BOILER

“A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized
fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including boiler-
based power generation, cooking, and sanitation.”

MATERIALS
The pressure vessel in a boiler is usually made of steel (or alloy steel), or historically of
wrought iron. Stainless steel is virtually prohibited (by the ASME Boiler Code) for use in
wetted parts of modern boilers, but is used often in superheater sections that will not be
exposed to liquid boiler water. However electrically-heated stainless steel shell boilers are
allowed under the European "Pressure Equipment Directive" for production of steam for
sterilizers and disinfectors.

In live steam models, copper or brass is often used because it is more easily fabricated in
smaller size boilers. Historically, copper was often used for fireboxes (particularly for steam
locomotives), because of its better formability and higher thermal conductivity; however, in
more recent times, the high price of copper often makes this an uneconomic choice and
cheaper substitutes (such as steel) are used instead.

For much of the Victorian "age of steam", the only material used for boilermaking was the
highest grade of wrought iron, with assembly by rivetting. This iron was often obtained from
specialist ironworks, such as at Cleator Moor (UK), noted for the high quality of their rolled
plate and its suitability for high-reliability use in critical applications, such as high-pressure
boilers. In the 20th century, design practice instead moved towards the use of steel, which is
stronger and cheaper, with welded construction, which is quicker and requires less labour.

Cast iron may be used for the heating vessel of domestic water heaters. Although such
heaters are usually termed "boilers" in some countries, their purpose is usually to produce hot
water, not steam, and so they run at low pressure and try to avoid actual boiling. The
brittleness of cast iron makes it impractical for high pressure steam boilers.

FUEL
The source of heat for a boiler is combustion of any of several fuels, such as wood, coal, oil,
or natural gas. Electric steam boilers use resistance- or immersion-type heating elements.
Nuclear fission is also used as a heat source for generating steam, either directly (BWR) or,
in most cases, in specialized heat exchangers called "steam generators" (PWR). Heat
recovery steam generators (HRSGs) use the heat rejected from other processes such as gas
turbines.

TYPES OF BOILERS
1. Water Tube Boiler
2. Fire Tube Boiler

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 to improve combustion efficiency.
 Less tolerance for water quality calls for water treatment plant.
 Higher thermal efficiency shifts are possible.

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.

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.

SUPERCRITICAL STEAM GENERATOR

Supercritical steam generators are frequently used for the production of electric power. They
operate at supercritical pressure. In contrast to a "subcritical boiler", a supercritical steam
generator operates at such a high pressure (over 3,200 psi or 22 MPa) that the physical
turbulence that characterizes boiling ceases to occur; the fluid is neither liquid nor gas but a
super-critical fluid. There is no generation of steam bubbles within the water, because the
pressure is above the critical pressure point at which steam bubbles can form. As the fluid
expands through the turbine stages, its thermodynamic state drops below the critical point as
it does work turning the turbine which turns electrical generator from which power is
ultimately extracted. The fluid at that point may be a mix of steam and liquid droplets as it
passes into the condenser. This results in slightly less fuel use and therefore less greenhouse
gas production. The term "boiler" should not be used for a supercritical pressure steam
generator, as no "boiling" actually occurs in this device.
 ACCESSORIES
Boiler fittings and accessories

Safety valve: It is used to relieve pressure and prevent possible explosion of a boiler.
Water level indicators: They show the operator the level of fluid in the boiler, also known as a sight
glass, water gauge or water column is provided.

Bottom blowdown valves: They provide a means for removing solid particulates that condense and lie
on the bottom of a boiler. As the name implies, this valve is usually located directly on the
bottom of the boiler, and is occasionally opened to use the pressure in the boiler to push these
particulates out.

Continuous blowdown valve: This allows a small quantity of water to escape continuously. Its purpose
is to prevent the water in the boiler becoming saturated with dissolved salts. Saturation would
lead to foaming and cause water droplets to be carried over with the steam - a condition known
as priming. Blowdown is also often used to monitor the chemistry of the boiler water.

Flash Tank: High pressure blowdown enters this vessel where the steam can 'flash' safely and be used
in a low-pressure system or be vented to atmosphere while the ambient pressure blowdown flows
to drain.

Automatic Blowdown/Continuous Heat Recovery System: This system allows the boiler to
blowdown only when makeup water is flowing to the boiler, thereby transferring the maximum
amount of heat possible from the blowdown to the makeup water. No flash tank is generally
needed as the blowdown discharged is close to the temperature of the makeup water.

Hand holes: They are steel plates installed in openings in "header" to allow for inspections &
installation of tubes and inspection of internal surfaces.

Steam drums internals, A series of screen, scrubber & cans (cyclone separators).

Low- water cutoff: It is a mechanical means (usually a float switch) that is used to turn off the burner or
shut off fuel to the boiler to prevent it from running once the water goes below a certain point. If
a boiler is "dry-fired" (burned without water in it) it can cause rupture or catastrophic failure.

Surface blow down line: It provides a means for removing foam or other lightweight non-condensable
substances that tend to float on top of the water inside the boiler.

Circulating pump: It is designed to circulate water back to the boiler after it has expelled some of its
heat.

Feed water check valve or clack valve: A non-return stop valve in the feed water line. This may be
fitted to the side of the boiler, just below the water level, or to the top of the boiler.
Top feed: In this design for feed water injection, the water is fed to the top of the boiler. This can reduce
boiler fatigue caused by thermal stress. By spraying the feed water over a series of trays the
water is quickly heated and this can reduce lime scale.

Desuper heater tubes or bundles: A series of tubes or bundles of tubes in the water drum or the steam
drum designed to cool superheated steam. Thus is to supply auxiliary equipment that does not
need, or may be damaged by, dry steam.

Chemical injection line: A connection to add chemicals for controlling feed water pH.

 Steam accessories
 Main steam stop valve
 Steam traps
 Main steam stop/Check valve: It is used on multiple boiler installations.
 Combustion accessories
 Fuel oil system
 fuel oil heaters
 Gas system
 Coal system
 Soot blower
 Other essential items
 Pressure gauges
 Feed pumps
 Fusible plug
 Inspectors test pressure gauge attachment
 Name plate
 Registration plate
 Controlling draught

Most boilers now depend on mechanical draught equipment rather than natural draught. This
is because natural draught is subject to outside air conditions and temperature of flue gases
leaving the furnace, as well as the chimney height. All these factors make proper draught
hard to attain and therefore make mechanical draught equipment much more economical.
THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF MECHANICAL DRAUGHT:
1. INDUCED DRAUGHT
This is obtained one of three ways, the first being the "stack effect" of a heated chimney, in
which the flue gas is less dense than the ambient air surrounding the boiler. The denser
column of ambient air forces combustion air into and through the boiler.The second method
is through use of a steam jet. The steam jet oriented in the direction of flue gas flow induces
flue gasses into the stack and allows for a greater flue gas velocity increasing the overall
draught in the furnace. This method was common on steam driven locomotives which could
not have tall chimneys. The third method is by simply using an induced draught fan (ID fan)
which removes flue gases from the furnace and forces the exhaust gas up the stack. Almost
all induced draught furnaces operate with a slightly negative pressure.

2.FORCED DRAUGHT

Draught is obtained by forcing air into the furnace by means of a fan (FD fan) and ductwork.
Air is often passed through an air heater; which, as the name suggests, heats the air going
into the furnace in order to increase the overall efficiency of the boiler. Dampers are used to
control the quantity of air admitted to the furnace. Forced draught furnaces usually have a
positive pressure.

3.BALANCED DRAUGHT

Balanced draught is obtained through use of both induced and forced draught. This is more
common with larger boilers where the flue gases have to travel a long distance through many
boiler passes. The induced draught fan works in conjunction with the forced draught fan
allowing the furnace pressure to be maintained slightly below atmospheric.

BOILER WATER TREATMENT

The treatment and conditioning of boiler feed water must satisfy three main objectives:
 Continuous heat exchange
 Corrosion protection
 Production of high quality steam

External treatment is the reduction or removal of impurities from water outside the boiler. In
general, external treatment is used when the amount of one or more of the feed water
impurities is too high to be tolerated by the boiler system in question. There are many types
of external treatment (softening, evaporation, deaeration, membrane contractors etc.) which
can be used to tailor make feed-water for a particular system. Internal treatment is the
conditioning of impurities within the boiler system. The reactions occur either in the feed
lines or in the boiler proper. Internal treatment may be used alone or in conjunction with
external treatment. Its purpose is to properly react with feed water hardness, condition
sludge, scavenge oxygen and prevent boiler water foaming.
The water treatment facilities purify and deaerate make-up water or feed water. Water is
sometimes pretreated by evaporation to produce relatively pure vapor, which is then
condensed and used for boiler feed purposes. Evaporators are of several different types, the
simplest being a tank of water through which steam coils are passed to heat the water to the
boiling point. Sometimes to increase the efficiency the vapor from the first tank is passed
through coils in a second tank of water to produce additional heating and evaporation.
Evaporators are suitable where steam as a source of heat is readily available. They have
particular advantages over demineralization, for example, when the dissolved solids in the
raw water are very high.

Certain natural and synthetic materials have the ability to remove mineral ions from water in
exchange for others. For example, in passing water through a simple cation exchange
softener all of calcium and magnesium ions are removed and replaced with sodium ions.
Since simple cation exchange does not reduce the total solids of the water supply, it is
sometimes used in conjunction with precipitation type softening. One of the most common
and efficient combination treatments is the hot lime-zeolite process. This involves
pretreatment of the water with lime to reduce hardness, alkalinity and in some cases silica,
and subsequent treatment with a cation exchange softener. This system of treatment
accomplishes several functions: softening, alkalinity and silica reduction, some oxygen
reduction, and removal of suspended matter and turbidity.

Chemical treatment of water inside the boiler is usually essential and complements external
treatment by taking care of any impurities entering the boiler with the feed water (hardness,
oxygen, silica, etc.). In many cases external treatment of the water supply is not necessary
and the water can be treated only by internal methods.

INTERNAL TREATMENT
Internal treatment can constitute the unique treatment when boilers operate at low or
moderate pressure, when large amounts of condensed steam are used for feed water, or when
good quality raw water is available. The purpose of an internal treatment is to react with any
feed-water hardness and prevent it from precipitating on the boiler metal as scale;
 condition any suspended matter such as hardness sludge or iron oxide in the
boiler and make it non-adherent to the boiler metal;
 provide anti-foam protection to allow a reasonable concentration of dissolved
and suspended solids in the boiler water without foam carry-over;
 eliminate oxygen from the water and provide enough alkalinity to prevent
boiler corrosion.
In addition, as supplementary measures an internal treatment should prevent corrosion and
scaling of the feed-water system and protect against corrosion in the steam condensate
systems.

During the conditioning process, which is an essential complement to the water treatment
program, specific doses of conditioning products are added to the water. The commonly used
products include:
PHOSPHATES-DISPERSANTS, POLYPHOSPHATES-DISPERSANTS
(SOFTENING CHEMICALS)

Reacting with the alkalinity of boiler water, these products neutralize the hardness of water
by forming tricalciumphosphate, and insoluble compound that can be disposed and blow
down on a continuous basis or periodically through the bottom of the boiler.

NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC DISPERSANTS (ANTI-SCALING AGENTS)

Increase the dispersive properties of the conditioning products. They can be:
Natural polymers: lignosulphonates, tannins
Synthetic polymers: polyacrilates, maleic acrylate copolymer, maleic styrene copolymer,
polystyrene sulphonates etc.
Sequestering agents: such as inorganic phosphates, which act as inhibitors and implement a
threshold effect.

OXYGEN SCAVENGERS: sodium sulphite, tannis, hydrazine, hydroquinone/progallol-

based derivatives, hydroxylamine derivatives, hydroxylamine derivatives, ascorbic acid
derivatives, etc. These scavengers, catalyzed or not, reduce the oxides and dissolved oxygen.
Most also passivate metal surfaces. The choice of product and the dose required will depend
on whether a deaerating heater is used.

ANTI-FOAMING OR ANTI-PRIMING AGENTS: mixture of surface-active agents that

modify the surface tension of a liquid, remove foam and prevent the carry over of fine water
particles in the steam
The softening chemicals used include soda ash, caustic and various types of sodium
phosphates. These chemicals react with calcium and magnesium compounds in the feed
water. Sodium silicate is used to react selectively with magnesium hardness. Calcium
bicarbonate entering with the feed water is broken down at boiler temperatures or reacts with
caustic soda to form calcium carbonate. Since calcium carbonate is relatively insoluble it
tends to come out of solution. Sodium carbonate partially breaks down at high temperature to
sodium hydroxide (caustic) and carbon dioxide. High temperatures in the boiler water reduce
the solubility of calcium sulphate and tend to make it precipitate out directly on the boiler
metal as scale. Consequently calcium sulphate must be reacted upon chemically to cause a
precipitate to form in the water where it can be conditioned and removed by blow-down.
Calcium sulphate is reacted on either by sodium carbonate, sodium phosphate or sodium
silicate to form insoluble calcium carbonate, phosphate or silicate. Magnesium sulphate is
reacted upon by caustic soda to form a precipitate of magnesium hydroxide. Some
magnesium may react with silica to form magnesium silicate. Sodium sulphate is highly
soluble and remains in solution unless the water is evaporated almost to dryness.
There are two general approaches to conditioning sludge inside a boiler:
 Coagulation
 Dispersion.
When the total amount of sludge is high (as the result of high feed-water hardness) it is better
to coagulate the sludge to form large flocculent particles. This can be removed by blow-
down. The coagulation can be obtained by careful adjustment of the amounts of alkalis,
phosphates and organics used for treatment, based on the fee-water analysis. When the
amount of sludge is not high (low feed water hardness) it is preferable to use a higher
percentage of phosphates in the treatment. Phosphates form separated sludge particles. A
higher percentage of organic sludge dispersants is used in the treatment to keep the sludge
particles dispersed throughout the boiler water.
The materials used for conditioning sludge include various organic materials of the tannin,
lignin or alginate classes. It is important that these organics are selected and processed, so
that they are both effective and stand stable at the boiler operating pressure. Certain synthetic
organic materials are used as anti-foam agents. The chemicals used to scavenge oxygen
include sodium sulphite and hydrazine. Various combinations of polyphosphates and
organics are used for preventing scale and corrosion in feed-water systems. Volatile
neutralizing amines and filming inhibitors are used for preventing condensate corrosion.

Common internal chemical feeding methods include the use of chemical solution tanks and
proportioning pumps or special ball briquette chemical feeders. In general, softening
chemicals (phosphates, soda ash, caustic, etc.) are added directly to the fee-water at a point
near the entrance to the boiler drum. They may also be fed through a separate line
discharging in the feed-water drum of the boiler. The chemicals should discharge in the fee-
water section of the boiler so that reactions occur in the water before it enters the steam
generating area. Softening chemicals may be added continuously or intermittently depending
on feed-water hardiness and other factors. Chemicals added to react with dissolved oxygen
(sulphate, hydrazine, etc.) and chemicals used to prevent scale and corrosion in the feed-
water system (polyphosphates, organics, etc.) should be fed in the feed-water system as
continuously as possible. Chemicals used to prevent condensate system corrosion may be fed
directly to the steam or into the feed-water system, depending on the specific chemical used.
Continuous feeding is preferred but intermittent application will suffice in some cases.

BOILER DESIGN
Boiler design is the process of designing boilers used for various purposes. The main
function of a boiler is to heat water to generate steam. Steam produced in a boiler can be used
for a variety of purposes including space heating, sterilisation, drying, humidification and
power generation. The temperature or condition of steam required for these applications is
different, so boiler designs vary accordingly.

MODERN DESIGN BENEFITS

Modern boiler design offers several benefits. In the past, improper design of boilers has
caused explosions which led to loss of life and property. Modern designs attempt to avoid
such mishaps. Further, mathematical modeling can determine how much space a boiler will
need and the type of materials to be used. When the design specifications of a boiler are
determined, design engineers can estimate a cost and time schedule for the construction.

 Boiler design may be based upon:

  Production of a maximum quantity of steam with minimal fuel consumption
 Economic feasibility of installation
 Minimal operator attention required during operation
 Capability for quick starting
 Conformity to safety regulations
 Quality of raw water : how hard or soft the water is will determine the material of the boiler.
 Heat source - the fuel to be burned and its ash properties or the process material from which the
heat is to be recovered.
 Capacity / steam output required, usually measured in tonnes per hour or kg/sec.
 Steam condition - pressure, temperature, etc.
 Safety considerations
 Mechanical constraints
 Cost restrictions
 Monetary cost
 Tensile strength of material must be considered while using any joining processes.

Accessories and mountings are devices which form an integral part of boiler but are not
mounted on it. They include economizers, superheaters, feed pumps and air pre-heaters.
Accessories help in controlling and running the boiler efficiently. Certain common
mountings (specifically those required by the Indian Boiler Act) include:
Feed check valve - regulates the flow of water into the boiler and prevents the back flow of
water in case of failure of the feed pump.
Steam stop valve - regulates the flow of steam that is produced in the boiler to the steam
pipe, and may also be used to stop the supply of steam from the boiler
Fusible plug - placed at the lowest level of water and above the combustion chamber, its
function is to extinguish the fire as soon as the water level in the shell of the boiler falls
below a certain marked level.
Blow-off cock - removes water from the shell at regular intervals to remove the various
impurities that may be settled at the bottom of the shell.
Safety valves - automatically prevent the steam pressure from exceeding safe levels
Water-level indicators - indicate the level of water in the shell.