MILD pulverized combustion technology: The latest research progress and key scientific issues

The MILD combustion is a combustion mode that occurs in a moderate or extremely low oxygen environment, combining the advantages of high combustion heat utilization and very low NO_x emissions, and is considered by the international combustion field to be one of the cleaner combustion technologies with great potential for application. Since the relevant research began around 1990, the technology for achieving a MILD combustion of gas fuels has been relatively mature, while the research on the MILD combustion mechanism and implementation conditions of solid fuels such as coal powder and biomass is still relatively lacking. Based on the high momentum oxidizer jet, internal recirculation is achieved, eliminating the need for external high-temperature preheating to establish MILD combustion, greatly expanding the application range of MILD combustion. This paper provides an overview of the basic characteristics of MILD powder fuel combustion from the aspects of particle dispersion, heating, ignition, combustion, and pollutants. Due to the uneven dispersion and reaction of particles, the MILD combustion process of carbon-based solid fuels such as coal powder is more complex than that of gas fuels. High speed jet MILD combustion not only increases ignition delay but also expands ignition and reaction zones, requiring systematic research on the characteristics and mechanisms of each combustion stage. This paper introduces the research achievements in the theoretical design and equipment development of solid fuel MILD combustion. It is recommended to improve the existing coal-fired boiler burner, adjust the process parameters to match the MILD combustion mode, increase the residence time of coke particles to improve combustion efficiency, improve combustion stability, and suppress various pollutant emissions, including fine particulate matter, through high-precision numerical simulation. Based on the overall approach of interconnected energy systems, the coupling research between MILD combustion and various new combustion technologies should be promoted, especially strengthening the research on the co-combustion characteristics of coal powder, biomass and hydrogen, ammonia and other combustible gases, and assisting in energy transformation. Exploring the characteristics of turbulent two-phase flow, turbulent interphase heat transfer, and turbulent chemical coupling in the powder MILD combustion is crucial for deepening the understanding of powder MILD combustion. It involves multivariate analysis and high-precision simulation, which will be the focus and difficulty of future research.