Coal-Fired Power Plants (CFPPs) Supercritical and Ultra Supercritical Boilers

8 months ago by Thermal Plant 0

The boiler is the most important component of most coal-fired power plants. Virtually every power plant now operating or proposed incorporates a steam turbine in the electricity generating process. The boiler heats water until it becomes steam. When the steam enters a turbine and expands, some of energy within it is lost as the turbine spins. If the steam condenses (i.e., if water droplets form) inside the turbine, it can cause damage to the turbine blades. To prevent this, when the steam is produced, additional heat is added to superheat it and raise the temperature to 1000F at 2400psi. This allows the temperature of the steam to drop without forming water droplets. Depending on the configuration of the plant, the steam is either recycled and reheated or sent to a cooling tower. Boilers of this type are called subcritical boilers because they operate below the critical point of water formation. The critical point of a substance is the temperature and pressure above which the liquid and vapor state are no longer distinguishable. As a liquid is heated, its density decreases while the pressure and density of the vapor being formed increases. As temperature and pressure increase, the liquid and vapor densities become closer and closer to each other until they are the same. At that point, the critical temperature, the 2 densities are equal and the liquid becomes a supercritical fluid.

Under supercritical conditions, the water does not actually boil; it simply decreases in density until it is a vapor. It takes very high temperatures and pressures for most substances to reach this state. The critical point of water occurs at 705F and 3212psi (refer to the chart at the right). Supercritical boilers operate at temperatures and pressures above those conditions. As the supercritical steam turns the high-pressure steam turbine, it passes below the critical point and then enters a condenser. The thermodynamic efficiency of a plant using supercritical steam is higher, 40-42%, than that of a similar subcritical plant, 36-38%. The term ultra-supercritical (USC) applies to boilers that operate using pressures over 4400psi. These advanced boilers take advantage of further increases in thermodynamic efficiency and 2-stage reheating to reach a thermodynamic efficiency of 48%. Supercritical boilers were first developed in the U.S. in the 1950s, but they were unreliable and not operationally flexible. Today, time, experience, and the continuing development of high pressure / temperature materials have made them more robust and flexible. Supercritical boilers are used for all large capacity boiler operations in Japan as well as most European and Asian countries. There are more than 400 supercritical boiler plants in operation worldwide. In the U.S., power companies have been slower to adopt supercritical boilers because most of the plants operating today are very old. But the increasing demand for electricity in the U.S. will inevitably lead to an expansion in the number of new coalfired power plants. Continuing technology advances and strict federal emission standards for new plants will compel companies to adopt the most efficient technologies possible. The Department of Energy funds several programs with industry that have resulted in cost-effective, efficient, low emission designs for new plants that use supercritical technology. Supercritical technology may become the standard for new plants and possibly for plants that are ready for repowering. It is important to note that the boiler technology for a given plant is virtually independent of the combustion unit for that plant. Supercritical technology has proven to be effective with virtually every type, configuration, and size of combustor. This means that almost any plant, whether old or new, can be upgraded to a supercritical boiler to increase the overall plant efficiency. There is a high level of confidence in the technology, and material costs are only 2% higher than for a similar subcritical design. And new developments in high temperature materials are paving the way for the adoption of USC boilers. In the boilers, as the temperature and pressure used for steam increases, the efficiency of the boiler increases as well. The main factor limiting the temperature that can be used is the material used in the piping and fittings. So, to compliment the supercritical technology, the Department of Energy funds research to develop high temperature materials and equipment to work with USC systems.

Posts related to Coal-Fired Power Plants (CFPPs) Supercritical and Ultra Supercritical Boilers

Largest circulating fluidised bed boiler begins production

Triple Pressure HRSG's What are the Advantages?

Coal Power - the Backbone of Power Generation

What are the types of HRSG's?

Tags: Boilers, coal, coal fired, coal mine, Coal-Fired Power Plants, Combined Cycle, critic boiler, Cyclone Furnaces, featured, power plant, pulvarization, pulvarizer, sup critic, Supercritical, Supercritical Boilers, thermal energy, thermal plant, Ultra Supercritical

Introduction Low grade heat in an acid plant is often rejected into the environment through the cooling water system. Energy efficient plants often employ this energy for preheating boiler feed water (BFW). There are two basic types of BFW heating that can be done: 1. 2. Heating of undeaerated water entering the deaerator Heating of BFW being delivered to the boiler (other than in an economizer)

Preheating the boiler feed water prior to entering the deaerator minimizes the use of low pressure steam in the deaerator. There are some important points to remember when specifying a system to preheat undeaerated boiler feed water. If too much preheating is done this may cause problems in the operation of the deaerator. The supply of stripping and heating steam to the deaerator is done under pressure control. If the boiler feed water is heated to its saturation point the pressure controller may reduce or cut-off the supply of steam to the deaerator, reducing its ability to strip oxygen and carbon dioxide from the water. The exit temperature from the boiler feed water heater should not approach the deaerator operating temperature by more than 17oC (30oF).

Prevention and detection of leakage from the heating fluid into the boiler feed water is also required to prevent contamination of the water being feed to the boiler. Damage to a boiler can result if harmful chemicals are allowed to enter the boiler through an undetected leak. Preheating the boiler feed water prior to entering the boiler is done to maximize steam production or to preheat the feed water to an economizers to minimize the chance of gas side condensation. Acid System BFW Systems In most acid plants heat from the acid system is rejected to cooling water through the acid coolers. This energy can easily be recovered by preheating undeaerated boiler feed water. Acid circulating in the absorber acid system is generally used for BFW preheating because it is the hottest acid. The BFW heater is placed in parallel with the Absorber Acid Cooler with the acid on the shellside as in all acid coolers. Like all acid coolers the unit will be anodically protected. The Absorber Acid Cooler should be designed for the full cooling duty assuming that the BFW heater is off-line. Preheating BFW is secondary to acid temperature so the control system should be designed to maintain the desired acid temperature to the tower. Since the BFW heater is generally install in parallel to another acid cooler, the heater should be designed for a similar pressure drop. This be dependent on the available pump discharge head but generally does not exceed 15 psi. The boiler feed water flows through the tubeside of the BFW heaters. If possible, the system should be designed so the BFW pressure is higher than the acid pressure. This will ensure that if a leak occurs, leakage will be from the water side into the acid side, thus reducing the chance of contaimination of the BFW. At the exit of the exchanger on the water side, pH and conductivity analyzers should be installed to continuously monitor the water. Changes in pH and conductivity may indicate an acid leak into the water side. When a low pH or high conductivity alarm occurs, the operating procedure should require the operators to investigate immediately. As an additional precaution, the system can be designed to automatically dump the BFW preventing contaminated water from entering the boiler. In this case a supply of BFW (i.e. BFW Surge Tank) is required to maintain feed to the deaerator. The pressure drop through the BFW heater is generally low. The BFW flowrate is generally much lower than the acid flowrate. When the exchanger is designed for the required heatload and shellside pressure drop, the resulting number of tubes results in a low pressure drop. Blowdown Heat Recovery Boiler blowdown represents energy losses and and cost of chemicals required to treat the water. Often the blowdown is simply flashed in a tank and the resulting vapour sent to atmosphere and the liquid to drain. Sometimes the vapour is recovered as low pressure steam for use in a deaerator or sent to a low pressure steam header. When quantity of boiler blowdown is high, the heat in this stream can be used to preheat the incoming fresh make-up water. To accomplish this a simple liquid/liquid exchanger is used. Steam Drum Attemperator A steam drum attemperator is a series of tubes submerged in the boiler steam drum. This system is used primarily to preheat the water before entering an economizer to minimize the chance of condensation in the economizer.

The BFW outlet temperature is controlled by a three-way valve which diverts BFW to the attemperator for heating. The heated BFW is mixed with the cold BFW to obtain the desired temperature. The three-way valve should fail in a position that bypasses the attemperator. The design of a steam drum attemperator is done by the boiler vendor. BFW pressure drops should not exceed 10 psi. The steam drum may need to be increased in size to accommodate the attemperator tubes. The temperature to which the BFW is heated is dependent on the individual cases. Temperatures of 120 to 130oC are generally high enough the prevent condensation and are not too high that the size of the economizers are excessive. Desuperheating Exchangers Excess superheat in the steam can be regulated by using the heat to preheat boiler feed water. The primary function in this case is to control the superheat temperature as opposed to the outlet BFW temperature. The desuperheater is simply a heat exchanger - shell and tube, U-tube, etc. - with the BFW on the tube side and superheated steam on the shell side. The pressure drop on the BFW and steam side should not exceed 10 psi. Fouling factors should be used for both the tubeside and shellside. A value of 0.001 h ft2 oF/BTU is typical.

What is Steam Quality? Steam quality is the proportion of saturated steam (vapor) in a saturated condensate (liquid)/ steam (vapor) mixture. A steam quality of 0 indicates 100 % liquid, (condensate) while a steam quality of 100 indicates 100 % steam. One (1) lb of steam with 95 % steam and 5 % percent of liquid entrainment has a steam quality of 0.95. The measurements needed to obtain a steam quality measurement are temperature, pressure, and entrained liquid content. A high percentage (88 % or more) of industrial steam systems use saturated steam for process applications. Saturated steam (meaning steam that is saturated with energy) is completely gaseous and contains no liquid. The boiler operation uses chemical energy from a fuel source to deliver energy to the boiler water. Inside the boiler, liquid gains energy from the combustion process and changes state into saturated steam. Water enters the boiler at point A and the water gains sensible energy (hf) to point B. The change of state is referenced as point B on the chart. As the saturated steam acquires more energy from the boiler combustion process, the steam achieves a high quality, (moving left to right) as represented on the chart, points B to C. The increase in energy gained by the steam from points C to D goes toward the superheat of the vapor. There exists a directly proportional relationship between temperature and pressure in saturated steam. That is, as the temperature increases so does the pressure. Illustrated by the Lines of

constant pressure on the graph, more sensible energy (hf) is needed to for water to transition from point A to point B and become a vapor. When steam enters the process, the energy level goes from right to left as the process absorbs the energy from the steam. Why Steam Quality is Important Todays manufacturing techniques of heat transfer, control, and standards are all dedicated to improving and providing the highest quality product to the market place. To attain the highest quality, each manufactured component of the final product is inspected repeatedly, and measured for its quality to ensure that it meets the manufacturers and consumers expectations. Steam is a vital and critical part in producing the final product; therefore steam quality should be one of the main measurable points in producing a product in todays manufacturing facility. All heat transfer components (shell/tube, plate/frame, plate/coil, tracing, etc.) base performance calculations on 100 % steam quality, unless the manufacturer is informed by the end user that the steam quality is lower than 100 %. Unfortunately, steam quality is typically not monitored closely and is assumed to be 100 % quality. Therefore, issues that arise from poor steam quality are blamed on some other item in the system. Based on field documentation by Swagelok Energy Advisors Inc., a high percentage of steam systems are operating below acceptable steam quality levels. What are the effects of Steam Quality? Low steam quality affects steam system operations in many ways. 1. Reduced heat transfer efficiency: The major problem with low steam quality is the affect on the heat transfer equipment and process. In some cases, low steam quality can reduce heat transfer efficiency by more than 65 %. The liquid entrained in the steam has sensible energy (16 % estimated varies with pressure) which has a significantly lower amount of energy than the steam vapors latent energy (94 %). Therefore, less usable energy is being delivered to the steam process equipment. Also, the additional liquid (low steam quality) collects on the wetted surface of the

heat exchanger causing an additional build up of a liquid which reduces the ability of the steams latent energy to be transfer to the product. 2. Premature Valve Failure: Liquid passing through steam control valves will erode the internals of the valves causing premature failure. 3. Internal Turbine Component Failures: Liquid introduced with the steam in a saturated turbine operation will reduce the life expectancy of the internal components. 4. Waterhammer Steam systems are usually not designed to accommodate the additional liquid in steam. Additional liquid creates the chance for waterhammer to occur. Waterhammer is a safety issue, and may cause premature failure in the steam system. How is Steam Quality measured? A true measurement of steam quality can be obtained from the use of a throttling calorimeter and Ganapathys steam plant calculations. Unfortunately, most industrial plants do not have the luxury or capability of doing the testing. Another way to measure steam quality is relying on the basics of steam. Saturated steam is a dry invisible gas and only becomes visible with the entrained air or liquid. Therefore, opening a steam valve and allowing steam to be released into the atmosphere provides an estimate of the steam quality in the system. Examples: Picture number 1 indicates an acceptable steam quality. The discharge from the valve through the tube is almost invisible. Picture number 2 shows the discharge from the valve off the steam line to be very visible with liquid being discharged with the steam vapor. Steam quality is not acceptable for the process.

Picture number 3 shows the discharge from the valve off the steam line to be very visible with liquid being discharged with the steam vapor. Steam quality is not acceptable for the process. Roadmap to ensure a High Steam Quality. The following items will ensure a high steam quality. 1.) Insulate steam lines and components. 2.) Establish proper steam line drip leg steam trap stations. 3.) Develop proper startup procedures. 4.) Implement a proactive boiler chemical program. 5.) Implement a proactive steam system management program. 6.) Install steam separators (mechanical coalescing design), if needed.