Boiler is a function of process equipment that produces steam / vapor.

Steam generated will be used for various purposes, such as turbine propulsion and as a heating medium in the process unit. As shown in the following figure, the water (feedwater) is inserted into the boiler and heated, in this case by the heat of combustion of fuel to produce steam. Fuel used can fuel gas or fuel oil or both (apart from fuel combustion, heat used can also be derived from other sources, such as burning coal, wood / pulp, or other heating media).

In general, the purpose of the control system of the boiler steam is for products produced according to the specifications desired while still keeping the boiler can operate efficiently and safely. Broadly speaking, the boiler control system consists of: 1) drum level control , 2)Combustion control , 3) atomizing control ; 4) Blowdown control ; 5) Steam temperature control . Drum Level Control . The purpose drum level control is to keep the drum level (water level in the drum) stick to its setpoint despite load changes or disturbances / other disturbance. Drum level is too low can cause overheating (overheated) on boiler tubes so that the tubes could be damaged / bent / leaking. Instead drum level is too high will cause the separation of water and steam in the drum is not perfect so the quality of the steam produced is less (a lot of water / wet). There are three alternative / type of drum level control , namely: 1) Single element drum level control , 2) Two-element drum level control , 3) Three-element drum level control . Single-element drum level control . This is the configuration of the drum level control of the most simple, using only feedback control level. Called as only single-element drum level are controlled. Configuration control is commonly used in boilers with a low (<150 000 pounds-per-hour), low pressure (<250 pounds-per-square-inch), and with a relatively fixed expense / stable. Lack configuration control is difficult to maintain the level at setpointnya case load changes constantly.

Two-element drum level control . This configuration is used to overcome the shortcomings of singleelement configuration to handle load fluctuations, ie by adding the steam flow control (which represents the load boiler) as feedforward control. Thus, in this configuration, there are two controllers, namely the level of control as the feedback and steam flow control as feedforward control, so-called two-element control. This configuration is suitable for a single drum boiler pressure conditions / feedwater flow is relatively constant.

Three-element drum level control . This is the most complete configuration, which is formed by adding the feedwater flow control in a cascade configuration. The addition of feedwater flow control is intended to anticipate fluctuations in flow / pressure feedwater, which generally occurs in feedwater line that uses multiple pumps (multiple pump) to serve multiple boiler once (multiple boiler).

Combustion Control. purpose of combustion control is to keep the boiler pressure steam generated to always match the desired (according to its setpoint). Therefore, the configuration of combustion control, steam pressure (usually taken from the steam header) is used as the master control, output in cascade with a fuel-flow control and combustion air flow control (water here means the air). If an increase in load (which is marked by the decline of the steam pressure setpoint her), then the fuel flow control and combustion air flow control will react to open control valve. Conversely, when a decline in the load (which is marked by the increase of the steam pressure setpoint her), then the second control will react to close control valve. Fuel flow control and combustion air flow control to interconnect to ensure that the combustion air / air is always enough fuel available to burn down any changes in the condition of the fuel flow. This is to guard against the accumulation of unburned fuel in the combustion chamber as it is very dangerous (can cause an explosion).Interconnection fuel flow control and combustion air flow control is done via the selector switch (high and low), as shown below.

In this configuration, when an increase in load, then the first to react to open the control valve is the combustion air flow control then the fuel flow control. Conversely, when a decline in the load, then the first to react to close the control valve is the fuel flow control then the combustion air flow control. Master control . As described above, the master control is the pressure in the combustion steam. If more than one boiler is used in parallel, it is necessary to load sharing / load to each boiler. For the purposes of sharing this burden, then the signal / information derived from the master control will be sent to the loading station on each boiler, as shown below. With the loading station, the operator can provide a bias to the master control. Output loading station will be sent to the steam flow control of each boiler.

Sometimes, for a consideration of efficiency, a boiler diopresikan on fixed charges, while others left the boiler load change automatically to match the change in total load. For this purpose, the burden remains boiler is operated based on load (load based), where the master is not steam pressure control, but the steam flow control. Fuel flow - Water flow control . As explained above, that one of the most important things in combustion control is to keep the ratio of fuel flow / combustion air flow (fuel / air ratio) is always fulfilled for complete combustion. Data fuel / air ratio is obtained from the operation test. Indicator complete combustion is if there is excess air (oxygen) to taste the combustion gases. Excess excess water causes inefficient boiler operation because some of the heat will be absorbed by the excess air. Excess water is less also reduces efficiency because some unburned fuel. Even more dangerous is the accumulation of unburned fuel in the combustion chamber as it can cause an explosion. Fuel / air ratio can be changed, partly due to the change in heat content (btu content) of the fuel or change of air temperature. For that it is necessary to control the combustion facility to change the value of this ratio, as shown in the following figure.

Changes in fuel / air ratio can be seen from the change of excess water in the exhaust gases of combustion. Of information about changes in excess water (through measurements with O2 analyzer), this ratio change operators by providing bias as shown above. If the fuel used is fuel gas, it should be fitted with pressure compensation to overcome the pressure fluctuations in the fuel gas supply. If using fuel oil, it is necessary in order to control atomizing fuel oil burning could be more perfect.Atomizing control will be discussed in a separate topic.

When using two types of fuel (fuel gas and fuel oil), then the fuel gas flow measurement and fuel oil flow first and then sent to the summed total fuel flow control as a measurement / process variable (PV) and the combustion of high water selector switch, as shown in the picture above. Furthermore, total fuel flow control output is sent to the respective flow control fuel oil and fuel gas through a divider (FY2) and FY3). Large share of fuel oil and fuel gas are set by the operator via the hand control (HC). The use of high selector (>) before the control valve is to anticipate fluctuations in pressure in the fuel line. Oxygen control . As already explained that in order to cope with changes in fuel / air ratio, giving operators / manually change the bias based on the excess water O2 analyzer measurements. If the heat content (btu content) within the fuel fluctuates constantly, so it is better if the adjustment of the fuel / air

ratio is not done manually, but automatically. This can be done by adding / using O2 control, as shown below.

Optimal value of excess water in boiler operation is not fixed, but depends on the boiler load, the lower the value of the optimal excess burden of high water, contrary to the high load low value of the optimal excess water. Optimal value of excess water in the boiler is obtained from plant / operational test, one example as shown in the following table.

Setpoint for O2 control (AC) will follow the values in the table according to changes in the load, as shown in the above configuration control (run in AY). Fuel / air ratio is also derived from plant / operational test.The following table is an example of the fuel / air ratio of the results of that test.

The function of the fuel / air ratio will be run / executed in FY1 (see picture above). Automatic bias for the fuel / air ratio in FY2 done using the following formula: Bias = water flow (water flow / (0.4 x output oxygen control + 80)) x 100 . Atomizing Control. boilers using fuel oil, atomizing process is required to break up the molecules so that

the fuel oil combustion process runs perfectly. One type of atomizing process is using atomizing steam, ie by applying pressure (using pressure steam) on the fuel oil spray nozzles. In order for atomizing process is always running perfectly on different pressure conditions / fuel oil and steam pressure atiomizing, then use control system calledatomizing control . The purpose is to maintain configuration control atomizing pressure difference (pressure differential) between the atomizing steam and fuel oil into burner that does not change, as shown in the figure below.

Blowdown Control.

Blowdown in boiler system allows you to control the content of solid in the feedwater

to avoid excess. Solid content of the feedwater will be entrained into the steam that is produced, so that when the solid content in the feedwater high, solid content in the steam will also be high, so that it can lower the quality of the steam produced. In addition, solid content in excess feedwater will also cause the

crust / scale on pipe / tube / drum so quickly broken apart equipment, boiler efficiency is also decreased due to the presence of scale will reduce the area of heat transfer (heat transfer area). There are two types of blowdown, the intermittent blowdown and continuous blowdown . Intermittent blowdown operated manually by the operator, based on feedwater quality measurements (measurement of electrolytic conductivity in feedwater) or steam purity measurements using a sodium analyzer. While continuous blowdown will waste water containing solid drum continuously with the amount of exhaust flow is controlled by the measurement / estimate the amount of solid content in the feedwater in the boiler drum. There are two types of control systems used in continuous blowdown, the conductivity control and ratio control . In the configuration control conductivity, electrolytic conductivity was measured using a conductivity meter feedwater online, then signal measurement results are sent to the controller (AC) to drive the control valve, as shown below. The higher electrolytic conductivity meter conductivity measurements, the greater the continuous blowdown control valve opening (the more water is removed / drained), and vice versa.

Continuous blowdown can also be controlled using control ratio, ie the ratio between the blowdown flow and feedwater flow, as shown in the following figure. Setpoint to control ratio was determined / assigned manually based on the results of measurements of the quality of feedwater (electrolytic conductivity) or steam quality (steam purity).

Steam Temperature Control.

For boilers that produce steam at high pressure (HP steam), usually

equipped with a superheater - Desuperheater . Function superheater steam temperature increase resulting boiler (saturated steam). While Desuperheater used to stabilize the temperature of steam coming out of the superheater, the steam spraying roads with water (feedwater). To keep the steam temperature is always stable in the range of the load, then Desuperheater equipped with temperature control, as shown below.

Temperature of steam coming out of Desuperheater measured, the measurement results are used by the temperature control (TC) to move the control valve in the feedwater line into Desuperheater. When the steam temperature is higher than the setpoint, the control valve opens to increase the flow of feedwater into Desuperheater, otherwise if the steam temperature is lower than the setpoint the control valve will close. Note that, in practice, not all types of control discussed above are used, since the use of the type of control depends on the needs. So often we find a boiler control system has a more complete compared to other boilers, such as the two examples below.