Principles of Steam Generation

Esa Kari Vakkilainen, in Steam Generation from Biomass, 2017

1.1.2.4 Heat Recovery Boilers
Heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) are very popular. They are often combined with
a gas turbine or diesel generator, and produce additional electricity with the steam.
These combined cycle units have very high electricity-generating efficiencies and good
partial load characteristics. There have been several studies suggesting that biomass could
be used in these combined cycle plants, but commercially they are rarely used.
There are two main arrangements. In a horizontal tube HRSG the evaporative tubes are
placed horizontally. This type of arrangement is very popular in large units. In horizontal tube
HRSGs the flue gas passage is often square. Vertical-type HRSGs have their main heat
exchanger tubes in a vertical position. HRSGs of this type are popular with smaller unit sizes
and are often much higher than they are wide (Fig. 1.9).

Power generation fundamentals

Stephen A. Rackley, in Carbon Capture and Storage (Second Edition), 2017
3.3.1 Heat recovery steam generation
The HRSG recovers heat from the gas turbine exhaust to generate steam at temperatures up
to ~650°C and pressures of 13–20 MPa. Although SC systems have been developed, heat-
recovery steam generation is most commonly applied under subcritical conditions.
The components of the HRSG—evaporator, superheater, and economizer—are functionally
equivalent to those in a conventional steam boiler. Figure 3.17 illustrates schematically the
heat transfer in the three sections of a simple HRSG, with exhaust gases moving from left to
right and feedwater/steam from right to left. Feedwater entering the economizer is heated by
the gas exiting the HRSG to a temperature close to the saturation temperature of steam at
the operating pressure of the unit. The so-called approach temperature (ΔTA) is the difference
between the temperature of water leaving the economizer and the saturation temperature
and is kept at 10°C or more to prevent steam formation in the economizer. The flue gas exit
temperature from the HRSG is held above 100°C if it is necessary to prevent condensation,
although lower temperatures are commonly used with suitable materials in order to maximize
heat recovery.

Sign in to download full-size image

Figure 3.17 . Heat transfer in HRSG.

In the evaporator section, flue gas is cooled to close to the saturation temperature, providing

the latent heat of evaporation to the hot water exiting the economizer. Heat recovery is
maximized if the gas exiting the evaporator section is at the saturation temperature (i.e., the
pinch point temperature—ΔTP—is zero). In practice this requires very large heat-exchange
surfaces, leading to increased capital costs, and in practice a ΔTP of 10–20°C is typical.
After evaporation, steam is superheated to close to the flue gas entry temperature. Additional
burners (duct firing) may be included to increase the gas temperature and steam production
capacity of an HRSG to meet peak demand, although this is not generally used to increase
the baseload capacity in view of the relatively low efficiency of this supplemental firing.
More advanced multipressure HRSGs improve overall thermal efficiency and achieve higher
work output by including two or three parallel steam flows to drive HP, IP, and LP stages of
the steam turbine, although this comes at the cost of a more complex plant. Figure
3.18 illustrates a state-of-the-art triple-pressure HRSG, with multistage economizers for the
IP and HP flows.