MEL 725: Power Plant Steam Generators

P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department

A First Stage Technology for the Development of

Civilization!!
 Steam, The origin of Scientific & Industrial
Civilization.

• Trace the origin of steam.

• Think about the impact of Steam on Science.
• Enumerate the impact of steam on Technology.
• Appreciate the role of steam in industrial world.

P M V Subbarao
Mechanical Engineering,
IIT Delhi
 The Philosophy of Steam -- Mill

• There are many features which characterize this

progressive economical movement of civilized nations.
• The best of the best feature which excites attention – What
is it?
• This is the feature which intimately connected with the
phenomena of production
• This is the perpetual.
• The unlimited growth of man's power over Nature so far as
human foresight can extend.
 Science of Cooking Methods

Gas Stove

Wood Stove

P M V Subbarao
Micro Wave Mechanical Engineering,
IIT Delhi
Camp fire
Science of Lighting

Electric Lamp

Gas Lamp

Wick lamp
Science of Motive Power : Land

Car

Steam Wagon

P M V Subbarao
Horse Cart Mechanical Engineering,
IIT Delhi
 Science of Motive Power : Sea

Steamer

Steam Engine Ship

Man power Ship

 Science of Motive Power : Air

Supersonic
aircraft

Turbojet Aircraft

P M V Subbarao
Propeller aircraft Mechanical Engineering,
IIT Delhi
How Come?
 Human being is a WEAK Animal
Yet dominates the GLOBE !?!?!?!

Human being has ability to provide power,

set LIMITS to the rate of growth of
Civilization.

P M V Subbarao
Mechanical Engineering,
IIT Delhi
 The Philosophy of Steam -- Mill

• Our knowledge of the properties and laws of physical

objects shows no sign of approaching its ultimate
boundaries!!!!!
• It is advancing more rapidly, and in a greater number of
directions at once, than in any previous age or generation.
• Affording such frequent glimpses of unexplored fields
beyond as to justify the belief that our acquaintance with
Nature is still almost in its infancy.
Origin of Steam : Basis of Scientific & Technological
Research
• Denis Papin, while working at Huygens and of
Boyle, started to be interested in the vapor.
• Several geniuses of science tried before him to
try out an unspecified machine which would run on
the vapor, but their efforts were useless.
• It is into 1707 that Denis Papin made his first
great realization: the boat with vapor.
• This superb invention brought much controversy
near the boatmen, who destroyed the ship.

P M V Subbarao
Mechanical Engineering,
IIT Delhi
 The Boiler ………

• Boilers are accepted equipment of everyday life.

• A prime device which connects natural resources and
human-made facilities.
• A fire…
• A furnace….
• A boiler …..
• A Steam generator.
The Steam Machines were in industrial use since 1712.

Establishment of the first and second laws of thermodynamics

by Clausius, Kelvin et al., occurred in 1855!!!

P M V Subbarao
Mechanical Engineering,
IIT Delhi
This Led to Formulation of
Greatest Science ….
Thermodynamics
 Thermodynamics

A
Science of Human Development
through Energy Utilities.

P M V Subbarao
Mechanical Engineering,
IIT Delhi
Depth of Knowledge of Thermal
Sciences
is
A Measure of Growth of
Technology & Civilization……
 The Great Albert Einstein`s Opinion
• A Theory is more impressive
– the greater the simplicity of its premises is,
– the more different kinds of things it relates,
– and the more extended is its area of applicability.
Therefore, the deep impression which Classical
Thermodynamics made upon me.
It is only physical theory of universal content
concerning which I am convinced that , Within the
framework of the applicability of its basic
concepts, it will never be overthrown.
P M V Subbarao
Mechanical Engineering,
IIT Delhi
 Analysis of Power Plant Steam Generators
Available Resources (Energy, matter etc.,)

Thermodynamics
Laws and Information

Engineering Design of Thermal processes,

devices and systems.

Other Engineering Sciences

NO
Is Design meeting Human’s NEED?

Social Sciences and YES

Humanities (task completed)
Technology Vs Power
 Historical Development of Steam Generators

BY
P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department
I I T Delhi

A Progressive development towards perfection!!!!!!!

A Quick Tour from Zero DOF to 4 DOF Technology !!!!!!
P M V Subbarao
Mechanical Engineering,
IIT Delhi
Historical Eras of Technology
Historical Development in Steam Generators
 FIRE, FLAME and TORCH

• Fire is a discovery rather than

an invention.
• Homo erectus probably discovered
fire by accident.
• Fire was most likely given to man as
a 'gift from the heavens' when a bolt
of lightning struck a tree or a bush,
suddenly starting it on fire.
• The flaming touch and the campfire
probably constituted early man's first
use of 'artificial' lighting.
• As early as 400,000 BC, fire was
kindled in the caves of Peking man.
• Prehistoric man, used primitive lamps
to illuminate his cave.
• Various Oils were used as fuels.
 The Aelopile

• In 130BC. Hero, a Greek

mathematician and scientist is
credited with inventing the first
practical application of steam
power, the aelopile.
 Branca's Steam Engine
• In 1629, Giovanni Branca,
of the Italian town of
Loretto, described, in a
work' published at Rome,
a number of ingenious
mechanical contrivances,
among which was a
steam-engine in which the
steam, issuing from a
boiler, impinged on the
basis of a horizontal well.
• This it was proposed to
apply to many useful
purposes
 Newcomen Engine

• In 1712 Thomas Newcomen

developed a Steam engine called d
Atmospheric engine. ©

e
b f
a
1720 Haycock : Shell-type boiler made of copper plates
 Historical Development of Boilers
• 1720 Haycock : Shell-type boiler made of copper plates.
• 1730 James Allen: Internal flue furnace; use of bellow for combustion
air
• 1766 William Blakey: Patent on water in turbe and fire outside.
• 1803 John Stevens: A pseudo-water-tube design used in a steamboat.
• 1804 Richard Trevithick” First high pressure boiler with cast iron
cylindrical shell.
• 1822 Jacob Perkins: Once-through boiler using cast iron bars.
• 1856 Stephen Wilcox: Inclined tube boiler with water-cooled
enclosures.
• 1880 Allan Stirling: Bent tube connecting drums.
• 1920: Pulverized Coal fired boiler.
• 1957: Super critical boiler.
• 1970: Fluidized bed boiler.
 The Theory of Producing Steam
• Water and steam are typically used as heat carriers in heating systems.
• It is well known that water boils and evaporates at 100°C under
atmospheric pressure.
• By higher pressure, water evaporates at higher temperature - e.g. a pressure
of 10 bar equals an evaporation temperature of 184°C.
• During the evaporation process, pressure and temperature are constant, and
a substantial amount of heat are use for bringing the water from liquid to
vapour phase.
• When all the water is evaporated, the steam is called dry saturated.
• In this condition the steam contains a large amount of latent heat.
• This latent heat in the dry saturated steam can efficiently be utilised to
different processes requiring heat.
• The steam boiler or steam generator is connected to the consumers through
the steam and condensate piping.
• When the steam is provided to the consumers, it condensate.
• It can then be returned to the feed water tank.
 Water Tube Boilers: The Steam Generators

• As industry developed during 19th century, so the use of

boilers for raising steam became widespread.
• Disastrous explosions sometimes occurred.
• Boilers of that period consisted of heated pressure vessels
of large diameter.
• These are subject to internal pressure which is tensile
stresses in the walls of the enclosure.
• The value of stress, known as ‘hoop stress’ is given by

p D
f 
2T
 Steam generator versus steam boiler
• Opposite the principle of the steam boilers, the water in the steam
generators evaporates inside the tube winded up into serial connected tube
coils.
• The feed water is heated up to the evaporation temperature and then
evaporated.
• The intensity of the heat, the feed water flow and the size/length of the tube
are adapted, so that the water is exactly fully evaporated at the exit of the
tube.
• This ensures a very small water and steam volume (content of the pressure
vessel).
• Thus there are no buffer in a steam generator, and is it temporary
overloaded.
• The advantages using a steam generator compare to conventional steam
boilers:
• Easy to operate - normally no requirement for boiler authorisation
• Rapid start-up and establishing full steam pressure Compact and easy to
adapt in the existing machinery arrangement
• Price attractive - especially at low steam rates.
• The advantages using a steam generator compare to conventional
steam boilers:
• Easy to operate - normally no requirement for boiler authorisation
• Rapid start-up and establishing full steam pressure Compact and easy
to adapt in the existing machinery arrangement
• Price attractive - especially at low steam rates.
 The water tube boiler

• As you can see, the Water Tube

Boiler (below) looks very
complicated.
• Thousands of tubes are placed in
strategic location to optimize the
exchange of energy from the heat to
the water in the tubes.
• These types of boilers are most
common because of their ability to
deliver large quantities of steam.
• The large tube like structure at the top
of the boiler is called the steam drum.
• The hundreds of tube start and
eventually end up at the steam drum.
 Steam Theory

• Within the boiler, fuel and air are

force into the furnace by the
burner.
• There, it burns to produce heat.
• From there, the heat (flue gases)
travel throughout the boiler.
• The water absorbs the heat, and
eventually absorb enough to
change into a gaseous state -
steam.
• To the left is the basic theoretical
design of a modern boiler.
• Boiler makers have developed
various designs to squeeze the
most energy out of fuel and to
maximized its transfer to the
water.
• Water enters the boiler, preheated, at the top.
• The hot water naturally circulates through the tubes down to the lower
area where it is hot.
• The water heats up and flows back to the steam drum where the steam
collects.
• Not all the water gets turn to steam, so the process starts again.
• Water keeps on circulating until it becomes steam.
• Meanwhile, the control system is taking the temperature of the steam
drum, along with numerous other readings, to determine if it should
keep the burner burning, or shut it down.
• As well, sensors control the amount of water entering the boiler, this
water is know as feedwater.
• Feedwater is not your regular drinking water.
• It is treated with chemicals to neutralize various minerals in the water,
which untreated, would cling to the tubes clogging or worst, rusting
them.
• This would make the boiler expensive to operate because it would not
be very efficient.
• On the fire side of the boiler, carbon deposit resulting from improper
combustion or impurities in the fuel can accumulate on the outer
surface of the water tube.
• This creates an insulation which quickly decrease the energy transfer
from the heat to the water.
• To remedy this problem the engineer will carry out soot blowing. At a
specified time the engineer uses a long tool and insert it into the fire
side of the boiler.
• This device, which looks like a lance, has a tip at the end which "blows"
steam.
• This blowing action of the steam "scrubs" the outside of the water
tubes, cleaning the carbon build up.
• Water tube boilers can have pressures from 7 bar to as high as 250
bar.
• The steam temperature's can vary between saturated steam, 100
degrees Celsius steam with particle of water, or be as high as 600 -
650 degrees Celsius, know as superheated steam or dry steam
• The performance of boiler is generally referred to as tons of steam
produced in one hour.
• In water tube boilers that could be as low as 1.5 t/hr to as high as
2500 t/hr.
Water Tube Boiler

A. Smoke uptake

B. Economizer
A heat exchanger that transfers
heat from Boiler Flue Gases to
Boiler Feedwater.
C. SteamOutlet
Saturated steam from the
SteamDrum to the Superheater
D. Cyclone
A device inside the drum that is
used to prevent water and solids
from passing over with the
steamoutlet.
E. Stay tube
for superheater
F. Superheated steam outlet
G. Superheater
A bank of tubes, in the exhaust gas duct
after the boiler, used to heat the steam
above the saturation temperature.
H. Superheater Headers
Distribution and collecting boxes for the
superheater tubes.
I. WaterDrum
J. Burner
K. Waterwall Header
Distribution box for waterwall and
downcomers.
L. Foting
M. Waterwall
Tubes welded together to form a wall.
N. Waterwall Header
Distribution box for waterwall and
downcomers.
O. Back side waterwall
P. Boiler hood
Q. Waterwall Header
Collecting box for waterwall and
risers.
R. Riser
Tubes in which steam is generated due
to high convection or radiant heat. The
water-steam emulsion rises in these
tubes toward the steamdrum.
S. Downcomer
A tube through which water flows
downward. These tubes are normally
not heated, and the boiler water flows
through them to supply the generating
tubes.
T. SteamDrum
Separates the steam from the water.
U. Economizer Header
Distribution box for the economizer
tubes.
water tube steam boiler V2M8
with regenerative air preheater
A Vertical Boiler whose major design
features are the gastight waterwall
furnace and the vertical in-line inverted
U-loop superheater.
The boiler shown is top-fired with
resulting improved gas distribution over
the entire superheater furnace.
Both the main-bank tubes and
superheater elements are in-line for
improved tube cleaning.
Normally, soot-blowing equipment
includes retractable blowers in the
superheater and rotary blowers in the
main bank and economizer.
The combustion air preheater, on the
top of the boiler, heats the inlet
combustion air to the burners by means
of the flue cases and improves the
efficiency of the boiler.
 Water and steam flow diagram

• Blue: the downcomers lead the

water from the steam drum to the
water drum and the waterwalls
headers.
Red and blue: the evaporation
tubes and the water walls lead the
water and steam emulsion back to
the steam drum.
Red: the steam passes through the
superheater before it leaves the
boiler for the consumers
One large V2M8 boiler is
installed in a ship at a shipyard
and one other boiler is still
suspended in the crane-hook.

When the boilers are placed and

secured then the engine room
will be built around them.
 water tube steam boiler V2M9
with regenerative air preheater
• The most outstanding feature of the V2M9
is the combustion.
• The boiler is a vertical two-drum dropped-
furnace boiler.
• A burner is located at each of the four
corners of the furnace and the burners are
aligned to be tangential to a circle in the
center of the furnace.
• This arrangement gives a rotary motion to
the combustion gases within the furnace,
with improved turbulence and air/fuel
mixing.
• This lengthens the fuel-particle residence
time in the furnace and allows combustion
to be completed before the gases pass into
the convection generating bank and
superheaters
 Water and steam flow diagram
• Blue: the downcomers lead the
water from the steam drum to the
water drum and the water walls
headers.
Red and blue: the evaporation
tubes and the waterwalls lead the
water and steam emulsion back to
the steam drum.
Red: the steam passes through the
superheater before it leaves the
boiler for the consumers.
 Eckrohr Steam Boilers
• Eckrohr-Boiler (Corner Tube Boiler)
is a boiler for all kinds of fuel.
• Originally it got its name because it
has downcomers in the four corners.
• It is a natural water circulation single
drum boiler and it needs no
circulation pump.
• Downcomers, headers and
waterwalls are welded together to a
gas-tight tube cage.
• The Eck-rohr-Boiler is self-
supporting and needs no supporting
structure.
• It stands on its own downcomers.
• Due to the cage structure with
downcomers, headers and overhead
pipes the Eckrohr-Boiler is
earthquake safe (more than 550
boilers installed in Japan, many of
them for municipal waste).
 Eckrohr Boilers water and steam flow diagram
1. Unheated return tubes
2. Header
3. Mixture tubes
4. Riser tubes (evaporator)
5. Overflow tubes
6. Unheated steam drum
7. Unheated downcomers
• The water-steam mixture flows upwards through
the riser tubes (4).
• In the upper mixture tube (3) steam is already
separated from water and a part of the water
flows through unheated return tubes (1) to the
header (2).
• The separated steam flows through the overflow
tube (5) to the steam space of the drum (6).
• The remaining mixture runs through mixture
tube (3) into the drum.
• The final separation of water and steam takes
place in the drum, the water flows through the
downcomers (7) to the headers (2).
 Composite steam boiler

• Composite boilers that mixes

the diesel engines exhaust gases
and the flue gases from the fuel
oil burner have existed, and
may still exist.

• Using the diesel engines

exhaust gases as combustion air
for the fuel oil burner is quite
economically although it makes
a rather complicated unit.
 Steam Generator Design
• Steam generators can be delivered in horizontal execution (with low
height), or in vertical execution (occupying limited floor space).
• They are delivered as insulated with stainless steel cover sheets and
complete with burner, armatures, instrumentation, safeties and a
control panel.
• The steam generators heaters are made with coils made of seamless
tubes, where the feed water is preheated and evaporated during the
flow through these.
• The heat is transferred to the water/steam mixture as radiant heat in the
combustion chamber, where the inner cylindrical tube coil and a flat
tube coil forms the chamber wall and the bottom respectively.
• Consequently refractory concrete is avoided.
• The combustion gasses are hereafter cooled in the outer convection
part, as the gasses pass the space between the two tube coils.
• The thermal design ensures a modest volume of steam relative to the
size of the heater, and allows unlimited thermal expansion due to the
high temperatures.
• Beside the standard execution the steam generators can be delivered
in following variations:
• Electrical heated, including EX-design if required
• Material in stainless steel
• Complete skid-mounted with tanks and pretreatment equipment.
 Classification of Boilers
• Packaged Boilers : Small in capacity.
– Preassembled units.
– Shell type or watertube
• Shell type: Domestic hot water boilers are most common example.
– Low Thermal efficiency 50 -- 65%.
• Water-tube Type: Packaged water-tube boilers are built incapacity up to 25 kg/s
– Pressure up to 73 bar and temperature up to 440 C.
– furnace operates under positive pressure.
– Designed for compactness.
– Operated with a very high volumetric heat release rate.
• Marine or Naval Boilers : Extremely compact.
– Built to maximize the power-to-weight and power-to-volume ratio.
– High heat release rates: up to 10 MW per cubic meter in Naval vessels and up to 1
Mw per cubic meter in merchant vessels.
– Generally oil fired.
– Modern ships using diesel engine or gas turbine power use a waste heat recovery
boiler or auxiliary pakage boiler.
• Power Generation Boilers
– Pulverised coal combustion.
– Fluidized Bed Combustion.
• Solid Waste Fired Boilers
• Biomass Fired Boilers
• Waste Heat Recovery Boilers.
• Nuclear Steam Generators.
Classification of Boilers