Abstract: As the environmental requirements and emission standards are getting tighter, the research on the ultra-low emission of coal-fired power plants has attracted more attentions. In this paper, a database of electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and coal property is established, which consists of the coal properties and the ESP design and operational parameters of hundreds of coal-fired power plants across all regions of China. Based on the database, the distribution of ash and sulfur contents is analyzed using the coal samples collected from hundreds of power plants. The results show that the high-ash coals are quite common in Southwest China, while in Northeast, Central and North China the coals with medium or medium-high ash content are mostly burned, and in coastal regions the coals with low or ultra-low ash content are prevalent. In terms of sulfur content, the high-sulfur coals are mostly burned in Southwest China, while in the power plants of Shandong, Shanxi, Henan and Hebei provinces of China the medium-sulfur coals are generally burned, and the coals burned in other regions of China are mostly low or ultra-low in sulfur. Moreover, through the case studies on the application of ultra-low particulate emission techniques in three power plants fueled with low-ash & low-sulfur, medium-ash & medium-sulfur and high-ash & high-sulfur content coals respectively, recommendations are provided accordingly on the technical routes of ultra-low particulate emission with regard to different kinds of coal.

Key words: database of electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and coal property, ash content, sulfur content, ultra-low particulate emission, technical route