Concern about the increase of greenhouse gas emissions relating to global warming is the main driving force that motivates the development of new technologies in lower CO2 emissions and the proper capture and storage of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel combustion plants. Currently, there are several techniques suitable for CO2 capture and storage under research and development such as Post-Combustion, Pre-Combustion and Oxy-Fuel Combustion. The last technique greatly reduces the thermal NOx production and produces an exhaust gas, which consists mainly of CO2 and water vapor suitable for sequestration. Recent studies have demonstrated that oxy-fuel combustion is not only applicable for new builds but also can be adapted to existing power plants.

This M.S. Dissertation outlines the oxy-fuel retrofit concept for a small-scale 300 kWth combustion test facility and the modifications performed for retrofitting an existing air-fuel furnace to run smoothly under oxy-fuel combustion. Besides, it also presents some troubleshoots encountered in the trial tests accomplished in order to examine the performance and efficiency of the retrofitted test facility, and the solutions to overcome those troubleshoots.

The manuscript not only describes the design of the retrofitted oxy-fuel combustion test facility but also it briefly explains the preliminary tests performed to the retrofitted test facility, which covers the following studies: the influence of oxygen enhancement in the burning of fuel oil for three cases of oxygen enhancement in the oxidant source (ΩO2 = 60%, 80% and 100%). It also discusses the influence of dry recirculation flue gas (RFG) under oxy-fuel combustion (ΩO2 = 100%) as well as the influence of Wet & Dry RFG for three cases of oxygen enrichment (ΩO2 = 40%, 60% and 85%). The exit pressure in the facility was kept constant at over-atmospheric pressure nearly + 10 mmAq at all times to ensure no air leakage. The investigation includes temperature distributions in the radiative and convective section of the vertical combustion chamber as well as the analysis of the flue gas emissions (O2, CO2, CO, NO and SO2). The transition from air-fuel to oxy-fuel combustion via oxygen enhancement clearly demonstrates that by replacing air with oxygen as the oxidant, a nitrogen free exhaust gas with a high concentration of CO2 is produced.

The future work will be focused in burning heavy oil and coal under oxy-firing conditions through the use of the newly developed air-atomized burner, studying the influence and difference of Wet & Dry RFG in the combustion characteristics of the fuel, and in demonstrating the feasibility of the in situ CO2 capture techniques (e.g., integrating a metal oxides CO2 absorption unit).

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