Boiler Fundamentals

Energy Relationships, Efficiency & Boiler

Design

©2009, General Electric Company. All rights reserved. GE Proprietary

Boiler Efficiency and Energy
Relationships
Boiler efficiency
Fuel types and energy values
Plant cost factors
Operational factors impacting efficiency

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Why Is an Understanding of Efficiency
and Energy Relationships Important?
Fuel is by far the largest component of boiler plant operation cost
• It is important to understand your customer & prospects fuel costs and system
efficiency, and the $ impact of efficiency changes (positive or negative)

There are often opportunities for energy savings in low-pressure boiler systems
• Many low pressure systems are not optimized
• The CCR BankBook is an excellent tool to identify and explore
savings opportunities

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Calculating Boiler Efficiency

Fuel-to-steam efficiency calculation

(BTU’s in Steam Produced**)
% Efficiency = _______________________ X 100
(BTU’s in Fuel Burned**)

** Steam production and fuel usage must be over same time period

Stack gas temperature

(BTU’s in Fuel) - (BTU’s lost up stack)
% Efficiency = ________________________________ X 100
(BTU’s in Fuel)

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Typical Fuel-to Steam Efficiencies

Modern package watertube and firetube boilers -

75 - 85% fuel-to-steam efficiency
• Post 1973 designs (first oil embargo)
• Maximum gas-fired efficiency = 84%
• Oil-fired typically 2-3% higher than gas due to lower
excess air requirement

Older package boilers (pre-73) - 60 - 80%

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Typical Fuel-to Steam Efficiencies

Stack gas economizers increase efficiency

• Rules-of-thumb: 1% increase per 40F reduction in stack

gas temperature or per 10F rise in feedwater temperature

• Typical is 80 - 100F reduction which equates to a 2 - 2.5%

efficiency increase

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Fundamental Energy Relationships
Heating Surface Area-to-Steam Capacity
• 4 - 6 ft2 = 1 BHP = 34.5 pph steam
- Modern package watertube & firetube boilers

• 8 - 10 ft2 = 1 BHP = 34.5 pph steam

- Older boilers
- Field-erected watertubes

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Other Fuel Types
Average: 1080 BTU required per lb. of steam between 15 & 300
psig

Heat Values of Other Fuel Sources:

• Sawdust (15% moisture) 8500 BTU/lb
• Wood Bark (50% moisture) 3500 BTU/lb
• Paper 7600 BTU/lb
• Trash (variable) 4000 - 8500 BTU/lb

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Fuel-to-Steam Relationships
A boiler plant produces 500 million lbs of steam per year.
Fuel is natural gas at $6.00/MCF.

1. What is the annual fuel cost?

2. What does it cost to make 1 million pounds of steam?

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Fuel-to-Steam Relationships
1. 500,000,000 lbs steam/yr
-------------------------------- = 714,286 MCF/yr
700 lbs steam / MCF
2. 714,286 MCF X $6.00 / MCF = $4.29
million/yr

3. Fuel cost to produce 1 million lbs of steam

$4,290,000/yr / 500 million lbs steam /yr
= $8,580 per million lbs. steam
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Boiler Water Treatment Costs in
Perspective

What does it cost to treat this system?

Range of boiler WT costs for low-pressure, zeolite-softened

systems
• $50 - $400 per million lbs. of steam

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Boiler Water Treatment Costs in
Perspective
Key variables in BWT costs:
• Cycles of concentration
• Size of plant – team production
• FW Quality
- Make-up alkalinity & % MU
• Pressure deaerator or FW tank?
• Program type
- Separates, all-in-ones, powders, liquids, etc.

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Typical Boiler Plant Cost Factors
Fuel 75%
Labor 9.5%

Water 0.8% Equip.

Depreciation
Sewer 1.2% Electricity 9.5%
2.5%
Water Treatment Chemicals 1.5%
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Boiler Water Treatment Costs in
Perspective
Using our example:
• Fuel costs = $ 4.29 million
• Boiler plant costs = $4.29 MM/0.75 = $5.72 MM/yr
• BWT costs = 500 MM steam x $100/MM =
$50,000/yr
• % BWT costs vs. plant costs = 0.87%

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Boiler Water Treatment Costs in
Perspective
• Preserving design efficiency & maintenance and repair
cost avoidance easily outweigh
BWT costs

• Cost of efficiency loss - $4.29 MM/yr fuel cost

- 1% efficiency loss = $42,900 added fuel cost
- 5% efficiency loss - $214,500 added fuel costs

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Operational Factors Which Impact
Efficiency
Boiler loading & load balancing
• Most efficient near design load vs. low load

Combustion efficiency
• Tune burner to minimize excess air, unburned
hydrocarbons

Effective insulation of steam lines

• Minimize sensible heat loss & condensation

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Operational Factors Which Impact
Efficiency
Effective heat recovery systems
• Stack gas economizers
• Air preheaters
• Blowdown heat exchangers & flashtanks

Effective routine maintenance

• Maintenance & cleaning during annual shutdowns
• Minimize fireside/waterside deposits

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Impact of Effective Boiler Water
Treatment on Efficiency

Minimize deposit & scale formation

• Waterside scale formation - Effective pretreatment & chemical
treatment are critical
• Minimize fireside deposition

Minimize boiler blowdown

• Maximize cycles based on water quality limits
and effective water treatment

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Impact of Effective Boiler Water
Treatment on Efficiency
Maximize steam condensate return
• Effective system design, trap placement & operation
• Effective steam condensate treatment will minimize corrosion
failures & corrosion product return

Minimize steam leaks

• Effective treatment will minimize corrosion and steam trap
failures

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Potential Energy Loss Versus
Waterside Scale Thickness
7
6
5
Energy Loss (%)

4
3
2
1
0
1/64 1/32 3/64 1/16
Scale Thickness (Inches)

Iron & Silica High Iron Content "Normal" Scale

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Watertube Boilers
Risers
Downcomers Superheater
Steam
Drum
Screen Tubes

Economizer

Water Walls

Mud
Air Heater Drum

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Typical Field-Erected “Industrial”
Watertube Boilers
Typical Parts of a Water • Economizer
Tube Boiler Includes: • Steam drum
• Mud Drum
• Headers
• Boiler Bank
– Downcomers - Risers
– Waterwalls
– Screen tubes
– Arches
– Floor tubes
– Roof tubes
• Superheater
• Air Heater 22 /
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Heat Transfer Percentage
Per Surface Area

% Heat Transfer % Heat

Section Surface Area Adsorbed

Furnace Water Walls 9 48

Superheater 10 16

Boiler Bank 32 20

Economizer 5 5

Air Heater 44 11

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Common Package Boilers
‘D’
‘O’
‘A’
Cleaver-Brooks

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Typical Components Of Package
Watertube Boiler
Standard components:
• Steam drum
• Mud Drum
• Boiler Bank
– Downcomers - Risers
– Waterwalls

Optional components (+/-):

• Stack gas economizer - external
• Superheater - typically with turbine

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‘D’ Frame Boiler Note - Downcomer or supply tubes are those shielded
from the flame and combustion gases by the risers or
refractory

Steam
Drum

Risers
or Generating
Tubes

Downcomers
or Supply
Tubes
Mud
Drum
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‘D’ Frame Gas Passes

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Cleaver Brooks Package Wt

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‘O’ Type Boiler

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‘O’ Type

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‘A’ Frame

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‘A’ Frame

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Bryant Flex Tube Boilers

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Miura Compact WT Boilers

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Typical Combined Cycle Facility

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Steam Separation Equipment
Mechanical devices that reduce moisture entrainment in
the steam
Watertube boilers:
• Deflector, Baffle & “Belly” plates
• Scrubbers or screens
• Cyclone separators
Firetube boilers:
• Dry pipes

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Steam Separation Equipment
Steam quality - Measure of the moisture content
(boiler water droplets) in steam
• Expressed as % dry steam

99% Steam Quality typical in low pressure boilers

• 1% moisture in steam leaving boiler
• Entrained boiler water contains solids

More on this coming up

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Package Watertube Boiler
Typical Steam Separation Equipment
Deflector Baffle Compartment Baffle

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Type ‘B’ Baffle

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Primary Steam Separation Cyclones

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Firetube Boiler Designs

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Firetube Boilers
Very common in commercial/institutional & light industrial
accounts
• More forgiving than watertube in terms of:
• Low-load operation
• Poor feedwater quality/scale
• Load swings
• Unattended operation
• Maintenance/repair

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Firetube
1 st Pass 2 nd Pass 3 rd Pass 4 th Pass

Area Area Area Area

1 st Pass 2 nd Pass 3 rd Pass 4 th Pass

Decreasing cross sectional area of each pass maintains

high flue gas velocity

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Miscellaneous Low-Pressure Boiler
Designs

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Watertube vs. Firetube Boilers

Wa tertube Firetu be
Efficiency High High
Ca pa city Unlimited 800 BHP
Toleran ce vs. Low High
Scale/BFW qua lity
Cost to Re-tube High Low
Cogen ./Turbine Yes No

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Coil Boilers
Small, fast-start, forced circulation steam generators from 15 -
750 BHP
Heating surface is single, spiral-wound coil
High heat flux and high thermal stress
Coil failure is common - causes include:
• overheating due to scale formation, blockage, pump failure
• oxygen pitting
• thermal shock or fatigue

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Clayton Steam Generator

Pump

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Clayton Steam Generators

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Not All Coil Boilers Are Vertical!!!

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Coil Boilers
Critical Treatment Considerations

Continuous, high-quality softened make-up

• Less than 1 ppm Total Hardness
Consistent oxygen control - Minimum of 50 ppm
sulfite residual in hotwell
Non-precipitating, non-chelant internal treatment
required
• All-polymer
Condensate treatment is recommended
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Electric Boilers
2 Basic Types
1. Resistance (immersion element)
2. Electrode - High & Low Voltage

Common treatment requirements

• All require high-quality, softened make-up
• Avoid precipitating phosphate & chelant
• All-polymer/sulfite normally recommended

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Fulton Electric Steam Boilers

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Electrode Boilers
In the event you someday see one ...
Greater than 2 ppm iron in BW can cause arcing
400 ppm maximum BW M-alkalinity to preserve
ceramic insulators
300 ppm max. BW chloride - stainless steel cracking
Conductivity limits - Different designs have
specific limits. Check Mfg. Recs.
• Sodium sulfite levels can be used to control conductivity
Oxygen is generated - Consider volatile O2 scavenger
(DEHA) for condensate protection

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High-Voltage Submerged-Electrode
Hot-Water Boiler

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Low-Voltage Submerged-Electrode Steam
Boiler

Startup and Maximum Output Partial load

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Hot Water Heating Boilers

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Aerco Vertical Hot Water Boiler

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HW Boilers are Classified by
Operating Temperature
Low Temperature: 160 - 250F
• Common for comfort heating in C&I
• Typically firetube or cast-iron sectional

Medium Temperature: 250 - 350F

• Common in Gov’t, Military installations

High Temperature: > 350F / P > 160 psig

• Alternative to steam in large, distributed heating systems
• Typically watertube

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Treatment of Hot Water Boilers
Treat as closed system - Make-up should be minimal
Low-Temp. HW Boilers
• Nitrite, Molybdate, Sulfite/Polymer OK
Medium & High-Temp. HW Boilers
• Softened Make-up/No conductivity limit:
– Molybdate/Nitrite OK up to 350F
– Sulfite/Polymer > 350F
• Demineralized or High-purity Make-up
– Low conductivity treatment required
– Volatile oxygen scavenger/amine - DEHA/morpholine

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High-
Temperature
Hot Water
System
Forced circulation
with
expansion tank

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Cast-Iron Sectional Boiler

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Treatment Recommendations
Cast Iron Sectional Boilers
Good quality softened makeup water
• Hardness levels above 2 ppm may cause cracking failure

Do not apply PO4 or Chelant products

Recommended treatment is polymer/sulfite (CorTrol* IS102)
No morpholine-containing products for pressures less than 25
psig.

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* Trademark of General Electric Company; may be registered in one or more countries.

Steam To Steam
Generally for “Clean Steam” generation
Hospital sterilizers, Humidification steam

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Unfired Clean Steam Generators

Caution - Demineralized make-up strongly recommended as there is

no chemical treatment. Do not use NaZ or chloride-containing MU
with stainless steel generators
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The Gauge Glass Indicates the Level of
Water in the Boiler

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Gauge Glass Erosion
There is only 1 Cause - High Velocity

• Above water level - high velocity of condensate formed

in the piping above the gauge glass
• At the bottom of a round gauge glass - high velocity flow
when blown down.
• Externally - high velocity flow due to gasket leakage

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Gauge Glass Erosion
Recommendations
• Round glasses should be borosilicate glass if not … replace
• If the round glass is borosilicate then … replace it with a flat type
of gauge glass
• If a flat type gauge glass is eroding … install a mica shield
between the glass and the water
– Mica is very insoluble, impervious material that will protect the
glass and will not interfere with the optical properties.

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Bottom Blowdown Sequence

Quick Slow

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Bottom BD Valve Sequence

Open Valve ‘B’ (Quick Opening)

Open Valve ‘A’ (Slow Opening)
Close Valve ‘A’
Close Valve ‘B’

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