STOOMKETELS:

Les 5 en 6

Boilers & Thermic

Fluid Heaters

1
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
2
Objectives

 Introduction – Purpose?
 Type of boilers
 Boiler Assessment
 Energy efficiency opportunities

3
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

4
 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 5

 Introduction
Thermal Equipment/

Type of boilers
Assessment of a boiler
Boilers

Energy efficiency opportunities

6
 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

7
 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)

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9
10
 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
11
 Type of Boilers

• Comes in complete
3. Packaged Boiler
package
Thermal Equipment/

To
• Features
Chimney
• High heat transfer
• Faster evaporation
Boilers

• Good convective
heat transfer
• Good combustion
Oil
efficiency
Burner • High thermal
efficiency
(BIB Cochran, 2003)
• Classified based on
number of passes
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 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

13
 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

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 Type of Boilers

5. Stoke Fired Boilers

Thermal Equipment/

b) Chain-grate or traveling-grate stoker

• Coal is burnt on moving
Boilers

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

(University of Missouri, 2004)

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 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
16
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
17
 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
18
Canada, 2001
 Training Agenda: Boiler

Introduction
Thermal Equipment/

Type of boilers
Boiler Assesment
Boilers

Energy efficiency opportunities

19
 Boiler Assessment

1. Boiler
Thermal Equipment/

2. Boiler blow down

3. Boiler feed water treatment
Boilers

20
 Assessment of a Boiler

1. Boiler performance
Thermal Equipment/

• Causes of poor boiler performance

- Poor combustion
- Heat transfer surface fouling
Boilers

- Poor operation and maintenance

- Deteriorating fuel and water quality

• Heat balance: identify heat losses

• Boiler efficiency: determine
deviation from best efficiency
21
 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 22
 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
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 Assessment of a Boiler

1. Boiler Efficiency
Thermal Equipment/

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

effectively useful in the generated steam
Boilers

25
 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

27
 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

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 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
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 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

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 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

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 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
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 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
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 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

37
 Energy Efficiency Opportunities

1. Stack Temperature Control

Thermal Equipment/

• Keep as low as possible

• If >200°C 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 20°C = 1% improve
thermal efficiency 38
 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
39
 Energy Efficiency Opportunities

5. Excess Air Control

Thermal Equipment/

• Excess air required for complete combustion

• Optimum excess air levels varies
• 1% excess air reduction = 0.6% efficiency rise
Boilers

• 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 40
 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

41
 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
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 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

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 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
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 STOOMKETELS:
Les 4 en 5


Thermal Equipment/

Boilers & Thermic

Fluid Heaters
Boilers

THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION

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