ECONOMISER, AIR PRE HEATER,

DE AERATOR, FEED WATER

HEATER, EVAPOURATOR, BLOW
DOWN VESSELS ETC

B. UMMER
Senior Joint Director of Factories &
Boilers [Rtd]
 Air-fuel – flue gas circuit

Furnace Water Super Boiler bank

tubes
Air from APH walls heater

Fuel from fuel Feed water

header
heater
To furnace

Chimney Dust APH Economiser

collector

ESP FD fan To boiler

ID fan

AIR
 Water steam
steam
circuit
Water Feed Feed
Deaer pump
raw water treatm
ator tank
ent

Flue gas steam

Bank Water Boiler Econo Feed water

tubes wall drum miser heater

Super
heater
Auxillary steam consumption
header

PRV Super heater

Boiler FD fan
Feed turbine
water drum
Feed
Fuel pump
heater turbine
CBD
IBD
vessel
vessel
Why do we install them ?
 
 To improve the system efficiency by
heat recovery
 To control pollution
 To prevent corrosion in the water side
 To prevent scale formation
 To improve heat transfer
 BLOW DOWN VESSELS
 Why blow down?
  The concentration of dissolved solids
as evapouration takes place.
 At a particular level they deposit on
water side to form scales
 Local over heating
 Cause foaming [ carry over of water
particles]
 Cause tube failures
What is blow down ?
 
A certain volume of water is blown
off and replaced by feed water
TDS is maintained
 
TDS  conductivity
As TDS increases conductivity
increases
Pressure Total solids Alkalinity Suspended
Kg/cm2 TDS ppm ppm solids
ppm

0 -20 3500 700 300

51-60 1500 300 60

100-140 700 150 10

TYPES
 
Intermitted blow down
Eg : Once in a shift for 2 minutes

Continuous blow down

Blow down
DE AERATORS
 
Dissolved gases -- CO2 and O2 and other
gases
CO2 and O2 in boiler water combines to
form Carbonic acid [ H2 CO3 ]
 
Corrodes metal
Dissolves Fe[Iron] and when returned to
boiler, forms scale
 Internal corrosion and pitting
 
This takes place if O2 is more
than .007 ppm in feed water

 It is prevented by providing De
aerators / Oxygen scavengers
Types
 

A] Mechanical De aerators
  Heating boiler feed water reduces
the concentration of CO2 and O2
surrounding the water.
 This is most economical
 Operate at the boiling point
corresponding to the pressure in
Deaerator
1] Vacuum type
 
 Below atmospheric pressure
 82 0C
 O2 concentration reduced to 0.02 mg/lit
 Vacuum pumps or steam ejectors are used
for creating vacuum
2]Pressure type
   Steam into water through a pressure
control valve to maintain desired operating
pressure
 Minimum temperature—105 0C
 Steam raises the temperature of water and
releases CO2 and O2
 This is vented out
 O2 concentration reduced to 0.005 mg/lit
  When excess low pressure steam is
available, the operating pressure may be
selected suitably to make use of this steam
 Why steam is preferred ?
 
 Steam is free from CO2 and O2
 steam is readily available
 steam adds the heat for the
reaction
B] Chemical De aeration
 
 Efficient mechanical De aeration
reduces O2 concentration to 0.005 mg/lit
 Even then some traces of O2 remains
 A chemical scavenger is used
 A] Sodium Sulphite
B] Hydrazine
 
Oxygen + Sodium Sulphite = Sodium
Sulphate
 2 Na2 SO3 + O2 =2 Na2 SO4

 Oxygen + Hydrazine = Water + Nitrogen

 N2H4 +O2 = 2 H2O + N2
 ECONOMISER

The energy in the flue gas is recovered

partially in the economiser
 The feed water going into the boiler
passes through economiser
Heat energy from flue gas is
transferred to water
 ECONOMISER…….contd

• Results in the decrease in

temperature of flue gas
Increase in temperature of feed
water
There is a limit to the heat
recovery ……??
Economiser
Economiser Coil…finned tube
 A] Dew point corrosion 
 The temperature of the economiser
tube metals may approach the
temperature of water flowing through
them
 If the water temperature is low, SO3 in
the flue gas combines with H2O in the to
form H2SO4 which will condense on the
metal surface
 This is called dew point corrosion or
sulphur corrosion.
 Solution
 
Maintain the temperature of feed
water high
ie Provide a feed water heater
before the economiser
 Temperatures at various points in the 80 TPH
boiler at a Refinery.
[just for reference]
  Point Temperature 0C
 
  FD fan air inlet 35
 
Furnace 986
Flue gas side
Eco inlet 408

Eco outlet 172

Chimney inlet 170

   Point Temperature 0 C
 
  Feed water -DM water 40
 
Deaerator – O/L 105
 
Water / Feed tank 105
Steam side
FWH I/L 105

FWH O/L 140

Economiser I/L 140

Economiser O/L 211

Saturation temp 258.5 at 40kg/cm2

Superheated stem temp 405

 AIR PRE HEATER
 Removes heat from relatively low
temperature combustion gas (flue gas)
 This is a heat exchanger where the air
supplied to the furnace using the flue gas
going to chimney.
 Here also the heat recovery is limited to the
dew point of acid.

 SO3 in flue form H2SO4 by combining with

water vapour in the flue. This may condense
on metal at 1200C – 1500C
Air Pre heater
 Feed water heater
a) open feed water heater
b)  closed feed water heater
 Direct contact open heater
 uses exhaust steam to heat
water
 mixes with water and steam.
   moves upwards
 water trickle down
  trays break down the flow of
water.
Closed feed water heater
Steel shell – steam
Large no of tubes – water.
No mixing of steam and water
Put in between feed pump and boiler
EVAPORATOR
Apparatus for getting pure feed water by
distillation
 Steam enters at the top
 passes through the tubes.
 Drain away at the bottom as
condensate
 The water in contact with the tubes
evapourate and passes on to condensor
(a closed feed water heater/open feed
water heater)
 
 distillation removes, dissolved gas but
solid impurities are left in the evaporator
 clean regularly
 commonly used in condensing power
plant
 for purifying raw make up water for
boiler feed
 industrial plants, it is not used due to
the cost.
Evaporator
 Thermo compressor
Low pressure steam + High pressure steam. 
MP steam
Dust collectors, electrostatic precipitator
 To conform with pollution control norms and to
 provide clean environment
 Installed before chimney  
Mechanical for removing large particles :-
 Baffle type
 Cyclone seperators
 
Elecctro static precipitators – for
seperating finer particles.
(uses high voltage electricity)
Dust collectors
Dust Collector
Electrostatic Precipitator
ESP……contd
Thank You