Results of Closed-Loop Coal-Fired Boiler Operation Using a TDLAS Sensor and Smart Process Control Software

The National Energy Technologies Laboratory (NETL) has sponsored two technology demonstration projects at coal-fired power plants to reduce CO2 through combustion balancing and optimization. The Zolo Technologies–led projects at DTE Belle River Unit 2 and AEP Amos demonstrate significant reduction of CO2/MWh via generation efficiency improvements enabled by new laser-based sensor technology in conjunction with smart process software. The primary project tools are tunable diode laser spectroscopy (TDLAS)–based in-furnace measurement of CO, H2O, O2, and temperature and software optimization. Performance testing at the DTE plant from July 25, 2010 to July 30, 2010 shows impressive benefits from the integration of these tools on the order of 2.4% reduction in CO2 intensity. Similar improvements have been obtained on the AEP boiler without the final implementation of the smart process software. These results were obtained with minimal changes in boiler CO emissions and unburned carbon content and without additional boiler degradation.