ASH PLANT

A large quantity os ash is produced in steam power plants using coal. Ash produced in about 10 to 20 % of the total coal burnt in the furnace. Handling of ash is a problem because ash coming out of the furnace is too hot, it is dusty and irritating to handle and is accomplished by some poisonous gases. Quenching of ash before handling is necessary because : Quenching reduces the temperature of ash. It reduces the corrosive action of ash. Ash forms clinkers by fusing in large lumps and by quenching clinkers will disintegrate. Quenching reduces the dust accompanying the ash. Ash handling plant consists of specially designed bottom ash and fly ash systems. The bottom impounded bottom ash hopper receives the bottom ash from the furnace where it is chilled, stored and periodically discharged hydraulically to the clinker grinder and hydro-ejector for transfer through the transport line to disposal area. As the pulverized coal is used , the ash particles are formed in suspension and tend to remain in suspension in the furnace. The portion of ash which tends to escape towards the stack is called fly-ash and a portion which is collected at the bottom of the furnace and is removed either in dry or wet state is called bottom-ash. The ash formed with Indian coal is also considerably large as it contains 20 to 30 % ash or even 40%. A 500 MW power plant boiler consumes 300 tons of coal per hour and produces around 120 tons of total ash per hour. Out of the total ash produced around 10-15% is in the form of hot ash/clinkers which is removed from the bottom ash hopper and remaining 85-90% is in the form of fly-ash which is collected in the hoppers under the economizer, air-preheater, mechanical collector and electronic precipitator. The ash produced is abrasive and will wear out the conveying parts on contact with it. Therefore the ash removal is of high concern. The ash handling plant consists of various machines and auxiliaries to ease the ash produced.

ash fly-ash bottom ash

dry process wet process

The wet fly-ash and the bottom ash collected are transferred to the combined ash slurry sump from where the slurry is sent to dyke. And the dryfly ash is collected in the silo or directly dumped in the trucks for further usage of ash. This is the rough idea of the process, but in reality for achieving this various machines and auxiliaries is employed for minimal wastage and increased efficiency. Any ash handling system comprises the following operations: To remove the ashes from the furnace ash hopper. To convey the ashes from the furnace ash-hopper to a storage or fill with the help of conveyors. To dispose the ashes from the storage.

The modern thermal stations run at high load factors and burn large quantities of low grade coal containing high percentage of ashes. Therefore proper attention must be given to the design of the ash handling system if reliable and economic operation is to be maintained. BOTTOM ASH: The water filled ash hopper receives the furnace ash from the boiler, chilling it as it enters the water to minimize the formation of clinkers and storing it for periodic removal separating bottom ash system. The mixture of ash and water is discharged through an inclined feed gate and clinker grinder which reduces the size of clinkers ( 50mm). Crushed clinkers and ash falls through ejector which provides the jetting action by means of pressurized water to carry the mixture through discharge liners to disposal area. Hopper flushing nozzles are provided in bottom ash hopper to agitate and remove settled ash from the hopper. Two no.s of inspection glasses are provided at sides of ash hopper with water spray line to inspect the hopper area and system in operation. Constant water overflow is to be maintained in the bottom ash hopper. Bottom ash refers to the non-combustible constituents of coal with traces of combustible embedded in forming clinkers and sticking to hot side walls of a coal-burning furnace during its operation.

 The portion of the ash that escapes up the chimney or stack is, however, referred to as fly ash. The clinkers fall by themselves into the water or sometimes by poking manually, and get cooled. The clinker lumps get crushed to small sizes by clinker grinders mounted under water and fall down into a trough from where a water ejector takes them out to a sump. From there it is pumped out by suitable rotary pumps to dumping yard far away (dyke). In another arrangement a continuous link chain scrapes out the clinkers from under water and feeds them to clinker grinders outside the bottom ash hopper. An alternative bottom ash handling system is the MAC (Magaldi Ash Cooler) system; the MAC dry bottom ash system is a unique system for dry extraction, cooling and handling of bottom ash from pulverized coal-fired boilers. It eliminates water usage in the cooling and conveying of bottom ash. This system cools ash using only a small controlled amount of ambient air. Bottom ash may be used as an aggregate in road construction and concrete, where it is known as furnace bottom ash (fba), to distinguish it from incinerator bottom ash (iba), the non-combustible elements remaining after incineration. FLY ASH: The fly ash is collected along with the flu gases. The fly ash can be collected in the hoppers by using mechanical precipitators or ESP (Electrostatic precipitator). This can be removed from the hoppers ,may be by using the wet process where water is pumped to take the slurry (ash+water) to the combined ash slurry system or is transferred to trucks directly from the ash hoppers or the ash is collected in the silo and then to trucks using a rotary feeder (from uniform flow of ash into truck) In GSECL-GTPS there are 5 power units, therefore 5 ash handling units, out of which the units #1 & #2 consists of both mechanical and ESP systems and have a silo system while units #3 & #4 are fully ESP and do not possess any silo system and unit #5 consists of ESP and silo system. In units #1 , #2, #5 the flyash vacuum system is employed. Fly ash is removed from the hopper in a dry state by pneumatic means.

Below each hopper a self feeding, non overloading type material handling valve (MHV) is mounted which is equipped with two adjustable spring loaded air inlets segregating the hopper from the transport line. The slide gate is cylinder operated and is controlled by a 4-way solenoid valve. The water operated hydrovector located above the air separator tank. The resultant rise in the vacuum of the system trips the high vacuum switch that energizes a circuit to the automatic sequential control of the system. Thus energizes the solenoid valve controlling the operation of MHV of the first fly-ash hopper thus opening the valve. This flow of air conveys ash from this fly-ash hopper to the mouth of the hydrovector where air and fly ash is mixed with water to form slurry . the ash slurry thus forms id sent to the combined ash slurry sump . Ash water pumps: There are 2 Nos of H.P ash water pumps driven by 6.6 KV supply, 2 No.s L.P water pumps , 2 Nos of L.P seal water pumps and 2 no. s of H.P seal water pumps driven by 415 V motors. The suction of H.P ash water pump and L.P water pump is from the C.W (cooling water) system. H.P ash water pump: Type: Motor: vertical, multistage, centrifugal pump 6.6 KV, 400 KW, 1492 rpm

Capacity: 2083.3 G.P.M; head-160 m; no. of stages-13 L.P water pump: Type: vertical, multistage, centrifugal pump having radial entry and Radial exit Motor: 415 V, 65KW , 1475 rpm; Use: for maintenance of overflow in bottom ash hopper

Smoke and dust removal:

In coal fed furnaces the products of combustion contain particles of solid matter floating in suspension. This may be smoke or dust. The production of smoke indicates that combustion conditions are faulty and the amount of smoke produced can be reduced by improving the furnace design. The subject of fuel gas cleaning has become a problem of prime importance in the design of large thermal power stations using coal as fuel as the atmospheric pollution is highly restricted. The major emissions from thermal power stations are fly-ash, carbon ash (known as cinder), smoke, dust and irritating vapor like CO, SO2, and nitrogen oxides.

Types of dust collectors: The various types of dust collectors are as follows: 1. Mechanical dust collectors 2. Electrical dust collectors

Mechanical dust collectors: Mechanical dust collectors are sub divided into wet and dry types. In wet type collectors also known as scrubbers water sprays are used to wash dust from the air. Wet type dust collectors called the scrubbers make use of water sprays to wash the dust from the flue gases. Dry type dust collectors include gravitational, cyclone, louvered and baffle dust collectors. Theory of E.S.P and its working: An electrostatic precipitator (E.S.P) or electrostatic air cleaner is a particulate collection device that removes particles from a flowing gas (such as air) using a force of an induced electrostatic charge.

Electrostatic precipitators are high efficiency filtration devices that minimally impede the flow of gases through the device, and can easily remove fine particles such as dust and smoke from the air system. In contrast to wet scrubbers which apply energy directly to the flowing fluid medium, an E.S.P applies energy only to the particulate material being collected and therefore is very efficient in its consumption of energy (in the form of electricity). This electrical equipment was first introduced by Dr. F.G.Cottell in 1906 and was first economically used in 1937 for the removal of dust and ash particles carried with the exhaust gases. It has two sets of electrodes, insulated from each other that maintain an electrostatic field between them at high voltage. The flue gases are made to pass between these two sets of electrodes. The electric field ionises the dust particles that pass through it attracting them to the electrode of opposite charge.

gas cleaning devices

mechanical

electrical

dry type

wet type (scrubbers)

rod-type

plate type

gravitational separators

cyclone separators

spary type

packed type

impingement type

AUXILARIES
There are many auxiliaries used in any thermal power station for efficient running of the various processes. In GSECL-GTPS there are numerous auxiliaries used in ash plant, boiler plant and other sections. In ash handling plant the various auxiliaries used are:

Water ring vacuum pump ESP fluidizing blower Monorail hoist Air conditioner for bottom-ash hopper fluid gate Grinder Fluid coupling for grinder Gear box for grinder Zero speed switch Air heater Gear box for rotary unloader Air conditioners Slurry line cylinder operated knife gate valve Actuated cylinder operated butterfly valve Manually operated knife gate valve Pneumatic cylinder Cylinder operated plug valve Solenoid valves Pressure gauge and switch Centrifugal air blower Every unit (AHP) in the GSECL_GTPS is employed with all the above auxiliaries made by different companies and assembled by BHEL .

BOILER
Boiler is the unit where the water is heated and converted into steam. Usually high pressure boilers with high temperature steam are employed in power stations for optimized efficiency and reduction of the cost of electricity production. There are many types of boilers like LA MONT BOILER,

BENSON BOILER, SHMIDT-HARTMANN BOILER, LOEFFLER BOILER, VOLEX BOILER, SUPER-CRITICAL BOILERSUPER CHARGED BOILER, ETC. According to the flow of water and hot gases, boilers can be of two types: a. Water tube b. Fire tube In water tube boilers, water circulates through the tubes and hot products of combustion flow over these tubes. In fire tube boilers the hot products of combustion pass through the tubes, which are surrounded by water. Water tube boilers are smaller than that of fire tubes as due to smaller size of the drum higher pressure can be used easily. Water tube boilers require lesser floor space. the efficiency of water tube boilers is high. Water tube boilers are classified as follows: 1. Horizontal straight tube boilers a. Longitudinal drum b. Cross-drum 2. Bent tube boilers a. Two drum b. Three drum c. Low head three drum d. Four drum 3. Cyclone fired boilers Advantages of water tube boilers are: i. ii. iii. iv. High pressure of the order of 140 kg/cm2 can be obtained. Heating surface is large. Therefore stream can be generated easily. Large heating surface can be obtained by use of large number of tubes. Because of high movement of water in the tubes the rate of heat transfer becomes large resulting into a greater efficiency.

Fire tube boilers are classified as: 1. External furnace i. Horizontal return tubular ii. Short fire box

iii. Compact 2. Internal furnace i. Horizontal tubular a. Short firebox b. Locomotive c. Compact d. scotch ii. Vertical tubular a. Straight vertical shell, vertical tube b. Cochran (vertical shell) horizontal tube

In GSECL-GTPS, the boiler is designed to meet the nominal requirement of 210 MW turbogenerator set. The unit is designed for maximum continuous rating of 690 T/hr of steam flow at a pressure of 155 kg/cm2 and temperature of 5400 C. The boiler in GSECL-GTPS is two pass, tangential fired balanced draught, natural circulation , radiant reheat, dry bottom with direct fired pulverized coal with bowl mills. The natural circulation from drum to down comer and from water wall to drum is established by the force created due to difference between the specific weights of hot water and cold water. The first pass is the furnace and the second is the flue gas path. The units #1 #2 are not provided with the spark igniters whereas the boilers of units #3 #4 #5 are equipped with spark igniters for lighting of light oil and further the process carried out by the furnace oils. each unit is provided with 5 coal mills out of which only 4 work at a time are capable of to take load up to MCR (maximum continuous rating).

 The units #1, #2 are equipped with 2 I.D fans (induced draught) each and units #3, #4, #5 are provided with 3 I.D fans each. The boilers of all 5 units are provided with 2 F.D fans each.

MAIN PARTS OF BOILER : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Drum Superheater Re-heater Economiser Air pre-heater Furnace Induced draught (I.D) fan Forced draught (F.D) fan Boiler feed pump

Drum : The boiler drum is made of alloy steel plate. Manholes are provided on the drum for the purpose of maintenance. Welded studs are provided for all connections including down-comers with large bore, CBD (continuous blow down) , EBD (emergency blow down), chemical dozing, etc.( chemical dozing or the phosphate dozing is the process to precipitate the finer silica which cannot be traced in the DM(demineralization) plant) . The water in the furnace side walls and extended side walls absorbs heat . the resulting mixture of water and steam is collected in the outlet headers and discharged into the drum through series of riser tubes. In the drum, separation of water and steam takes place by turbo separator and the steam is lead to superheater via connecting tubes through dryer screen. For safety, level controller, level indicator and gauge glass are fitted with the drum. Three safety valves are also provided on the drum. If the level increases , the carryover increases to turbine, if the level decreases , water valve starves. Superheater :

It is the secondary part of the boiler. The superheater converts the wet steam (from the drum) into superheater steam (5400 C) . it is composed of four basic sections: o Platen section o Pendent section o Rear horizontal section o Steam cooled wall and roof section The platen section is located directly above the furnace in front of the furnace arch. The pendent section is located in back of the screen wall tubes. The horizontal section is located near the rear vertical gas pass above the economizer. The steam cooled wall section forms the side and the roof section forms the top. Superheated steam flows from the pendent superheater outlet header to the turbine via the main steam lines. After passing through the high pressure stages of the turbine, steam is returned to the re-heater via the cold reheat lines. Re-heater : The re-heater is composed of two sections : a. Front pendent b. Rear pendent The rear pendent section is located above the furnace arch between the water-cooled screen wall tubes and rear water wall hanger tubes. The front pendent section is located between the wall hanger tubes and the superheater platen section. After the steam passes through the HP turbine , its temperature and pressure drop from 5400 C, 130 kg/cm2 to 2400 C , 26 kg/cm2. This steam, known as the cold reheat goes into the re-heater where it is brought back to a temperature of 5400C but the pressure remains the same. After the re-heater , this steam further goes to the IP and LP turbines. Economiser:

It is located in the boiler rear pass , below the LTSH. The purpose of economizer is to preheat the boiler feed water before introduced it is introduced into the drum, to recover some of the heat from flue gases leaving the boiler. It has a three stages, namely , LP1, LP2, LP3 which are low pressure heat stages. Forced draught (FD) fan : The FD fan brings in air from the atmosphere to aid the combustion of coal. FD fans are 3-phase induction motors running at 6.6kV. each boiler employs 2 FD fans. As induction motors have constant speed characteristics, FD fans use vane control. At the outlet of every FD fan, a vane working on pneumatic control with feedback system is provided. As the vanes close or open, the quantity of air flowing to the furnace is controlled. This air from the FD fan further goes into the air pre-heater. Air pre-heater : The air pre-heater is used to heat the incoming air from the FD fan with the help of outing flue gases. The Gandhinagar TPS employs the rotary airpreheaters. The rotary air preheater is arranged below the economizer. It rotates on a shaft and is mounted on bearings. There is a separate oil lubricating system for the bearings.the air-preheater is designed such that the flue gases pass through one basket from one section and thus heats the fins of the basket, which rotates and comes to the air path. The cold air passes in the reverse direction and recovers the heat from the hot fins.

FD fan

primary air

air preheater

Secondary air

From the air pre-heater, the air directly goes into the furnace where it is used for efficient combustion of coal. Coal mill :

The coal from the coal yard is stored in bunkers. As the size of this coal is larger than the required, it needs to be pulverized. The coal is sent down to the coal mill from the bunkers. The coal mills have rollers which rotate and crush the coal underneath them. To push the coal underneath them hydraulic pressure is employed. Primary air (PA) fan: The primary air (PA) fan is a 3-phase induction motor running at 6.6 kV. The function of the PA fan is to send the coal to the burner. It is located adjacent to the coal mill. The coal from the bunkers comes down through a large pipe, gets pulverized and is thrown up through the four outlets into the furnace. Furnace: The quantity of air entering and leaving the furnace is controlled by the furnace safeguard supervisory system (FSSP). The structure of the furnace is divided into various levels as given below:

BC

AB

The levels A, B, C, etc is introducing the coal. Thus, the PA fan drives the coal to these levels. As this coal takes time for ignition, levels AB, BC, etc bring in oil into the furnace which lights up instantly (LD oil). The spark for ignition of the oil is provided by an ignitron. Inside the furnace, it is of utmost importance to keep the fireball at the centre to achieve heating of water. For this purpose a flame scanner is employed. The flame scanner uses the photocells to determine the exact position of the flame and sends the feedback by means of fiber optic cables. The coal is fired through all four corners, thus making it tangentially fired burning process. The swirling action produces adequate turbulence in the furnace to complete combustion in a short period and avoids the necessity of producing high turbulence at the burner itself.

Condensate and feed water system

The thermal plant operates in a closed cycle that is water from the condenser is fed to boiler and converted into steam. The steam expands in turbine and

exhausted in the condenser and gain condensed to water, the same water is used again. Only losses are to be made up from outside sources.

The condensate system consists of: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Condenser Condensate extraction pumps (CE) Spindle drain cooler (DC) Low pressure feed water heater (LP heater) Deaerator

The feed water system consists of: 1. Boiler feed pumps 2. High pressure heaters 3. Economizer Condenser : The condenser is 6231 sq. meter twin shell , two flow designed to maintained a vacuum of 686mm of Hg (76mm absolute back pressure at turbine exhaust). When condensing 261.15 t/hr of exhaust steam from turbine. Each flow of steam from the low pressure turbine exhaust into the two shells and is constrained to flow across the axis of the turbine through which cooling water is circulated. The steam is condensed on the tubes, drains to the bottom of the shell and pumped away by one of the two extraction pumps. The tube in each shell are arranged for two passes of circulating water, the inlet pass flowing through the upper tube nest and outlet pass flowing through the lower tube nest. An air extraction main in the centre of the tube nests is surrounded by baffles, which constrain the steam flow to follow torturous path across the tube which contain colder inlet water, so that all the steam is condensed and only incondensable gases are drawn through the two vertical pipes to the air suction connections. CE pumps: (condenser extraction)

There are two no. s of CE pumps for each 120MW units, each capable of sharing 100% load and other is standby. The pump casing is of volute form and is manufactured in two halves with horizontal split. The suction and the delivery branches are cast integral with lower casing. It is three stage pump. The suction is divided to both the side of centre impeller and water from first stage goes to second stage through internal volute and from second to third stage through overhead pipe. A tapping from between second & third stage of each pump. Spindle drain cooler : The spindle drain cooler is one type of feed water heater. the cooler has a nest of 248 no. 19 mtr OD and 1,22 mm thick admirally brass U shape tubes with their end expanded into a mild steel tube plate to which the water box is connected with feed water inlet outlet connection. The unit is mounted horizontally.