47results about "Solid fuel pretreatment" patented technology

The disclosure provides a coal conveying control system and method for a thermal power plant. The system includes: a model prediction module, used for building an operating load prediction model, and obtaining a boiler operating load optimal value; a load calculation module, used for drawing an operating load difference value curve, and determining a boiler coal consumption change amount; a speed control module, used for determining a coal conveying amount of a coal conveying system, and controlling operating speed of a coal conveying belt according to the coal conveying amount; a quality calculation module, used for calculating boiler operating efficiency, and determining a coal quality parameter according to the boiler operating efficiency; a fineness control module, used for determining a coal particle parameter, setting target coal particle fineness according to the coal particle parameter, and controlling a screening and crushing device according to the target coal particle fineness.

The invention provides a thermal power plant boiler dynamic coal blending management system and method based on a cloud platform, and the system comprises a data collection layer which is used for obtaining multi-source data; the cloud platform processing layer comprises a constraint generation module and an optimization decision module, the constraint generation module is used for constructing an optimization constraint condition according to the multi-source data, the optimization decision module is used for determining an optimal coal blending scheme according to the optimization constraint condition and a preset optimization target, and the optimal coal blending scheme at least comprises the blending combustion proportion of each coal type in the total coal feeding amount; and the execution control layer is used for generating a control instruction of the coal feeder according to the optimal coal blending scheme. According to the method, the multi-source data and the intelligent algorithm are integrated through the cloud platform, the constraint condition of actual operation is considered, the blending combustion proportion of each coal type in the total coal feeding amount is determined, real-time dynamic optimization of the coal blending process of the thermal power plant is achieved, the preset optimization target is met, the safety, reliability and response rate of system operation are greatly improved, and the coal blending efficiency of the thermal power plant is improved. Different operation requirements of a thermal power plant are met.

The invention provides an ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant pebble coal recycling pulverizing system and a working method, and belongs to the technical field of coal-fired power plant pulverizing. A pneumatic conveying mode is adopted, pebble coal generated by a plurality of coal mills can be uniformly and hermetically conveyed to a pebble coal bunker through a centralized recovery network consisting of an air compressor, a main gas transmission pipeline, a branch recovery pipeline and a valve, and a traditional manual clearing and conveying or mechanical carrying mode is replaced. The system and a main coal mill are in linkage control, and discharging and feeding are achieved; by arranging an independent secondary pulverizing loop composed of a ball mill, a separator and the like, pebble coal which is discharged by a traditional medium-speed coal mill and is high in heat value is deeply ground, qualified coal powder is prepared and sent back to a boiler to be combusted, resource reutilization of solid waste is achieved, heat energy contained in the solid waste is effectively recycled, and energy conservation and emission reduction are achieved. The fuel consumption and the fuel cost of a power plant are directly reduced, and meanwhile, the disposal cost and the environmental pressure of the solid waste are reduced.

A combustion method using a fuel combustion device, a cement manufacturing method, and a cement calcination facility including a fuel combustion device, in which while the amount of a fossil fuel used as a fuel supplied to a fuel combustion device provided in various facilities such as a cement calcination facility is reduced, the radiation heat transfer amounts of various burners are maintained, whereby the amount of heat transferred to a heating target such as a powder raw material of cement clinker is maintained to maintain a state suitable for calcination, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from the various facilities is reduced, and the various facilities can be operated at a low cost, and a fuel combustion device including a fuel supply mechanism having a mechanism that supplies a flammable powder, a mechanism that supplies a fuel gas, and a mechanism that supplies a non-flammable powder are used.

A wind-powder balanced distribution method and device for coal pulverizing system of coal-fired unit are provided to solve the problem of uneven distribution of wind-powder of each burner caused by the change of coal quality and output of coal mill during unit peak shaving, which comprises M wind-powder pipelines connected with the outlet of coal mill; each pipeline is divided into n sub-pipelines, and the wind resistance of the same group of sub-pipelines is approximately equal by adjusting the path / length; the ends of the same column of sub-pipelines are combined and directly connected with the burner; an on-line detection device and a wind volume adjusting device are arranged on the combined pipeline; the wind volume control device receives the detection signal and controls the adjusting device to make the wind volume of each combined pipeline equal. By splitting and combining the pipeline to recombine the wind-powder flow, the self-adaptive balanced distribution of pulverized coal is realized simultaneously by only controlling the final wind volume balance, and it is not necessary to detect the pulverized coal concentration in real time. The present application has strong resistance to load / coal quality disturbance and fast response speed; there is no spoiler, and the wind resistance loss is small; the structure is simple and easy to implement. The present application is suitable for flexible peak shaving scene of coal-fired unit of direct-fired pulverizing system.

The invention relates to an intelligent granular fuel boiler system. The intelligent granular fuel boiler system comprises a boiler body, a feeding device arranged on the outer side of the boiler body, a combustion device, a smoke guide device, a pushing device, a discharging device and a control unit. The control unit drives all execution components and controls the feeding device arranged on the boiler body to feed fuel to the combustion device in the hearth for combustion according to the accurate proportion, combusted slag is pushed into the discharging device through the pushing device to be discharged, the slag is pushed into the slag collecting box, and then the slag is discharged to the outer side of the boiler through the slag discharging assembly. According to the device, automatic feeding, combustion, slag pushing and slag discharging of the boiler are achieved, unmanned operation is achieved, and the device is compact in structure, can be easily integrated into an existing boiler system and has remarkable economic benefits and environmental protection value. Through the automatic slag removal device, the heat efficiency of the boiler can be improved by 15%-20%, the manual operation and maintenance cost is greatly reduced, resource utilization of agricultural waste is promoted, and wide market application prospects are achieved.

The invention relates to the technical field of biomass combustion boilers, and discloses a biomass combustion system capable of achieving partitioned feeding, which comprises a combustion furnace, the upper end of the combustion furnace is communicated with a feeding chamber, a screening plate is hinged to one side of the upper end in the feeding chamber, and a screening transmission mechanism is arranged in the feeding chamber; two smashing rollers are arranged on the inner side of the lower end of the combustion furnace, a movable shaft is fixedly installed at the axis position of the other smashing roller, a smashing transmission mechanism is further arranged on the outer wall of the combustion furnace, discharging shafts are symmetrically and rotationally installed at the position, communicated with the feeding chamber, of the combustion furnace, discharging plates are installed on the discharging shafts, and a discharging transmission mechanism is arranged on the combustion furnace. A heat exchange mechanism is further arranged in the combustion furnace. Biomass fuels with different granularities are prevented from directly entering the combustion furnace, meanwhile, under the action of the crushing transmission mechanism, the biomass fuels with the different granularities are subjected to partitioned extrusion type crushing and feeding, and the combustion efficiency of the biomass fuels is greatly improved.

The invention discloses clean processing and upgrading equipment for power coal, belongs to the technical field of advanced green coal dressing, and is used for solving at least one of the problems of poor separation effect, small separation particle size range and low separation precision of fine-grained and viscous and humidified power coal in the prior art. According to the system, an oversize outlet of a first-stage classifying screen is connected with a feeding port of an X-ray sorting unit, discharging ports of the X-ray sorting unit are divided into a first-stage clean coal discharging port and a first-stage gangue discharging port, and the first-stage clean coal discharging port is connected with a feeding port of a second-stage classifying screen through a crushing unit; an undersize outlet of the first-stage classifying screen is connected with a feeding port of the second-stage classifying screen, an oversize outlet of the second-stage classifying screen is connected with a feeding port of the dry-method sorting unit, discharging ports of the dry-method sorting unit are a second-stage clean coal discharging port and a second-stage gangue discharging port respectively, and an undersize outlet of the second-stage classifying screen is connected with the low-temperature steam drying unit. The method can be used for clean processing and upgrading of the power coal.

The invention relates to a supplementary pellet feeding device (12) for a pellet stove (10), characterized in that it comprises at least one reservoir (24) adapted to hold pellets, a coupling sleeve (52) extending from the outlet of the reservoir (24) to a lower section designed to communicate with an inlet port (64) of a pellet stove (10), said inlet port (64) being connected to a pellet storage bin (22) of said stove (10), and a valve (36) fitted to the reservoir (24) and movably mounted between a closed position in which the pellets are retained in the reservoir (24) and an open position in which the pellets can flow by gravity to feed the storage bin (22) of the stove (10). (Fig. 1)

Moisture is removed from particulate material using an apparatus comprising a dryer having a drying chamber for directing a flow of gas-entrained particulate material between first and second ends of the drying chamber. The dryer is configured for directing gas under pressure into the drying chamber, for interacting with a flow of gas-entrained particulate material within the drying chamber. The dryer comprises a body of modular construction, which defines a plurality of guide passages arranged for fluid communication between the drying chamber and a source of gas under pressure. The body of modular construction comprises a plurality of discrete annular elements,arranged in series, one adjacent another, each having a body defining a central aperture, and wherein the annular elements are arranged together with the central apertures aligned.

A method for promoting the combustion of a combustible material, improving the power output of a combustion device and prolonging the service life of the combustion device by adding an alkali metal element and / or an alkaline earth metal element into the combustible material, relating to the technical field of combustion supporting. The method is applicable to various combustible materials and various combustion devices. A combustion device, and a fuel for promoting the combustion of a combustible material, improving the power output of a combustion device and prolonging the service life of the combustion device, respectively comprising a combustion device, and a fuel for nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. The method can enable all kinds of combustion devices to be reliably started and efficiently and safely work in any environment.

The invention relates to the technical field of optimization control of a fire coal pulverizing system of a thermal power plant, and discloses a combination strategy optimization method and system for multiple coal mills, and the method comprises the following steps: S1, building a multi-dimensional dynamic sensing system of the operation states of the coal mills, coal type adaptability parameters, barrel vibration spectrum characteristics and outlet pulverized coal fineness distribution of each coal mill and instantaneous load fluctuation data of a driving motor are obtained; and S2, constructing a comprehensive performance portrait of the coal mill based on the historical operation efficiency and the equipment health degree, wherein the performance portrait at least comprises an equipment efficiency attenuation trend, a key component wear early warning level and a historical average fault-free operation duration. By establishing a multi-dimensional dynamic sensing system and a comprehensive performance portrait, refined, digital and prospective management of the running state of the coal mill is realized, so that formulation of a combined strategy is changed from experience-based driving to data-based driving, and scientificity and accuracy of decision making are remarkably improved.

The invention discloses an alternative fuel combustion furnace. The device comprises a supporting base, the upper end of the supporting base is in an inverted L shape, an upper shell is arranged on the upper side of the supporting base, a preheating platform and a combustion platform are arranged on the upper side of the supporting base in the upper shell, the combustion platform is arranged on the inclined section of the inverted L shape, and the preheating platform is arranged on the horizontal section, adjacent to the combustion platform, of the inverted L shape. An alternative fuel inlet and a hot air inlet are formed in the upper side of the upper shell, the alternative fuel inlet is used for feeding alternative fuel to the preheating platform, the hot air inlet is used for introducing air for combusting the alternative fuel, and a pushing mechanism is arranged at the end, away from the combustion platform, of the preheating platform; the material pushing mechanism is used for pushing alternative fuel on the preheating platform to the combustion platform, and a material turning mechanism is arranged on the lower side of the combustion platform. According to the device, the use requirements of alternative materials with different water contents and ignition points are met, the material turning effect is achieved in the process that alternative fuel combusts and moves backwards, and interference of coking and caking in the combustion process on subsequent links is avoided.

The control device of the present disclosure is used for a foreign substance removal device that comprises: a removal unit for collecting foreign substances from waste material transported by a transport device and removing the foreign substances; a dust-protection unit for carrying out dust-protection which relates to maintenance of the foreign substance removal device and intends protection from dust derived from the waste material; and an imaging unit that is placed on the upstream side of the removal unit and images the waste material. This control device executes at least one of: control processing for controlling the dust-protection unit on the basis of information on the amount of waste material obtained from an image captured by the imaging unit; and output processing for outputting information on the maintenance of the foreign substance removal device on the basis of the information on the amount of waste material obtained from the image captured by the imaging unit.

This application relates to the field of boiler system technology, and provides a tangential combustion boiler system capable of flexible operation. The tangential combustion boiler system includes an interconnected direct-fired pulverizing unit, a fuel-adjustable combustion unit, and a dust-removing flue gas unit. The direct-fired pulverizing unit includes an interconnected grinding device and a cyclone dynamic separator. The fuel-adjustable combustion unit includes a boiler body, a fuel-adjustable burner, and a horizontal cyclone concentration separator. The horizontal cyclone concentration separator is used to adjust the concentration of the powdered material entering the fuel-adjustable burner, which receives and burns the powdered material and can adjust the combustion rate. The dust-removing flue gas unit is used to remove dust from the flue gas generated by the fuel-adjustable combustion unit and discharge it. The tangential combustion boiler system provided by this application can improve the operational flexibility of boiler systems.

The invention discloses a pulverized coal thermal power generation boiler, and belongs to the technical field of thermal power generation, the pulverized coal thermal power generation boiler comprises a boiler body and a pulverized coal feeding device, the pulverized coal feeding device is connected with the boiler body, and the pulverized coal feeding device comprises a box body, a protection box, a shaking conveying assembly, a coal treatment assembly and a pulverized coal conveying assembly; the wall body of the protection box is fixedly connected to the side face of the box body, the shaking conveying assembly and the coal processing assembly are arranged in the box body, the pulverized coal conveying assembly is arranged in the box body and the protection box, coal is processed into pulverized coal through the coal processing assembly and the shaking conveying assembly, and the pulverized coal is output into the boiler body through the pulverized coal conveying assembly. The space where the draught fan is located can be arranged, pulverized coal is blown into the boiler more thoroughly, and therefore the utilization rate and combustion efficiency of the pulverized coal are improved.

This invention relates to the field of power plant boiler fuel processing technology, and particularly to a power plant boiler fuel mixing device, comprising a support frame, a mixing cylinder, a feeding cylinder, a stirring device, a conveying device, and a boiler. This invention solves the following problems existing in the mixing process of coal and biomass: during mixing, biomass fuel tends to sink, and existing technologies cannot scoop up the sunken biomass fuel and mix it thoroughly with the coal, easily affecting the mixing effect. This invention, through a closed system, can extend the stirring time of coal and biomass fuel, thereby achieving thorough mixing of coal and biomass fuel, and can also lift up the deposited coal and biomass fuel, preventing the deposition phenomenon from affecting the mixing uniformity and subsequent combustion effect. Furthermore, by crushing the coal into blocks of a specified size, this invention allows for easier and more uniform mixing with biomass fuel, and more complete combustion.

A process for producing biocoke is provided, comprising: providing a heated biogas stream comprising carbon-containing vapors; providing a kinetic interface media, in solid form; introducing the kinetic interface media and the heated biogas stream to a kinetic interface reactor, operated to convert at least some of the carbon- containing vapors to biocoke; removing the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interface media from the kinetic interface reactor; and recovering the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interface media. Other variations provide a process for producing biocoke, comprising: providing a bioliquid stream comprising carbon-containing liquids; providing a kinetic interface media, in solid form; introducing the kinetic interface media and the bioliquid stream to a kinetic interface reactor, operated to convert at least some of the carbon-containing liquids to biocoke; removing the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interface media from the kinetic interface reactor; and recovering the solid biocoke containing kinetic interface media. Many embodiments are described.

The invention discloses a coal-fired boiler biomass blending combustion system and a control method thereof, and the coal-fired boiler biomass blending combustion system comprises a combustor with a central air pipe; the biomass treatment equipment is used for crushing biomass to form biomass particles; the biomass storage bin is used for storing biomass particles; and the biomass feeding system communicates with the central air pipe and is used for conveying the biomass particles in the biomass storage bin to the central air pipe. According to the biomass blending combustion system of the coal-fired boiler, the flexibility of biomass blending combustion of the coal-fired boiler can be achieved, the economical efficiency of biomass blending combustion of the coal-fired boiler is improved, and the development cost and the production cost can be reduced.

The invention relates to an air and powder balanced distribution method and device for a coal-fired unit pulverizing system, which are used for solving the problem of uneven air and powder distribution of each combustor caused by the output of a coal mill and the change of coal quality during peak regulation of a unit, and comprises that an outlet of the coal mill is connected with M air and powder pipelines; each pipeline is equally divided into n sub-pipelines, and the wind resistance of the sub-pipelines in the same group is approximately equal by adjusting the path / length; the tail ends of the sub-pipelines in the same column are combined and directly connected with the A primary air volume online detection device and an air volume adjusting device are arranged on the combined pipeline; the air volume control device receives the detection signals and controls the adjusting device to enable the combined pipelines to be equal in air volume. The pulverized coal flow is recombined through the splitting-combining pipeline, self-adaptive balanced distribution of the pulverized coal is synchronously achieved only by controlling the final air volume to be balanced, and the pulverized coal concentration does not need to be detected in real time. The method is high in load / coal disturbance resistance and high in response speed; no spoiler is arranged, so that the wind resistance loss is small; the structure is simple, and transformation is easy. The method is suitable for the flexible peak regulation scene of the coal-fired unit of the direct-fired pulverizing system.

The invention discloses a straw ash recovery treatment method, an adsorbent and a use method, and the method comprises the following steps: crushing and screening straw ash, uniformly mixing and stirring the crushed and screened straw ash with a solution A, and carrying out solid-liquid separation to obtain a first solid and a first solution, uniformly mixing and stirring the first solid and an aqueous solution, introducing acid gas containing carbon dioxide, continuously stirring, and carrying out solid-liquid separation to obtain a second solid and a second solution; introducing carbon dioxide gas into the first solution, precipitating and filtering, and evaporating and crystallizing the filtrate to obtain a potassium-rich solid; cleaning, drying, crushing and sieving the second solid to obtain a semi-volatile metal adsorbent; and circularly adding the second solution into the straw ash, and stirring and mixing. Therefore, according to the method, the biomass ash is treated in the modes of soaking, boiler tail flue gas introduction and the like, alkali metal in an active state in the biomass ash is removed, a leaching solution solvent is a harmless inorganic component, and the potassium element enrichment degree is higher; ash content is modified to serve as a combustion additive, and semi-volatile metals such as potassium, sodium, lead and cadmium can be captured in situ in a furnace.

The invention provides an anti-blocking pipeline system suitable for conveying biomass mixed with pulverized coal, which comprises an air supply and preheating unit for providing conveying airflow and preheating airflow or key pipe sections entering a conveying path; the fuel feeding and mixing unit is used for mixing fuels; the main conveying pipeline unit is used for conveying the primarily mixed fuel; the device has the beneficial effects that the flow guide and flow state regulation and control structures are arranged at key positions of mixing, conveying, steering and the like, so that biomass fibers are always in a controlled flow state in the conveying process, and the probability of winding, bridging and stacking of the fibers in an elbow, a diffusion section and a low-speed area is effectively reduced; compared with an existing technical scheme mainly depending on wear resistance or local resistance reduction design, the anti-blocking effect is more stable and reliable.

The present invention relates to a feed mixing device for particles that can be injected into a reactor, such as a co-flow reactor. Thus, it is possible to utilize the deaggregated particles in the reactor. For example, deaggregation allows for rapid heating of the particles, which is beneficial for, for example, the formation of carbon black.

The invention relates to a device (10) for producing a thermally activated material, the device (10) comprising a thermal activation device (20) having a material cooler (24), the thermal activation device (20) having an oxygen-enriched gas feed opening (30), the device (10) having an air separation device (40), the air separation device (40) having an oxygen-enriched gas feed opening (30), the invention relates to a device (10) for separating gas from oxygen, comprising an air separation device (40) having an oxygen outlet (41) for oxygen-enriched gas and a nitrogen outlet (42) for nitrogen-enriched gas, said oxygen outlet (41) being connected to said oxygen-enriched gas feed port (30), said device (10) having a combustible substance treatment device (50, 55, 56) having a protective gas inlet (52), characterized in that the protective gas inlet (52) is connected to the air separation device (40). The nitrogen outlet (42) and the protective gas inlet (52) are connected directly or to each other by means of a gas heating device, wherein the material cooler (24) is at least partially connected as the gas heating device.

The invention provides an intelligent raw coal bunker separation system which comprises a plurality of independent storage bins, a plurality of lower insertion plate doors, a dynamic mixing device, a data acquisition device and an intelligent control device, and the intelligent control device controls the distribution of a temperature field according to the distribution of the temperature field, the smoke concentration, the output load of a boiler and current environmental protection requirement information. Generating a current demand matrix of the boiler; matching the coal quality data of each storage bin with the current demand matrix to obtain a plurality of target coal types meeting boiler demands; and based on the current demand matrix, solving a multivariable optimization equation to obtain an optimal feeding ratio of the plurality of target coal types so as to control the lower plugboard gates corresponding to the plurality of target coal types based on the optimal feeding ratio. Therefore, fuel storage flexibility can be improved, boiler combustion efficiency can be improved, pollutant emission can be reduced, and coal consumption cost can be optimized.

A process for producing biocoke is provided, comprising: providing a heated biogas stream comprising carbon-containing vapors; providing a kinetic interface media, in solid form; introducing the kinetic interface media and the heated biogas stream to a kinetic interface reactor, operated to convert at least some of the carbon-containing vapors to biocoke; removing the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interface media from the kinetic interface reactor; and recovering the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interface media. Other variations provide a process for producing biocoke, comprising: providing a bioliquid stream comprising carbon-containing liquids; providing a kinetic interface media, in solid form; introducing the kinetic interface media and the bioliquid stream to a kinetic interface reactor, operated to convert at least some of the carbon-containing liquids to biocoke; removing the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interface media from the kinetic interface reactor; and recovering the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interface media. Many embodiments are described.

The present application belongs to the field of metallurgy, and relates to a system and method for adjusting the use and amount of circulating flue gas, comprising a drying furnace, a coal mill, a bag powder collecting device and a pulverized coal fan connected in sequence, wherein a coal feeder and a raw coal bin are connected to the coal mill in sequence, the drying furnace is connected to a chimney and a hot blast furnace through a waste gas induced draft fan, and the pulverized coal fan is connected to the drying furnace through a circulating flue gas pipeline. When the hot blast furnace waste gas supply of the blast furnace is insufficient, the system can stabilize the temperature of the pulverizing system by adjusting the amount of circulating flue gas entering the drying furnace of the pulverizing system, so as to ensure the qualified moisture of the pulverized coal. Meanwhile, during the shutdown of the pulverizing system, a two-step strategy for the cooling process of the whole system is realized, that is, the pulverizing system is first cooled to a safe temperature range by continuously circulating inert circulating flue gas with low oxygen content and low temperature, and then the pulverizing system is rapidly cooled by a large amount of cold air. The shutdown safety of the pulverizing system is ensured, and the shutdown efficiency is improved.

A process for producing biocoke is provided that includes providing a heated biogas stream containing carbon-containing steam, providing a kinetic interfacial medium in solid form, introducing the kinetic interfacial medium and the heated biogas stream into a kinetic interfacial reactor operated to convert at least a portion of the carbon-containing steam to biocoke, removing the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interfacial medium from the kinetic interfacial reactor, and recovering the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interfacial medium. Another variation provides a process for producing biocoke that includes providing a bioliquid stream containing a carbon-containing liquid, providing a kinetic interfacial medium in solid form, introducing the kinetic interfacial medium and the bioliquid stream into a kinetic interfacial reactor operated to convert at least a portion of the carbon-containing liquid to biocoke, removing the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interfacial medium from the kinetic interfacial reactor, and recovering the solid biocoke-containing kinetic interfacial medium. Many embodiments are described.

The application discloses a kind of W flame boiler deep peak shaving method and system suitable for multiple coal kinds.The method of the application comprises: obtaining the received base volatile matter of each coal kind of W flame boiler and the target load of boiler;According to the target load of W flame boiler, the target weighted average flue gas temperature of each burner outlet of target coal kind of coal mill in operation is obtained;The speed of each coal feeder of coal mill in operation is adjusted, and the coal quantity of each coal feeder of coal mill in operation is adjusted according to the target coal quantity of each coal kind of coal mill in operation, so that the received base volatile matter of coal kind of coal mill in operation reaches the target received base volatile matter of coal kind;The opening degree of pulverized coal pipe adjusting door of each burner of coal mill in operation is adjusted, and the coal quantity of each burner of coal mill in operation is adjusted according to the target coal quantity of each burner of coal mill in operation, so that the weighted average flue gas temperature of each burner outlet of coal mill in operation reaches the target weighted average flue gas temperature.The application can expand the peak shaving range of W flame boiler while improving the adaptability of coal kind.

An apparatus for generating steam comprising a dryer configured and arranged to create contact between a high-moisture solid fuel and an oxygen-depleted gas stream and to produce a dried solid fuel, a combustion air system having an air inlet for receiving air and a combustion air outlet for discharging the combustion air stream; a boiler comprising a radiant section, a convective section, and an energy recovery section is disclosed. The apparatus is characterized by the dryer having an inlet section and an outlet section, the inlet section including a high-moisture solid fuel inlet, an oxygen-depleted stream inlet, and a recirculating thermal fluid outlet; the outlet section including a dried solid fuel outlet, an oxygen-depleted stream outlet, and a recirculating thermal fluid inlet, and the dryer is configured to be heated by indirect heat exchange using the recirculating thermal fluid.