CH.

7 By Assim Adaraje
Steam Boiler | Working principle and
Types of Boiler

Definition of Boiler
Steam boiler or simply a boiler is basically
a closed vessel into which water is heated
until the water is converted into steam at
required pressure. This is most basic
definition of boiler.

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Working Principle of Boiler
The basic working principle of boiler is very simple
and easy to understand. The boiler is essentially a
closed vessel inside which water is stored. Fuel
(generally hydrocarbon and coal) is bunt in a furnace
and hot gasses are produced. These hot gasses come in
contact with water vessel where the heat of these hot
gases transfer to the water and consequently steam is
produced in the boiler. Then this steam is piped to the
turbine of thermal power plant. There are many
different types of boiler utilized for different purposes
like running a production unit, sanitizing some area,
sterilizing equipment, to warm up the surroundings
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etc.
Boiler properties:

 (i) Safety. The boiler should be safe under

operating conditions.
 (ii) Accessibility. The various parts of the boiler
should be accessible for repair and maintenance.
 (iii) Capacity. Should be capable of supplying
steam according to the requirements.

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 (iv) Efficiency. Should be able to absorb a
maximum amount of heat produced due to burning
of fuel in the furnace.

 (v) It should be simple in construction .

 (vi) Its initial cost and maintenance cost should be

low.

 (vii) The boiler should have no joints exposed to

flames.

 (viii) Should be capable of quick starting and

loading.
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 CLASSIFICATION OF BOILERS
• According to what flows in the TUBE
1. Water tube. 2. Fire tube.
There are mainly two types of boiler – water tube
boiler and fire tube boiler. In fire tube boiler, there
are numbers of tubes through which hot gases are
passed and water surrounds these tubes. Water tube
boiler is reverse of the fire tube boiler. In water
tube boiler the water is heated inside tubes and hot
gasses surround these tubes. These are the main
two types of boiler but each of the types can be
sub divided into many which we will discuss later. 5
Water Tube Boiler
A water tube boiler is such kind of boiler where
the water is heated inside tubes and the hot
gasses surround them.

This is the basic definition of water tube boiler.

Actually this boiler is just opposite of fire tube
boiler where hot gasses are passed through tubes
which are surrounded by water.

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Water tube boilers, vertical striate tubes

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Advantages of Water Tube Boiler
There are many advantages of water tube boiler
due to which these types of boiler are essentially
used in large thermal power plant. Larger
heating surface can be achieved by using more
numbers of water tubes.
Due to convectional flow, movement of water is
much faster than that of fire tube boiler, hence
rate of heat transfer is high which results into
higher efficiency.
Very high pressure in order of 140 kg/cm2 can
be obtained smoothly. 8
Disadvantages of Water Tube Boiler
The main disadvantage of water tube
boiler is that it is not compact in
construction.
Its cost is not cheap.
Size is a difficulty for transportation
and construction.

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Fire Tube Boiler
As it indicated from the name, the fire tube boiler
consists of numbers of tubes through which hot gasses
are passed. These hot gas tubes are immersed into
water, in a closed vessel. Actually in fire tube boiler
one closed vessel or shell contains water, through
which hot tubes are passed. These fire tubes or hot gas
tubes heated up the water and convert the water into
steam and the steam remains in same vessel. As the
water and steam both are in same vessel a fire tube
boiler cannot produce steam at very high pressure.
Generally it can produce maximum 17.5 kg/cm2 and
with a capacity of 9 Metric Ton of steam per hour.
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Normally horizontal return fire tube boiler is
used in thermal power plant of low capacity. It
consists of a horizontal drum into which there
are numbers of horizontal tubes. These tubes are
submerged in water. The fuel (normally coal)
burnt below these horizontal drum and the
combustible gasses move to the rear from where
they enter into fire tubes and travel towards the
front into the smoke box. During this travel of
gasses in tubes, they transfer their heat into the
water and steam bubbles come up. As steam is
produced, the pressure of the boiler developed,
in that closed vessel.
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Fire – tube Boilers

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Advantages of Fire Tube Boiler
It is quite compact in construction.
Fluctuation of steam demand can be met easily.
It is also quite cheap.
Disadvantages of Fire Tube Boiler
As the water required for operation of the boiler
is quite large, it requires long time for rising
steam at desired pressure.
As the water and steam are in same vessel the
very high pressure of steam is not possible.
The steam received from fire tube boiler is not
very dry.
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Comparison of fire tube and water tube
boilers
Particulars Fire-tube boilers
Position of water and hot Hot gases inside the tubes
gases and water outside the tubes
Mode of firing Generally internally fired
Operation pressure Limited to 16 bar
Rate of steam production Lower
Suitability Not suitable for large power
plants
Risk on bursting Involves lesser risk of
explosion due to lower
pressure
Floor area For a given power it
occupies more floor area
Construction Difficult
Water-tube boilers
Water inside the tubes and
hot gases outside the tubes
Externally fired
Can go up to 100 bar
Higher
Suitable for large power
plants
More risk on bursting due to
high pressure
For a given power it
occupies less floor area
Simple
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Cont…
Particulars Fire-tube boilers Water-tube boilers
Transportation Difficult Simple
Shell diameter Large for same power Small for same power
Chances of explosion Less More
Treatment of water Not so necessary More necessary
Accessibility of various parts Various parts not so easily More accessible
accessible for cleaning, repair
and inspection
Requirement of skill Require less skill for efficient Require more skill and careful
and economic working attention

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 Steam Boiler Efficiency
The percentage of total heat exported by outlet steam
in the total heat supplied by the fuel (coal) is called
steam boiler efficiency.

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 Boiler accessories
• 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

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 Economizer
• Is a device in which the waste heat of
the flue gases is utilized for heating
the feed water

• Economizers are of two types

Independent type
Integral type
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 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
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 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.
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• 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. 22
 High pressure and low pressure
The boilers which produce steam at pressures •
of 80 bar and above are called high pressure
boilers
Examples: Babcock and Wilcox, Velox, •
Lamont, Benson boilers
The boilers which produce steam at pressure •
below 80 bar are called low pressure boilers
Examples: Cochran, Cornish, Lancashire •
and locomotive boilers 23
Heat Recovery Steam Generation (HRSG) 24
Heat Recovery Steam Generation (HRSG) 25
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Boiler Calculations
a - heat transfer required to form steam Refer
to attached Figure, let ℎ2 : specific enthalpy of
steam formed (kJ /kg ) . ℎ1 : specific liquid
enthalpy of feed water (kJ/ kg ) . Then, since
the steam is formed at constant pressure, then
the heat transfer that required to form 1 kg of
steam in the boiler.

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d- equivalent evaporation of a boiler Since some
boilers can be operated under many different
running conditions then, for these boilers, it is
necessary to have some standard upon which to
base, and compare their respective evaporation
capacities. The standard commonly adopted is
that the equivalent evaporation of a boiler from
and at 100 °C.

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From this, the amount of water at 100 °C which
could be evaporated into dry saturated steam at
100 °C, if supplied with amount of energy is
then determined. This is then called the
equivalent evaporations (εε) of the boiler from
and at 100 °C.
The specific enthalpy of evaporation at 100 °C

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Home Work (1) A boiler working at a pressure of
1.4 MPa evaporates 8 kg of water per kg of coal
from feed water entering at 40 ̊C. The steam at the
stop value is 0.95 quality. Determine the
equivalent evaporation from and at 100 ̊C.

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Home Work (2) A boiler generates 5000 kg of steam
per hour at 2 MPa the steam temperature is 325 C
and the feed water temperature is 50 C. The
efficiency of the boiler is 80% when using oil of
Higher Heating Value 45500 kJ/kg. The steam
generated is supplied to a turbine which develops
500 kW and exhausts at 0.2 MPa, the quality of the
steam being 0.98.
Estimate the mass of oil used per hour and the
fraction of the enthalpy drop through the turbine
which is converted into useful work (turbine
efficiency). If the turbine exhaust is used for
process heating, find the heat transfer available per
kg of exhaust steam above 50 ̊C.
Home Work (3) A boiler plant supplies 5400 kg of
steam/h at 0.75 MPa and 0.89 dry from feed water at
40 ̊C, when using 670 kg of coal/h having a Higher
Heating Value of 31000 kJ/kg.
Determine
a) ì - The efficiency of the boiler
ii - The equivalent of evaporation from and at 100 ̊C.
b) Find the saving in coal/h if an economizer is fitted
and it is estimated that the feed water could be raised
to 100 ̊C, assuming (i) other conditions remained
unaltered, (ii) the efficiency of the boiler increases by
5%.