Technical Aspects and Energy Effects of Waste Heat Recovery from District Heating Boiler Slag

Coal continues to dominate in the structure of the heat production system in some European countries. Coal-fired boilers in district heating and power generation systems are accompanied by the formation of large quantities of slag and ash. Due to considerable high temperature, slag may be used as a source of waste energy. In this study, the technical possibilities of recovery slag’s physical enthalpy from grate-fired district heating boiler of 45 MW thermal capacity are analyzed. The aim of the work is to estimate the waste energy potential of the slag in analyzed boiler and proposition of the heat recovery system. The construction and design of the existing deslagging system was examined. Studies have shown that high water temperature accelerates system wear. Recovering heat from this system decreases the water temperature, which extends the trouble-free working time. The slag parameters were determined, including the temperature at the outlet of the boiler and the temperature after leaving the slag water tub. The annual amount of heat regenerative potential was estimated. On the basis of the research, the authors propose a waste heat recovery facility with high temperature R134a heat pump system. The result of the conducted research is that the proposed heat pump provides energy savings that are worth considering by recovering from 58.8% to 88.0% of energy slag potential.