Based on the temperature and O₂ concentration in the cement precalciner, co-combustion of anthracite and Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) were investigated using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and a double furnaces reactor. Both the TGA and double furnaces reactor results indicated that the co-combustion characteristics were the linear additive effect in the devolatilization stage, while it was the synergistic effect in the char combustion stage. During co-combustion, at 900 °C, NOx released rapidly during the devolatilization stage, but in the char combustion stage the NOx formation were inhibited; at 800 °C, a large amount of CO formed, which could reduce the NOx. In general, at 900 °C and 800 °C, the application of co-combustion could lower the NOx emission yield and lower the NOx conversion. By combining the combustion characteristics with the XRD results, it was indicated that during co-combustion, at 800 °C, the SO₂ formation reaction was inhibited, and the SO₂ yield and conversion were quite low.

The kaolin suspension calcination technology is currently gaining attention as a new process of calcining kaolin. In this paper, the cooling system of the kaolin suspension calcination process designed by CBMI Construction Co., Ltd. is simulated using ANSYS Fluent software to analyze the velocity field and temperature field of the gas–solid two-phase flow using the Eulerian model. A compiled UDF (User-Defined Function) is used to simulate the transfer of mass and heat from the downcomer tube to the different elements. The gas, coming from the gas outlet of the cyclone, enters the next level twin-cylinder cyclone in a spiral state. The results show that the airflow in the cyclone consists of an external spiral flow from the top to the bottom and an internal spiral flow from the bottom to the top. During the downward movement of the airflow, the outer spiral flow is continuously transformed into an inner cyclonic flow. The part of the airflow that rotates close to the inner cylinder is likely to become a ‘short circuit flow’, which largely affects the separation efficiency and cooling effect of the cyclone. There is evident temperature deviation and flow deviation in the twin-cylinder cyclone, which is primarily due to the high cooling air volume and high rotation of air flow coming from the gas outlet of the previous level’s cyclone. The rotation of the air flow is the main cause of the bias temperature and bias flow phenomenon in the twin-cylinder cyclone.

Conducted a numerical simulation to model a novel swirl precalciner, investigating how altering in the position of the raw meal inlet affects the internal gas-flow, temperature field, and component concentration field within the precalciner. Applied the realizable k-? two-equation turbulent model to the continuous phase. For the particle phase (pulverized coal), employed the discrete particle model and the discrete random walk model. Simulated the combustion of pulverized coal and the decomposition of calcium carbonate by using the species transport model combined with the finite-rate/eddy-dissipation model. Modeled the generation of NOx using a NOx model. The results show that, in comparison to the condition with four raw meal inlets, the six raw meal inlets condition has a better coupling of pulverized coal combustion and raw meal decomposition. The decomposition rate of raw meal has seen a slight improvement, and there is a significant improvement in the occurrence of localized high temperatures within the precalciner, resulting in a reduction of the outlet NOx concentration from 1251 ppm to 225 ppm.