Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems has completed the construction of a combustion test facility for boilers used in thermal power generation applications. Located on the premises of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ R & D Centre in Nagasaki, the new facility, says MHPS, is equipped with advanced measuring and monitoring systems and has one of the world’s largest capacities – 4 ton/h of coal combustion. It integrates the combustion technologies of MHI and Hitachi (including those formerly held by Babcock-Hitachi) and was built to achieve more advanced combustion technologies in terms of lower emissions of nitrogen oxides, less unburned combustibles and lower excess air ratio.
The new facility has achieved two goals, says MHPS – accurate simulation for both combustion condition and fluid condition inside a real boiler combustion chamber, and enhanced functions to support cutting-edge technological development, including more sophisticated measurement equipment to evaluate combustion and fluidity. The facility can accommodate a wide variety of fuels, including bituminous coal, sub-bituminous coal, lignite, anthracite, biomass, fuel oil, coke and residual oil. By significantly improving combustion evaluation capabilities for inexpensive low-grade fuels, the new testing facility will, it is hoped, be capable of contributing to reducing fuel costs, enhancing availability and easing environmental impacts – the foremost needs of boiler users. The current world boiler market shows some expansion owing to increasing numbers of installations of new thermal power plants or refurbishments, and a shift on the part of users towards low-cost fuels.
The new facility can be used for both boiler types MHPS offers, namely MHI’s circular firing type, and the opposed firing model offered by Hitachi. MHPS aims to achieve higher performance for both types of boiler as well as to develop new boiler and new combustion technologies based on the combined experience.
