Fuel-nitrogen evolution during fluidized bed oxy-coal combustion

Abstract

FTIR, thermo-gravimetric analysis techniques and molecular modelling were employed to study the effect of CO2 on fuel-nitrogen evolution under oxy-combustion conditions. The main objective is to compare NOx emissions at several molar fractions of O2 using Ar or CO2 as balance gas in a fluidized bed reactor. A char with about 16% N content was prepared by pyrolysis of polyacrylonitrile. This sample facilitated NOx evolution experiments due to the abundance of nitrogen complexes, and aided the identification and quantification of several N species by means of FTIR. Results indicate that the presence of CO2 enhances NO2 formation. A complementary study was carried out by molecular modelling of the experimental reactions using the Gaussian 03 package. Different heterogeneous and homogeneous interactions between CO2 and char N-species were simulated. The results thus obtained show that the presence of CO2 during combustion can facilitate NCO formation which is a very reactive intermediate species that can be readily oxidized in the gaseous phase.