Evaluation of Retrofitting A Conventional Natural Gas Fired Boiler Into A Condensing Boiler PDF

Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 3251–3266
www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman
Evaluation of retrofitting a conventional natural gas

fired boiler into a condensing boiler
a,b,*
Defu Che , Yanhua Liu a, Chunyang Gao a
a
Department of Thermal Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an 710049, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Received 21 June 2003; received in revised form 27 October 2003; accepted 9 January 2004
Available online 11 March 2004
Abstract
The exit flue gas temperature of a conventional gas fired boiler is usually high and a great amount of heat
energy is lost to the environment. If both sensible heat and latent heat can be recovered by adding a con-
densing heat exchanger, the efficiency of the boiler can be increased by as much as 10%. In this paper, based
on combustion and heat transfer calculations, the recoverable heat and the efficiency improvement potential
of different heat recovery schemes at various exit flue gas temperatures are presented by performing design
calculations. The payback period method has been used to analyze the feasibility of retrofitting a conven-
tional gas fired boiler into a condensing boiler in a heating system in detail. The results show that the most
economical exit flue gas temperature is 40–55 C when a conventional natural gas fired boiler is retrofitted
into a condensing boiler simply by adding a condensing heat exchanger. It is feasible to use the return water
of a heating system as the cooling medium of the condensing heat exchanger because the return temperature
varies with the ambient temperature and is lower than the dew point of the water vapor in the flue gas in most
periods of a heating season in some regions, which has been verified by retrofitted case.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Condensing boiler; Sensible heat; Latent heat; Evaluation; Payback period
1. Introduction
A great amount of primary energy sources are consumed by heating boilers, which has led to
severe environmental pollution issues. Conventionally, in China, the majority of heating boilers
*
Corresponding author. Address: Department of Thermal Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering,
XiÕan Jiaotong University, XiÕan 710049, China. Tel.: +86-29-2665185; fax: +86-29-2668703.
E-mail address: dfche@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (D. Che).
0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2004.01.004
3252 D. Che et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 3251–3266
take coal as the fuel. However, due to the rising living standard, the development and maturity of
the market economy and the emphasis on environmental protection, gas fired boilers are taking a
larger market share. Over the past few years, quite a few large gas fields have been proven, and a
huge amount of natural gas has been recovered. China is building a high capacity pipeline for
transporting natural gas from the west regions to the east industrialized coastal areas, so natural
gas will find wider applications than ever. In quite a few municipalities, such as Beijing and XiÕan,
new installations of coal fired boilers have been prohibited and natural gas fired boilers are
strongly recommended. However, what worries users is the high operational cost of a natural gas
fired boiler because of the relatively high price of the fuel gas, which has given rise to the shilly-
shally of selecting gas fired boilers.
The exit flue gas temperature of a conventional boiler is usually higher than 150 C, sometimes
as high as 200 C, to avoid low temperature corrosion. At such temperatures, the water vapor
entrained in the flue gases does not condense, and the latent heat cannot be reclaimed, which
leads to a considerable heat loss. Since the 1970s, condensing boilers have been developed and
have found wide applications in Europe and North America [1–7]. In such a boiler, the exit flue
gas is reduced to such a low temperature that the water vapor can be condensed, and the latent
heat released can be recovered. As such, the thermal efficiency of the boiler can be significantly
increased. If the low heating value is still taken as the calculation basis, the efficiency can be as
high as, or higher than 100%. Previous research has shown that SOx , NOx , dust and soot, etc.,
which are the constituents of the flue gas, can be partially, even totally, dissolved in the con-
densed water, and the pollutants emitted to the environment can be noticeably reduced. There-
fore, it is of great significance both to energy saving and environmental protection to utilize
condensing boilers.
Dann [8] concluded in his paper that the potentially high operating efficiencies offered by
condensing boilers can be achieved in practice, and this will ensure that for both new and
replacement central heating installations, the condensing boiler will provide substantial savings
in running costs when compared to the more conventional boiler. Most of the energy saving
benefit of using condensing boilers can be achieved without recourse to excessive additional
heat emitter surface or sophisticated controls. However, further developments in systems and
controls for these appliances should be performed, and optimization of such schemes is nec-
essary.
The investigation of Searle et al. [9] and Pickup [10] showed that many parameters of design
and installation influence the performance of condensing boilers in the field. These parameters
include pipework design, controls, hot water cylinder design and boiler and system sizing, but the
system designs for high efficiency condensing boilers do not need to be very different from current
good practice for existing non-condensing boilers. The performance of condensing boilers was
examined with water flow and return temperatures of 60 and 40 C, respectively, in addition to the
80 and 60 C used for a non-condensing unit. The results from the field study confirmed that
substantially greater annual efficiencies were obtained with condensing boilers than with tradi-
tional boilers. A simple relationship was proposed that shows how boilers and radiator sizing
affect annual efficiency. A payback of between 3 and 4.5 years for the installation of a condensing
boiler can be expected.
So far, various schemes for reclaiming the latent heat in flue gas have been put forward [11–18]
the general methods for designing condensing heat exchangers have been proposed [19–21] and
D. Che et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 3251–3266 3253
Table 1
Constituents of Shanbei natural gas
Component CH4 C2 H6 C3 H8 C4 H10 CO2 H2 N2
Content (vol.%) 96.32 0.6 0.08 0.01 2.23 0.04 0.72
the effects of various factors on the seasonal efficiency or annual efficiency of the heating system
have been examined [22–30].
While natural gas is used as the fuel of the boiler, as high as a 20% volumetric fraction of water
vapor in the combustion products will be generated, which is much higher than that while
anthracite or bituminous coal is used as the fuel. More water vapor in the flue gas means that
more latent heat can be recovered, and the thermal efficiency of the boiler can be more greatly
improved by decreasing the exit flue gas temperature. On the other hand, natural gas is much
more expensive than coal in China, and the operational cost of a gas fired boiler is generally much
higher than that of a coal fired boiler. Thus, it is more profitable to recover the latent heat by
condensing the water vapor in the flue gases of a gas fired boiler.
As is well known, hydrocarbons are the dominant components of natural gas. For example,
the volumetric percentage of methane in Shanbei natural gas of China is as high as 96.32%
(see Table 1).
According to the partial pressure of the water vapor in the flue gas, the dew point temperature
is generally 56–60 C depending on the excess air ratio. The exit flue gas temperature can be
reduced below the dew point temperature by a cooling medium to recover both the sensible heat
and latent heat. The higher heating value and the lower heating value of the natural gas in Table 1
are Qgr;t;ar ¼ 38:876 MJ/N m3 and Qnet;t;ar ¼ 35:055 MJ/N m3 , respectively, with a difference of
3.821 (MJ/N m3 ). The boiler efficiency can reach a theoretically maximum value of 38.876/
35.055 · 100% ¼ 110.9% based on lower heating value.
In China, both condensing boilers and water heaters have been fabricated and put into oper-
ation. For the conventional gas fired boilers already in use, many users intend to retrofit them into
condensing boilers by adding condensing heat exchangers to reclaim both the sensible heat and
the latent heat in the flue gas.
In this paper, a natural gas fired boiler is retrofitted into a condensing boiler by adding a
surface type condensing heat exchanger. The payback period method is used to perform an
economical evaluation of the scheme to obtain the optimum exhaust gas temperature. The fea-
sibility of using the return water of a heating system as the cooling medium of the condensing heat
exchanger has been examined.
2. Combustion calculations
The constituents of the natural gas for calculations is shown in Table 1, Table 2 presents the
results of the combustion calculations.
It can be seen that when the excess air ratio is 1.05, the volumetric fraction of water vapor is as
high as 19.3%, and the corresponding dew point temperature at thermodynamic equilibrium is
59.3 C.
Table 2
Combustion characteristics of Shanbei natural gas
Item Unit Source Result
3 3 1
P
Theoretical air quantity N m /N m 21
ð0:5H2 þ 0:5COP þ ðm þ n4ÞCm Hn þ 1:5H2 S O2 Þ 9.29
Theoretical water vapor volume N m3 /N m3 0:01ðH2 þ H2 S þ n2 Cm Hn þ 120ðdg þ V 0 da ÞÞ 2.1
Theoretical nitrogen gas volume N m3 /N m3 0:79V 0 þ 0:01N2 P 7.35
RO2 volume N m3 /N m3 0:01ðCO2 þ CO þ mCm Hn þ H2 SÞ 1.00
Average excess air ratio – Selected by experience 1.05
Actual water vapor volume N m3 /N m3 VH02 O þ 0:0161ða 1ÞV 0 2.105
Total flue gas volume N m3 /N m3 VRO2 þ VN02 þ VH02 O þ ð1 þ 0:161Þða 1ÞV 0 10.92
Volumetric fraction of RO2 – VRO2 =Vy 0.09
Volumetric fraction of H2 O – VH2 O =Vy 0.1928
Volumetric fraction of tri-atomic – rH2 O þ rRO2 0.28
gas
Density (standard state) kg/N m3 1.24
Dew point C Water–steam property table by volumetric fraction 59.3
of H2 O
Latent heat kJ/kg Water–steam property table 2360.2
Higher heating value kJ/N m3 38876
Lower heating value kJ/N m3 35055
3. Heat recovery calculations
In order to recover both the latent heat of the water vapor and the sensible heat, the flue gas
temperature must be reduced sufficiently.
3.1. Sensible heat
Sensible heat can be obtained according to the relationship between temperature and enthalpy
for various constituents of the flue gas. The sensible heat recovered relative to the enthalpy at
180 C can be calculated at various exit flue gas temperatures.
3.2. Latent heat
The quantity of condensate can be calculated in terms of the partial saturation pressures
corresponding to various temperatures, and the recovered latent heat is obtained by the con-
densate quantity multiplied by the average latent heat of vaporization. The calculated results are
listed in Table 3.
The boiler efficiency based on lower heating value at various exit flue gas temperatures is given
in Fig. 1.
It is easily seen from the figure that the boiler efficiency curve can be divided into two con-
siderably different regions. The boiler efficiency varies relatively gradually in the temperature
range of 60–180 C, and it is changed very rapidly in the temperature range of 20–60 C, which is
mainly because the latent heat loss takes a greater role than the sensible heat. If the exit flue gas
Table 3
Results of heat recovery calculations
Exit flue gas temperature (C)
20 25 30 35 40 50 60 100 140
Total heat recovery 6115 5896 5626 5291 4873 3665 1802 1210 609
(kJ/N m3 )
Condensate quantity 1.52 1.46 1.38 1.27 1.13 0.70 – – –
(kg/N m3 )
Efficiency improvement 17.4 16.8 16.0 15.1 13.9 10.5 5.1 3.5 1.7
(%)
Note: Efficiency improvement is calculated on the basis of the value at 180 C of the exit flue gas temperature (boiler
efficiency is 89.9%).
108
106
104
102 Excess air ratio α =1.05

Boiler efficiency, %
100
98
96
94
92
90
88
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Exit flue gas temperature, °C
Fig. 1. Boiler efficiency at various exit flue gas temperatures.
temperature is decreased to 20 C, the boiler efficiency based on lower heating value may reach
107.4% theoretically.
4. Evaluation
The addition of the condensing heat exchanger leads to an increase of investment cost. The
payback period method can be used to perform a static evaluation on the utilization of the
condensing boiler. Thus, the feasibility of retrofitting a conventional natural gas fired boiler into a
condensing boiler can be studied.
In this paper, a WNS2.8-1.0/95/70-QT boiler is taken for the evaluation. This is a gas fired shell
type boiler with output of 2.8 MW, rated pressure of 1.0 MPa, supply water temperature of 95 C
and return water temperature of 70 C. In the calculations, the cold air temperature is taken
as 20 C, the excess air ratio is taken as 1.05 and Shanbei natural gas is used.
4.1. Cost accounting
The addition of a condensing heat exchanger can lead to improvement of the boiler efficiency
and the conservation of fuel gas but also can cause an increase of the investment cost of the
equipment, which is due to the exchanger material, valves, piping, installation, extra maintenance
and resistance increase. Fig. 2 shows the schematic arrangement when the condensing heat
exchanger is used to heat domestic hot water.
While the condensing heat exchanger is in normal operation, valve 2 and valve 3 for main-
tenance are closed, and valve 1 and valve 4 are open.
4.1.1. Cost increase calculations

(1) Cost of heat exchanger
The heat reclaimed from the exhaust gases is utilized to heat domestic water. The heat
exchangers are assumed to be made of PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) tubes, stainless steel tubes
and carbon steel tubes respectively. The tubes are staggered in arrangement with transverse
spacing s1 ¼ 54 mm, longitudinal spacing s2 ¼ 30 mm, tube outside diameter d ¼ 20 mm and wall
thickness d ¼ 3 mm. The flue gas across the tube bank is in counter flow with the cooling medium
flow. The entering flue gas temperature is 180 C, the entering cold water temperature is 10 C and
the hot water temperature is set to be 50 C.
The heat transfer equation for a convective heating surface [31]:
Q ¼ KH Dt=Bj ð1Þ
where Q is the heat released to heating surface by 1 m3 of calculating fuel gas, kJ/N m3 ; K the heat
transfer coefficient, kW/(m2 C); H the calculating heat transfer area, m2 ; Dt the mean temperature
difference, C; Bj the fuel consumption rate, m3 /s. K is calculated by
Fig. 2. Schematic arrangement of condensing heat exchanger.

1 wa1
K ¼ wK0 ¼ w ¼ ð2Þ
1
a1
þ a2 1 þ aa12
1
where w, the effectiveness factor, is equal to the ratio of the heat transfer coefficient K of the fouled
surface to the heat transfer coefficient K0 of the surface without fouling. w ¼ K=K0 , which usually
can be taken as 0.9; a1 is the convective heat transfer coefficient of flue gas, kW/(m2 C); a2 the
convective heat transfer coefficient of cooling water, kW/(m2 C).
For the convective tube bank, because a2 is so large in value that aa12 can be neglected, Eq. (2)
reduces to
K ¼ wa1 kW=ðm2 CÞ ð3Þ
The convective heat transfer coefficient of the flue gas across the staggered tube bank externally
(Re ¼ 1:5 103 –100 103 ) is
0:6
k wd
a1 ¼ 0:358Cs Cn Pr0:33 kW=ðm2 CÞ
d t
where Cs , Cn are called spacing correction factor and correction factor taking account of the
number of rows of tubes along the direction of gas flow, respectively. By the geometric
arrangement of the studied heat exchanger, the following results
0:6
k wd
a1 ¼ 0:436 Pr0:33 kW=ðm2 CÞ ð4Þ
d t
The velocity of the flue gas through the exchanger is taken as 2.5 m/s by experience. The
pertinent properties of the flue gas are calculated as follows: Pr ¼ 0:721, thermal conductivity k ¼
1:01ð2:4742 þ 0:00703t 1:50233E 6t2 Þ, kinematic viscosity t ¼ 0:975ð13:48881 þ 0:09388t þ
7:26224E 5t2 Þ, where t is average bulk temperature, C.
According to earlier research of the authors [32], the convective heat transfer coefficient with
condensation is 1.5–2 times the corresponding convective heat transfer coefficient without con-
densation.
The log mean temperature difference can be obtained from the inlet and outlet temperatures of
the flue gas and the inlet and outlet temperatures of the cooling water. Finally, from Eq. (1), the
required heating surface area H is determined as shown in Fig. 3 for different exit flue gas tem-
peratures.
The weight of the heat exchanger is
G ¼ qH ðdo2 di2 Þ=4do 103 ð5Þ
where G is the weight of material, ton; q the material density, 7.85 · 10 kg/m for steel, 2.20 · 103
3 3
kg/m3 for PTFE; do the outside diameter, mm; di the inside diameter, mm.
The cost of the exchanger is
C ¼ GV ð6Þ
where V is the material price, yuan RMB/t (4000 yuan/t for carbon steel tube; 16,000 yuan/t,
130,000 yuan/t for PTFE); C the material cost, yuan.
160
140
2
Convective heating surafce area, m
120
100
α =1.05
80
60
40
20
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Fig. 3. Heating surface area at different exit flue gas temperatures.
Table 4
Cost of increased material
20 30 35 40 50 60 100 140
Heat recovered (kJ/N m3 ) 6115 5896 5626 5291 4873 3665 1802 1210
Heating surface increase (m2 ) 144.8 108.8 95.6 83.2 57.2 36.3 19.0 7.8
Material cost (yuan)
Carbon steel 11595 8713 7655 6663 4582 2909 1524 626
Stainless steel 46382 34850 30621 26653 18327 11636 6094 2502
PTFE 105615 79357 69727 60690 41731 26497 13877 5699
The calculated results at different exit flue gas temperatures are given in Table 4.
(2) Heat exchanger setting cost
The casing of the heat exchanger is made of stainless steel, its size is dependent on the design
conditions. In the calculations, an exchanger of 1(width) · 1.2(height) · 1.5(length) m with
thickness d ¼ 2 mm is assumed, its cost is about 2500 yuan.
(3) Power consumption increase due to extra resistance
The increase of resistance to the flue gas stream due to installation of the condensing heat
exchanger is calculated by
qw2
Dh ¼ 1 ð7Þ
2
195
190
α =1.05
Resistance increase, Pa
185
180
175
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Exit flue gas temperature,°C
Fig. 4. Resistance increase at different exit flue gas temperatures.
where 1 is the resistance coefficient; q the density of flue gas, kg/m3 ; Dh the resistance, Pa, and the
draft fan power is
!,
1:293
N ¼ b1 ðb2 Vy Þ b3 Dh 0 ð3:6 106 gÞ ð8Þ
qy
where Vy is the flow rate of the flue gas through the draft fan, m3 /h; q0y the density of the flue gas at
standard conditions, kg/m3 ; g the efficiency of the draft fan, taken as 0.6; N the power of the draft
fan, kW; b1 the spare factor for the draft fan power, usually can be taken as 1.05; b2 the spare
factor for flow rate, usually can be taken as 1.1; b3 the spare factor for the pressure head of the
draft fan, usually can be taken as 1.2.
The resistance is converted into electric power. The electricity price is taken into account by 0.6
yuan/kW h.
The resistance increase at different exit flue gas temperatures is given in Fig. 4.
It can be easily seen that the resistance increase due to the heat exchanger is small. The
maximum value of 195 Pa corresponds to an increase of 0.6 kW in the draft fan power con-
sumption, which will exert an insignificant effect on the heating system.
(4) Piping and valve cost: 4 gate valves account for 4 · 500 ¼ 2000 yuan. The additional piping
made of carbon steel accounts for some 1500 yuan.
(5) Manufacture and installation cost: the cost for manufacture of the heat exchanger and the
setting accounts for 1/3 of the material cost, and the installation cost is calculated as 1/2 of the
material cost.
Table 5
Saved fuel cost
20 25 30 35 40 50 60 100 140
3
Heat reclaimed (kJ/N m ) 6103 5881 5610 5274 4855 3652 1802 1210 609
Saved gas (N m3 /h) 55.8 53.8 51.3 48.3 44.4 33.4 16.4 11.0 5.6
Saved cost (yuan/h) 83.7 80.7 77.0 72.4 66.7 50.1 24.7 16.6 8.3
Note: The price of the natural gas is taken as 1.5 yuan RMB/N m3 .
(6) Maintenance and repair cost: in the lifetime (taken as 10 years), this cost can be taken as
three times the original value of the equipment.
4.1.2. Saved cost calculations

The cost saved is calculated by the energy saved, i.e. saved cost ¼ (saved heat energy/low
heating value of the fuel) · fuel price. Table 5 presents the calculated results.
4.2. Payback period
The payback period method [33] is used to evaluate the economics

IC
PBT ¼ ð9Þ
ANCF
where PBT is the payback period, h, IC the investment cost, yuan; ANCF the annual net capital
flow, yuan/h; ANCF ¼ RFC ) PC: RFC the cost of recovered heat, yuan; PC the operational cost,
yuan/h.
The calculation results are shown in Fig. 5 (the boiler is assumed to operate at full load).
5500
5000
4500
1-PTFE
Payback period, hours
4000 2-Stainless steel

3500 3-Carbon steel
3000
1
2500
2000
1500 2
1000
500 3
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Fig. 5. Payback period versus exit flue gas temperature.

It can be seen that the carbon steel heat exchanger has the shortest payback period, and the
PTFE heat exchanger has the longest payback period, which implies that material price has a
paramount influence on the payback period. The payback period is longer when the exit flue gas
temperature is slightly lower than 180 C. The reason for this is that the investment cost of the
heat exchanger (including valves and piping) is, by far, higher than the cost of the saved energy.
As the saved energy increases due to the lower exit flue gas temperature, the payback period is
greatly shortened. When the exit flue gas temperature is reduced to some particular value, the
payback period will rise with further reduction because of the more rapid increase of material cost
over the cost of the saved energy. When the exit flue gas temperature approaches the dew point of
the water vapor in the flue gas, the payback period is sharply reduced, which is due to the recovery
of the latent heat in great quantities. For the carbon steel heat exchanger, the shortest payback
period is only 320 h at the exit flue gas temperature of 55 C. For the stainless steel heat
exchanger, the shortest payback period is 850 h at the exit flue gas temperature of some 50 C.
For the PTFE heat exchanger, the shortest payback period is 1800 h.
The calculations above are based on the assumption that the three kinds of condensing heat
exchangers have an identical lifetime. As is well known, the condensate is weakly acidic with a pH
value of 4–5 unless a particular treatment is conducted. As such, it is often the case that the
carbon steel exchanger will have a shorter lifetime because of its poor corrosion resistance. The
PTFE material is very corrosion resistant, but it is too expensive in China. Calculations show that
the most optimum exhaust gas temperatures at different lifetime lengths for the three kinds of
exchangers are unchanged, and the payback periods vary very slightly. Thus, stainless steel
exchangers are recommended.
In the evaluations above, a sufficient domestic hot water requirement is assumed. If there is not
sufficient domestic hot water to be heated, but a radiant floor heating system is used, similar
conclusions can be drawn.
As pointed out by Haase et al. [34], the temperature of the heating medium must be as low as
possible to make a condensing boiler run well with a considerable difference between the flow pipe
and return temperature. In new buildings, condensing boilers are often connected to floor radi-
ators, or heating systems with low temperature radiators. Even in old buildings, there must be no
limitations for appropriate integration of the condensing boiler technology. The heat demands of
the building are less than during construction as a result of subsequent thermal insulation. Be-
cause the existing heating system, designed for supply temperatures of 90 C and return tem-
perature of 70 C (German standard), is over sized due to the conservative safety factors, lowering
the heating medium temperatures is possible.
In China, the most commonly used method for regulating a heating system is the so-called
quality regulation, by which the heating medium flow rate is kept constant and the supply tem-
perature is varied according to the ambient temperature. Generally, as the outdoor temperature
rises, both the supply temperature and the return temperature decrease, but the supply temper-
ature decreases more rapidly than the return temperature. The following correlations can be used
to calculate both temperatures [35].
b
tg ¼ tn þ Dts0 Q þ Dtj0 Q ð10Þ
b
th ¼ tn þ Dts0 Q Dtj0 Q ¼ tg 2Dtj0 Q ð11Þ
where tg , th are the actual supply and return temperatures, C; tg0 , th0 the standard (design) supply
and return temperatures, 95/70 C; tn the indoor temperature, 18 C; Dts0 the design mean tem-
tg0 þth0 2tn
perature difference of radiators, Dts0 ¼ 2
, C; Dtj0 the design temperature difference between
tg0 th0 tw
supply and return temperatures, Dtj0 ¼ 2 , C; Q the relative heat, Q ¼ ttnnt ; tw the daily mean
w0
temperature in heating season, C; tw0 the calculating outdoor temperature, it is different from
region to region (it is )5 C in XiÕan); b ¼ 1þB 1
, B an index reflecting the heat transfer coefficient
of the radiator, for the commonly used radiators, B ¼ 0:35.
The correlations above have been obtained based on a great quantity of experimental data, and
validated by in situ measurements for many years in China.
As such, if XiÕan is taken as an example, the actual supply and return temperatures by quality
regulation can be expressed as follows:
0:74
18 tw 18 tw
tg ¼ 18 þ 64:5 þ 12:5 ð12Þ
23 23
0:74
18 tw 18 tw
th ¼ 18 þ 64:5 12:5 ð13Þ
23 23
According to the meteorological data, substituting into Eq. (13) the monthly mean temperatures
of five heating seasons in XiÕan from 1990 to 1995 give the monthly mean return temperatures,
as shown in Table 6.
The results are diagrammatically presented in Fig. 6.
The water vapor in the flue gas cannot be condensed by the return water in a heating system
operating at design conditions (95/70 C) because the return temperature of 70 C is higher than
the saturation temperature of the water vapor. However, the actual return temperatures are lower
than the dew point of water vapor in most periods of a heating season, which demonstrates the
possibility of recovering the latent heat in the flue gas. The seasonal mean return temperatures are
given in Table 7 and Fig. 7.
Table 6
Return temperatures of 95/70 C heating systems from 1990 to 1995 in XiÕan (C)
November December January February March
Heating season Monthly mean temperature 8.80 1.00 0.90 4.00 7.40
1990–1991 Mean return temperature th 45.74 60.33 60.50 55.06 48.60
Heating season Monthly mean temperature 5.80 0.50 )0.70 3.70 6.70
Heating season Monthly mean temperature 6.60 1.10 )1.60 4.10 7.90
Dew point of water vapor in flue gas

1990-1991 heating season
65 1991-1992 heating season
Return temperature, °C 1994-1995 heating season
60
55
50
45
Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar.
Month
Fig. 6. Return temperatures of 95/70 C heating systems from 1990 to 1995 in XiÕan.
Table 7
Seasonal mean return temperatures from 1990 to 1995 in XiÕan
Season 1990–1991 1991–1992 1992–1993 1993–1994 1994–1995
Mean return temperature (C) 54.05 56.33 55.49 55.86 53.10
From the calculations above, for the 95/70 C heating system, the higher outdoor temperature
will lead to a lower return temperature, which has been confirmed in practice. The seasonal mean
return temperature in XiÕan varies in the range of 53–56 C, which is lower than the dew point of
59.3 C of the water vapor in the flue gas produced by Shanbei natural gas. As such, it is possible
to recover the latent heat in the flue gas by the return water. It should be pointed out that the
outdoor temperature in a heating season varies from region to region, so the mean return tem-
perature will vary. Thus, the degree of recovery of the latent heat in the flue gas will depend on
geographical location.
In fact, since the water side heat transfer resistance is negligible due to its high heat transfer
coefficient, the tube wall temperature is always close to the temperature of the water flowing
inside. Therefore, whenever the return water temperature is to some extent (several degrees for
instance) lower than the dew point, the steam entrained in the flue gas can be condensed due to the
thermodynamic non-equilibrium, and the thermal efficiency of the boiler can be improved, which
has been verified by retrofitted practices. The field measurements of a natural gas fired boiler with
an output of 2.1 MW are given in Table 8 [36].
66
64
1-Water vapor dew point
62 2-Mean return temperature
Temperature, °C
60 1
58
2
56
54
52
1 2 3 4 5
Heating season from 1990 to 1995
Fig. 7. Seasonal mean return temperatures from 1990 to 1995 in XiÕan.
Table 8
Field measurements
Return temperature (C) Before condensing After condensing Efficiency
heat exchanger heat exchanger improvement
40.8 Efficiency (%) 90.05 95.81 5.76
Flue temperature (C) 131 74
Condensate (kg/h) 108
46.6 Efficiency (%) 89.14 92.75 3.43
53.3 Efficiency (%) 88.57 90.69 2.12
Obviously, for regions that are mild in climate, in the heating season, there will be more days in
which the return water temperature is lower than the dew point of the water vapor in the flue gas,
and it will be more worthwhile to recover both the latent heat and the sensible heat simply by
installing a condensing heat exchanger.
It should be pointed out that the most optimum exhaust gas temperature mentioned above
cannot be achieved since the return water temperature cannot be very low. Thus, it is still rec-
ommended that an additional cooling medium source should be introduced into the system to
make the payback period of the condensing heat exchanger as short as possible.
5. Conclusion
The efficiency of a natural gas fired boiler can be greatly improved by adding a condensing heat
exchanger to recover the latent heat of the water vapor entrained in the flue gas. The resistance
increment to the gas stream due to the addition of the exchanger is quite small, and the impact on
the heating system can be neglected. The stainless steel condensing heat exchanger is recom-
mended because of its corrosion resistance and relative long lifetime over carbon steel. Cheap and
corrosion resistant material for a condensing heat exchanger is still urgently required. There is a
most economical exit flue gas temperature, which is 40–55 C, when a conventional natural gas
fired boiler is retrofitted into a condensing boiler simply by adding a condensing heat exchanger.
If stainless steel is used, the optimum temperature is about 50 C. Too low an exit flue gas
temperature will give rise to an extreme increase of the exchanger surface area, and consequently,
the investment cost of the exchanger. As low a temperature of the cooling medium of the con-
densing heat exchanger as possible to reclaim the latent heat in the flue gas to the utmost extent is
always expected, however, it is possible to use the return water of a heating system as the cooling
medium of the condensing heat exchanger because the return temperature varies with the ambient
temperature and is lower than the dew point of the water vapor in the flue gas in most periods of a
heating season in some regions, in particular in the regions with mild climate. However, the most
economical exit flue gas temperature cannot be achieved. It is strongly recommended that an
additional cooling medium source with a temperature that is as low as possible should be used to
achieve the greatest benefit.
Acknowledgements
The financial support from The Research Fund of The Doctoral Program of Higher Education
of China (RFDP no. 20020698048) and The Special Funds for Major State Basic Research
Projects (G1999022210) are gratefully acknowledged.
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Evaluation of Retrofitting A Conventional Natural Gas Fired Boiler Into A Condensing Boiler PDF

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Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 3251–3266

Evaluation of retroﬁtting a conventional natural gas

3. Heat recovery calculations

3.1. Sensible heat

3.2. Latent heat

102 Excess air ratio α =1.05

Fig. 1. Boiler eﬃciency at various exit ﬂue gas temperatures.

4.1. Cost accounting

4.1.1. Cost increase calculations

Fig. 2. Schematic arrangement of condensing heat exchanger.

K ¼ wa1 kW=ðm2 CÞ ð3Þ

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Fig. 3. Heating surface area at diﬀerent exit ﬂue gas temperatures.

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Exit flue gas temperature,°C

Fig. 4. Resistance increase at diﬀerent exit ﬂue gas temperatures.

4.1.2. Saved cost calculations

4.2. Payback period

The payback period method [33] is used to evaluate the economics

4000 2-Stainless steel

Fig. 5. Payback period versus exit ﬂue gas temperature.

Dew point of water vapor in flue gas

Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar.

Fig. 7. Seasonal mean return temperatures from 1990 to 1995 in XiÕan.

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