Numerical simulations of pulverized coal combustion

Abstract

Coal is an important energy resource for meeting the further demand for electricity, as coal reserves are much more abundant than those of other fossil fuels. In pulverized coal fired power plants, it is very important to improve the technology for the control of environmental pollutants such as NOx, SOx and ash particles including unburned carbon. With the remarkable progress in the performance of computers, it is strongly expected that the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) would be a tool for the development and design of such suitable combustion furnaces and burners for the pulverized coal combustion. The focus of this review is to highlight our recent progress of CFD of the pulverized coal combustion in terms of Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulation and Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) together with some of future perspectives. © 2009 Hosokawa Powder Technology Foundation.