Steam boilers are used where steam and hot steam is needed.

Hence, steam boilers are used as generators to produce electricity in the energy business. Besides many different application areas in the industry for example in heating systems or for cement production, steam boilers are used in agriculture as well for soil steaming. The steam generator or boiler is an integral component of a steam engine when considered as aprime mover. However it needs be treated separately, as to some extent a variety of generator types can be combined with a variety of engine units. A boiler incorporates a firebox or furnace in order to burn the fuel and generate heat. The generated heat is transferred to water to makesteam, the process of boiling. This produces saturated steam at a rate which can vary according to the pressure above the boiling water. The higher the furnace temperature, the faster the steam production. The saturated steam thus produced can then either be used immediately to produce power via a turbine and alternator, or else may be further superheated to a higher temperature; this notably reduces suspended water content making a given volume of steam produce more work and creates a greater temperature gradient in order to counter the tendency ofcondensation due to pressure and heat drop resulting from work plus contact with the cooler walls of the steam passages and cylinders and wire-drawing effect from strangulation at the regulator. Any remaining heat in the combustion gases can then either be evacuated or made to pass through an economiser, the role of which is to warm the feed water before it reaches the boiler.

An evaporator is a device used to turn the liquid form of a chemical into its gaseous form. The liquid is evaporated, or vaporized, into a gas. a heat-exchange device for evaporating liquids. In thermal power engineering, the evaporator is used to produce a distillate that compensates for losses of condensate in steam power plants. A tube vertical evaporator is usually heated by the steam coming from the turbine and passing through the space between the tubes. The evaporating water, which is softened in advance, passes within the tubes. There are also evaporators that are heated by flue gases emerging from boiler units. The steam produced in such evaporators may be used both to compensate for losses of condensate and to provide heat. High-capacity evaporators find application in atomic power plants located near seas and oceans for the distillation of seawater. Evaporators, which are sometimes called distillers, are installed on oceangoing vessels. They are the principal components of refrigeration units, in which the refrigerating agent used to provide direct (or using brine) cooling of refrigeration chambers is evaporated. Evaporators are also devices used to increase the concentration of various solutions. Industrial apparatus for converting liquid into gas or vapour. The single-effect evaporator consists of a container or surface and a heating unit; the multiple-effect evaporator uses the vapour produced in one unit to heat a succeeding unit. Double-, triple-, or quadruple-effect evaporators may be used in industrial and steam heating plants. Some evaporators are used to concentrate a solution by vaporizing and

eliminating water (e.g., in a concentration plant for sugar and syrup). In purification processes such as desalination, evaporators convert the water to vapour, leaving mineral residues behind; the vapour is then condensed into (desalinated) water. In a refrigeration system, the cooling is produced as the rapid evaporation of the liquid refrigerant absorbs heat.

In systems involving heat transfer, a condenser is a device or unit used to condense a substance from its gaseous to its liquid state, typically by cooling it. In so doing, the latent heat is given up by the substance, and will transfer to the condenser coolant. Condensers are typically heat exchangers which have various designs and come in many sizes ranging from rather small (hand-held) to very large industrial-scale units used in plant processes. For example, a refrigerator uses a condenser to get rid of heat extracted from the interior of the unit to the outside air. Condensers are used in air conditioning, industrial chemical processes such as distillation, steam power plants and other heat-exchange systems. Use of cooling water or surrounding [1] air as the coolant is common in many condensers. The condensers and cooling systems involved in condensing the exhaust steam from a steam turbine and transferring the waste heat away from the power station. Condensers: The function of the condenser is to condense exhaust steam from the steam turbine by rejecting the heat of vaporisation to the cooling water passing through the condenser. The temperature of the condensate determines the pressure in the steam/condensate side of the condenser. This pressure is called the turbine backpressure and is usually a vacuum. Decreasing the condensate temperature will result in a lowering of the turbine backpressure. Note: Within limits, decreasing the turbine backpressure will increase the thermal efficiency of the turbine. The condenser also has the following secondary functions: The condensate is collected in the condenser hot well, from which the condensate pumps take their suction; Provide short-term storage of condensate;

Provide a low-pressure collection point for condensate drains from other systems in the plant; and Provide for de-aeration of the collected condensate.

*The surface condenser is a shell and tube heat exchanger in which cooling water is circulated through the tubes. The exhaust steam from the low pressure turbine enters the shell where it is cooled and converted to condensate (water) by flowing over the tubes. Such condensers use steam ejectors or rotary motor-driven exhausters for continuous removal of air and gases from the steam side to maintain vacuum. For best efficiency, the temperature in the condenser must be kept as low as practical in order to achieve

the lowest possible pressure in the condensing steam. Since the condenser temperature can almost always be kept significantly below 100 oC where the vapor pressure of water is much less than atmospheric pressure, the condenser generally works under vacuum. Thus leaks of non-condensible air into the closed loop must be prevented. Plants operating in hot climates may have to reduce output if their source of condenser cooling water becomes warmer; unfortunately this usually coincides with periods of high electrical demand for air conditioning. The condenser generally uses either circulating cooling water from a cooling tower to reject waste heat to the atmosphere, or once-through water from a river, lake or ocean.

Water heating is a thermodynamic process that uses an energy source to heat water above its initial temperature. Typical domestic uses of hot water include cooking, cleaning, bathing, and space heating. In industry, hot water and water heated to steam have many uses. Domestically, water is traditionally heated in vessels known as water heaters, kettles, cauldrons, pots, or coppers. These metal vessels that heat a batch of water do not produce a continual supply of heated water at a preset temperature. Rarely, hot water occurs naturally, usually from natural hot springs. The temperature varies based on the consumption rate, becoming cooler as flow increases. Appliances that provide a constant supply of hot water are variously called water heaters, hot water heaters, hot water tanks, boilers, heat exchangers,geysers, or calorifiers, These names depend on region, and whether they heat potable or non-potable water, are in domestic or industrial use, and their energy source. In domestic installations, potable water heated for uses other than space heating is also called domestic hot water (DHW). Fossil fuels (natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, oil), or solid fuels are commonly used for heating water. These may be consumed directly or may produce electricity that, in turn, heats water. Electricity to heat water may also come from any other electrical source, such as nuclear power orrenewable energy. Alternative energy such as solar energy, heat pumps, hot water heat recycling, and geothermal heating can also heat water, often in combination with backup systems powered by fossil fuels or electricity. Densely-populated urban areas of some countries provide district heating of hot water. This is especially the case in Scandinavia and Finland. District heating systems supply energy for water heating and space heating from waste heat from industries, power plants, incinerators, geothermal heating, and central solar heating. Actual heating of tap water is performed in heat exchangers at the consumers' premises. Generally the consumer has no in-building backup system, due to the expected high availability of district heating systems.

Tube banks are commonly-employed design elements in heat exchangers. Both plain and finned tube banks are widely found. Tube bundles are a sub-component in shell-and-tube heat exchangers, where the flow resembles crossflow at some places, and longitudinal flow elsewhere. (The term tube bank is often used, in the literature, to denote a crossflow situation and bundle to is far indicate longitudinal The flow, flow however may this convention from universal.) be single-

phase or multiphase: boilers and condensers containing tube banks find a wide range of applications in industry, in addition there may be combustion, e.g., in a furnace heat exchanger.

Economizers (US), or economisers (UK/international), are mechanical devices intended to reduce energy consumption, or to perform another useful function such as preheating a fluid. The term economizer is used for other purposes as well. Boiler, powerplant, and heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) uses are discussed in this article. In simple terms, an economizer is a heat exchanger.

Powerplants
Main article: Feedwater heater Modern-day boilers, such as those in coal-fired power stations, are still fitted with economizers which are descendants of Green's original design. In this context they are often referred to asfeedwater heaters and heat the condensate from turbines before it is pumped to the boilers. Economizers are commonly used as part of a heat recovery steam generator in a combined cycle power plant. In an HRSG, water passes through an economizer, then a boiler and then asuperheater. The economizer also prevents flooding of the boiler with liquid water that is too cold to be boiled given the flow rates and design of the boiler. A common application of economizers in steam powerplants is to capture the waste heat from boiler stack gases (flue gas) and transfer it to the boiler feedwater. This raises the temperature of the boiler feedwater, lowering the needed energy input, in turn reducing the firing rates needed for the rated boiler output. Economizers lower stack temperatures which may cause condensation of acidic combustion gases and serious equipment corrosion damage if care is not taken in their design and material selection.

An oil heater, also known as an oil-filled heater, oil-filled radiator, or column heater, is a common form of convection heater used in domesticheating. Although filled with oil, it is electrically heated and does not involve burning any oil fuel, such as kerosene the oil is used as a heat reservoir(buffer), not as a fuel.

How it works

Oil heaters consist of metal columns with cavities, inside which oil flows freely around the heater. A heating element at the base of the heater heats up the oil, which then flows around the cavities of the heater by convection. The oil acts as a heat reservoir, with a relatively high specific heat capacity(approximately 2 1 1 [1] kJ.kg .K ) and high boiling point (approximately 150300 degrees [2][3] Celsius). The high specific heat capacity allows the oil to store a large amount of thermal energy in a small volume, while the high boiling point allows it to remain in the liquid phase for the purpose of heating, so that the heater does not have to be a high pressure vessel. Using the oil as a heat reservoir, the heating element heats the oil, which remains warm for a long period of time while the heat is transferred to the metal wall through convection, through the walls via conduction, then to the surroundings via convection and radiation. The columns of oil heaters are typically constructed as thin fins, such that the surface area of the metal columns is large relative to the volume of the oil heat reservoir. A large surface area allows more air to be in contact with the heater at any point in time, allowing for the heat to be transferred more rapidly from the heater into the room.

Reheater
Power plant furnaces may have a reheater section containing tubes heated by hot flue gases outside the tubes. Exhaust steam from the high pressure turbine is passed through these heated tubes to collect more energy before driving the intermediate and then low pressure turbines.

A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into dry steam used in steam engines or in processes, such assteam reforming. There are three types of superheaters namely: radiant, convection, and separately fired. A superheater can vary in size from a few tens of feet to several hundred feet (a few metres or some hundred metres).