POWER PLANT EFFICIENCY NEWSLETTER

The Monthly Newsletter No.2

April 2010

I N S I D E

Boiler Combustion and Performance Optimization workshop

The CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre [CII-Godrej GBC] is promoting the concept of Make Indian power plants world class. The main objective is to facilitate continuous performance improvement in Indian thermal power plants and achieve world class standards. To help Indian thermal power plants to identify and implement the performance improvement projects, CII-Godrej GBC is facilitating development of service providers network. The U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) and its National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the India mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID / INDIA) are supporting the initiatives of CII-Godrej GBC. As part of information dissemination programme, CII-Godrej GBC has organized a three-day workshop on Boiler combustion and performance optimization from 26 to 28 October 2009 in Hyderabad. The workshop was addressed by the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. Mr Stephen K Storm & Mr Jacob W Stover, Storm Technologies Inc, USA Mr A K Arora, CenPEEP NTPC , Mr George Bennett, Paragon Air heater technologies & Mr S Karthikeyan, CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre

Boiler Combustion and Performance Optimization workshop Optimization of soot blowers for performance improvement in Thermal power plants

About 40 participants from various Indian thermal power plants have participated in the workshop. During the workshop, comprehensive boiler testing procedures and performance improvement opportunities are discussed. Some of them are Boiler combustion & performance optimisation, typical plant challenges, applying the essentials in combustion optimisation, Pulverizers and optimisation techniques, fuel & ash quality impacts, air heater performance, performance improvement opportunities in power plant auxiliaries and case studies implemented in Indian thermal power plants. During the workshop, an exclusive interaction session was also organised for the participants to discuss about specific problems in their Power plants. Some the concepts discussed during the workshop related to Boiler combustion & performance optimisation are covered in the article presented by Mr Stephen K Storm in Power plant efficiency News letter -1 published during March 2010. Overall, the programme was well received by the participants from Indian thermal power plants and majority of them rated as excellent. Based on the feedback from the participants, as part of the information dissemination programme CII-Godrej GBC is planning to organise similar workshops on other aspects of thermal power plants in future.

01

Optimization of soot blowers for performance improvement in Thermal power plants

Background The boiler performance including its ability to meet full load, auxiliary power consumption, net plant heat rate, availability of the unit, operation and maintenance cost etc. are affected significantly by the fuel characteristics. Coal firing in the furnace form different kinds of deposits on the boiler tubes. To improve the performance and thermal efficiency of the boiler, it is important to remove the deposits periodically and maintain the heating surface clean. Boilers are designed such that the radiation and convective zone heat transfer surfaces absorb the released heat proportionately. Any deviation in heat transfer in radiation and convection zones, will affect the function of feed water preheating in the economizer, steam super heating in LT super heater, platen super heater and final super heater. This will result in reduction in boiler operating efficiency. Wall Blowing System Wall blowers are provided as a part of Soot Blowing System in coal fired boilers. They are operated periodically to clean the water walls free of ash deposit particles. Depending upon the site conditions the operation of the wall blowers is decided. In majority of the plants these wall blowers are operated in a pre determined periodic fashion. All the wall blowers provided in a typical 210 MW boiler furnace are operated around 90 minutes during the period of blowing. In conventional wall blowing, during the period of wall blowing and some period after wall blowing, the Super heater spray reduces to a certain value due to removal of ash deposits. The effect of cleaning is not long lasting due to the deposit of fresh ash particles on the furnace water walls and hence the Super heater spray keeps rising until next wall blowing. The disadvantages of the periodic wall blowing are as below;
F Periodical operation of the soot blowing system

F in auxiliary steam consumption due to Increase

unnecessary soot blowing operation

Optimizing the conventional soot blowing system The conventional soot blowing system in a typical 210 MW thermal power generating unit, consists of 56 blowers arranged in four elevations. Out of four rows, three rows are installed above the firing zone and one row below the firing zone. This system operates sequentially once in eight hours. All soot blowers are operated three times a day. This operation requires about 3.30 Tons of steam per cycle. In conventional wall blowing system, the Boiler operator can optimize the soot blowing system and keep the furnace free of ash deposits or without much slagging by the following guidelines. 1. 2. Provide more excess air if found slagging Keep all the wall blowers in operating condition and operate them on need based rather than conventional system Selective soot blowing can be opted for minimizing the over blowing based on the superheater and reheater spray quantity In some of the cases the operating pressure of the soot blower can also be reduced to optimize the effect of soot blowing

3.

4.

The above recommendations are general. One has to periodically monitor furnace condition and make case specific changes accordingly. . Smart wall blowing system To over come the above mentioned limitations associated with the conventional wall blowing systems intelligent or smart wall blowing systems (SWBS) are installed in boilers. This case study deals with a smart wall blowing system installed in one of the 210 MW thermal power plant. In this System, the wall blowers are activated using the signals from heat flux sensors, which sense reduction in heat transfer rate due to the ash deposits on the furnace water walls.

leads to significant variation in super-heater and re-heater spray.

F Operating blowing system on a clean boiler tube

surfaces leads to increase in erosion rate. This increases in boiler tube failures

02

The degree, pattern and the periodicity of ash deposits on the water walls of boiler furnace mainly depends on type & quantity of coal fired, mills in operation, burner tilt, excess air, etc. Smart wall blowing system activates the blowers automatically for cleaning the ash deposits considering the above variations. In Smart system, the SH spray is kept within certain level. Smart system keeps the boiler furnace clean for better heat absorption by water walls which in turn reflects on the SH spray. Smart wall blowing system consists of an electronic logic system interfaced with existing normal blowing system. The system consists of water wall heat flux sensors installed in between the wall blowers. These sensors have built in thermocouples. SWBS establishes automatic operation of wall blowers to achieve optimum heat absorption in the furnace and reduces supherheater & reheater spray. The operation is controlled based on super heater spray flow and furnace heat absorption at different zones. The heat flux sensors are installed in between the wall blowers in four elevations. There are eight heat-flux sensors in each wall and totally 32 sensors are mounted on four sides of the water wall. The typical arrangement of the heat-flux sensor is shown below:

Operation of Smart wall blowing system The heat flux changes continuously depending on the thickness and heat transfer properties of the deposits. The actual heat flux is measured continuously by the heat flux sensor and monitored with the dynamic set point. The super-heater spray requirement triggers the operation. The High and low super-heater sprays are set to desired values. The system either starts or stops the blowing sequence when the spray crosses the highest / lowest set points respectively. When there is a reduction in the heat flux below the dynamic set value of a particular sensor the adjacent two blowers are actuated automatically. The sequence of heat flux comparison with the set values and the blower by passing/ blowing continues in a sequential manner from wall to wall until the SH spray flow reaches the low set point. The blowing operation resumes in auto mode when the SH spray flow crosses the high set point with a comparison of heat flux with the set point. The system maintains super heater spray flow within a narrow band. The trend of super heater spray control with conventional blowing system and SWBS is shown below.

TIME IN MINUTES

The two ends of the sensors are exposed to the flame radiation and the stable cooling waterside respectively. Sensors continuously give output proportional to the absorbed heat flux. The sensors are connected to the remote SWBS control panel positioned in the control room through transmitters. The SWBS control panel is connected to the conventional soot blowing system. It is an add-on facility to the existing soot blowing system.

Each blower operates once or twice or thrice in a day depending on the heat flux value. Blowers, which are not operated in the first two cycles, are operated compulsorily in the third cycle, irrespective of their heat flux value. Hence, each blower operates at least once in a day and avoids permanent adherence of the deposits on water wall surface. Smart wall blowing system is recommended, if the furnace is slagging (or) superheater and reheater sprays are high during normal operation (or) high ash coal is used frequently (or) water wall tubes near wall blower area erode faster and are replaced frequently.

03

Benefits of the project The benefits of the smart wall blowing system are as below. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Avoids accumulation of deposits Maintains net total furnace heat absorption at optimum level Improves heat rate / cycle efficiency Lowers peak furnace gas temperatures reduces the steam consumption by about 55-60% compared to conventional wall blowing system Reduces opacity excursion & improves flame stability Lowers thermal Nox due to reduced gas temperature Offers less wear & tear of equipment, steam requirement, auxiliary consumption and operational cost

About CII & CII Godrej GBC CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry led and industry managed organization, playing a proactive role in India's development process. Founded over 113 years ago, it is India's premier business association, with a direct membership of over 6500 organizations from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 90,000 companies from around 350 national and regional sectoral associations. Government of Andhra Pradesh, CII and House of Godrej with the technical support of USAID have launched the CIISohrabji Godrej Green Business centre to offer much need Green Services to Indian industry. Cll-Godrej GBC is a Centre of Excellence in Energy Efficiency, Green Buildings, Renewable Energy, Water, Environment & Recycling and Climate Change activities in India. CII-Godrej GBC is promoting the concept of Make Indian thermal power plants world class. The main objective is facilitating continuous performance improvement in thermal power plants and there by achieving world class standards. As part of this, CII-Godrej GBC is also facilitating development of service providers network for Indian thermal power plants. Supported by USDOE, NETL & USAID/India The U. S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) USA and the India Mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID/India) are supporting the initiatives of CII-Godrej GBC for development of service providers network for Indian thermal power plants. This technical bulletin has been developed as part of the information dissemination programme for the development of service providers network for Indian thermal power plants.

Financial Analysis The annual savings achieved in a 210 MW unit is Rs 52.5 Lakhs. This will vary significantly depending upon the coal characteristics and the site conditions. The approximate investment required for installation of Smart wall blowing system is Rs 265 Lakhs. Replication potential This project has high replication potential in majority of the captive and utility thermal power plants in India. Considering the present installed capacity of the coal based thermal power plants in India and the typical operating conditions the replication potential of installation of smart wall blowing system is about Rs 7500 Lakhs.

For further information, Please contact

S Karthikeyan s.karthikeyan@cii.in

Survey No 64, Kothaguda Post, Near HITEC City, Ranga Reddy Dist., Hyderabad - 500 084 Tel: +91 40 23112971-73, Fax: +91 40 23112837 www.greenbusinecentre.com

04