Kazakhstan scientists developed a plasma technology for burning coal at thermal power stations, Aleksander Ustimenko, Director of NTO Plasmotekhnika and head of heat physics department of Scientific-Research Institute of Experimental and Theoretical Physics of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University told Tengrinews.kz.
According to him, thermal power stations currently use fuel-oil residue to heat up the boilers. This is related to the fact that coal flares up only at the temperature of over 1,000 degrees Centigrade. Heating up one boiler requires several hours and up to 100 tons of fuel-oil residue. During one heating season the boilers are heated up over ten times. The scientist noted that Kazakhstan coal had high ash content of up to 50 percent. Sustaining its burning in the boiler also requires burning of fuel-oil residue.
The Kazakhstan innovation allows to fully eliminate the use of residue at thermal power stations, replacing it with coal dust flared up by plasma. The technology is based on the electric-thermal-chemical preparation of coal for burning that is made in the plasma-fuel system (PFS) equipped with arc-jet plasmotron.