Boilers

Introduction to Boiler
It is an enclosed Pressure
Vessel
Heat generated by
Combustion of Fuel is
transferred to water to
become steam
Process: Evaporation
Steam volume increases to
1,600 times from water and
produces tremendous force
Care is must to avoid
explosion.

What is a boiler?

Boiler Specification
Boiler Make & Year

:XYZ & 2003

MCR(Maximum Continuous Rating) :10TPH (F & A

100oC)
Rated Working Pressure :10.54 kg/cm2(g)
Type of Boiler

: 3 Pass Fire tube

Fuel Fired
Heating surface

: Fuel Oil
: M2

What is F&A 100OC ?

Boiler Systems
Water treatment system
Feed water AND
Condensate system
Steam System
Blow down system
Fuel supply system
Air Supply system
Flue gas system

Boiler Types and Classifications

Fire in tube or Hot gas through

tubes and boiler feed water in shell
side

Fire Tubes submerged in water

Application

Used for small steam capacities

( upto 25T/hr and 17.5kg/cm 2

Merits
Low Capital Cost and fuel
Efficient (82%)
Accepts wide & load
fluctuations
Packaged Boiler

Fire Tube Boiler

Boiler Types and Classifications

Water flow through tubes
Water Tube Boiler

Water Tubes surrounded by

hot gas
Application
Used for Power Plants
Steam capacities range from
4.5- 120 t/hr

Characteristics
High Capital Cost
Used for high pressure high
capacity steam boiler
Demands more controls
Calls for very stringent water
quality

Packaged Boiler
Package
boilers
are
generally of shell type
with fire tube design
More number of
passes-so more heat
transfer
Large number of small
diameter tubes leading to
good convective heat
transfer.
Higher thermal efficiency

Chain Grate or Traveling Grate Stoker Boiler

Coal is fed on
one end of a
moving steel
chain grate
Ash drops off at
end
Coal grate
controls rate of
coal feed into
furnace by
controlling the
thickness of the
fuel bed.
Coal must be
uniform in size
as large lumps will
not burn out
completely

Spreader Stoker Boiler

Uses both suspension
and grate burning
Coal fed continuously
over burning coal
bed
Coal fines burn in
suspension and
larger coal pieces
burn on grate

Good flexibility to
meet changing load
requirements

Preferred over other

type of stokers in
industrial application

Pulverized Fuel Boiler

Coal is pulverised to a fine powder, so that less than 2% is +300
microns, and 70-75% is below 75 microns.
Coal is blown with part of the combustion air into the boiler plant
through a series of burner nozzles.

Combustion temperatures from

1300-1700C
Particle residence time in the
boiler is 2-5 seconds
Most popular system for firing
pulverized coal is the tangential
firing using four burners corner to
corner to create a fire ball at the
center of the furnace
Tangential firing

Pulverized Fuel Boiler (Contd..)

Advantages
Its ability to burn all ranks of coal from anthracitic
to lignitic, and it permits combination firing (i.e.,
can use coal, oil and gas in same burner). Because
of these advantages, there is widespread use of
pulverized coal furnaces.
Disadvantages

High power demand for pulverizing

Requires more maintenance, flyash erosion and
pollution complicate unit operation

Fluidized bed Combustion (FBC) boiler

Distributed air is passed upward through a bed of solid particles
The particles are undisturbed at low velocity.As air velocity is increased,
a stage is reached when the particles are suspended in the air
Further,
increase
in
velocity gives rise to
bubble formation, vigorous
turbulence
and
rapid
mixing and the bed is said
to be fluidized.
Coal is fed continuously in
to a hot air agitated
refractory sand bed, the
coal will burn rapidly and
the bed attains a uniform
temperature

Fluidised Bed Combustion

Fluidized-bed boiler (Contd..)

Advantages :
Higher rates of heat transfer between combustion process
and boiler tubes (thus reduced furnace area and size
required),
combustion temperature 850oC is lower than in a
conventional furnace. The lower furnace temperatures
means reduced NOx production.
In addition, the limestone (CaCO3) and dolomite
(MgCO3) react with SO2 to form calcium and
magnesium sulfides, respectively, solids which do not
escape up the stack; This means the plant can easily use
high sulfur coal.
Fuel Flexibility: Multi fuel firing

Performance Evaluation of Boilers

There are two methods of assessing boiler efficiency.

1) The Direct Method: Where the energy gain of the working

fluid (water and steam) is compared with the energy content of the
boiler fuel.
2) The Indirect Method: Where the efficiency is the difference
between the losses and the energy input.
Boiler Efficiency
Evaluation Method

1. Direct Method

2. Indirect
Method

Efficiency Calculation by Direct Method

Example:
Type of boiler: Coal fired Boiler
Heat input data
Qty of coal consumed :1.8 TPH
GCV of coal
:3200K.Cal/kg

Heat output data

Qty of steam gen
: 8 TPH
Steam pr/temp:10 kg/cm2(g)/1800C
Enthalpy of steam(sat) at 10 kg/cm2(g) pressure
:665 K.Cal/kg
Feed water temperature : 850 C
Enthalpy of feed water : 85 K.Cal/kg
Find out the efficiency ?
Find out the Evaporation Ratio?

Boiler efficiency ():

Q x (H h) x 100
(q x GCV)

Where Q = Quantity of steam generated per hour (kg/hr)

H = Enthalpy of saturated steam (kcal/kg)
h = Enthalpy of feed water (kcal/kg)
q = Quantity of fuel used per hour (kg/hr)
GCV = Gross calorific value of the fuel (kcal/kg)
Boiler efficiency ()=

8 TPH x1000Kg/Tx (66585) x 100

1.8 TPH x 1000Kg/T x 3200
= 80.0%

Evaporation Ratio

= 8 Tonne of steam/1.8 Ton of coal

= 4.4

What are the losses that occur in a boiler?

Steam Output

6. Surface loss

1. Dry Flue gas loss

2. H2 loss
3. Moisture in fuel
4. Moisture in air
5. CO loss

7. Fly ash loss

Fuel Input, 100%

Boiler

Flue gas

Air
8. Bottom ash loss

Feed water
Efficiency
(by In Direct Method)

Blow down

= 100 (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8)

Example:
The following are the data collected for a typical oil fired boiler.
Find out the efficiency of the boiler by indirect method and
Boiler Evaporation ratio.
Ultimate analysis of Oil
C : 84.0 %
H2: 12.0 %
S: 3.0 %
O2: 1.0 %
GCV of Oil
: 10200 kcal/kg
Steam Generation Pressure
: 7kg/cm2(g)-saturated
Enthalpy of steam
: 660 kCal/kg
Feed water temperature
: 60oC
Percentage of Oxygen in flue gas: 7
Percentage of CO2
in flue gas: 11
Flue gas temperature (Tf)
: 220 0C
Ambient temperature (Ta)
: 27 0C
Humidity of air
: 0.018 kg/kg of dry air

Solution
Step-1: Find the theoretical air requirement

[(11.6 x C ) {34.8 x ( H 2 O2 / 8)} (4.35 x S )] /100

= kg/kg of oil
=[(11.6 x 84) + [{34.8 x (12 1/8)} + (4.35 x 3)]/100 kg/kg of oil
=14 kg of air/kg of oil

Step-2: Find the %Excess air supplied

Excess air supplied (EA) =

O2 %
x100
21 O2%

7%
x100 = 50%
21 7

Step-3: Find the Actual mass of air supplied

Actual mass of air supplied /kg of fuel = [ 1 + EA/100] x Theoritical Air
(AAS)
= [1 + 50/100] x 14
= 1.5 x 14
= 21 kg of air/kg of oil

Step-4: Estimation of all losses

i. Dry flue gas loss
Percentage heat loss due to dry flue gas =

m x C p x (T f Ta )
GCV of fuel

x 100

m= mass of CO2 + mass of SO2 + mass of N2 + mass of O2

0.84 x 44 0.03 x 64 21 x 77
23
m

(21 14) x

12
32
100
100

21 kg / kg of oil
21 x 0.23 x (220 27)
x 100
10200

= 9.14 %

Alternatively a simple method can be used for

determining the dry flue gas loss as given below.

Percentage heat loss due to dry flue gas =

m x C p x (T f Ta )
GCV of fuel

x 100

Total mass of flue gas (m) = mass of actual air supplied + mass of
fuel supplied
= 21 + 1=22

22 x 0.23 x (220 27)

%Dry flue gas loss =
x 100 9.57%
10200

ii. Heat loss due to evaporation of water formed due to H2 in fuel

9 x H 2 x {584 Cp (Tf - Ta )}
=

GCV of fuel

x 100

Where, H2 percentage of H2 in fuel

9 x 12 x {584 0.45 (220 - 27 )}

x 100
=
10200
= 7.10% 0.45 =Cp sup heat steam & 584=latent

iii. Heat loss due to moisture present in air

AAS x humidity x C p x (T f Ta )

GCV of fuel

x 100

21 x 0.018 x 0.45 x (220 27)

x 100
10200

= 0.322

iv Heat loss due to radiation and other unaccounted losses

For a small boiler it is estimated to be 2%

Boiler Efficiency
i. Heat loss due to dry flue gas

: 9.14%

ii. Heat loss due to evaporation of water formed due to H2 in fuel

: 7.10 %
iii. Heat loss due to moisture present in air
: 0.322 %
iv. Heat loss due to radiation and other unaccounted loss
: 2%
Boiler Efficiency = 100- [9.14+7.10+0.322+2]
= 100 18.56 = 81 (app)

Evaporation Ratio = Heat utilized for steam generation/Heat addition to the steam
= 10200 x 0.81/ (660-60)
= 14.11

Why Boiler Blow Down ?

When water evaporates Dissolved solids gets concentrated
and Solids precipitates on tubes. Reduces the heat transfer rate

Intermittent Blowdown
The intermittent blown down is given by manually
operating a valve fitted to discharge pipe at the
lowest point of boiler shell to reduce parameters
(TDS or conductivity, pH, Silica etc) within
prescribed limits so that steam quality is not likely
to be affected
TDS level keeps varying
fluctuations of the water level in the boiler.
substantial amount of heat energy is lost with
intermittent blow down.

Continuous Blowdown
A steady and constant dispatch of small
stream of concentrated boiler water, and
replacement by steady and constant inflow
of feed water.
This ensures constant TDS and steam
purity.
This type of blow down is common in highpressure boilers.