Optimization of coal blending for aerospace furnaces and online process optimization

Background: The raw coal type for the gasification unit (powdered coal furnace) of a coal chemical enterprise in Guangxi is variable, with sources including domestic and Southeast Asian regions. How to find the optimal coal blending ratio in an economically optimal way while ensuring the normal operation of the gasification furnace is a major challenge. In the past, it was necessary to conduct a period of trial burning during the production process, analyze the operating conditions, and then find a relatively suitable ratio.

Solution: This enterprise adopted the Stantai solution to establish a coal blending optimization system, which only requires providing the coal quality analysis and testing data of different coal types. The objective function is set to be the lowest coal consumption or the maximum economic benefit, and constraints are also set. Through the optimization system, the optimal coal blending ratio can be obtained within several minutes, significantly reducing the trial-and-error time. After economic evaluation, using this system can increase the economic income of the enterprise by more than 1.5%.

Benefit: This enterprise again adopted the SimTech solution to establish an online implementation optimization system. This system is based on the gasification mechanism model and integrates advanced data processing, coal quality soft measurement, furnace temperature soft measurement, online simulation and optimization algorithms, etc. It forms an intelligent digital twin system. This system can accurately represent the operating status of the gasification furnace, predict the trend of the operating conditions, and send the optimal operation conditions to the APC system, thereby achieving refined management and efficient operation of the gasification process. After several rounds of tests and economic calculation, using this system can increase the economic income of the enterprise by more than 1%.