Abstract
Lots of Coal power plants (about 30) using bituminous coals are being run in Korea. The use of high volatile low grade sub-bituminous coal is increasingly extended because of imbalance between the worldwide coal supply and demand. Mill-fire has been an important issue since the use of such sub-bituminous coal. In existing coal plants of Korea, shutdown of coal and air supplies could be only a way, and an alternative has not been found in suppressing the mill fire. The inside fowfield in the mills has a highly fuel-rich, low temperature, and high velocity and non-reactive such that it could be a nonreactive system essentially. Nevertheless, occasional fire-occurrence could be attributed to the existence of an ignition source. However it has not been so far investigated in detail. The current work has a focus on suppressing the mile fire via some parametric experimental study such as effects of temperature, residence time, ignition source, and inert gas mixing. The results show that an small amount of $CO_2$- or $N_2$-mixing with air is very effective in suppressing fire formation even at high temperatures or flying sparks. The results suggest that exhaust gas recirculation into the mill should be an alternative to suppress mill fire.
