LETTER TO MARTIN PROCHNIK FROM ROBERT M. GATES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B01072R000100050021-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2007
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: May 11, 1982
• Content Type: LETTER

 Approved For Releas
Central Intelligence Agency
11 MAY 1982
Mr. Martin Prochnik
Director, Office of Energy
Technology Cooperation
Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Mr. Prochnik:
In res anse to your request of 5 May 1982 for assistance in
pre aration
I am forwarding the enclosed material prepared by my
staff which summarizes Chinese activity in the field of fluidized
bed combustion of coal. The Agency would be pleased to provide
all appropriate support for such discussions. As you are aware,
have examined this'technology
and the policies and plans of the PRC in its application. Should
you require add'U ' j * al information or briefings, please contact
Chief Energy Division, Office of Global
Issues
'Robert M. ates
Deputy Director For Intelligence
Enclosure
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SUBJECT: China is Aiming at Large-Scale, Fluidized-Bed
Combustion of Coal
Distribution:
Orig
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Addressee
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DDI
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AUDI
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DDI Registry
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D/OGI
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Ch/ED
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Ch/ED/TEC
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D/OSWR
OGI/ED/TECJ
7 May 1982
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CHINA IS AIMING AT LARGE-SCALE FLUIDIZED-BED
COMBUSTION OF COAL
SUMMARY
China currently leads the world in numbers of operating
fluidized bed combustion (FBC) units, although most are small and
of fairly simple design. Lack of air-pollution control equipment
prevents use of these units in larger populated areas. Chinese
technicians have shown great ingenuity in certain aspects of FBC
technology, such as abrasion control. However, they need much
assistance in the more sophisticated areas of FBC technology,
such as automated control. While adequate for the rural power
and heating applications now envisaged, if FBC is to find broader
application in China, areas of automation, oxygen-enriched
combustion, pollution control (through use of limestone in the
bed to control sulfur, for example), and pressurized operation,
will have to be inves ossible areas for US-
Chinese cooperation.
DISCUSSION
China is making wide use of fluidized bed combustion (FBC)
boilers for power and heating applications in the southern
provinces, where reserves of high grade coal are limited. This
technology is also being applied in Manchuria with the use of
lignites. The steam generation capacity of these boilers range
up to 35 metric tons per hour (mt/hr). China has two
demonstration FEC boilers of 130 metric ton per hour steam
capacity. If successful, such boilers will find considerable
application in rural areas of China, enabling reduction in the
consumption and rail transportation of high quality coal.
China started its FBC research work in 1960. In 1969,
Qinghua University and Guangdong Chemical Engineering Institute
successfully completed China's first oil-shale-burning FBC unit
with a steam capacity of 14.5 mt/hr. FBC units have been built
in Beijing and Shanghai and in local centers in Huabei, Zejiang,
Guangdong, and Huanan provinces. In order to reduce the need for
coal transport, the FBCs utilize locally available anthracite
tailings, stone coal, black shale and lignite.
At present, China has about 2,000 FBC boilers with a total
steam generation capacity of more than 10,000 mt/hr. These
atmospheric pressure units use air for combustion, have little
automation and no flue gas cleanup. Many have limited capacity
on the order of 6 to 1.0 mt/hr of steam. The next most
common larger size is 20 mt/hr.
Some 40 percent of China's FBC units are associated with
rural fertilizer plants which gasify coal to produce hydrogen for
ammonia manufacture. The low-carbon ash resulting from this
process is burned in FEC boilers to provide process and power-
plant heat as well as by-product steam for district heating.
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Since almost every province has its own fertilizer production
facility, the potential for FBC technology in this area is
significant. Another 40 percent are used for space heating and
as industrial boilers, while the remainder serve as power plants
The goal is to standardize auxiliary power plant FBC
applications by using boilers with steam capacities of 35
mt/hr. In Huanan Province, a medium scale FBC unit which
generates 35 mt/hr of steam has already exceeded 6,000 hours of
stable operation. It uses stone coal (900-1000 Kcal/Kg) to drive
a 6 MW steam turbine. If it is operated 5,000 hours per year, as
anticipated, 29,000 tons of bitu minous coal can be saved
annually. 25X1
At present, 60 FBC power-generating boilers are operating in
China with a total output of 730 mt/hr of steam and about 100 M7
of electric-power generating capacity. The largest of these
provides 130 mt/hr of steam. During the Cultural Revolution, the
first such system employed six smaller boilers in parallel.
Today, the design entails a single heating unit. To date, two of
these 130 mt/hr boilers have been put into operation
successfully.
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F
PROBLEMS OF FBC DEVELOPMENT
The Chinese admit that considerable developmental work
remains to be done in order to bring their FBC technology to an
acceptable level of development. Four main problems remain: 1)
excessive carry over of carbon in the flyash; 2) consumption of
electricity for pressurization of the air feed is significantly
higher than in conventional boilers; 3) exposed steam tubes and
heating surfaces in the boiler wall tend to abrade at an
excessive rate, and 4) clumping of ash in the bed and clinker
formation occur if the operation is not well controlled.
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F 71
Some 30 percent of the carbon content of the coal fed to an
FBC unit tends to be lost in the flyash. This results in lower
thermal efficiency of the unit, depending on the nature of the
coal employed. A boiler using anthracite may exhibit an
efficiency as low as 60 percent, while a very reactive brown coal
may provide an efficiency of 80-90 percent. The problem lies
with the very fine (less than 0.5 mm) grains of coal which may
remain only a few seconds in the combustion zone; the larger
grains may have residence time of 20 to 30 minutes. The Chinese
are attempting three approaches to solve this problem: baffled
sedimentation chambers in the outlet section, a larger cross
section above the combustion zone to give greater residence time,
and installation of a baffled high-temperature section above the
combustion zone. They see this problem as the iprinciloal ctor
limiting their FBC development program.
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Little can be done to reduce the consumption of electricity
for pressurization, since the pressure drop across a fluidized
bed is determined by the quantity of solids per unit cross
section. A high concentration of solids is nert- sary to assure
good volumetric heat release. I T 25X1
The Chinese have shown ingenuity in overcoming the abrasion
problem. They have installed replaceable secondary surfaces of
abrasion-resistant ceramic materials on the steam pipes and at
the upper outlet of the main combustion chamber. They continue
to refine the application of this technique for extending
t
useful service life of heat-transfer surfaces.
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F
The Chinese make little use of automation in FBC unit
operations. Automation is employed only in residual ash removal
for small FBCs and in the utilization of residue heat from the
ash of the FBCs for air-preheating in the boilers. An operator
generally watches a unit and adjusts it in order to keep
temperatures from becoming excessive with attendant clumping and
clinker formation. While this approach is suitable for small.
equipment and is quite consistent with China's normal practices
in industrial equipment operation, the need for automat
of larger-scale FBC units under development is obvious.
The Chinese have identified several objectives that they
would like to achieve by the 1990s:
* to stably utilize different kinds of coal
(bituminous, lignite, anthracite, and stone coal) and
oil shale for combustion.
* to achieve higher levels of efficiency (i.e. 90-95
percent for lignite; 85-90 percent for bituminous coal;
75-80 percent for anthracite; 78-82 percent for stone
coal).
* to save on boiler construction material. Chinese
FBCs require only 66-80 percent of the steel needed in
pulverized coal boilers, and 50 percent of that in chain
boilers, in terms of quantity of steel per metric ton of
steam generated.
* to extract useful chemicals, metals and cement from
the ash of FBCs.
* to achieve an 80 percent level of desulfurization.
of the flue gas.
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 Bob would like you to take the lead in
handling this request from State. Please
coordinate your response with OSWR. Your
response should be in the form of a 'letter,
for the DDT's signature, to Prochnik. I will
need your response by 1200 hours on 9 May in
order to get it through the system and out to
Prochnik by 10 May. Thanks.
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Approved For Release 2007/02/28: CIA-RDP84B01072R000100050021-1