Type of Boilers

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 10

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.

Boilers can be classified according to the following criteria.

According to flow of water and hot gases:

 Water tube
 Fire tube

Water tube boilers are classified as follows:

1. Horizontal straight tube boilers


(i) Longitudinal drum (ii) Cross-drum.

2. Bent tube boilers


(i) Two drum (ii) Three drum (iii) Low head three drum
3. Cyclone fired boilers

Fire tube boilers are classified as follows:

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.

According to position of furnace

 Internally fired
 externally fired

According to the position of principle axis

 Vertical
 Horizontal
 Inclined.

According to application.

 Stationary
 Mobile (Marine, Locomotive)

According to the circulating water

 Natural circulation
 Forced circulation
 Thermo syphon

According to steam pressure

 Low pressure 1-100 bar


 Medium pressure 100-180 bar
 Higher pressure >180 bar

According to the heat source:

 Solid Fuel (coal)


 Liquid (oil)
 Gaseous
 Electric
 Nuclear

Fire Tube Boiler

In fire tube boiler, hot gases pass through


the tubes and boiler feed water in the shell
side is converted into steam. Fire tube
boilers are generally used for relatively
small steam capacities and low to medium
steam pressures. As a guideline, fire tube
boilers are competitive for steam rates up
to 12,000 kg/hour and pressures up to 18
kg/cm2. Fire tube boilers are available for operation with oil, gas or solid fuels. For
economic reasons, most fire tube boilers are nowadays of “packaged” construction (i.e.
manufacturers shop erected) for all fuels.

Water Tube Boiler


In water tube boiler, boiler feed water flows through
the tubes and enters the boiler drum. The circulated
water is heated by the combustion gases and converted
into steam at the vapour space in the drum. These
boilers are selected when the steam demand as well as
steam pressure requirements are high as in the case of
process cum power boiler / power boilers.

Most modern water boiler tube designs are within the


capacity range 4,500 – 120,000 kg/hour of steam, at
very high pressures. Many water tube boilers nowadays
are of “packaged” construction if oil and /or gas are to
be used as fuel. Solid fuel fired water tube designs are
available but packaged designs are less common.

The features of water tube boilers are:

 Forced, induced and balanced draft provisions help


Fig: Simple Diagram of Water to improve combustion efficiency.
Tube Boiler  Less tolerance for water quality calls for water
treatment plant.
 Higher thermal efficiency levels are possible

Gas (Gas Boilers and Condensing Boilers)


Gas is the most used fuel for heating the home, it comes in two forms:
 Natural Gas - This is piped to your home via a supply company. If you require
natural gas and it has not been connected to your home yet then it can cost a lot
of money to get connected. You can install a gas central heating system yourself
but will need a Corgi registered installer to make the connection to the gas
supply. Natural gas is very convenient and there are a good variety of heating
systems that can be powered by gas, such as Combi's, back boilers, wall heaters
etc. Another benefit is that you will not run out of fuel for your heating.
 LPG - This is an alternative to natural gas where it is too expensive or impractical
to get natural gas. LPG is supplied to your home via large orange cylinders that
stand about 4 feet tall, you usually require two of these cylinders to be fitted
with a valve to switch between the two as there are no gauges on them to tell
you how full they are. LPG works in exactly the same way as natural gas but
you will need a boiler that can be made compatible via a conversion kit.

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.

Solid Fuel Boilers


Solid fuel heating boilers are mostly limited to back boilers, or kitchen ranges. There
are some solid fuel boilers which run the same way as other fuelled boilers and use
automatically fed pellets from a hopper situated outside the house (we do not supply
these). Most solid fuel heating systems are inefficient as they consist of open fires;
they also can be messy and require cleaning out once a day at least. Solid fuel comes
in a variety of forms, coal, wood, etc.
Electric Boilers
Until recently effective Electric central heating was limited to storage heaters or
blown air systems. These were both run off cheap rate electricity supplied in the small
hours, and in some cases for a short top up period in the afternoon. Though storage
heaters (the most popular) are reasonably efficient they have a problem of being on all
the time, so if you have a hot day after a cold day in the winter, you will have heating
even though you don't need it. They are also susceptible to drafts which can discharge
them very quickly indeed. A new form of electric powered heating has appeared
recently in the form of electric heating boilers. These can directly replace other boilers
in conventional heating systems; they are very compact, light and can be run off cheap
rate electricity. Another benefit is that they are completely silent.

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:

 Small combustion space and high


heat release rate resulting in faster
evaporation.
 Large number of small diameter
tubes leading to good convective
heat transfer.
 Forced or induced draft systems
resulting in good combustion
efficiency.
 Number of passes resulting in
better overall heat transfer.
 Higher thermal efficiency levels compared with other boilers.

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) 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.

The lower combustion temperature is achieved because of high coefficient of heat


transfer due to rapid mixing in the fluidized bed and effective extraction of heat from the
bed through in-bed heat transfer tubes and walls of the bed. The gas velocity is
maintained between minimum fluidization velocity and particle entrainment velocity.
This ensures stable operation of the bed and avoids particle entrainment in the gas
stream.

Atmospheric Fluidized Bed Combustion (AFBC) Boiler

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.

Chain-grate or Traveling-grate Stoker

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.

The coal-feed hopper runs along the entire coal-feed


end of the furnace. A coal gate is used to control the
rate at which coal is fed into the furnace by
controlling the thickness of the fuel bed. Coal must
be uniform in size as large lumps will not burn out
completely by the time they reach the end of the
grate

Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion (PFBC) Boiler

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%.

Atmospheric Circulating Fluidized Bed


Combustion Boilers (CFBC)

In a circulating system the bed parameters are so


maintained as to promote solids elutriation from
the bed. They are lifted in a relatively dilute phase
in a solids riser, and a down-comer with a cyclone
provides a return path for the solids. There are no
steam generation tubes immersed in the bed.
Generation and super heating of steam takes place
in the convection section, water walls, at the exit
of the riser.

CFBC boilers are generally more economical than


AFBC boilers for industrial application requiring
more than 75 – 100 T/hr of steam. For large units,
the taller furnace characteristics of CFBC boilers
offers better space utilization, greater fuel particle
and sorbent residence time for efficient
combustion and SO2 capture, and easier
application of staged combustion techniques for
NOx control than AFBC steam generators.

Stoker Fired Boilers

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.

This system has many advantages such as ability to


fire varying quality of coal, quick responses to
changes in load, use of high pre-heat air temperatures etc.

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.

Waste Heat Boiler

Wherever the waste heat is available at medium or


high temperatures, a waste heat boiler can be installed
economically. Wherever the steam demand is more
than the steam generated during waste heat, auxiliary
fuel burners are also used. If there is no direct use of
steam, the steam may be let down in a steam turbine-
generator set and power produced from it. It is widely
used in the heat recovery from exhaust gases from gas
turbines and diesel engines.

Thermic Fluid Heater

In recent times, thermic fluid heaters have found wide


application for indirect process heating. Employing
petroleum - based fluids as the heat transfer medium, these heaters provide constantly
maintainable temperatures for the user equipment. The combustion system comprises of
a fixed grate with mechanical draft arrangements.
The modern oil fired thermic fluid heater consists of a double coil, three pass
construction and fitted with modulated pressure jet system. The thermic fluid, which acts
as a heat carrier, is heated up in the heater and circulated through the user equipment.
There it transfers heat for the process through a heat exchanger and the fluid is then
returned to the heater. The flow of thermic fluid at
the user end is controlled by a pneumatically
operated control valve, based on the operating
temperature. The heater operates on low or high fire
depending on the return oil temperature, which
varies with the system load

The advantages of these heaters are:

 Closed cycle operation with minimum


losses as compared to steam boilers.
 Non-Pressurized system operation even for
temperatures around 250 0c as against 40 kg/cm2
steam pressure requirement in a similar steam system.
 Automatic control settings, which offer operational flexibility.
 Good thermal efficiencies as losses due to blow down, condensate drain and flash
steam do not exist in a thermic fluid heater system.

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

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy