HEAT ENGINES

Steam generators
Objectives:
Knowlege assimilation of basic processes in steam generators: fuels, fuel combustion,
types of steam generators, steam generator components, heat transmission, air-gas dynamics,
operation
References

Steam- its generation and use, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, Edition 41, 2005

Steam Generators: Description and Design, De Donatello Annaratone, 2008

Standard handbook of powerplant engineering, De Thomas C. Elliott,Kao Chen,Robert
C. Swanekamp , 1998

Steam Boilers of Thermal Power Stations, M.I. Reznikov, Yu. M. Lipov, 1985
Steam Generation An Overview
Steam generators, or boilers, use heat to convert water into steam for a variety of
applications. Most important applications:
- electric power generation
- industrial process heating

STEAM GENARATOR short description

In fossil-fueled power plants, steam generator refers to a furnace that burns the fossil fuel
to boil water to generate steam.

A fossil fuel steam generator includes

an economizer,

a steam drum,

the furnace with its steam generating tubes

a superheater coils

and a reheater

Necessary safety valves are located at suitable points to avoid excessive boiler pressure.

The air and flue gas path equipment include:

forced draft (FD) fan,

air preheater (APH),

boiler furnace,

induced draft (ID) fan,

fly ash collectors (electrostatic precipitator or baghouse)

the flue gas stack.

Boiler furnace and steam drum

Once water inside the boiler or steam generator, the process of adding the latent heat of
vaporization or enthalpy is underway. The boiler transfers energy to the water by the chemical
reaction of burning some type of fuel.
The water enters the boiler through a section in the convection pass called the economizer. From
the economizer it passes to the steam drum. Once the water enters the steam drum it goes down
the downcomers to the lower inlet waterwall headers. From the inlet headers the water rises
through the waterwalls and is eventually turned into steam due to the heat being generated by the
burners located on the front and rear waterwalls (typically). As the water is turned into
steam/vapor in the waterwalls, the steam/vapor once again enters the steam drum. The
steam/vapor is passed through a series of steam and water separators and then dryers inside the
steam drum. The steam separators and dryers remove water droplets from the steam and the
cycle through the waterwalls is repeated. This process is known as natural circulation.
The boiler furnace auxiliary equipment includes coal feed nozzles and igniter guns, soot blowers,
water lancing and observation ports (in the furnace walls) for observation of the furnace interior.
Furnace explosions due to any accumulation of combustible gases after a trip-out are avoided by
flushing out such gases from the combustion zone before igniting the coal.
The steam drum (as well as the superheater coils and headers) have air vents and drains needed
for initial startup. The steam drum has internal devices that removes moisture from the wet steam
entering the drum from the steam generating tubes. The dry steam then flows into the superheater
coils.

Superheater
Fossil fuel power plants can have a superheater and/or reheater section in the steam generating
furnace. Nuclear-powered steam plants do not have such sections but produce steam at
essentially saturated conditions. In a fossil fuel plant, after the steam is conditioned by the drying
equipment inside the steam drum, it is piped from the upper drum area into tubes inside an area
of the furnace known as the superheater, which has an elaborate set up of tubing where the steam
vapor picks up more energy from hot flue gases outside the tubing and its temperature is now
superheated above the saturation temperature. The superheated steam is then piped through the
main steam lines to the valves before the high pressure turbine.

Reheater
Power plant furnaces may have a reheater section containing tubes heated by hot flue gases
outside the tubes. Exhaust steam from the high pressure turbine is rerouted to go inside the
reheater tubes to pickup more energy to go drive intermediate or lower pressure turbines.

Fuel preparation system

In coal-fired power stations, the raw feed coal from the coal storage area is first crushed into
small pieces and then conveyed to the coal feed hoppers at the boilers. The coal is next
pulverized into a very fine powder. The pulverizers may be ball mills, rotating drum grinders, or
other types of grinders.

Some power stations burn fuel oil rather than coal. The oil must kept warm (above its pour point)
in the fuel oil storage tanks to prevent the oil from congealing and becoming unpumpable. The
oil is usually heated to about 100C before being pumped through the furnace fuel oil spray
nozzles.
Boilers in some power stations use processed natural gas as their main fuel. Other power stations
may use processed natural gas as auxiliary fuel in the event that their main fuel supply (coal or
oil) is interrupted. In such cases, separate gas burners are provided on the boiler furnaces.

Air path
External fans are provided to give sufficient air for combustion. The forced draft fan takes air
from the atmosphere and, first warming it in the air preheater for better combustion, injects it via
the air nozzles on the furnace wall.
The induced draft fan assists the FD fan by drawing out combustible gases from the furnace,
maintaining a slightly negative pressure in the furnace to avoid backfiring through any opening

AUXILIARY SYSTEMS

Fly ash collection

Fly ash is captured and removed from the flue gas by electrostatic precipitators or fabric bag
filters (or sometimes both) located at the outlet of the furnace and before the induced draft fan.
The fly ash is periodically removed from the collection hoppers below the precipitators or bag
filters. Generally, the fly ash is pneumatically transported to storage silos for subsequent
transport by trucks or railroad cars.

Bottom ash collection and disposal

At the bottom of the furnace, there is a hopper for collection of bottom ash. This hopper is
always filled with water to quench the ash and clinkers falling down from the furnace. Some
arrangement is included to crush the clinkers and for conveying the crushed clinkers and bottom
ash to a storage site.

Boiler make-up water treatment plant and storage

Since there is continuous withdrawal of steam and continuous return of condensate to the boiler,
losses due to blowdown and leakages have to be made up to maintain a desired water level in the
boiler steam drum. For this, continuous make-up water is added to the boiler water system.
Impurities in the raw water input to the plant generally consist of calcium and magnesium salts
which impart hardness to the water. Hardness in the make-up water to the boiler will form
deposits on the tube water surfaces which will lead to overheating and failure of the tubes. Thus,
the salts have to be removed from the water, and that is done by a water demineralising treatment
plant (DM). A DM plant generally consists of cation, anion, and mixed bed exchangers. Any
ions in the final water from this process consist essentially of hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions,
which recombine to form pure water. Very pure DM water becomes highly corrosive once it
absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere because of its very high affinity for oxygen.

FLOW CIRCUIT OF STEAM PRODUCTION

The flow circuit of steam production in a steam-turbine power station with once-through
boilers fired with pulverized solid fuel is presented below.
Solid lumpy fuel is delivered in railway cars to the fuel depot. The fuel is discharged into
bunkers beneath. Automatic fuel feeders supply fuel onto belt conveyers which transfer it to
crushers. Crushed fuel (of a size not over 25 mm) is delivered by the another conveyer into the
boiler room bunkers. The crushed fuel is then fed into grinding mills where it is ground to the
final size and dried. The fuel-air mixture formed in the mills is supplied into the boiler furnace.
Boilers of -shaped profile are most popular. The boiler consists of two vertical prismatic
shafts connected at the top by a horizontal gas duct. The first (larger) shaft serves as the boiler
furnace. Its volume may be within a wide range from 1 000 m3 to 30 000 m3 or more depending
on boiler capacity and type of fuel. Tubular plane systems, or water walls, are arranged around
the entire perimeter and along the whole height of the furnace chamber. They are heated directly
by radiant heat of the flame and are essentially the radiant heating surfaces. In modern plants,
water walls in the furnace are often made of finned tubes which are welded together to form a
continuous gas-tight (gas-impermeable) shell, which is covered on the outside by a shell of a
heat-insulating material to minimize heat losses to the surroundings; this ensures proper sanitary
conditions in the boiler room, and prevents burns of the personnel.
The second vertical shaft and the horizontal duct that connects it with the furnace serve
for accommodating heating surfaces which receive heat by convection (convective surfaces)
and are called respectively the convective shaft and the convective duct.
Having given up their heat to the water walls, combustion products leave the furnace at a
temperature of 900-1200C (depending on the type of fuel) and enter the horizontal duct.
As water moves through the boiler tubes, it gradually transforms into steam. The heating
surfaces in which steam is formed are called evaporating, or steam-generating. In once-through
boilers, the evaporating heating surface is arranged in the lower portion of the furnace and is
called the lower radiation section. With supercritical steam parameters, it also includes a
radiant economizer. Water supplied to a boiler is called feed water.
Feed water contains certain impurities. During the process of steam generation, the content
of steam in the steam-water mixture increases, water evaporates, and the concentration of
impurities increases. At a certain concentration at the end of the steam- generating zone,
impurities may be deposited on the internal surfaces of tubes as scale. The conductivity of
deposits is only a small fraction of that of the tube metal. This impairs heat transfer to the
working fluid and, with intensive heating in the boiler furnace, can cause overheating of the
metal which then loses strength and can fracture under the pressure of the working fluid.
The heating surface in which steam generation is completed and steam superheating begins
is called the transition zone. Deposition of scale takes place mostly in this zone. In earlier
designs of once-through boilers, the conditions of operation of the metal of this zone were made
easier by bringing the transition zone out of the furnace into the convective duct where the
intensity of heating was roughly one order of magnitude lower (offset transition zone). In
modern practice, once-through boilers are fed with practically pure water, so that no scale forms
under normal operating conditions and the transition zone can be arranged within the furnace;
the working fluid passes from the lower radiation section directly into the water walls above it

where steam is superheated (radiant superheater). The radiant superheater can include either
two heating surfaces: the medium radiation section and the upper radiation section, which are
connected in series, or only the upper radiation section immediately downstream of the lower
radiation section. Partially superheated steam flows into the last heating surface which is
arranged in the convective duct; this is the convective superheater where steam is heated to the
specified temperature. Superheated steam of the required parameters (temperature and pressure)
is directed into the turbine. Like any heating surface, the convective superheater is a system of a
large number of steel tube coils connected in parallel and interconnected by headers at the inlet
and outlet ends.
The temperature of combustion products downstream of the convective superheater is quite
high (800-900C). Part of the worked-off steam can be returned from the turbine for secondary
(intermediate) superheating, usually to the same temperature as that of steam from the main
superheater. This is the intermediate (reheat) superheater (or, simply, reheater).
The combustion products at the outlet from the intermediate superheater are still rather hot
(500-600C) and their heat can be utilized in a convective economizer. Feed water- supplied into
the convective economizer is preheated to a temperature below the saturation point and is fed
into the lower radiation section. The temperature of combustion products downstream of the
economizer is 300- 450C or sometimes more. Further heat utilization is effected in a next
convective heating surface, the air heater. It is a system of vertical tubes, with combustion
products flowing in the tubes and air, between them. The temperature of air is 30-60C at the
inlet to the air heater (cold air) and 250-420C at the outlet (hot air), depending on kind of fuel
and method of combustion.
With pulverized fuel combustion, the preheated air is separated into two flows. The
primary air is used for drying of fuel and transport of fuel dust through burners into the boiler
furnace. The temperature of this fuel-air mixture is 70-130C. The secondary air is directed
immediately through burners into the furnace (bypassing the fuel mills) at the temperature it has
had after the air heater.
Downstream of the air heater, the combustion products have already a rather low
temperature (110-160C). Further utilization of their heat is economically inefficient and they
are ejected through the stack into the atmosphere. They are called waste, or chimney, gases.
Upon burning, fuel leaves fly ash which is mostly carried off by combustion gases. Fly ash
is collected in a fly-ash collector which is arranged upstream of the induced-draft fan. This
arrangement prevents abrasion wear of the induced-draft fans and contamination of the
atmosphere with fly ash. The collected ash is removed by means of ash-removal devices. Part of
ash falls onto the bottom of the boiler furnace and is removed continuously by the ash-handling
system.
The flow diagram of steam generation in drum-type boilers differs from that described
above only in the design and operation of the boiler proper (Fig. 2). In this case, the steam-water
mixture formed in the furnace water walls is fed into the boiler drum. The steam separated in the
drum is practically dry and is fed first into the superheater and then into the turbine

Fig. 2. Diagram of free-circulation drum-type boiler

1furnace space; 2water walls; 3burners; 4downtake tubes; 5drum; 6radiant superheater; 7
convective superheater; 8intermediate superheater (reheater); 9economizer; 10convective gas duct; 11
air heater

A boiler plant has the following basic paths:

the fuel path, i.e. a combination of elements in which solid fuel is transported, crushed,
ground, and delivered to the boiler furnace for combustion.
The fuel path comprises the crushing equipment, conveyers, crushed-fuel bunker, grinding
mill, and pulverized-fuel duct leading to the furnace. Up to the crushed-fuel bunkers, fuel is
transferred by conveyers. Beginning from the grinding mill, the resistance in the fuel path is
overcome by the head of the fan;
the water-steam path, or circuit, is a system of series-connected elements for the
transport of water, steam-water mixture and superheated steam. The water-steam circuit includes
the following elements: an economizer, furnace water walls, and steam superheaters;
the air path includes a combination of elements for suction of atmospheric (cold) air, its
preheating, transport and supply into the furnace. The air path comprises a cold air duct, air
heater (its air side), hot-air duct, and burners;
the gas path is a complex of elements in which the combustion products flow from the
furnace into the atmosphere; it begins in the boiler furnace and passes through the superheaters,
economizer, air heater (its gas side), ash collector and stack.
The air and gas paths are connected in series forming what is called the gas-air path. The
transition from one to the other takes place in the boiler furnace space.