Using oxygen, rather than air, in coal-fired boilers has been studied for several years as a strategy to
reduce NOx and concentrate CO2 for capture. In combination with flue gas recirculation, higher levels
of CO2, H2O and SO2 may be expected. In order to understand the role of substrate composition on
corrosion, commercial and model alloys are being investigated both with and without the presence of
synthetic coal ash. The initial work focused on the effect of CO2 concentration on several ferritic steels
at 600°C, but rates were compared with austenitic steels and Ni-base alloys. As expected, the
corrosion rate in the presence of ash and SO2 in the gas was very high and decreased with increasing
alloy Cr content. When the CO2 content was increased by 10%, the metal loss increased but did not
further increase with 20%CO2. Without ash, the presence of CO2 accelerated the attack compared to
steam oxidation rates at 600°C. Surprisingly, the mass changes were similar in CO2-50%H20 without
ash and in the experiment with SO2 and ash. However, these initial ash experiments did not contain
H2O.
Key words: oxy-firing, air firing, fireside corrosion, carbon sequestration