Computational Modeling and Assessment Of Nanocoatings for Ultra Supercritical Boilers

Forced outages and boiler unavailability in conventional coal-fired fossil power plants is most often caused by fireside corrosion of boiler waterwalls. Industry-wide, the rate of wall thickness corrosion wastage of fireside waterwalls in fossil-fired boilers has been of concern for many years. It is significant that the introduction of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission controls with staged burners systems has increased reported waterwall wastage rates to as much as 120 mils (3 mm) per year. Moreover, the reducing environment produced by the low-NOx combustion process is the primary cause of accelerated corrosion rates of waterwall tubes made of carbon and low alloy steels. Improved coatings, such as the MCrAl nanocoatings evaluated here (where M is Fe, Ni, and Co), are needed to reduce/eliminate waterwall damage in subcritical, supercritical, and ultra-supercritical (USC) boilers. The first two tasks of this six-task project-jointly sponsored by EPRI and the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FC26-07NT43096)-have focused on computational modeling of an advanced MCrAl nanocoating system and evaluation of two nanocrystalline (iron and nickel base) coatings, which will significantly improve the corrosion and erosion performance of tubing used in USC boilers. The computational model results showed that about 40 wt.% is required in Fe based nanocrystalline coatings for long-term durability, leading to a coating composition of Fe-25Cr-40Ni-10 wt.% Al. In addition, the long term thermal exposure test results further showed accelerated inward diffusion of Al from the nanocrystalline coatings into the substrate. In order to enhance the durability of these coatings, it is necessary to develop a diffusion barrier interlayer coating such TiN and/or AlN. The third task 'Process Advanced MCrAl Nanocoating Systems' of the six-task project jointly sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute, EPRI and the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FC26-07NT43096)- has focused on processing of advanced nanocrystalline coating systems and development of diffusion barrier interlayer coatings. Among the diffusion interlayer coatings evaluated, the TiN interlayer coating was found to be the optimum one. This report describes the research conducted under the Task 3 workscope