Numerical investigation of influence of homogeneous/heterogeneous ignition/combustion mechanisms on ignition point position during pulverized coal combustion in oxygen enriched and recycled flue gases atmosphere

It is expected that pulverized coal combustion will continue to play a major role in electricity generation for the foreseeable future. Oxy-fuel coal combustion is actively being investigated, as alternative to conventional pulverized-coal combustion, due to its potential to easier carbon dioxide sequestration. This paper presents experimental and numerical analysis of ignition phenomena in oxy-fuel conditions. A modification of standard sequential coal combustion model is proposed. The new model is developed following the criteria for the particle ignition mechanism as the function of surrounding conditions. The implemented model was validated based on ignition point position obtained from the drop tube facility experiments in various O2–N2 and O2–CO2 conditions. The obtained numerical results showed a much better agreement with the experimental results when compared with the simulations performed with the default FLUENT sub-models for coal particle ignition/combustion, thus enabling a quantitative determination of pulverized coal flame ignition point position using numerical analysis.