Oxy-Combustion Boiler Material Development

Abstract

Under U.S. Department of Energy Cooperative Agreement No. DE-NT0005262 Foster Wheeler North America Corp conducted a laboratory test program to determine the effect of oxy-combustion on boiler tube corrosion. In this program, CFD modeling was used to predict the gas compositions that will exist throughout and along the walls of air-fired and oxy-fired boilers operating with low to high sulfur coals. Test coupons of boiler tube materials were coated with deposits representative of those coals and exposed to the CFD predicted flue gases for up to 1000 hours. The tests were conducted in electric tube furnaces using oxy-combustion and air-fired flue gases synthesized from pressurized cylinders. Following exposure, the test coupons were evaluated to determine the total metal wastage experienced under air and oxy-combustions conditions and materials recommendations were made. Similar to air-fired operation, oxy-combustion corrosion rates were found to vary with the boiler material, test temperature, deposit composition, and gas composition. Despite this, comparison of air-fired and oxy-fired corrosion rates showed that oxy-firing rates were, for the most part, similar to, if not lower than those of air-firing; this finding applied to the seven furnace waterwall materials (wrought and weld overlay) and the ten superheater/reheater materials (wrought and weld overlay) that were tested. The results of the laboratory oxy-combustion tests, which are based on a maximum bulk flue gas SO2 level of 3200 ppmv (wet) / 4050 ppmv (dry), suggest that, from a corrosion standpoint, the materials used in conventional subcritical and supercritical, air-fired boilers should also be suitable for oxy-combustion retrofits. Although the laboratory test results are encouraging, they are only the first step of a material evaluation process and it is recommended that follow-on corrosion tests be conducted in coal-fired boilers operating under oxy-combustion to provide longer term (one to two year) data. The test program details and data are presented herein.