Doctoral Thesis: High Temperature Corrosion Phenomena in Waste to Energy Boilers
By Shang‐Hsiu Lee
Columbia University
2009
This research examined the corrosion mechanisms in WTE boilers by conducting laboratory tests under conditions that simulated the WTE environment. The controlling variables in the tests were based on the analysis of data provided by over fifty U.S. WTE facilities in response to a corrosion survey that was distributed by the Waste‐to‐Energy Research and Technology Council, an academic‐industry organization headquartered at Columba University. This study also explored the feasibility of a novel procedure that aimed to reducing the hydrogen chloride concentration in the combustion gases flowing through the boiler.
The research effort included (1) an in‐depth analysis of the survey on high temperature corrosion; (2) laboratory tests that, for the first time simulated the large temperature gradients encountered across the wall of WTE heat exchanging metal surfaces and clarified the mechanism and kinetics of chlorine induced corrosion and the effect of hydrogen chloride gas concentrations on corrosion rates; and (3) laboratory tests on the sequestration of chlorine in the WTE process gas by means of injecting chemicals into the furnace.