A ceremony to mark the successful test of a newly-developed high-efficiency aluminum-silicon powder technology is held at CHN Energy Zhunneng Group. [Photo/Ordos Release]

A newly-developed high-efficiency aluminum-silicon powder technology has recently achieved industrial application in the city of Ordos in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Experts from the China National Coal Association conducted an assessment on the technology and agreed that it is at the global cutting-edge.

The technology was developed by CHN Energy Zhunneng Group, which has long been committed to research on the utilization of high-aluminum coal resources under the low-carbon circular economy model.

In 2021, the enterprise carried out a high-efficiency and clean coal-based special fuel preparation test and successfully used self-produced coal to produce nano-hydrocarbon fuel. The fuel has a small particle size, high surface activity, and low ash and sulfur content and features full combustion, a high burnout rate, and low bottom slag emissions.

A technician at CHN Energy Zhunneng Group conducts an experiment on nano-hydrocarbon fuel. [Photo/Ordos Release]

According to the test, the fuel can be fully burned in a low-temperature environment. Unlike raw coal, the burnout rate is more than 98 percent, and the corresponding boiler thermal efficiency is more than 90 percent higher than coal-fired boilers, which greatly reduces sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and soot emissions.

On this basis, the enterprise proposed a fourth-generation circulating fluidized bed combustion technology method for the efficient production of aluminum-silicon powder using nano-hydrocarbon as fuel.

The new method reduces combustible content of aluminum-silicon powder fly ash produced under low-temperature combustion conditions to less than 5 percent and raises alumina content to more than 52 percent. Alumina has higher reactivity and increases the output rate of aluminum-silicon powder.