Boilers & Thermic Fluid Heaters

ACADs (08-006) Covered

1.3.4.1 5.2.1.9.c 5.2.2.2 5.2.2.2

Keywords
Boiler, efficiency, blowdown, assessment, boiler
feedwater.

Description

Supporting Material
Training Session on Energy
Equipment

Boilers & Thermic

Fluid Heaters

2
Objectives

1. Describe the theory, construction,

and applications of boilers
2. Describe the common type of
boilers
3. Explain how to assess the
performance and efficiency of a
boiler
4. Describe methods to improve
boiler efficiency
5.List energy efficiency opportunities
3
Objectives

Introduction Purpose?
Type of boilers
Boiler Assessment
Energy efficiency opportunities

4
Introduction

What is a Boiler?
Vessel that heats water to become
hot water or steam
At atmospheric pressure water
volume increases 1,600 times
Hot water or steam used to transfer
heat to a process

5
 Introduction

STEAM TO
EXHAUST GAS VENT
PROCESS
Thermal Equipment/

STACK DEAERATOR

PUMPS

ECO-
Boilers

NOMI-
ZER

VENT
BOILER
BURNER
WATER
SOURCE
BLOW DOWN
SEPARATOR FUEL

BRINE

CHEMICAL FEED
SOFTENERS

Figure: Schematic overview of a boiler room 6

 Introduction
Thermal Equipment/

Type of boilers
Assessment of a boiler
Boilers

Energy efficiency opportunities

7
 Types of Boilers

What Type of Boilers Are There?

Thermal Equipment/

1. Fire Tube Boiler

2. Water Tube Boiler
Boilers

3. Packaged Boiler
4. Fluidized Bed (FBC) Boiler
5. Stoker Fired Boiler
6. Pulverized Fuel Boiler
7. Waste Heat Boiler

8
 Type of Boilers

1. Fire Tube Boiler

Thermal Equipment/

Relatively small steam

Boilers

capacities (12,000
kg/hour)
Low to medium steam
pressures (18 kg/cm2)
Operates with oil, gas
or solid fuels

(Light Rail Transit Association)

9
10
11
 Type of Boilers

2. Water Tube Boiler

Thermal Equipment/

Used for high steam

demand and pressure
requirements
Boilers

Capacity range of 4,500

120,000 kg/hour
Combustion efficiency
enhanced by induced
draft provisions
Lower tolerance for
water quality and needs
(Your Dictionary.com) water treatment plant
12
 Type of Boilers

3. Packaged Boiler Comes in complete

package
Thermal Equipment/

To Features
Chimney
High heat transfer
Boilers

Faster evaporation
Good convective
heat transfer
Good combustion
Oil
efficiency
Burner High thermal
efficiency
(BIB Cochran, 2003)
Classified based on
number of passes
13
 Type of Boilers

4. Fluidized Bed Combustion

(FBC) Boiler
Thermal Equipment/

Particles (e.g. sand) are

suspended in high velocity air
stream: bubbling fluidized bed
Boilers

Combustion at 840 950 C

Fuels: coal, washery rejects,
rice husk, bagasse and
agricultural wastes
Benefits: compactness, fuel
flexibility, higher combustion
efficiency, reduced SOx & NOx

14
 Type of Boilers

5. Stoke Fired Boilers

Thermal Equipment/

a) Spreader stokers
Coal is first burnt in suspension then in
Boilers

coal bed
Flexibility to meet load fluctuations
Favored in many industrial applications

15
 Type of Boilers

5. Stoke Fired Boilers

Thermal Equipment/

b) Chain-grate or traveling-grate stoker

Boilers

Coal is burnt on moving

steel grate
Coal gate controls coal
feeding rate
Uniform coal size for
complete combustion

(University of Missouri, 2004)

16
 Type of Boilers

6. Pulverized Fuel Boiler

Thermal Equipment/

Pulverized coal powder blown with combustion

air into boiler through burner nozzles
Boilers

Combustion
temperature at 1300
-1700 C
Benefits: varying coal
quality coal, quick
response to load
changes and high pre-
heat air temperatures Tangential firing
17
Independence Steam Electric Station
- Newark, AR

Operation: Unit 1 - January 1983/Unit 2 - December 1984

Fuel: Low-sulfur coal mined near Gillette, Wyoming
Capability: 1,678 megawatts
18
 Type of Boilers

7. Waste Heat Boiler

Thermal Equipment/

Used when waste heat

available at medium/high
temp
Boilers

Auxiliary fuel burners

used if steam demand is
more than the waste heat
can generate
Used in heat recovery
from exhaust gases from
gas turbines and diesel
Agriculture and Agri-Food
engines
19
Canada, 2001
 Training Agenda: Boiler

Introduction
Thermal Equipment/

Type of boilers
Boiler Assesment
Boilers

Energy efficiency opportunities

20
 Boiler Assessment

1. Boiler
Thermal Equipment/

2. Boiler blow down

3. Boiler feed water treatment
Boilers

21
 Assessment of a Boiler

1. Boiler performance
Thermal Equipment/

Causes of poor boiler performance

- Poor combustion
-
Boilers

Heat transfer surface fouling

- Poor operation and maintenance
- Deteriorating fuel and water quality

Heat balance: identify heat losses

Boiler efficiency: determine
deviation from best efficiency
22
 Assessment of a Boiler

Heat Balance
Thermal Equipment/

An energy flow diagram describes geographically

how energy is transformed from fuel into useful
energy, heat and losses
Boilers

Stochiometric
Excess Air
Un burnt

Stack Gas

FUEL INPUT STEAM

OUTPUT

Convection & Blow Ash and Un-burnt parts

Radiation Down of Fuel in Ash 23
 Assessment of a Boiler

Heat Balance
Thermal Equipment/

Balancing total energy entering a boiler against the

energy that leaves the boiler in different forms
Boilers

12.7 %
Heat loss due to dry flue gas

8.1 % Heat loss due to steam in fuel gas

1.7 %
100.0 % Heat loss due to moisture in fuel
BOILER 0.3 %
Fuel Heat loss due to moisture in air

2.4 % Heat loss due to unburnts in residue

1.0 %
Heat loss due to radiation & other
unaccounted loss
73.8 %
Heat in Steam
 Assessment of a Boiler

Heat Balance
Thermal Equipment/

Goal: improve energy efficiency by reducing

avoidable losses
Avoidable losses include:
Boilers

- Stack gas losses (excess air, stack gas

temperature)
- Losses by unburnt fuel
- Blow down losses
- Condensate losses
- Convection and radiation
25
 Assessment of a Boiler

1. Boiler Efficiency
Thermal Equipment/

Thermal efficiency: % of (heat) energy input that is

effectively useful in the generated steam
Boilers

26
 Assessment of a Boiler

2. Boiler Blow Down

Thermal Equipment/

Controls total dissolved solids (TDS) in the

water that is boiled
Boilers

Blows off water and replaces it with feed water

Conductivity measured as indication of TDS
levels
Calculation of quantity blow down required:

Feed water TDS x % Make up water

Blow down (%) =
Maximum Permissible TDS in Boiler water

28
 Assessment of a Boiler

Boiler Blow Down

Thermal Equipment/

Two types of blow down

Intermittent
Boilers

Manually operated valve reduces TDS

Large short-term increases in feed water
Substantial heat loss

Continuous
Ensures constant TDS and steam purity
Heat lost can be recovered
Common in high-pressure boilers

29
 Assessment of a Boiler

Boiler Blow Down

Thermal Equipment/

Benefits
Lower pretreatment costs
Boilers

Less make-up water consumption

Reduced maintenance downtime
Increased boiler life
Lower consumption of treatment
chemicals
30
 Assessment of a Boiler

3. Boiler Feed Water Treatment

Thermal Equipment/

Quality of steam depend on water

treatment to control
Boilers

Steam purity
Deposits
Corrosion

Efficient heat transfer only if boiler

water is free from deposit-forming
solids

31
 Assessment of a Boiler

Boiler Feed Water Treatment

Thermal Equipment/

Deposit control
To avoid efficiency losses and reduced
heat transfer
Boilers

Hardness salts of calcium and

magnesium
Alkaline hardness: removed by boiling
Non-alkaline: difficult to remove

Silica forms hard silica scales

32
 Assessment of a Boiler

Boiler Feed Water Treatment

Thermal Equipment/

Internal water treatment

Chemicals added to boiler to prevent scale
Boilers

Different chemicals for different water types

Conditions:
Feed water is low in hardness salts
Low pressure, high TDS content is tolerated
Small water quantities treated
Internal treatment alone not recommended
33
 Assessment of a Boiler

Boiler Feed Water Treatment

Thermal Equipment/

External water treatment:

Removal of suspended/dissolved solids and
dissolved gases
Boilers

Pre-treatment: sedimentation and settling

First treatment stage: removal of salts
Processes
a) Ion exchange
b) Demineralization
c) De-aeration
d) Reverse osmoses
34
 Energy Efficiency Opportunities

1. Stack temperature control

2. Feed water preheating using economizers
Thermal Equipment/

3. Combustion air pre-heating

4. Incomplete combustion minimization
5. Excess air control
6. Avoid radiation and convection heat loss
Boilers

7. Automatic blow down control

8. Reduction of scaling and soot losses
9. Reduction of boiler steam pressure
10. Variable speed control
11. Controlling boiler loading
12. Proper boiler scheduling
13. Boiler replacement

38
 Energy Efficiency Opportunities

1. Stack Temperature Control

Thermal Equipment/

Keep as low as possible

If >200C then recover waste heat
Boilers

2. Feed Water Preheating

Economizers
Potential to recover heat from 200 300 oC flue
gases leaving a modern 3-pass shell boiler

3. Combustion Air Preheating

If combustion air raised by 20C = 1% improve
thermal efficiency 39
 Energy Efficiency Opportunities

4. Minimize Incomplete Combustion

Thermal Equipment/

Symptoms:
Smoke, high CO levels in exit flue gas
Causes:
Boilers

Air shortage, fuel surplus, poor fuel distribution

Poor mixing of fuel and air
Oil-fired boiler:
Improper viscosity, worn tops, cabonization on
dips, deterioration of diffusers or spinner plates
Coal-fired boiler: non-uniform coal size
40
 Energy Efficiency Opportunities

5. Excess Air Control

Thermal Equipment/

Excess air required for complete combustion

Optimum excess air levels varies
Boilers

1% excess air reduction = 0.6% efficiency rise

Portable or continuous oxygen analyzers

Fuel Kg air req./kg fuel %CO2 in flue gas in practice

Solid Fuels
Bagasse 3.3 10-12
Coal (bituminous) 10.7 10-13
Lignite 8.5 9 -13
Paddy Husk 4.5 14-15
Wood 5.7 11.13

Liquid Fuels
Furnace Oil 13.8 9-14
LSHS 14.1 9-14 41
 Energy Efficiency Opportunities

6. Radiation and Convection Heat

Thermal Equipment/

Loss Minimization
Fixed heat loss from boiler shell, regardless of
Boilers

boiler output
Repairing insulation can reduce loss

7. Automatic Blow Down Control

Sense and respond to boiler water conductivity
and pH

42
 Energy Efficiency Opportunities

8. Scaling and Soot Loss Reduction

Thermal Equipment/

Every 22oC increase in stack temperature = 1%

efficiency loss
3 mm of soot = 2.5% fuel increase
Boilers

9. Reduced Boiler Steam Pressure

Lower steam pressure
= lower saturated steam temperature
= lower flue gas temperature
Steam generation pressure dictated by process
43
 Energy Efficiency Opportunities

10. Variable Speed Control for Fans,

Thermal Equipment/

Blowers and Pumps

Suited for fans, blowers, pumps
Boilers

Should be considered if boiler loads are

variable

11. Control Boiler Loading

Maximum boiler efficiency: 65-85% of rated load
Significant efficiency loss: < 25% of rated load

44
 Energy Efficiency Opportunities

12. Proper Boiler Scheduling

Thermal Equipment/

Optimum efficiency: 65-85% of full load

Few boilers at high loads is more efficient than
large number at low loads
Boilers

13. Boiler Replacement

Financially attractive if existing boiler is
Old and inefficient
Not capable of firing cheaper substitution fuel
Over or under-sized for present requirements
Not designed for ideal loading conditions
45
 Training Session on Energy
Equipment

Thermal Equipment/

Boilers & Thermic

Fluid Heaters
Boilers

THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION

46