TABLE OF CONTENTS Brad Buecker
John Meinders
Low-sulfur coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming is being used by utilities to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. However, the changeover to Powder River Basin (PRB) coal, in units originally designed for other coals, introduces a number of complications. Some of the problems relate to the general characteristics of the fuel and some to its combustion behavior in the furnace.
In 1998, the Kansas City, Kansas Board of Public Utilities' Quindaro Power Station switched from Midwestern coals to PRB. The Quindaro power station is located along the Missouri River in Kansas City, Kansas. At Quindaro, the primary generating sources are an 82 MW Babcock &Wilcox cyclone unit (Unit No. 1), commissioned in 1966, and a 145 MW, Riley Stoker, pulverized coal (PC) unit (Unit No. 2), commissioned in 1971. The PC unit was retrofitted with Combustion Engineering burners and dampers in 1992, while the cyclone boiler was converted from forced-draft to balanced-draft operation in the same year.
When originally put into operation, both units burned a high-sulfur coal from southern Kansas. However, in 1979 the fuel was changed to an Illinois coal, which remained the fuel of choice until December of 1998, when both units started burning PRB coal exclusively. The fuel switch required several modifications to the units.
The original coal handling and preparation system included: a rail car unloading (bottom dumping) facility, a belt conveyor system to a...
