Boiler –quality of flame

In a tangential coal fired boiler, the furnace act as a single burner and so it is required to look at and understand the quality of
the flame. It is necessary to start from the control room of the boiler, then go to the mill, furnace, bottom ash and fly ash
areas and study all in detail.

 Understanding the quality of flame in any boiler furnace is very important in tuning the boiler to the optimal level of
performance. The aspects of combustion tuning involve looking at the boiler furnace and making sure the quality of flame is
acceptable and good.The gas and oil fired boilers do not pose much problem in establishing a good flame in the furnace. The
available instruments like flame scanners, CO monitors and oxygen indicators, along with the exit gas temperature, give a
good indication to perceive if the quality of the flame is good. In coal fired boilers and mainly in tangential fired boilers, the
furnace acts as a single burner, so it is required to look at the flame and understand the quality of the flame.
It is necessary to start from the control room of boiler then go to the mill area, to the furnace, and then to the bottom ash and
fly ash area to fully make sure of combustion quality in furnace.

The control room of the boiler

 Look at the load at which the boiler is operating, availability of support fuel, SH & RH parameter
 Look at the number of mills operating
 Note the load, air flow, and outlet temperature on each mill
 Check the oxygen level at Eco / APH outlet
 Check the furnace pressure, scanner performance- watch for a few minutes for any fluctuations
 Look at the coal proximate analysis within 8 hours- if not available then at the max 24 hrs
 Check the PC fineness reading of each running mill if available
 Keep a note of those mills which have plus 50 more than 2% and minus 200 below 65%
Check each running mill in the mills area
 Bowl mills
 Check each spring loading by feeling the bumping of the pressure spring shaft
 Regular bump indicate the springs are loaded - how much cannot be estimated by feel - low minus 200 & or mill
reject can be an indicator
 Watch for any abnormal sound
 Check the level of mill reject - look for coal in rejects - if nil or very low then ok
 Look at classifier vane position – check if they are equal in each mill. Close further to improve fineness - if needed
 Ball mills
 Check for ball noise in the mill area - high noise indicates low coal levels or low speed
 Check the mill speed and by-pass air
 Check classifier settings
 Look for any gear box noise
 Understanding the quality of flame in any boiler furnace is very important to tune the boiler to the optimal level of
performance. The aspects of combustion tuning involve looking at the boiler furnace and making sure the quality of flame is
acceptable and good. The gas and oil fired boilers do not pose much problem in establishing a good flame in furnace. The
available instruments like flame scanners, CO monitors and Oxygen indicators along with the exit gas temperature give a
good indication to perceive the quality of flame is good. In coal fired boiler mainly in tangential fired boiler, as the furnace
act as a single burner, it is required to look at the flame and understand the quality of the flame.
 Checking the furnace and flame condition
 Look at the flame front in each corner and elevation- stand in front of the peephole at the corner and see if you can find
a tip of flame moving to and fro (visible and out of sight)
 If it is not visible note the fuel air damper position in the windbox and close it to less than 5% open condition
 Look at the flame in the furnace from just above wind box and count the number of flickers. Go to the furnace outlet
plane elevation - normally at this elevation more peep holes are provided. Check the flicker at this elevation- if less than
10 per minute and bright orange red in colour, the flame is good
 Open all peep holes one by one in the bottom hopper level - normally around 10 Mt level
 Watch the particles falling each peep hole on both side walls
  If large number of shooting star-like particles of pebble sizes or above is seen with frequent intervals or continuous this
indicate deposition on the waterwalls
 If this is experienced, then look at the bottom ash collection for any glazed lumps - this confirms deposition tending to
slag
 Open the other peep holes and see if they are loaded with ash particles or bridged by fused particles or glowing ash in
with a narrow opening or black colour in center. If loose ash of some amount is found, this indicates friable ash and is
normally seen in good operation / furnace condition. Higher fused ash and bridging indicates that furnace deposits are
high and/or high temperature combustion
 In the high heat flux region - just about 1 Mt above the wind box / top burner level - one will see fused lumps, but not
bridging or flowing slag - if seen then higher furnace deposition is indicated
 Look through the top most peep holes in the front wall - generally given at furnace outlet plane, apart from seeing the
flame flicker level as said above, look at the Platen / Panel / Final SH which is provided
 Watch for deposit on these. Large volume deposit seen indicate lower frequency of soot blower operation or high
deposition levels
 You may also see a swing in super heater panel / platen / final in this region. This is not uncommon and not to
worry.
 Look through the peep hole in the side walls near the reheater region.
 If flame seen licking this area indicate the burning is getting completed at much higher elevation than envisaged.
 This can be due to low reactive coal or improper air distribution or very high primary air
 Watching carefully the flame / bright spots coming into this region with respect to width and intensity can give an
indication on the elevation of combustion completion
Checking the bottom ash and fly ash
 Bottom ash
 Look at bottom ash, if you find glazed lumps then suspect clinkers
 The higher the size and quantity, the higher the intensity of clinkering
 A large amount of loading black particles indicates higher unburned in bottom ash
 A higher quantity of friable ash along with coal particles indicates a higher plus 50 size % in PC or wall deposits
shedding at frequent intervals
 Fly ash
 While collecting flyash from ESP field hopper, allow it to flow freely for some time so that locked up ash falls off
 Look at the fly ash from the first working field of ESP - not to worry about the dummy field
 If fly ash has higher blackish colour, this indicate higher unburneds
 If higher black particles are seen, this indicate very low reactive constituents in coal

Coal Burner Wear during Operation - Why and How

written by: Dr V T Sathyanathan • edited by: Lamar Stonecypher • updated: 2/4/2011
Fossil fuel is the main source of energy for steam power plants. Coal is the major fuel with inorganics varying widely. Coal
burners are subjected to wear due to this during operation.

 Coal is the prime fuel for power generation across the globe. More than fifty percent of electricity is produced by coal. Coal
has in it organic material, an inorganic portion, and moisture. There are other components like sulphur, trace metals like
arsenic, etc. which all form a very small percentage. The inorganic portion in coal varies highly making it difficult to predict
any standard behavior. As coal formed under the earth is a heterogeneous material, it makes it still difficult.
Coal burners, both in wall fired boilers and in tangential fired boilers, are subjected to wear during their operation. The rate
of wear on the burner depends on many factors.

 Percentage of ash (Inorganic portion): As the percentage of ash in coal increases, the wear increases, but the rate of
wear need not be the same for same percentage of ash coals.
 The chemical composition of the ash: Knowing the constituents which make up the ash in coal facilitates our
understanding of the reason for the difference in rate of wear of the burner using the same percentage of ash in coal. It
is seen that the silica in coal plays a major role in erosion of coal burners.
  Velocity adopted for fuel air mixture: It is seen that the velocity adopted has an influence on the wear rate on the coal
burner. The higher the velocity, the higher the rate of wear, but this cannot be varied much as it depends on the burner
requirement, the flame front anchoring point, etc. The effect of velocity is more predominant in the case of pressure
parts erosion in the boiler.
 The pulverized coal fineness: Coal fineness has an influence on the rate of wear depending upon the segregation of ash
from organic portion of the coal
 The number of hours operated
 Material used for burner construction: As burners are subjected to heat radiation from burning fuel, they are made of
very high alloy steels. The more often preferred material is stainless steel. However to contain wear and improve life a
lot of methods like weld overlay, cladding, or metal spraying are adopted.
 The flame profile and distance from burner tip: The flame intensity and flame distance from the burner tip has two
influences on the wear of the burner. One, it leads to warping of the burner tip and second, it creates eddies which
speeds up wear.
 The load carried by the burner, which is basically the quantity of coal flow through the burner
Many of the factors like percentage ash, chemical composition, the number of hours of operation, etc. cannot be tailored to
contain the wear of the burner components. The designers adopt mainly weld overlay or cladding or metal spraying to
improve life of the coal burner. The method chosen will depend on the ash percentage and composition of coal being used in
the boiler, the cost, and the life enhancement period.

Effect of
Low
Fuel Oil

Temperature on Boiler Operation

written by: Dr V T Sathyanathan • edited by: Lamar Stonecypher • updated: 10/20/2010
Low fuel temperature can lead to a large amount of unburned fuel accumulation in the furnace. This can result in a very high
probability for furnace explosion and air pre-heater fires. Maintaining correct fuel oil temperature ensures good combustion
of fuel and boiler efficiency.

 Fuel Oil Temperature and Boiler Operation

 Fuel oil is one of the fossil fuesl used in boilers to generate steam. The hydrocarbons in fuel oil need heating for reducing the
viscosity to a favorable level for handling and firing. Depending upon the composition of the oil, the effect on performance
of boiler can be judged. All oils should have a viscosity of 80 Redwood No 1 at the burner inlet to result in an effective
combustion. The temperature required can be determined by doing a simple viscosity test in a laboratory. It is a good
practice to check the temperature required to get 80 Redwood No 1 viscosity for each consignment of fuel oil received.

The fuel oil is heated in a fuel oil heater using a condensing type heater. The heated oil is then transported though pipe line
to the boiler front and distributed to each burner through a set of control, trip, and isolation valves. These pipe lines are
generally insulated and heat traced using electrical heating or steam heating. The temperature of the fuel oil at the outlet of
the heater is maintained in such a way to take care of the loss of heat in the piping and system so that the viscosity at the gun
tip or gun inlet will be 80 Redwood No 1 and below.

When the fuel oil temperature goes down the operator will have to understand the specific causes, how the plant will
respond, what he has to take as an immediate action and how the local operator must respond.

Specific causes
 Insufficient steam flow to fuel oil heater
 Temperature controller of the heater system faulty
 Excessive condensate in the fuel oil heater lowering heat transfer
 Faulty steam trap not evacuating the condensate as required
 Fuel oil heater can be dirty thus reducing heat transfer
 Too high recirculation of fuel oil from heater outlet to the tank
 Higher firing rate than design
Plant response
 The drop in temperature of fuel oil increases the viscosity leading to poor combustion
 Black smoke from chimney due to unburned carbon soot carryover
 Oil particles carryover to air pre-heater and threat of air pre-heater fire
Immediate operator action
 Check the pressure and temperature of steam at the inlet of fuel oil heater
 Restore the steam parameter if required
 Open steam trap by-pass valve to check for excessive condensate
 Remove excessive condensate from the heater
 Reduce the oil recirculation if required
 Reduce firing rate if needed
 Bring online additional fuel oil heater to ensure fuel oil temperature with the oil consumption
 Discontinue oil firing if fuel oil temperature does not come to the required level
Immediate local operator action
 Check the fuel oil heater for all its controls and parameters
 Check steam pressure and temperature to the heater
 Check the steam trap drains and ensure proper condensate level
 Inform boiler control room all local findings.
Irrespective of whether fuel oil is used for load carrying or as support for fuel in a boiler, it is very important to maintain the
fuel oil temperature as the amount of unburned fuel collection over a period of time can explode the boiler or lead toair pre-
heater fires. Both of this lead to a long outage of the boiler and a loss of production.

 About the Author

Dr V T Sathyanathan is a boiler consultant with 35 years of experience in various areas of high pressure boiler trouble
shooting. He holds a PhD in coal combustion in boilers.