Patent ID: 7078235

Claim:
A method for determining a most effective injection rate for SO 3 into a flue gas resulting from a coal burned in a boiler, the method comprising: 1, obtaining proximate and ultimate analyses of the coal being burned in the boiler and ash mineral analysis for the coal, 2, determining an average temperature of the flue gas entering an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) from plant instrumentation, wherein the ESP is powered with multiple electrical fields, 3, estimating SO 3 background level in the flue gas using correlation relating flue gas SO 3 to coal type and coal sulfur content, 4, obtaining a value of a current applied to the ESP from controls for each transformer-rectifier set that is powering the precipitator, 5, determining an effective fly ash resistivity level in the ESP using a correlation that relates fly ash resistivity to ESP current density for each electrical field, and averaging the results to produce the effective resistivity of the fly ash collected in the ESP, 6, a, if the indicated ash resistivity is equal to or less than an optimum resistivity, decreasing the rate of injection by x percent where x is between 5 and 25, or b, if the indicated ash resistivity is greater than the optimum resistivity, increasing the rate of injection by x percent where x is between 5 and 25, 7, repeating step 6 until the indicated fly ash resistivity passes through an optimum resistivity point, setting the rate of injection at a point in the range bounded by the levels calculated in the last two interactions, and then 8, every y minutes, where y is number between 5 and 30, restarting the process beginning at step 2.