10 - Advanced monitoring and process control technology for coal-fired power plants

To meet increasingly stringent standards on combustion efficiency and pollutant emissions and to maintain fuel flexibility, advanced monitoring and control technologies have become highly desirable in the power generation industry. This chapter describes the current state in the development of such technologies for the optimised operation of coal-fired power stations. Monitoring issues that are covered are concerned with the operation of fuel bunkers, pulverising mills, pulverised fuel injection systems, and furnaces. Other issues such as on-line particle sizing, flame stability monitoring, on-line fuel tracking, and flame imaging are also included. Recent advances in control techniques for the optimisation of pulverising mills, pulverised fuel splitting control, and furnace and boiler operations are described.