The impact of ash pellet characteristics and pellet processing parameters on ash fusion behaviour

Daley, Patrick; Williams, Orla; Pang, Cheng Heng; Wu, Tao; Lester, Edward

Abstract

The Ash Fusion Test (AFT) is considered to be the most popular method of characterising the melt characteristics of solid fuel ash. This study shows how pellet preparation can make significant improvements to repeatability. Pelleting pressure, pellet particle size, pellet shape, and furnace ramp rate were investigated to establish the most repeatable representation of ash melting relevant to pulverised fuel combustion in a furnace in an oxidizing atmosphere up to 1600 °C. A 5 mm machine pressed pellet was found to produce the best results as it identified the earliest initial deformation temperature (IDT), gave the least error, and displayed the greatest visible change in pellet height to enable easy identification. Reducing maximum ash particle size to less than 72 µm and increasing the pressure of the pelleting process was also shown to produce a 120 ⁰C reduction in the IDT when compared with other methods. Reducing the ashing temperature and retaining volatiles lost during high temperature ashing were shown to have a negligible impact on IDT. The characteristic AFT curve was also used to quantify the extent of shrinkage and swelling during the test.

Citation

Daley, P., Williams, O., Pang, C. H., Wu, T., & Lester, E. (2019). The impact of ash pellet characteristics and pellet processing parameters on ash fusion behaviour. Fuel, 251, 779-788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.03.142

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 27, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Apr 28, 2019
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Apr 12, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 10, 2019
• Journal: Fuel
• Print ISSN: 0016-2361
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-7153
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 251
• Pages: 779-788
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.03.142
• Keywords: Coal, Biomass, Advanced ash fusion test, Ash, Pellet preparation, Initial deformation
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1782084
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016236119305265
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: The impact of ash pellet characteristics and pellet processing parameters on ash fusion behaviour; Journal Title: Fuel; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.03.142; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
• Contract Date: Apr 12, 2019