Design and application of a novel coal-fired drum boiler using saline water in heavy oil recovery

doi:10.1007/s11708-020-0690-3

Front. Energy

2020, Vol. 14

Issue (4) : 715-725 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-020-0690-3

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Design and application of a novel coal-fired drum boiler using saline water in heavy oil recovery

Junping GU¹, Yuxin WU¹(

), Liping WU², Man ZHANG¹, Hairui YANG¹, Junfu LYU¹

¹. Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
². Yucheng Thermo Ltd., Karamay 834000, China

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Abstract

In this paper, the design and operation of a novel coal-fired circulating fluidized bed (CFB) drum boiler that can generate superheated steam using saline water were introduced. The natural circulation water dynamics with a drum was adopted instead of the traditional once-through steam generator (OTSG) design, so that superheated steam can be generated for the better performance of the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) technology in heavy oil recovery. The optimized staged evaporation method was proposed to further decrease the salinity of water in the clean water section of the boiler. The evaporating pipes of the salted water section were rearranged in the back pass of the boiler, where the heat load is low, to further improve the heat transfer safety. A CFB combustion technology was used for coal firing to achieve a uniform heat transfer condition with low heat flux. Pollutant control technologies were adopted to reduce pollutant emissions. Based on the field test, the recommended water standard for the coal-fired CFB drum boilers was determined. With the present technology, the treated recovery wastewater can be reused in steam-injection boilers to generate superheated steam. The engineering applications show that the boiler efficiency is higher than 90%, the blowdown rate is limited within 5.5%, and the superheat of steam can reach up to 30 K. Besides, the heavy oil recovery efficiency is significantly improved. Moreover, the pollutant emissions of SO₂, NO_x and dust are controlled within the ranges of 20–90 mg/(N·m³), 30–90 mg/(N·m³) and 2–10 mg/(N·m³) respectively.

Keywords drum steam injection boiler natural circulation recovery wastewater staged evaporation circulating fluidized bed (CFB)

Corresponding Author(s): Yuxin WU

Online First Date: 25 September 2020 Issue Date: 21 December 2020

Cite this article:

Junping GU,Yuxin WU,Liping WU, et al. Design and application of a novel coal-fired drum boiler using saline water in heavy oil recovery[J]. Front. Energy, 2020, 14(4): 715-725.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/10.1007/s11708-020-0690-3
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/Y2020/V14/I4/715

Tab.1 Qualities of heavy oil recovery wastewater and treated wastewater

Fig.1 Diagrammatic illustration of salt balance.

Fig.2 Fig. 2 Diagram of staged evaporation technology.

Fig.3 Heating surface design for staged evaporation technology.

Fig.4 Detailed arrangement of the evaporating pipes for salted water sections.

Tab.2 Feed water quality standards for once-through steam-injection boilers in different countries

Fig.5 Corrosion rate for different alloy steels used in boiler (P is pressure and T is temperature).

Standards	Terms	Values
Feed water quality standard	Dissolved oxygen/(mg·L^–1)	≤0.007
	Electrical conductivity/(ms·cm^–1)	≤2500
	Chloride ion/(mg·L^–1)	≤1500
	$HCO 3 −$ /(mg·L^–1)	≤100
	SiO₂/(mg·L^–1)	≤50
	∑Fe/(mg·L^–1)	≤0.05
	Total hardness/(mg·L^–1)	≤0.1
	Suspended impurities/(mg·L^–1)	≤2
	Mineralization/(mg·L^–1)	≤2000
	PH level	8.0–10.5
	Oil and grease/(mg·L^–1)	≤2
Boiler water quality standard	Phosphate in clean water section/(mg·L^–1)	2 ~ 6
	Phosphate in salted water section/(mg·L^–1)	<12
	Electrical conductivity in clean water section/(μs·cm^–1)	<7000
	Electrical conductivity in salted water section/(μs·cm^–1)	<17000
	Drum water level/mm	50±20
	Deaerator water level/mm	–150±50
	Hardness of clean water section, salted water section, saturated steam and superheated steam/(μmol·L^–1)	<10
	Hardness of cooling tower water/(μmol·L^–1)	<10
	pH level	9.0–12
	Blowdown rate, %	<5.5

Tab.3 Quality standards for feed water and boiler water of natural-circulation steam-injection boilers

Terms	Fengcheng Heavy Oil Field	Yucheng Thermo Ltd.
$CO 3 2 −$ /(mg·L^–1)	–	80.4
$OH −$ /(mg·L^–1)	–	138.2
$HCO 3 −$ /(mg·L^–1)	374.6	0.00
Chloride ion/(mg·L^–1)	717.9	246.1
Calcium ion/(mg·L^–1)	0.00	0.00
Magnesium ion/(mg·L^–1)	0.22	0.24
$SO 4 2 −$ /(mg·L^–1)	281.6	314.3
Na⁺ + K⁺/(mg·L^–1)	741.4	371.4
Mineralization/(mg·L^–1)	2115.8	1150.6
pH level	8.1	12.6
Silica/(mg·L^–1)	–	66.8
Electrical conductivity/(ms·m^–1)	–	762

Tab.4 Feed water qualities of steam-injection boilers for Fengcheng Heavy Oil Field and Yucheng Thermo Ltd.

Fig.6 Heated wall surfaces after a long-time operation.

Tab.5 Steam quality and operating data of test station in Fengcheng Heavy Oil Field and steam supply stations of Yucheng Thermo Ltd.

Tab.6 Oil recovery of SAGD in one well group by using coal-fired and gas-fired boilers

Fig.7 Comparison of oil production between coal-fired and gas-fired boilers in one well area.

Tab.7 Oil recovery of VHSD in No. 32 well area by using coal-fired and gas-fired boilers

Tab.8 Design and operation pollutant emissions of test stations in Fencheng Heavy Oil Field and Yucheng Thermo Ltd.

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