The influence of coal blending methods, such as out-furnace
(external
or premixed) blending and in-furnace (initially nonmixed) blending,
with different excess oxygen (highest, medium, and lowest stoichiometric
conditions) on unburned carbon and NO
x
emissions of blend combustion in an entrained flow reactor has been
analyzed, using experimental and numerical approaches for binary coals
used by Korean power plants. The results confirm that, under the medium
condition, contrasting processes, such as reactive and unreactive
effects, occur with SBRs in the out-furnace blending method. The in-furnace
blending method results in an improvement in the efficiency of unburned
carbon fractions and a further reduction in the NO
x
emission. Under the highest condition, the unburned carbon
fraction in both the out-furnace and the in-furnace blending methods
corresponds with the tendency under the medium condition with contrasting
processes of lower magnitude, whereas the NO
x
emission in the highest condition increases slightly. Under
the lowest conditions, the unburned carbon fraction in the out-furnace
blending method gradually decreases as SBR decreases, without a competition
effect. The reduction of NO
x
emission
under the lowest conditions is more effective than those under other
conditions for the two blending methods because of homogeneous and
heterogeneous NO
x
reduction mechanisms.
These results show that the phenomenon that occurs with coal blending
methods under different excess oxygen conditions has been demonstrated
and the in-furnace blending method below medium conditions would be
an effective method to improve combustibility and NO
x
emission due to penalty of NO
x
under the highest condition. In general, the numerical results are
in agreement with the measured values and give insight into the phenomena
that affect the blending methods under different excess oxygen conditions.