Experimental studies of ignition and combustion of coal using plasma activation

This work presents experimental studies of a promising method of ignition and combustion of coal fuel using plasma activation. Experimental studies were carried out on a bench with a thermal power of up to 5 MW. As an experimental sample, hard coal of the GD grade was chosen selected after a ball drum mill with a sieve residue of R90 = 15%. The conditions were close to industrial ones used when lighting coal boilers. The operating range of pulverized coal flow velocities in the electric arc unit has been determined. It has been established that a stable process of ignition and further combustion of coal is possible at flow rates on the electric arc unit from 6 to 13 m/s. The experimental stand was kindled from a cold state to a temperature of 1000 °C at excess air coefficients a from 0.5 to 0.7, the kindling time did not exceed 200 seconds. Based on the experiments, CFD modeling determined whether the process conditions were met.