Industrial Boiler Operations Industrial Boiler Operations
• Boilers are used in industry to convert chemical
At the and of this session you must be able to:
•Know the functions and applications of various boilers
•Differentiate between two classes of boilers.
•Different types of boilers according to fuels applications.
•Various steam applications
•Boiler tubes configurations.
•Define and state functions of:
–The economizer,
–the super heater and
–the evaporator.
–Air heater
•Boiler Feed water flow diagram
Industrial Application of Steam
• Steam is generated for various applications e.g:
• Application in industrial equipment.
– Steam jacketing,
– Steam tracing,
– Steam stripping,
– Controlling run-away temperature in combustion.
– “Atomising” steam ( making oil mist in oil burners)
– and Steam purging.
• Application in power generations
– Superheated steam is used to drive large steam
turbines to produce electrical power.
– Industry also use steam turbine driven pumps.
Homework : How does a steam turbine work?
Water-tube boiler
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energy of fuels into thermal energy for water
heating and power steam generations.
• A fuel is combustible ( to burn) material that has
a high calorific value.
• There are many fuels e.g. fossil and non-fossil
fuels.
• Common fossils fuels are Coal, Oil and natural
gas.
• Non-fossil fuels are those fuels that did not
originate from fossil formation e.g. nuclear fuels
used in power plant.
• Task 1: Name any two everyday typical water
heating boilers.
STEAM BOILERS
Boilers may be divided into two main types as
follows:
(a)Water-tube boilers in which water and steam flow
through the tubes surrounded by the flue gas.
This type is almost universally used in power station
work because it permits of high working pressures
It has a high rate of evaporation (up to 350 000 kg/h),
It can be built in very large sizes with correspondingly
high efficiency.
Water-tube boiler
• Water Tube Boiler (US DoE,2002:2-5)
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 Water Tube Boilers
• In Water tube boilers, water is inside the tubes
and the hot gases are outside.
• The tubes extend to the upper header called a
steam drum.
• A solid, liquid or gaseous fuel can be burned in
water tube boilers.
• Typical water tube boiler fuels are coal, oil,
natural gas, biomass and municipal waste.
• Coal Fired tubes are divided into three
categories:
– Pulverised Coal fired Boilers.
– Stoker Fired Units.
– Fluidised Bed Coal Boiler.
Water Tube Boilers
• Pulverised Coal Fired Boilers.
– Finely ground coal is fed with primary air into
the burner where it ignites.
– Secondary air is supplied for complete
combustion.
• Stoker Fired Units.
– Stoker boiler are designed for solid fuel
handling.
– Fuel to is above grate and the air comes to
both under grate and over grate.
– The Ash is removed as it accumulates.

Water Tube Boilers

Various water tube Boiler Designs
Fuel Oil and Natural Gas Fired Boilers
– The other water tube package boilers are Oil
Fired Boilers and Natural Gas Fired Boilers.
– The designs are classified as A type, D type
and O type.
– Refer to Figures next page
• In Oil and Natural Gas Fuel Fired Boilers there
are burners with burner guns.
• Task 2: Oil Fuel burners tends to plug more
A type, D type O type.
often than gas Fuel burners
• Water Tube Boiler (US DoE,2002:2-5)

STEAM BOILERS
Fire-tube boilers
(b) Fire-tube boilers in which the hot gases
pass through tubes surrounded by water.
As the hot gases go through the tubes,
heat is transferred into the water body that
surrounds the tubes.

This class includes Lancashire and

locomotive boilers which operate at low
and medium pressures (up to 1-5 MN/m!~)
and evaporate up to 7000 kg of steam/h.
• http://www.energysolutionscenter.org

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 Fire-tube boilers
Fire Tube Boiler
Flue gas
Steam
Water Body

Tubes
Fire

Burner

Flue Gas
Fire Tube Boiler (US DoE2002:2-3) Fire Tube Boiler (US DoE2002:2-3)

Other Boilers Other Boilers

Tubes

Fire Box

Vertical tubeless
packaged steam boiler.
• http://www.spiraxsarco.com/
• Firebox firetube (US DoE2002:2- 4)

Waste Heat Boilers Coal Fired Boiler Plant

• Other chemical process Industries utilise the
waste flue gas energy into making steam.
• H2S from crude refining converted into sulphur.
• This is an exothermic process that produces hot
flue gases.
• The hot flue gases are passed through the tubes
in a condenser to produce steam that is used in
the plant (fire tube boiler).
• The Fluid Catalytic Regenerator produces hot
flue gases.
• The energy in the flue gas is utilised to produce
steam (Water tube boiler)

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 Coal Fired Boiler Plant Refuse Derived Fuel fired boiler
Class Exercises
Classwork • What type design is
1. What drives this boiler A,D or
air into the O?
burner? • What is the purpose
of the economiser?
• Why is the
economizer and air
heaters situated at
their locations?
• Why is air heated?
• What type of boiler
is this?

Feed Systems -Burners Feed Systems -Burners

• Burner guns are used to channel fuel into
the inside of the boiler.
• The oil fuel is made into fine oil mist
(sprays) as it leaves the burner tip by
atomizing steam.
• The burner has a provision for primary air
supply
• Primary air and oil spray at the burner tip
provides a constant flame inside the boiler.
• Burners improve the stability of the flames
over a variety of flow rates.
• Burner designs are core to the design of an
effective combustion system. (will be
discussed)
• A combustion system that limits the formation
NOx, CO, SO2 and PM
• There are different types of burners.
– Steam –atomizing oil burner
– Air –atomizing oil burner
– Dual fuel burners
– Multistage pressure – atomizing oil burner
– Single stage pressure – atomizing oil burner
– Atmospheric gas burner.

A boiler consists of the following main

parts:
•The economizer,
•the super heater and
•the evaporator.
•It may also have an air heater.

Boiler Process Layout

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 http://www.energysolutionscenter.org/
• Boiler Plant Process Layout

The economizer:
• The purpose of the economizer is to provide a
hot water supply to the evaporator,
• This increases the efficiency of the plant.
• The economiser is usually situated at the top of
the boiler
• It consists of a large number of tubes through
which the water supply flows.
• It uses the heat that the exhaust gases provide.
• Task 3: Why is the economizer situated on top of
the boiler?
Evaporator
The evaporator transforms the hot water supply
from the economizer into a wet steam at a constant
pressure.
It is situated at the bottom of the boiler closest to
the fire and uses the most heat provided by the
fuel.
The evaporators provide a large quantity of wet
steam which is collected in the lower drum or water
drum with a mud drum at the bottom.
The mud drum acts as a collector for all solid
matter that precipitates and can be periodically
cleaned by blowing down. (see the following
diagram)

Boiler internals
The Superheater.
• Steam Drum
• Usually situated above the evaporator the super
• Boiler tubes heater consists of a large number of tubes,
cut across which use the heat from the exhaust gases.
• Its purpose is to transform large quantities of wet
steam (saturated steam) at constant pressure
into superheated steam at the desired
• This is an O- temperature.
type tube • It is located in the flue gas streams just before
configuration the boiler tubes.
• It is a bundle of tubes from the steam drum
(upper drum).
• The bundle leads to the steam header (pipe)
• Lower Drum or mud drum

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 ttp://www.spiraxsarco.com

Boiler Feed Water system

Air heater.
The air heater uses the last of the energy
from the fuel and is situated next to the
chimney.
By heating the air used in the combustion
chamber the efficiency of the installation is
increased.
The fuel burns much better if the air is
heated and its fuel consumption is
increased.

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