STEAM BOILERS

Muninathan K
Assistant Professor
St. Joseph’s College of Engineering
OMR, Chennai
 Definition
A closed vessel in which steam is
produced from water by combustion of
fuel

Definition as per A S M E
A combination of apparatus for producing,
furnishing or recovering heat together with
the apparatus for transferring the heat so
made available to the fluid being heated and
vaporized.
 Purpose of Steam Generators
 For generating power in steam engine and steam
turbines

 Sizing and Bleaching (Textile & chemical

Industries, Sugar Mills etc.)

 Heating the building

Primary Requirements
 The Water must be contained safely

 The Steam must be safely delivered in desired

condition ( P, T, x, m )
 Requirements of Good Boiler
 The installation of the boiler should be simple

 It should occupy minimum space

 It should be in light in weight

 It should be capable of quick starting

 It should be absolutely reliable

 Easy access to the boiler parts for repair and inspection

 Steam production rate should be as per requirements

 Boiler tubes should not accumulate soot or allow scaling

 Sufficiently strong to allow wear and corrosion

 The boiler should produce the maximum weight of steam of the

required quality at minimum expenses
 Selection of Boiler
 The working Pressure and Quality of Steam

 Floor area available

 Accessibility for repair and inspection

 Comparative initial cost

 Erection facilities

 The portable load factor

 The fuel and water available

 Operating and maintenance costs

 Classification of boilers
 Horizontal, vertical or inclined

 Fire tube and water tube

 Externally fired and internally fired

 Forced circulation and natural

circulation

 High pressure and low pressure

 Stationary and portable

 Single tube and multi tube

Horizontal, vertical or inclined
If the axis of the boiler is horizontal,
vertical or inclined then it is called
horizontal, vertical or inclined boiler
respectively
 Fire Tube Boiler
If hot gases are inside the tube and water is
outside the tube, it is called fire-tube boiler.
Examples: Cochran, Lancashire and
locomotive boilers
 Water Tube Boiler
 Ifwater is inside the tube and hot gases are outside
the tube, it is called fire-tube boiler.
 Examples: Babcock and Wilcox, Stirling,
Yarrow boiler etc
 Externally fired and internally fired
 The boiler is known as externally fired if the fire is outside the shell.
 Examples: Babcock and Wilcox, Stirling

 The boiler is known as internally fired if the furnace is located

inside the boiler shell.
 Examples: Cochran, Lancashire
 Forced circulation and Natural circulation
 In forced circulation type of boilers, the circulation of water
is done by a forced pump
 In natural circulation type of boilers, circulation of water in
the boiler takes place due to natural convection currents
produced by the application of heat
 High pressure and low pressure

 The boilers which produce steam at pressures

of 80 bar and above are called high pressure
boilers

 Theboilers which produce steam at pressure

below 80 bar are called low pressure boilers
 Stationary and portable

 Stationary boilers are used for power plant-steam, for central station
utility power plants, for plant process steam etc

 Mobile or portable boilers include locomotive type, and other small

unit for temporary use at sites
Comparison of fire tube and water tube boilers

Particulars Fire-tube boilers Water-tube boilers

Position of water and hot Hot gases inside the tubes Water inside the tubes
gases and water outside the and hot gases outside the
tubes tubes
Mode of firing Generally internally fired Externally fired
Operation pressure Limited to 16 bar Can go up to 100 bar
Rate of steam production Lower Higher
Suitability Not suitable for large Suitable for large power
power plants plants
Risk on bursting Involves lesser risk of More risk on bursting
explosion due to lower due to high pressure
pressure
Floor area For a given power it For a given power it
occupies more floor area occupies less floor area
Construction Difficult Simple
 Boiler mountings
 Pressure gauge
 Fusible plug
 Stop valve
 Feed check valve
 Safety valve
 Water level indicator
 Blow off cock
 Mud and man holes
 Pressure Gauge
Functions:
It indicates the pressure of steam inside in boiler.
 Pressure Gauge
Constructions:
• The gauge is usually mounted on the front top side of the shell or on
the drum.
• It is having dial which graduated to read pressure in bar, above atmosphere.
• A Bourdon tube gauge with its interior mechanism is shown in figure.
• The circular bent bourdon tube of oval-cross section is close at one end and
connected at the other end to steam space of boiler through siphon (U-tube).
• The siphon is filled with water which prevents hot steam from entering the
pressure gauge and keeps the gauge cool.
• Closed end of bourdon tube is attached to a toothed quadrant with help of link
and pin. This quadrant meshes with a small pinion on the central spindle.

Working Principle:
• When pressure is applied to inside of oval bourdon tube, its cross section
tends to becomes circular, and free end of bourdon tube try to becomes
straight, so turning the spindle by the links and gearing.
• This causes the needle to move and indicate pressure on graduated dial.
 Fusible plug
 The main purpose of a fusible plug is to extinguish the fire in the furnace of
the boiler when the water level in the boiler falls below an unsafe level.
 Thus, explosion is avoided which may take place due to overheating of the
tubes and shell.
 It is generally fitted over the crown of the furnace or over the combustion
chamber.
 This is shown in Fig. Plugs A and B are separated by fusible metal.
 Fusible plug

Location:

It is located just above the furnace in the boiler. It consists of gun metal

plug fixed in a gun metal body with fusible molten metal.

Construction:

• It is fitted over the combustion chamber. The fusible plug consists of two

hollow guns and one conical plug shown as figure.

• A hollow gun metal body is screwed to the fire box of boiler.

• Another hollow gun metal is screwed to the first body.

• Third plug is made from copper is locked with the second plug by pouring

metal in to the grooves provided on the both plugs.

 Working of Fusible plug
 In normal case, when the boiler contains sufficient water, the plug also

remains covered by water.

 The low melting point (tin or lead) does not melt till the upper surface of plug

is submerged in water.

 But when the water level falls, the plug is exposed to steam. Because the

steam temperature is larger than the water temperature, the fusible metal

melts. Plug B drops down and the steam starts blowing to the combustion

chamber to extinguish fire.

 Steam stop valve
Functions:
It is used to regulate the flow of steam from boiler to the steam pipe or from
one steam pipe to the other.

Constructions:
 The flange of valve body bolted to the boiler at the highest part of steam
space. It consists of valve seat and nut.
 The main body of valve is made of cast iron and valve seat made from gun
metal.
 When steam stop valve is placed directly over the boiler and connected to
the steam pipe line is called the junction valve.
 If it is placed near to prime mover than normally called steam stop valve.
 The lower ends of spindle connected to valve upper and pass through gland
and yoke, and connected with hand wheel. The gland is used to prevent the
leakage of steam.
Steam stop valve
 Steam stop valve
Working Principle:
 The spindle it rotated by help of hand wheel due to rotation of spindle the
valve move up and down.
 When the valve sits over the valve seat, the passage of steam is completely
closed.
 The steam passage may be partially or fully opened by moving the valve up,
help of rotating the hand wheel the clearance (passage) between valve and
valve seat regulates the flow of steam out of boilers.
 In locomotive boilers, the supply of the steam is regulated by means of a
regulator which is placed inside boiler cell and operated by a handle from
driver’s cabin.
 Feed check valve

Functions:
 To allow the feed water to pass/enters
into the boiler.

 To prevent the back flow of water from

the boiler, when the feed pump
pressure is less than boiler pressure or
pump is stopped by using of a non
return valve.
 Feed check valve
Constructions:
 The feed check valve is fitted in to the water space of the boiler just below
the normal level of the water.
 It consist of a non-return valve, water inlet pipe, outlet pipe, spindle, wheel
and gland as shown in figure.
 The outlet pipe of valve is connected with the delivery pipe of feed pump.

Working Principle:
 Inlet and outlet pipe of valve expose different pressure.
 At the inlet of valve the feed pump pressure acts and outlet pipe of the
valve the boiler pressure acts. When the feed pump is in operation.
 The pressure on the feed pump side (inlet) is more than pressure on the
boiler side (outlet).
 This pressure difference lifts the non return valve and allows water flow
into boiler.
 Safety Valves
Functions:
 Safety valve is used to guard the boiler against the
excessive high pressure of steam inside the drum.
 If the pressure of steam in the boiler drum exceeds the working
pressure then the safety valve allows blow-off the excess quantity
of steam to atmosphere.
 Thus the pressure of steam in the drum falls. The escape of steam
makes a audio noise to warm the boiler attendant.

Locations:
Safety valves are located on the top of the boiler.
 Safety Valves
Types of Safety Valves:
 Dead weight safety valve.
 Spring loaded safety valve
 Lever loaded safety valve
 High steam and low water safety valve

Constructions:
 It consists of a cast iron body having two branch pipes.
 Two separate valves are placed over the valve seat.
 A lever is placed over the valve by means of two pivots.
 The lever is held tight at its proper position by means of a spring.
 One end of spring is connected with the lever while other end with the body
of the valve.
 The valve is kept on it seats with help of spring force.
 Safety Valves
Working Principle:
 In the normal condition, the downward force
due to spring is higher than upward force
applied by steam.
 The valve is closed due to spring force.
 When steam pressure exceeds the normal
limit, upward force due to steam pressure is
become higher than downward force due to
spring.
 Thus the valves are lifted from their seats
opening the passages for steam to release
out of boiler.
 Water Level Indicator
Functions:
It indicate the water level inside the boiler vessel. It shows the level in the
boiler drum.
Construction:
 Normally two water level indicator are fitted into the boiler.
 These are fitted at the front end side of every boiler.
 Water level indicator consists of three cock as steam cock, water cock,
drain cock and glass tube.
 The steam cock connect or disconnects the glass tube with steam
space.
 The water cock connect or disconnect the glass tube with water in the
boiler.
 The drain cock is used to drain out the water in from glass tube at
interval to ensure that the steam and water cock are clear in operation.
 The glass tube protected by means of a cover which is specially made.
 Water Level Indicator
Working Principle:
 When steam cock and water cock opened, steam rushes from upper
passage and water rushed from lower from passage to the glass tube.
 This will indicate the level of water in the boiler. Two ball are places at the
junction of metal tube. Under normal operating condition the ball are kept.
 full line circle in case the glass tube is
broken, steam will rushes from upper
passage and water from lower passage
due to pressure difference between boiler
pressure at atmospheric pressure. the
ball are carrier along the passage to and
of glass tube and then closed passages.
 This position of ball sown in fig by dotted
circle. Thus flow of water and steam out
of boiler is prevented
 Blow off cock
 To drain out water from the boiler for internal cleaning
inspection or other purposes
 Blow off cock
Function:
The function of blow-off cock is
 To discharge mud and other sediments deposited in the bottom
most part of the water space in the boiler, while boiler is in
operation.
 To drain-off boiler water.

Location:
It is mounted at the lowest part of the boiler. When it is open,
water under the pressure rushes out, thus carrying sediments and
mud.
 Blow off cock
Construction:
It is fitted on the boiler shell directly or through the short branch of pipe at
lowest part of the water space.
It consists of gun metal conical plug having a rectangular hole, spindle with
yoke a shown in fig.
The plug meshes accurately into the similar casing.
The plug spindle is generally rotated by mean of spanner on the top of the
yoke, two vertical slots are provided for fixing spanner.

Operation Principle:
When rectangular hole of plug is brought in line with casing hole by rotating
spindle, the water flow out. When the solid portion of the plug is in front of
casing hole the water cannot flow out of boiler.
 Mud and man holes
 To allow men to enter in to the boiler for
inspection and repair
Boiler Accessories
 Economizer
 The purpose of economizer is to heat the feed water by the
direct use of the heat of flue gas discharged to the atmosphere
through chimney.
 The economizer reduces the temperature of flue gas. The feed
water temperature is increased substantially.
 Thus, there is a saving in heat. The boiler efficiency is increased
substantially.
 The economizer is placed in the path of the exit gas nearer to
the boiler.
Advantages:
 There is about 15-20% of coal saving

 It increases the steam raising capacity of a boiler

 Its prevents formation of scale in boiler water tubes, because the scale

now formed in the economiser tubes, which can be cleaned easily.

 Air Pre-heater
 The function of the air pre-heater is to increase the
temperature of air before it enters the furnace.
 Air Pre-heater
 It is placed after the economizer.
 Flue gases pass through the economizer and then to the
air preheater
 Degree of preheating depends on
 Type of fuel
 Type of fuel burning equipment, and
 Rating at which the boiler and furnace are operated
 Air Pre-heater
 The function of the air pre-heater is to increase the
temperature of air before it enters the furnace.
 It is placed after the economizer.
 Flue gases pass through the economizer and then to the
air preheater
 Degree of preheating depends on
 Type of fuel
 Type of fuel burning equipment, and
 Rating at which the boiler and furnace are operated
 Super heater
 The function of a super heater is to increase the
temperature of the steam above its saturation
point
 The super heater is very important accessory of a
boiler and can be used both on fire tube and
water – tube boilers.
Advantages of super heated steam

 Steam consumption of the engine or

turbine is reduced

 Erosion of turbine blade is eliminated

 Efficiency of the steam plant is increased

 Losses due to condensation in the

cylinders and the steam pipes are
reduced.
 Steam Separator
 The function of a steam separator is to remove
the entrained water particles from the steam
conveyed to the steam engine or turbine.

 It is installed as close to the steam engine as

possible on the main steam pipe from the boiler
Steam Separator
 Feed pumps
 Used to deliver feed water to the boiler. It is
desirable that the quantity of water supplied
should be at least equal to that evaporated and
supplied to the engine

 Two types of which are commonly used as feed

pumps are

(1) Reciprocating pump

(2) Rotary pump

 LOW PRESSURE BOILER

 Simple Vertical Boiler

 Cochran Boiler

 Locomotive Boiler

 Lancashire Boiler
Simple Vertical Boiler
 Simple Vertical Boiler
Simple vertical boiler is one whose axis of orientation is vertical
with respect to the ground. It is a fire tube or a water tube
boiler.

Parts of simple vertical boiler

Ash pit Grate Feed check valve

Fire hole Fire box Cross box
Hand hole Fire box Fusible plug
Water gauge Cylindrical shell Steam space
Manhole Pressure gauge Steam stop valve
Safety valve Uptake Chimney
 Simple Vertical Boiler
Working of Simple Vertical Boiler:

 In a simple vertical boiler fuel is added through the fire hoke

into the grate which burn there to produce the hot gases.
 Fuel when converted into ash is collected into the ash pit.
 Hot gases rises above and pass their heat to the water in the
cross box and go out of the boiler through the chimney.
 Water heats up and steam production starts.
 Steam which produce as a result of water heating is collected at
the steam space of the boiler.
 Steam is collected until a certain pressure is attain and then
steam is passed out for use like running turbine or engine.
 Simple Vertical Boiler
Advantages of simple vertical
boiler
 Low initial cost because of
lesser parts
 Low maintenance cost
 Simple working
 Easy to install and replace
 Occupy small space on
ground
 Simple vertical boiler have
water level tolerance
Disadvantages of simple vertical
boiler
 Vertical design limits its working
in many places
 Because of the limited grate area
steam production is limited
 Impurities settle down at the
bottom thus prevent water from
heating
 Boiler tubes must be kept short to
minimise height. As a result,
much of the available heat is lost
through the chimney, as it has
too little time to heat the tubes.
Cochran Boiler
 Cochran Boiler
Cochran boiler is one of the best types of multi-tubular
vertical fire tube boiler. It has a number of horizontal
smoke tubes. It is internally fired, natural circulation
fire tube boiler

Construction Details:

 It consists of a vertical cylindrical shell having dome shaped

top where the steam space is provided.

 The hemispherical shaped furnace provided at the bottom

most part of the boiler in which the fuel is burnt on a grate.

 Cochran Boiler
Construction Details:
 The ash pit is provided below the grate for collecting ash after

regular intervals.

 The hemispherical shape furnace without a single weld makes the

furnace strongest structure under compression and suitable to resist

the intense heat produced by the combustion of fuel.

 A fire door and a damper is provided for feeding coal to the grates

and controlling the amount of air entering the grate

 Adjacent to the furnace, the boiler has a fire brick lined combustion

chamber which is connected to the furnace through a small flue

pipe.

 The furnace and a small flue pipe are surrounded by water on all

sides.
 Cochran Boiler
Construction Details:
 After the combustion chamber a number of horizontal,
equally spaced fire tubes are provided.
 The fire tubes are also completely surrounded by water.
 After horizontal fire tubes, a smoke box and a chimney are
provided for the discharge of the gases to the atmosphere.
 The smoke box is fitted with a door for cleaning and
inspecting of fire tubes.
 There are connections provided on the shell at appropriate
places for fixing the usual boiler mounting such as pressure
gauge, safety valve, feed check valve, blow off cock, steam
stop valve, and water level indicator etc. Different accessories
are also located at their proper place.
 Cochran Boiler
Working:
(i) Path of Flue gas:
 The hot flue gases produced from the burning of the fuel in
furnace rise up and enter through the small flue pipe into the
combustion chamber.
 There after the hot flue gases pass through the horizontal fire
tubes and the smoke box before finally discharged to the
atmosphere through the chimney.
 The flue gases during their travel from fire box to the chimney
give its heat to the surrounding water to generate steam.
(ii) Path of steam flow:
 The feed water is supplied uniformly to the shell controlled by a
feed check valve.
 When the boiler is heated, the cold water in the shell courses
down and hot water rises up between the fire tubes by natural
circulation
 Cochran Boiler
Working:

 The steam is generated and collected in the steam space over

the water surface of the shell.

 The steam collected in the steam space then passes through the

antipriming pipe where most of the water particles present in

the steam are removed.

(iii) Draft system:

 In this the draft is produced by natural circulation of air and gas

usually done naturally with the help of a chimney.

 Locomotive Fire- Tube Boiler
 It is so designed that it is capable of meeting the sudden and
fluctuating demands of steam which may be imposed on it
because of variation of power and speed.

 The steam pressure ranges from 12.6 bar to 21 bar and the
capacity varies from 900 to 4000 kg per hour.
Locomotive Fire- Tube Boiler
 Locomotive Fire- Tube Boiler
Construction
 It consists of a cylindrical steel shell with a rectangular fire-box
at the back end and a small smoke box at the front end.
 The fire-box has a combustion chamber with fire grate at the
bottom.
 The fire box is water cooled on all the three sides except the
bottom.
 A fire door is provided in the fire box through which coal is
introduced into the grates.
 The fire brick arch in the fire box is provided to deflect the
flames and hot flue gases upwards so that they come in close
contact with the heating surface of the fire box.
 Ash pit is provided under the grate for depositing the ash.
 Locomotive Fire- Tube Boiler
Construction
 A The horizontal fire tubes are placed longitudinally inside the shell
through which the hot gases pass from the furnace to the smoke box.
 These tubes are always immersed in water.
 Some of these tubes are of larger diameter and others of smaller
diameter. The superheater tubes of small diameter are placed inside
the fire-tubes of larger diameter.
 A smoke box door in front of the smoke box gives access to fire tubes
for cleaning, inspection and repairing of the boiler.
 The steam dome is located at the centre of the shell from which
steam is supplied to superhaeters to steam engine.
 The function of dome is to increase the steam release capacity and to
increase the distance of steam from water line which reduces priming.
 Locomotive Fire- Tube Boiler
Working:
(i) Path of Flue gas:
o The hot gaseous products from fire box pass through the series
of fire tubes and pass out to the smoke box.
o In this boiler the flue gas complete its path only in one pass.
o During the travel of hot gases from the grate to the chimney,
they give heat to the water and generate steam.

(ii) Path of steam flow:

o The water is pumped into the boiler and heated through heating
surface of the boiler until steam is produced.
o The steam so generated is collected over the water surface in the
steam dome.
o The dry saturated steam from steam dome is then supplied to
the steam engine by turning lever fitted in the cab.
 Locomotive Fire- Tube Boiler
 In order to get superheated steam,the steam from steam dome is
directed into the superaheaters tubes through the superheater
header with the help of a regulator and lever arrangement.
 The superheated steam thus formed is supplied to the steam engine
by a superheater exit pipe attached to the superheater exit header.

(iii) Draft system:

 Because the chimney is short, the draft produced by natural
circulation is not possible so the artificial draft has to the created to
drive out the burnt gases.
 The artificial draft is created by either motion of steam engine on
rails or periodic rush of spent steam from the steam engine or a
blower is mounted at the inlet of the chimney.
 Lancashire Boiler
 This boiler works on the basic principle of heat ex-changer.

 It is basically a shell and tube type heat ex-changer in which

the flue gases flow through the tubes and the water flows

through shell.

 The heat is transfer from flue gases to the water through

convection.

 It is a natural circulation boiler which uses natural current

to flow the water inside the boiler.

Lancashire Boiler
 Lancashire Boiler
 The fuel is burn at the grate.
 The water is pumped into the shell through the economizer
which increases the temperature of water.
 Now the shell is half filled with water.
 The fire tube is fully immersed into the water.
 The fuel is charged at the grate which produces flue gases.
 These flue gases first passes through the fire tube from one
end to another.
 This fire tubes transfer 80-90% of total heat to the water.
 The backward flue gases passes from the bottom passage
where it transfer 8-10% heat to water.
 The remaining flue gases passes from the side passage where
it transfer 6-8% of heat to water.
 Lancashire Boiler
 The brick is the lower conductor of heat, so work as heat
insulator.
 The steam produces in drum shell it taken out from the
upper side where it flows through super heater if required.
So the steam produce is taken by out for process work.

Advantage:
o This boiler is easy to clean and
inspect.
o It is more reliable and can generate
large amount of steam.
o This boiler is a natural circulation
boiler so lower electricity
consumption than other boilers.
o It can easily operate.
o It can easily meet with load
requirement.
o Lancashire boiler has high
thermal efficiency about 80-
90%.
o It required less maintenance.
 Lancashire Boiler
Disadvantages:

1. This boiler required more floor space.

2. This boiler has leakage problem.

3. It requires more time to generate steam.

4. It cannot generate high pressure steam if required.

5. Grates are situated at the inlet of fire tube, which has

small diameter. So the grate area is limited in this boiler.

 Babcock and Wilcox Boiler
It is a Horizontal drum axis, natural draft, natural circulation,
multitubular, stationary, high pressure, solid fuel fired, externally
fired water tube boiler.
 Babcock and Wilcox Boiler
 Drum: It is horizontal axis drum which contains water and steam.
 Down Take Header: It is present at rear end of the boiler and
connects the water tubes to the rear end of the drum. It receives
water from the drum.
 Up Take Header: it is present at front end of the boiler and
connected to the front end of the drum. It transports the steam from
the water tubes to the drum.
 Water Tubes: They are the tubes in which water flows and gets
converted into steam. It exchanges the heat from the hot flue gases
to the water. It is inclined at angle of 10-15 degree with the
horizontal direction. Due to its inclination the water tubes do not
completely filled with water and the water and steam separated out
easily.
 Babcock and Wilcox Boiler

 Baffle Plates: Baffle plates are present in between water tubes and

it allows the zigzag motion of hot flue gases from the furnace.

 Fire Door: It is used to ignite the solid fuel in the furnace.

 Grate: It is a base on which the burning of the solid fuel takes

place.

 Mud Collector: It is present at the bottom of down take header and

used to collect the mud present in the water.

 Feed Check Valve: it is used to fill water into the drum.10. Damper:

It regulates the flow of air in the boiler.

 Babcock and Wilcox Boiler
The various boiler mounting and accessories used in this type of
boiler are:

 Superheater: It increases the temperature of saturated steam to the

required temperature before discharging it from steam stop valve.
 Pressure Gauge: It is used to check the pressure of steam within
the boiler drum.
 Water Level Indicator: It shows the level of water within the drum.
 Safety Valve: It is a valve which acts when the pressure of steam
within the boiler drum increase above the safety level. It opens and
releases the extra steam in the environment to maintain the
desired pressure within the boiler./
 Babcock and Wilcox Boiler
Working

 Now let’s discuss the working of Babcock and Wilcox boiler step by
step.
 First the water starts to come in the water tubes from drum through
down take header.
 The water present in the inclined water tubes gets heated up by the
hot flue gases. The coal burning on the grate produces hot flue gases
and it is forced to move in zigzag way with the help of baffle plates.
 As the hot flue gases come in contact with water tubes, it exchanges
the heat with water and converts it into steam.
 The steam generated is moved upward and through up take header it
gets collected at upper side in the boiler drum.
 Babcock and Wilcox Boiler
 An anti-priming pipe is provided in the drum. This anti-priming pipe

filters the water content from the steam and allows only dry steam

to enter into superheater.

 The superheater receives the water free steam from the anti-priming

pipe. It increases the temperature of steam to desired level and

transfers it to the steam stop valve.

 The superheated steam from the steam stop valve is either collected

in a steam drum or made to strike on the steam turbine for

electricity generation.
 Babcock and Wilcox Boiler
Disadvantages
Advantages
 High maintenance cost.
 Steam generation capacity is high.
 It is not much suitable for
It is about 2000 to 40000 kg/hr.
impure and sedimentary water.
 It occupies less space.
 Continuously supply of feed
 Replacement of defective tubes is
water is required for the
easy.
working. In the case if feed
 It is the only boiler that is used to
water is not continuously
generate large quantity of heat in
supplied even for a short period
power stations.
of time, the boiler gets
 The draught loss is minimum.
overheated. Water level must
 Inspection of this types of boiler
be carefully watched during the
can be done anytime during its
operation of the Babcock and
working.
Wilcox boiler.
La Mont Boiler
 La Mont Boiler
 Lamont boiler is a high pressure, forced circulation, water
tube boiler with internally fired furnace.
 An external pump is used to circulate the water within small
diameter water tubes of the boiler.
 This boiler was invented by Walter Douglas La-Mont in the
year 1925.
 At that time this boiler was invented to use in ships

Working Principle
It works on the principle of forced circulation of water within
the boiler with the help of centrifugal pump. Its working is
totally depends upon the pump. The centrifugal pump
circulates the mixture of steam and water through the small
diameter tubes of the boiler.
 La Mont Boiler
Construction
 Feed pump: It supply the feed water into the boiler form hot well.
 Economizer: It increases the temperature of the feed water to some degree.
 Steam separating drum: As its names indicates, the steam separating drum
separates the steam form the water. The steam gets collected at the upper
portion and water at the lower portion of the drum.
 Circulating pump: It is a centrifugal pump driven by the turbine. It circulates
the water from the steam separating drum to the small diameter tubes of
the radiant superheater, convective superheater and back to the steam
separating drum.
 Radiant evaporator: It evaporates the water steam mixtures with the help of
radiation.
 Convective evaporator: It changes the mixtures of steam and water into
saturated steam through convective mode of heat transfer.
 Superheater: It superheats the steam to the desired temperature for striking
on the turbine blades.
Working
La Mont Boiler
 The feed pump circulates the water in the economiser of the boiler.
The economiser heats the water to some degree. From economiser,
water enters into steam separating drum.
 From steam separating drum the mixture of water and steam is
forced circulated through the radiant evaporator by an external
centrifugal pump. In forced circulation, the pressure of circulation
of water through the tubes is more as compared with the natural
circulation.
 Radiant evaporator heats the water and changes it into steam. Form
radiant evaporator the water-steam mixture passes through the
convective evaporator. Here the temperature of the fluid increase
and most the water gets converted into saturated steam. And after
that the saturated steam enters into the steam separator drum.
 La Mont Boiler
 The steam separator drum as names indicates separates the steam
from water. The steam gets collected at the upper portion of the
drum. From steam separator drum, steam passes through the
superheater.
 The super heater increases the temperature of the steam to the
desired level. And finally the superheated steam is either transfer to
the steam collecting drum or made to strike on the blades of the
turbine.
 The working pressure, temperature and capacity of this boiler is 170
bar, 773 K and 50 tonnes/h.
 La Mont Boiler
Advantages
 It can be easily started.
 High steam generating capacity (about 50 tonnes per hour)
 It has high heat transfer rate.
 This boiler can be reassembled with the natural circulation
boilers.
 Its design is simple.
Disadvantages
 There is a bubble formation at surfaces of the tubes in this
boiler. This reduces the heat transfer rate to the steam.
Benson Boiler
 Benson Boiler
 Benson Boiler is a high pressure, drum less, supercritical, water tube
steam boiler with forced circulation.
 This boiler was invented in the year 1922 by Mark Benson.
 This boiler is a super critical boiler in which the feed water is
compressed to a supercritical pressure and this prevents the
formation of bubbles in the water tube surface.
 The bubbles do not form because at supercritical pressure the density
of water and steam becomes same.
 It was Mark Benson who first proposed the idea to compress the
water at supercritical pressure before heating into boiler and due to
this the latent heat of water reduces to zero.
 As the latent heat of water reduces to zero the water directly
changes into steam without the formation of bubbles.
 Benson Boiler
1. Air Preheater
It preheats the air before entering into the furnace. The preheated air
increases the burning efficiency of the fuel.
2. Economiser
It heats the water to a certain temperature.

3. Radiant Superheater
It is super heater which heats the water with radiation produced by the
burnt fuel. It raises the temperature to supercritical temperature.

4. Convection Evaporator
It evaporates the superheated water and converts them into steam. It
does so by the convection mode of heat transfer to the water from the
hot flue gases.

5. Convection Superheater
It superheats the steam to the desired temperature (nearly 650 degree
Celsius).
 Benson Boiler
6. Furnace
It is the place where the fuel is burnt.

7. Feed Pump
It is used to supply the water inside the boiler at supercritical pressure
of 225 bars.

Working Principle

 It works on the principle that the pressure of the water is increased

to the supercritical pressure (i.e. above critical pressure of 225 bar).
 When the pressure of water is increased to the super critical level,
the latent heat of water becomes Zero and due to this, it directly
changes into steam without boiling.
 This prevents the formation of bubbles at tube surface.
Working
Benson Boiler
 In Benson Boiler, the feed pump increases the pressure of the water
to the supercritical pressure and then it enters into the
economiser.
 From economiser, the water the water passes to the radiant heater.
Here the water receives the heat through radiation and partly gets
converted into steam.
 The temperature raises almost to the supercritical temperature.
 After that mixture of steam and water enters into convective
evaporator where it is completely converted into steam and may
superheated to some degree.
 Finally it is passed through the superheater to obtained the desired
superheated steam.
 This superheated steam is then used by turbines or engine to
produce the electricity.
 Benson Boiler
Advantages
The various advantages of the boiler are

 It is a drum less boiler and hence the weight of this type of boiler is
20 % less as compared with other types of boiler.
 It is light in weight.
 Occupy smaller floor area for its erection.
 Explosion hazard is almost negligible because of use of smaller
diameter tubes.
 It can be started very easily within 15 minutes.
 It avoids bubble formation due to the super critical pressure of
water.
 Transportation is easy.
 This boiler may achieve thermal efficiency upto 90 %.
Loeffler Boiler
 Loeffler Boiler
 Loeffler Boiler is a forced circulation, high pressure, and water tube
boiler with internally fired furnace.
 In this boiler, the 2/3 of superheated steam is used to evaporate
the water in the evaporating drum and remaining 1/3 of the steam
from the superheater is used by the turbine.
 A steam circulating pump is used to circulate the steam into the
boiler

Working Principle
Its main working principle is to evaporate the feed water by the use of
superheated steam from the superheater. 2/3 of the total steam
generated by the superheater is made to flow into the evaporator
drum. The superheated steam changes the feed water into saturated
steam. And 1/3 part of the superheated steam is used by
the turbine to do work.
 Loeffler Boiler
Economiser: It preheats the feed water before entering into the
evaporating drum.
Evaporating drum: It is placed at lower portion of the boiler. It contains
the mixing nozzle. Here the feed water is converted into saturated
steam with the help of the superheated steam from the superheater.
Steam circulating pump: It is present in between the evaporating drum
and radiant superheater. It circulates the steam into the boiler.
Radiant superheater: It superheats the steam with the help of radiations
produced by the burnt fuel in the boiler.
Convective superheater: Convective superheater superheats the steam
to the desired temperature of about 500 degree C.
Mixing nozzle: It is present inside the evaporating drum. It mixes the
steam from the superheater with feed water and evaporates them.
 Loeffler Boiler
Working
 In loeffler boiler, the feed pump forces the water to enter into
the economiser. The economiser preheats the feed water and
then it is passed to the evaporator drum.
 The evaporator drum has nozzles. The 2/3 of the superheated
steam from the superheater enters into the nozzles of the
evaporator drum and the nozzles mix this superheated steam
with the feed water. This changes the feed water into
saturated steam.
 This saturated steam is then drawn from the evaporating
drum by a steam circulating pump and allows it to passes
through the radiant superheater.
 The radiant superheater superheats the saturated steam with
help of radiation energy produce from the burning of the fuel.
 Working
Loeffler Boiler
 The radiant superheater tubes are placed in furnace. The heat
transfer to the water takes place through the radiation
produced. After the radiant superheater, the steam is passed to
the convective superheater.
 The convective superheater is placed in the path of hot flue
gases.
 It superheats the steam coming from the radiant superheater
to a temperature of about 500 degree C. This superheated
steam is than flows to the turbine and evaporating drum.
 In this boiler, the 2/3 part of the superheated steam is used to
evaporate the feed water into the evaporating drum and
remaining 1/3 part flows to the turbine.
 Loeffler boiler has the capacity to produce 100 tonnes/ h of
steam at a temperature of 500 degree C and pressure of 140
bar.
 Loeffler Boiler

Advantages
 It can use salt water for the steam generation.

 The problem of deposition of sediments and scale

in the boiler tubes are eliminated.

 It is compact in size.
Fluidized Bed Combustion (FBC)
Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC)
Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC)
Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC)

 At the bottom of the boiler furnace there is a bed of inert material.

Bed is where the coal or fuel spreads.
 Air supply is from under the bed at high pressure.
 This lifts the bed material and the coal particles and keeps it in
suspension.
 The coal combustion takes place in this suspended condition. This
is the Fluidized bed.
 Special design of the air nozzles at the bottom of the bed allows air
flow without clogging.
 Primary air fans provide the preheated Fluidizing air. Secondary air
fans provide pre-heated Combustion air.
 Nozzles in the furnace walls at various levels distribute the
Combustion air in the furnace.
Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC)

Circulation
 Fine particles of partly burned coal, ash and bed material are carried
along with the flue gases to the upper areas of the furnace and then
into a cyclone.
 In the cyclone the heavier particles separate from the gas and falls to
the hopper of the cyclone.
 This returns to the furnace for recirculation. Hence the name
Circulating Fluidized Bed combustion.
 The hot gases from the cyclone pass to the heat transfer surfaces and
go out of the boiler.
Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC)

The velocity of air, causing fluidization depends on a number

of parameter, like :-

1.Size of fuel particles.

2.Density of air fuel mixture.

Hence, these parameters are given due consideration, while

manipulating with air flow velocity for desired rate of
combustion.
Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC)

ADVANTAGES

 High thermal efficiency.

 Easy ash removal system, to be transferred for made cement.
 Short commissioning and erection period.
 Fully automated and thus ensures safe operation, even at extreme
temperatures.
 Efficient operation at temperatures down to 150oC (i.e. well below the ash
fusion temperature).
 Reduced coal crushing etc. (pulverised coal is not a necessity here).
 The system can respond rapidly to changes in load demand, due to quick
establishment of thermal equilibrium between air and fuel particles in the bed.
 The operation of fluidized bed furnace at lower temperature helps in reducing
air pollution. The low temperature operation also reduces the formation of
nitrogen oxides. By adding either dolomite (a calcium-magnesium carbonate)
or lime stone (calcium carbonate) to the furnace the discharge of sulphur
oxides to the atmosphere can also be reduced if desired.
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