kg (145,000
lb) each, measured 2.9 m (9.5 ft) high x 5.56 m (18.25 ft) wide
x 9.14 m (30 ft) long.
- Modules were assembled at grade by first moving in the
top module, middle module, lower module and support steel,
and then the assembly (welded together) was raised to elevation (two lifts, 159 tonne / 175 ton each).

Operation
The conversion project has achieved its major goals, and all
steam and fuel conditions have been achieved. Bark, sludge,
tire and natural gas have been fired at all required conditions
between steam flows of 25.2 and 56.7 kg/sec (200,00 and
450,000 lb/hr). Main steam temperature is about 17 C (30 F)
low at MCR conditions, but this low temperature will be corrected later this year by removing additional furnace screen platens.
Sustained operation at MCR and 726 tonne (800 ton)/day
(future condition) has been limited due to a capacity problem in
the pneumatic ash system. The ash discharge rate from filter/
receiver to ash silo was a constriction point, but modifications
will be performed to correct this problem.
During initial operation, we corrected an acoustic standing
wave in the front economizer by installing two plate baffles.
All boiler emission predictions have been achieved. Some
typical emissions at MCR are:
Particulate
less than 0.045 kg (0.1 lb)/MBtu at stack
(with existing precipitator)
NOx
less than 50.8 kg (112 lb)/hr over 24 hours
less than 50.8 kg (112 lb)/hr over 24 hours
SO2
CO
less than 31.75 kg (70 lb)/hr over 24 hours
VOC
less than 1.36 kg (3 lb)/hr over 24 hours

Conclusion
This paper has been written to give an indication of needed
modifications to convert an existing recovery boiler to a BFB
power boiler. This modification continues to gain in popularity
as new recovery capacity is developed or considered. The recovery boiler is typically sized conservatively when applied to
burning solid fuel such as sludge and woodwaste. This retrofit
resulted in a steam flow increase of 66%.
The modifications normally entail getting the new fuel to
the boiler, providing a combustion zone with air system and
removing the ash and by products. B&W considers resusing as
much of the existing boiler as is possible. Even the particulate
removal used by the recovery boiler maybe reused.
As noted in this paper, a good design results in a well generating boiler producing low emissions.

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