Pulverized coal flow metering on a full-scale power plant using electrostatic sensor arrays

On-line continuous monitoring of pulverized coal in fuel injection pipes will allow power plant operators to optimize fuel conveying conditions and ultimately to achieve higher combustion efficiency and lower atmospheric emissions. This paper presents the design, implementation and trials of a prototype instrumentation system for the on-line measurement of pulverized coal on a full-scale power plant. An array of three identical arc-shaped electrostatic electrodes is housed in a sensing head to derive particle flow signals. Pulverized coal flow parameters such as velocity, mass flow rate and fuel distribution among the injection pipes from the same pulverizing mill are obtained by processing the signals and fusing the resulting measurements. On-plant demonstration trials on 560 mm bore pneumatic conveying pipes feeding a 600 MW boiler were undertaken following system evaluation tests on a 50 mm bore laboratory test rig. Experimental results demonstrate that reliable monitoring of pulverized coal flow parameters is achieved and that the system is able to track both transient and long-term fluctuations of pulverized coal flow in fuel injection pipes under real power plant conditions.