Micronized Coal
Reburning
Demonstration for NOx
Control
Project Description
The micronized coal reburning project
was selected during Round IV of DOE’s
CCT Program, and in August 1997, New
York State Electric & Gas Corporation
(NYSEG) entered into an agreement with
DOE to conduct the project. The project
was conducted at two sites: NYSEG’s
Milliken Unit 1 (Lansing, New York),
a 150-MWe (net) T-fired boiler, where
NYSEG was host and co-funder; and
Kodak Park Unit 15 (Rochester, New
York), a 50-MWe equivalent cyclone-fired
industrial boiler, where Eastman Kodak
Company was host and co-funder. Energy
and Environmental Research Corporation
provided the reburn system design. Consolidation
Coal Company, now known as
CONSOL, provided coal sample testing,
and the New York State Electric Research
and Development Authority and the Empire
State Electric Energy Research Corporation
were co-funders. DOE provided
29% of the total project cost of $8.7 million.
With gas reburning, the differential cost
of gas over coal is the largest component
of the cost of NOx reduction. When coal
is used as the reburn fuel, this differential
is zero. Thus, coal reburning has the potential
for significantly lower NOx control
cost than gas reburning. The challenge
with coal reburning is to achieve aequate
combustion of the reburn coal in the oxygen
deficient, short residence time reburn
zone. This project demonstrates micronized
coal reburning, where the reburn coal
is finely ground to 85% below 325 mesh.
The small coal particles have greatly
increased surface area which increases
the rate of combustion, allowing coalreburning to be applied in units with lim- Lakes Region of New York State.
ited reburn zone residence time.
The prime objective of this two-site
project was to demonstrate improvements
in coal reburning for NOx emissions control
by further particle size reduction of
the reburn coal. The project goal was to
achieve 25-30% NOx reduction on the
T-fired unit and at least 50% reduction
on the cyclone unit. Testing at both sites
began in April 1997 and was completed
in 1998. Low-volatile Pittsburgh seam
coal (3.2% sulfur and 1.5% nitrogen at
Milliken, and 2.2% sulfur and 1.6% nitrogen
at Kodak) was fired at both test sites.