Research progress and prospect of ammonia cofiring in utility coal-fired boiler

The application of ammonia combustion in power station boilers was focused on. Firstly, the basic physiochemical properties of ammonia are introduced, and the fundamental combustion characteristics of pure ammonia and ammonia with other fuels are summarized. Most importantly, this paper comprehensively reviewed the current research progress on the coal-ammonia co-firing from different aspects, such as the combustion and flame propagation characteristics, flame morphology and radiation characteristics, formation and emission of NOx. Finally, the future research directions of ammonia combustion in power station boilers are analyzed and prospected. Ammonia coal mixed combustion can significantly reduce the carbon emission of utility boilers without significantly changing the temperature characteristics in the furnace. Although the increase of fuel nitrogen brings the risk of NOx emission, it can be effectively regulated through combustion classification and combustion organization. Therefore, ammonia coal mixed combustion is a feasible carbon reduction path. Ammonia is used as the carrier of renewable energy to realize carbon emission reduction in different application fields such as heat, electricity and power, and alleviate or solve the dependence on limited fossil energy, which has great development potential and prospect. © 2022 Huazhong University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.