Boiler Operation

Energy is continuously added to water in a closed system (vessel or piping) array and the
water evaporates to steam and the pressure and temperature increases as long as the
strength of the containment is not exceeded. The relationships between temperature,
pressure and volume of the contained fluid are shown in steam tables. There will be a
point where the energy supplied is just sufficient to maintain steam conditions and
evaporation will stop....
If the contained steam is released to drive a turbine or engine the pressure will tend to fall
allowing increased evaporation. So long as the temperature is maintained constant the
pressure will also be constant as it supplies steam, under steady conditions, to the plant
being driven. The operation of the boiler is controlled to ensure a sufficient supply of water
to make up for the steam being supplied and to ensure sufficient energy input to maintain
constant pressure in the steam system.
In modern boilers over 80% of the heating value of the fuel is transmitted to the fluid in the
boiler. The rest of the heating value is lost in the exhaust gases or is lost by conduction
radiation and convection on the external surfaces of the boiler system..
A vital part of any boiler system is the system designed to release the steam pressure to
ensure safe conditions are maintained. The safety system is generally based on using high
integrity safety relief valves.

What happens when you heat water at normal atmospheric pressure?

There are three stages.

As you go on heating the water, the temperature of water increases till it reaches 100 deg C.
This is the Sensible Heat addition.
Further heating does not increase the temperature; instead small bubbles of steam start to
form. The temperature remains constant at 100 deg C till all the water becomes steam. The water
absorbs the heat without temperature change for conversion to steam. At atmospheric pressure
the Latent Heat of vapourisation is 2256 kJ/kg.

Further heating called superheating will increase the temperature of the steam. How high one
can go depends on the withstanding capacity of the vessel.

What happens when the water is at a higher pressure, say, at 100 bar? Then the boiling takes place at 311

deg C and the latent heat of vaporisation is 1318 kJ/kg.

If the water pressure is 200 bar then the boiling takes place at 366 deg C and the latent heat of vaporisation

is 584 kJ/kg.
As the pressure increases the boiling temperature increases and the latent heat of vaporisation decreases.
A further increase in pressure and temperature leads us to a point at which the latent heat of vaporisation is

zero, or there is no boiling. Water directly becomes steam. This is the Critical Pressure and the Critical
Temperature. For steam this occurs at 374 deg C and 220.6 bar.
Conventional steam power plants operate at a steam pressures in the range of 170 bar. These

are Subcritical power plants. The new generation of power plants operate at pressures higher
than the critical pressure. These are Supercritical power plants. The operating pressures are in
the range of 230 to 265 bar.
The efficiency of the Rankine cycle depends on the pressure at which it operates. Higher
pressure and temperature increase the efficiency of the thermal cycle and power plant. This is
the reason for operating at higher steam pressures.

definitely economiser. if you use economiser the temperature of incoming feed water will
increase, thus reducing the heat required to heat water and secondly economiser also uses
the heat of flue gases so taking a part of the heat off the flue gases. an increase in
temperature of incoming feed water will improve the efficiency whereas if you just use APH
then it will only help to reduce the heat loss through exhaust by allowing the fresh air to
extract heat off the flue gases and nothing else
Riadh Al Rabeh, Passive house design, Renewable Energy, Cooling Using Solar Energy
Written Sep 27, 2015

All boilers (in any application) work at constant pressure and it is the design pressure. If the
pressure goes above it, the burner or any other source of heat is cut-off and if that does not
work, safety valves open etc. till the pressure is brought back to the set pressure.
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Amit Dutta
Written Sep 18, 2013

because practically it is always easy to go for a process with constant pressure rather than
constant temperature.besides,constant pressure heat addition makes possible to reach
higher temperature at the boiler end resulting high turbine output whereas to reach the
same temperature by any other process will cause higher pump work.

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SANKALP ARPIT, RESEARCH SCHOLAR IIT KGP

Written Sep 27, 2015

To maintain a constant range of temperature we heat at constant pressure

because we know pressure is function of temperature vice-versa

All of About Steam Boiler, Heat Exchanger, Energy and Power Generation
Steam Formation Process in Boiler
Since steam formation process in boiler depends on pressure, so steam formation process is performed
at constant pressure. If 1 kg of water at 20C is heated in a closed vessel with constant pressure (1
atm), then during the first heating process, temperature of boiling reach 100C, steam begins to be
formed. In this case, this steam is called wet steam (saturated liquid), because the steam still mix with
grains of water.

If all steam including grains of water which is mixed in wet steam is heated again, it will get saturated
steam (saturated vapor). Saturated steam is condition where the steam form is entirely pure steam,
there is not mixture. The amount of heat that required converting 1 kg of boiling water into saturated
steam at constant pressure is called latent heat. When the heating is continued so the temperature of
saturated steam will rises and this steam is called as superheated steam / superheated vapor.

At steam formation process in boiler, air and fuel are distributed into furnace to perform combustion
process. Combustion gases will pass through evaporator, superheater, air heater, and finally to be
discharged into atmosphere through chimney / stack. While the feedwater, after doing heating process
in deaerator, then to be distributed into evaporator and then saturated steam is heated further in a
pressure part which is called superheater and finally heat superheated steam can be obtained.

Figure 1: Graphic T-S on Steam Formation in Boi