Materials for Steam Superheaters

Jyoti Swaroop Repaka 07010042 Praveen Jain 07d10002

February 11, 2010

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Abstract This is a part of the course ME 306 - Applied Thermodynamics taught by Prof. Uday N. Gaitonde. The topic is Materials for Steam superheaters. Properties of superheaters have been discussed briey at the beginning. Then we went on to discuss the various contraints faced in the material selection for steam superheaters. A case-study has been quoted as an example in the end.

Contents
1 Superheater 1.1 Types of superheaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of using a superheater . . . . . 2 Constraints in material selection of superheater 3 Coal Ash Corrosion 4 Superheater Strength 5 Steam Oxidation 6 Case study of a 700 C power plant 1 1 1 2 2 3 4 5

List of Figures
1 2 3 4 Superheater viewed from a smokebox . . . . Results from synthetic ash corrosion tests for Stress requirements for alloys . . . . . . . . Electron Probe analysis of an alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . various alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 4 5

ii

Superheater

A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam into dry steam used for power generation or processes. Figure 1 shows a Superheater viewed from the smokebox. Top center is the superheater header, with pipes leading to cylinders. Tubes below feed steam into and out of the superheater elements within the ues. The stack and the damper have been removed for clarity.

Figure 1: Superheater viewed from a smokebox

1.1

Types of superheaters

There are three types of superheaters namely: radiant, convection, and separately red. A superheater can vary in size from a few tens of feet to several hundred feet (a few meters or some hundred meters). 1. A radiant superheater is placed directly in the combustion chamber. 2. A convection superheater is located in the path of the hot gases. 3. A separately red superheater, as its name implies, is totally separated from the boiler.

1.2

Advantages and Disadvantages of using a superheater

The main advantages of using a superheater are reduced fuel and water consumption but there is a price to pay in increased maintenance costs. In 1

most cases the benets outweighed the costs and superheaters were widely used. An exception was shunting locomotives (switchers). British shunting locomotives were rarely tted with superheaters. In locomotives used for mineral trac the advantages seem to have been marginal. For example, the North Eastern Railway tted superheaters to some of its NER Class P mineral locomotives but later began to remove them. Without careful maintenance superheaters are prone to a particular type of hazardous failure in the tube bursting at the U-shaped turns in the superheater tube. This is dicult to both manufacture, and test when installed, and a rupture will cause the superheated high-pressure steam to escape immediately into the large ues, then back to the re and into the cab, to the extreme danger of the locomotive crew.

Constraints in material selection of superheater

1. Superheaters strengthSuperheaters operate at high temperatures and high pressure. (31 to 34.5 MPa; 595 C to 650 C).[5] 2. Coal Ash Corrosion The attack results form the deposition of the liquid phase of complex alkali iron sulfates.[2] 3. Steam Oxidation The primary problem caused by steam oxidation of the internal surfaces of superheater[2] tubes, headers, and piping components is solid particle turbine erosion.[3] 4. Cost

Coal Ash Corrosion

The phenomenon of coal ash corrosion of superheater components has been well known for some time. The attack results form the deposition of the liquid phase of complex alkali iron sulfates. The severity of attack varies with temperature. The corrosion rate increases as the complex alkali-iron sulfates become molten, and then falls o as they begin to vaporize and become unstable at higher temperatures. Design approaches, such as burying the tubes containing the hottest steam in the center of outlet banks to shield them from cavity radiation, and the use of 309 and 310 stainless steel shields, have been used in existing 565 C and 595 C units, but these aect eciency and are a continuing maintenance item. Dierent superheater tubing alloys 2

vary widely in their resistance to coal ash corrosion. The Figure 3 shows the eect of coal ash corrosion on various alloys.[2] Bimetallic tubing is the most likely means of dealing with coal ash corrosion in the advanced plants. An interesting approach to the liquid ash corrosion problem is to operate the superheater tubes above the bell-shaped curve

Figure 2: Results from synthetic ash corrosion tests for various alloys

Superheater Strength

The superheater tubing in the advanced plant will have to operate at high pressures of 4500 to 5000 psi (31 to 34.5 MPa), and steam temperatures of 595 C to 650 C The need to reduce CO2 emission and increase eciency has 3

been high[1]. Thus, steam temperatures of the most ecient fossil power plants are now in the 600 C range, which represents an increase of about 60 C in 30 years. It is expected that steam temperatures will rise another 50 C to 100 C in the next 30 year. The data bases for the potential candidates must be reviewed against the allowed stresses by the ASME boiler code committee, and where insucient data exist, the gaps must be lled. Fabrication methods must also be qualied.

Figure 3: Stress requirements for alloys

Steam Oxidation

The primary problem caused by steam oxidation of the internal surfaces of superheater tubes, headers, and piping components is solid particle turbine erosion. Turbine erosion damage causes a loss in cycle eciency, is expensive to repair, increases the length of turbine overhaul outages and, in at least one instance, has led to the destruction of a turbine. High Cr content in the tubing alloys, or in the coatings on the tubing, is the major means of controlling steam oxidation. Rening the grain size is another metallurgical treatment that can improve steam oxidation resistance of austenitic stainless steel. Coating method that can be used to increase the surface Cr content is chromating.This process results in a conversion coating, and can be performed at lower temperatures and on assembled components. An adherent chromate lm is deposited on the metal surface by heating 4

the tubes in the presence of a dichromate solution.During subsequent exposure to high temperature, the lm is converted to a tightly adherent Fe-Cr spinel, which extends the time before exfoliation occurs. Another coating method,Chromizing, a high temperature Cr diusion process, is already being used to achieve this.Chromizing produces an outer layer of chromium carbide containing over 80 pct Cr, and an inner diusion zone containing 13 to 25 pct Cr. The thickness of the two layers depends on the carbon activity and other chromizing process parameters. An example of the type of coating formed on 2.25Cr-lMo steel is shown below. The variation of Cr, C, and Fe contents as a function of distance from the surface in this sample is shown in Figure 5. Because chromizing is a very high temperature process, it is applied to new and replacement tubing, pipes, and other product forms.

Figure 4: Electron Probe analysis of an alloy

Case study of a 700C power plant

In the low temperature ranges of the superheater tubes the same ferritic materials as for the membrane walls can be used.[4] Additionally at material temperatures higher than 550 C martensitic

materials like VM12 and X20CrMoV12-1 will be applied in 600 Csteam generators For the nal stages of the superheaters, where the material temperature exceeds the maximum allowable temperature for martensites of 600 C, austenitic materials like Super304H or HR3C need to be used. In a 700 C-Power Plant the material temperatures at the nal stages of the superheaters of more than 700 C are too high for the common austenitic materials. The newly developed austenitic material Sanicro 25 extends the range of application of these materials to about 680 C. For the remaining temperature range up to above 700 C materials with higher strength are necessary. Possible new materials for this temperature range are nickel base alloys like the modied Alloy 617, Alloy 740 and Alloy 263 and the newly developed Japanese austenitic material HR6W. For these new superheater materials the qualication of the base material, creep tests across the weld and bending tests have to be carried out. The qualication of the base material which is a fundamental step on the way to a marketable product for most of the above mentioned new materials is still ongoing. Only the qualication of the base material of the modied Alloy 617 is completed, which makes it presently the preferred material.

References
[1] Dobrzanski, J. The classication method and the technical condition evaluation of the critical elements material of power boilers in creep service made from the 12cr-1mo-v. Journal of Materials Processing Technology 164-165 (2005), 785 794. AMPT/AMME05 Part 2. [2] Gold, M., and Jaffee, R. Materials for advanced steam cycles. Journal of Materials for Energy Systems 6, 2 (1984). [3] Jacklin, C., Anderson, D. R., and Thompson, H. Fireside deposits in oil red boilers-deposit location vs. chemical composition. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 48, 10 (1956). [4] Menp, L., Klauke, F., Tigges, K., Matsuda, J., Kukoski, A., and Gaffoor, A. Material aspects of a 700 c - power plant. 67.

[5] Viswanathan, R., and Bakker, W. Materials for ultrasupercritical coal power plantsboiler materials: Part 1. Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance 10, 1 (2001).