Air Monitor’s latest Application Guide—focused on Primary Airflow in Coal-Fired Power Plants—presents invaluable insights and practical solutions for professionals seeking greater efficiency, safety, and reliability in their operations. This application guide addresses both the challenges and advanced methods for accurate primary airflow measurement, which is crucial to optimal mill and burner performance.
The Importance of Primary Airflow Measurement
Precise primary airflow measurement is fundamental for several reasons in coal-fired power plants:
- It optimizes combustion and reduces fuel costs by ensuring the right amount of air for burning coal.
- It helps stabilize the process, limiting operator intervention and increasing equipment capacity.
- It is essential for safe operation, preventing hazards such as pipe fires and mill puffs.
- Accurate airflow ensures stable flame positions and reduces issues like slagging, burner pluggage, and coal layout—all critical for plant efficiency and compliance.
Key Challenges in Coal-Fired Environments
Coal-fired power plants face several obstacles when monitoring airflow:
- Limited straight duct runs restrict where devices can be installed, impacting measurement accuracy.
- Hot and tempering air convergence, along with barometric damper inlets, complicate traditional sensor placement.
- High particulate matter, especially fly ash, can erode probes and interfere with sensor readings, especially for devices like annubars and venturis.
- Excess air increases NOx emissions and tube erosion; insufficient air can cause fires and instability.
Air Monitor’s Proven Solutions
Air Monitor addresses these challenges with robust, field-tested products and integrated systems:
- The Fechheimer-Pitot Combustion Air CA station and VOLU-probe/SS arrays are designed to maintain accurate, continuous measurements—regardless of hot, dusty, or challenging duct layouts. These technologies work even in the presence of straight duct runs.
- The Combustion Airflow Management System (CAMS) features the AUTO-purge III to keep sensing ports and lines clear of fly ash, ensuring reliability.
- Advanced compensation technologies deliver true density compensated mass flow outputs with accuracy within 2% over a 10:1 turndown range.
- For extremely harsh applications, Air Monitor offers tungsten carbide coated VOLU-probes, addressing probe erosion and extending equipment life.
Real-World Applications and Upgrades
These solutions integrate seamlessly into Raymond Bowl Mills, MPS/EL Mills, Atrita Mills, and many more common coal pulverizer systems. Air Monitor also provides integrated bell mouth CA stations for sites with barometric damper openings to improve tempering air management. These upgrades create minimum straight runs for improved accuracy.
Why Industry Leaders Trust Air Monitor
With over five decades of experience engineering and deploying field-tested solutions, Air Monitor’s products continue to set the standard for process stability, safety, and compliance in coal-fired power generation. The new Application Guide delivers actionable information for power plant engineers and operators—empowering them to:
- Reduce fuel costs
- Lower emissions
- Prevent system failures
- Streamline maintenance
For more details, industry professionals are encouraged to consult Air Monitor’s new Application Guide for Primary Airflow in Coal-Fired Power Plants. It’s an essential resource for optimizing your plant’s performance in today’s demanding regulatory and economic environment.
If you have specific questions, feel free to reach out to our experts on your process needs.