Type of Boilers
Type of Boilers
Type of Boilers
A boiler or steam generator is a device used to create steam by applying heat energy to
water. Although the definitions are somewhat flexible, it can be said that older steam
generators were commonly termed boilers and worked at low to medium pressure (1–
300 psi or 6.895–2,068.427 kPa) but, at pressures above this, it is more usual to speak of
a steam generator.
A boiler or steam generator is used wherever a source of steam is required. The form and
size depends on the application: mobile steam engines such as steam locomotives,
portable engines and steam-powered road vehicles typically use a smaller boiler that
forms an integral part of the vehicle; stationary steam engines, industrial installations and
power stations will usually have a larger separate steam generating facility connected to
the point-of-use by piping. A notable exception is the steam-powered fireless
locomotive, where separately-generated steam is transferred to a receiver (tank) on the
locomotive.
Water tube
Fire tube
l. External furnace
Horizontal return tubular
Short fire box
Compact.
2. Internal furnace
Horizontal tubular
(a) Short firebox (b) Locomotive (c) Compact (d) Scotch.
Vertical tubular
(a) Straight vertical shell, vertical tube
(b) Cochran horizontal tube.
Internally fired
externally fired
Vertical
Horizontal
Inclined.
According to application.
Stationary
Mobile (Marine, Locomotive)
Natural circulation
Forced circulation
Thermo syphon
Oil Boilers
Oil fuels some of the most efficient boilers available, the choice of heating systems
are fewer than with gas being restricted to just boilers. In most cases to run an oil
boiler you will need a tank to be installed outside your house, these are usually large
and very hard to disguise, you also have to conform to a variety of regulations in
sighting it. Another thing with oil is that if you let it run out then you will need a
heating engineer to re-prime the system before you can get it working again.
Packaged Boiler
The packaged boiler is so called because it comes as a complete package. Once delivered
to site, it requires only the steam, water pipe work, fuel supply and electrical connections
to be made for it to become operational. Package boilers are generally of shell type with
fire tube design so as to achieve high heat transfer rates by both radiation and convection.
The features of package boilers are:
These boilers are classified based on the number of passes - the number of times the hot
combustion gases pass through the boiler. The combustion chamber is taken, as the first
pass after which there may be one, two or three sets of fire-tubes. The most common
boiler of this class is a three-pass unit with two sets of fire-tubes and with the exhaust
gases exiting through the rear of the boiler.
Fluidized bed combustion (FBC) has emerged as a viable alternative and has significant
advantages over conventional firing system and offers multiple benefits – compact boiler
design, fuel flexibility, higher combustion efficiency and reduced emission of noxious
pollutants such as SOx and NOx. The fuels burnt in these boilers include coal, washery
rejects, rice husk, bagasse & other agricultural wastes. The fluidized bed boilers have a
wide capacity range- 0.5 T/hr to over 100 T/hr.
When an evenly distributed air or gas is passed upward through a finely divided bed of
solid particles such as sand supported on a fine mesh, the particles are undisturbed at low
velocity. As air velocity is gradually increased, a stage is reached when the individual
particles are suspended in the air stream – the bed is called “fluidized”.
With further increase in air velocity, there is bubble formation, vigorous turbulence, rapid
mixing and formation of dense defined bed surface. The bed of solid particles exhibits
the properties of a boiling liquid and assumes the appearance of a fluid – “bubbling
fluidized bed”.
If sand particles in a fluidized state is heated to the ignition temperatures of coal, and coal
is injected continuously into the bed, the coal will burn rapidly and bed attains a uniform
temperature. The fluidized bed combustion (FBC) takes place at about 840 OC to 950
OC. Since this temperature is much below the ash fusion temperature, melting of ash and
associated problems are avoided.
Most operational boiler of this type is of the Atmospheric Fluidized Bed Combustion.
(AFBC). This involves little more than adding a fluidized bed combustor to a
conventional shell boiler. Such systems have similarly being installed in conjunction with
conventional water tube boiler.
Coal is crushed to a size of 1 – 10 mm depending on the rank of coal, type of fuel fed to
the combustion chamber. The atmospheric air, which acts as both the fluidization and
combustion air, is delivered at a pressure, after being preheated by the exhaust fuel gases.
The in-bed tubes carrying water generally act as the evaporator. The gaseous products of
combustion pass over the super heater sections of the boiler flow past the economizer, the
dust collectors and the air preheater before being exhausted to atmosphere.
Coal is fed onto one end of a moving steel grate. As grate moves along the length of the
furnace, the coal burns before dropping off at the
end as ash. Some degree of skill is required,
particularly when setting up the grate, air dampers
and baffles, to ensure clean combustion leaving the
minimum of unburnt carbon in the ash.
In Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion (PFBC) type, a compressor supplies the Forced
Draft (FD) air and the combustor is a pressure vessel. The heat release rate in the bed is
proportional to the bed pressure and hence a deep bed is used to extract large amount of
heat. This will improve the combustion efficiency and sulphur dioxide absorption in the
bed. The steam is generated in the two tube bundles, one in the bed and one above it. Hot
flue gases drive a power generating gas turbine. The PFBC system can be used for
cogeneration (steam and electricity) or combined cycle power generation. The combined
cycle operation (gas turbine & steam turbine) improves the overall conversion efficiency
by 5 to 8%.
Stokers are classified according to the method of feeding fuel to the furnace and by the
type of grate. The main classifications are spreader stoker and chain-gate or traveling-
gate stoker.
Spreader Stokers
Spreader stokers utilize a combination of suspension burning and grate burning. The coal
is continually fed into the furnace above a burning bed of coal. The coal fines are burned
in suspension; the larger particles fall to the grate, where they are burned in a thin, fast-
burning coal bed. This method of firing provides good flexibility to meet load
fluctuations, since ignition is almost
instantaneous when firing rate is increased. Due to
this, the spreader stoker is favored over other
types of stokers in many industrial application
Pulverized Fuel Boiler
Most coal-fired power station boilers use pulverized coal, and many of the larger
industrial water-tube boilers also use this pulverized fuel. This technology is well
developed, and there are thousands of units around the world, accounting for well over
90% of coal-fired capacity.
The coal is ground (pulverized) to a fine powder, so that less than 2% is +300 micro
meter (μm) and 70-75% is below 75 microns, for a bituminous coal. It should be noted
that too fine a powder is wasteful of grinding mill power. On the other hand, too coarse a
powder does not burn completely in the combustion chamber and results in higher
unburnt losses.
The pulverized coal is blown with part of the
combustion air into the boiler plant through a series
of burner nozzles. Secondary and tertiary air may also
be added. Combustion takes place at temperatures
from 1300-1700°C, depending largely on coal grade.
Particle residence time in the boiler is typically 2 to 5
seconds, and the particles must be small enough for
complete combustion to have taken place during this
time.
One of the most popular systems for firing pulverized coal is the tangential firing using
four burners corner to corner to create a fireball at the center of the furnace.
The overall economics of the thermic fluid heater will depend upon the specific
application and reference basis. Coal fired thermic fluid heaters Awith a thermal
efficiency range of 55-65% may compare favorably with most boilers. Incorporation of
heat recovery devices in the flue gas path enhances the thermal efficiency levels further
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