Air Pre Heater

• Preheaters (APH) are Shell and tube type heat exchangers

installed in boilers to heat the air before using it for
combustion. The main function of an air preheater is to
extract the excess heat from the flue gases in the boiler. As
we know, combustion requires air, fuel, and fire to take
place. Air preheaters help significantly in feeding the hot air
and increasing the combustion efficiency for the operation in
steam boilers. For combustion, the fuel fed in boilers is of
room temperature that needs heating for ignition, and
therefore, hot air is used to enhance the combustion
process.
Function of Air Preheater in Boilers:
• Air Preheaters, as mentioned, are actually heat exchangers
located at the exit of the flue gas duct in the steam boiler. Air
preheaters accelerate the overall thermal efficiency of the
boiler by regaining the excess heat in the flue gases that
might be lost without the preheaters. With an air preheater,
the useful heat is recovered and used for preheating in the
combustion process. If the exiting heat is 180°C, air
preheaters manage to extract the heat of 100°C for
combustion in the boiler.
Types of Air Preheaters used in
Steam Boilers:
• Air preheaters are classified into 2 types namely, Tubular type Air
preheater and Regenerative type Air preheater. Let us have a look
at both types in detail.
• Tubular type air preheater:
• A tubular type of air preheater is located at the outlet of flue gas
ducting, consisting of bundles of straight tubes. It is found across
the outlet ducting and open at both ends at the outside of ducts.
The hot gases pass through the internals of ducting from one end.
Whereas, the other end of the ducting contains air from forced
draft fans. The hot gases and the air is carried to hot air ducting as
the air preheater extracts hot air and later transfers it to the
furnace for combustion.
Regenerative type air preheater:
• Regenerative type air preheaters are widely used for large-scale
industries and power generation plants due to their compact size
and efficiency. The design of regenerative air preheaters enables
it to heat primary air that dries and transports fuel and the
secondary air used in the furnace for combustion purposes. It is
circular in its structure that consistently rotates in the horizontal
and vertical axis. This type of air preheater is divided into various
sectors, each containing a basket or holder. In most cases, three
sectors are found in regenerative air preheaters. The first sector is
adjoined with ducting of the hot gas outlet, while the other end is
connected with ducting that carries low-temperature gases to the
dust collectors.
Advantages of Air Preheater:
• Absorption of maximum waste heat from flue gases
• Air preheaters increase the efficiency of the steam boiler by 2%
to 3%
• Low payback time
• Enhanced stability by using hot air
• Proper combustion of poor quality fuels
• High heat transfer rate and low heat transfer area requirement
• Reduced unburnt fuel particles result in high combustion
efficiency
Disadvantages of Air Preheater:
• Air preheaters in the path of flue gas increase the flue gas
pressure drop, thereby increasing the use of Induced Draft
Fan.
• Due to corrosion in the heat transfer surface caused by the
reduced flue gas temperature, Air preheaters are not able to
shutdown the units.
 Air Pre heater construction
• Adding equipment or accessory in the path of flue gases increases flue gas
pressure drop down the line, so the size of the Induced Draft Fan increases.

• Buy Air Preheater from Indian Manufacturer: Thermodyne Engineering

Systems:

• Superheaters
• Economizer
• Bag filter
• Air Pre Heater
 Steam Coil Air Preheater SCAPH
Steam coil Air preheater (SCAPH) is used to protect the cold end
heatingelements / components of Air preheater from low temperature
corrosion. It islocated in the cold air duct between the FD fan / PA fan and
the Air preheater.SCAPH is a finned tube heat exchanger. The straight
finned tubes arewelded to the steam inlet and outlet headers. Steam passes
through the tubes andthe air flows over the fins. The heat is transferred
from steam to cold air.Heated air entering Air preheater maintains the
average cold endtemperature of Air preheater, well above the acid dew
point
temperature. Normally SCAPH will be in operation during boiler start-
up and upto 30% -40% of boiler load. Required steam will be taken from
auxiliary boiler / adjacent boiler in operation
SHOOT BLOWER
• A sootblower is a device for removing the soot that is
deposited on the internal furnace tubes of a boiler during
combustion to prevent plugging of the gas passes and maintain
boiler efficiency.
Forced Draft Fans & Flue Gas Recirculation Fans

• Draft fans play an important role in thermal power plants because they
regulate the air pressure inside boiler system. Draft fans are broadly
divided into two types – Forced Draft (FD Fan) and Induced Draft (ID
Fan). Apart from the draft fans, there are also other basic types of
process fans used in power plants. They are primary air fans and flue
gas recirculation fans. Draft Fans
• The primary difference between a forced draft and induced draft is, FD
fan forces outside air into the heating system whereas ID fan draws
flue gases from the system out into the atmosphere. Both FD fan & ID
fan operate in such a way that it balances the air system in the boiler to
make the combustion process efficient.
 Forced Draft Fan
FD fan or forced draft fan, draws air
from the atmosphere and forces it into
the furnace through a preheater. These
fans are located at the inlet of the boiler
to push high pressure fresh air into
combustion chamber, where it mixes
with the fuel to produce positive pressure
In power plants, where coal is used as
fuel for combustion, FD fans are used as
secondary air fans to regulate proper
combustion and maximize efficiency of
the fuel.
A typical FD fan arrangement uses inlet
and outlet dampers to control and
maintain the required air pressure inside
the system.
Induced Draft Fan

Induced draft fan is normally

located at the outlet between dust
collector and chimney.
The fan takes hot flue gases from
the boiler through dust collector and
delivers it to the chimney into the
open atmosphere. ID fan creates
negative pressure or suction to
discharge the gases out after
combustion from the furnace.
Since ID fans can handle hot flue
gases, they have more corrosion and
erosion problems even when used
with Electrostatic precipitators.
Primary air fan

The main function of the Primary

air fan or PA fan is to carry fuel to
the furnace for combustion.
In power plants PA fans supply air
for conveying of the pulverized coal
from coal mills to the furnace area.
These fans produce a pressure
upstream the pulverizer, to push the
coal and air mixture through
pulverizer into the furnace.
The most common centrifugal fan
used as PA fan is backward curved
centrifugal fan