BOILER A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated.

The heated or vaporized fluid (steam) exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications. The source of heat energy for boiler is combustion of any fuel.

Fig.14. Schematic representation of boiler The main components of boiler are drum, pipes and combustion chamber. The combustion of fuel in the presence of air in the combustion chamber (zone) generates heat energy. The water in the tubes takes this heat and vaporizes to form steam. The steam then can be used as a heat transferring fluid in heat exchangers, distillation column etc. The control issues that arise are level in the drum and combustion rate in the combustion chamber. BOILER DRUM LEVEL CONTROL The boiler drum is where water and steam are separated. Controlling its level is critical if the level becomes too low, the boiler can run dry resulting in mechanical damage of the drum and boiler piping. If the level becomes too high, water can be carried over into the steam pipe work, possibly damaging downstream equipment.

As shown in figure below most boilers use a 3-element control strategy. The term Three-element control refers to the number of variables that are measured to effect control of the boiler feedwater (inlet water) control valve. These measured PVs are: Liquid level in the boiler drum Flow of feedwater to the boiler drum, and Flow of steam leaving the boiler drum.

Fig.15. Three-element control for control of boiler drum level Maintaining liquid level in the boiler steam drum is the highest priority. The feedwater used to maintain liquid level in boilers often comes from multiple sources; therefore the supply pressure of the feedwater will change over time. Every time supply pressure changes, the flow rate through the valve (even if valve remains fixed in position) is immediately affected. Thus, it is not enough for the level controller to directly open or close the valve. Rather, it must decide whether it needs more or less feedwater flow to the boiler drum. The level controller transmits its target flow as a set

point to a flow controller. The flow controller then decides how much to open or close the valve as supply pressure changes to meet the set-point target. This is a cascade control strategy. By placing this feedwater flow rate in a fast flow control loop, the flow controller will immediately sense any variations in the supply conditions which produce a change in feedwater flow. The flow controller will adjust the boiler feedwater valve position to restore the flow to its set point before the boiler drum liquid level is even affected. The level controller is the primary controller (master/outer controller) in this cascade, adjusting the set point of the flow controller, which is the secondary controller (slave/inner controller). Similar to feed flow, changes in steam flow can also cause large deviations in drum level. Changes in steam flow rate are measurable and this measurement can be used to improve level control very successfully by using a feedforward control strategy. For the feedforward control strategy, steam flow rate is measured and used as the set point of the feedwater flow controller. In this way the feedwater flow rate is adjusted to match the steam flow. Changes in steam flow rate will almost immediately be counteracted by similar changes in feedwater flow rate. To ensure that deviations in drum level are also used for control, the output of the drum level controller is added to the feedforward from steam flow. The combination of drum level measurement, steam flow measurement, and feed flow measurement to control boiler drum level is called three-element control.

BOILER COMBUSTION CONTROL The oxygen needed to burn fuel comes from the air we feed to the process. If the air/fuel ratio is too small in our combustion chamber, there will not be enough oxygen available to completely convert the hydrocarbon fuel to carbon dioxide and water. A too-small air/fuel ratio leads to incomplete combustion of our fuel. As the availability of oxygen decreases, noxious exhaust gases including carbon monoxide will form first. As the air/fuel ratio decreases further, partially burned and unburned fuel can appear in the exhaust stack, often revealing itself as smoke and soot. Carbon monoxide, partially burned and unburned fuels are all poisons whose release is regulated by the government. Incomplete combustion also means that we are wasting expensive fuel. If the air/fuel ratio increases above that needed for complete combustion, the extra nitrogen and unneeded oxygen absorb heat energy, decreasing the temperature of the flame and gases in the combustion zone. As the operating temperature drops, we are less able to extract useful heat energy for our application. Too Little Air Increases Pollution and Wastes Fuel Too Much Air Wastes Fuel

A ratio control strategy can play a fundamental role in the safe and profitable operation of combustion in boilers, furnaces and similar fuel burning processes. This is because the air-to-fuel ratio in the combustion zone of these processes directly impacts fuel combustion efficiency and environmental emissions. For ratio control implementation both the fuel feed rate and combustion air feed rate must be measured and available as process variables (PV).

Fig.16. Air/Fuel ratio control for control of combustion In this control structure, the fuel flow rate is adjusted to maintain the temperature of a heat transfer fluid (steam) exiting the boiler. The combustion air feed rate is then adjusted by a flow fraction (ratio) controller (FFC) to maintain a desired air/fuel ratio. Fuel flow rate is the wild stream (PVW) which varies according to the firing demand. (Firing demand is given by the temperature controller (TC), which compares the present temperature of steam with the set-point and based on the error regulate the fuel flow). Air is the controlled stream (PVC), and the flow rate of air is manipulated to keep the air/fuel ratio at the desired value.

DISTILLATION COLUMN Distillation is a physical method of separating mixtures (in liquid form) based on differences in boiling point of components in the mixture. The vessel in which the distillation takes place is called distillation column. Distillation has a number of applications. It is used to separate crude oil into more fractions. Water is distilled to remove impurities, such as salt from seawater. Air is distilled to separate its components. Distillation of fermented solutions is used to produce distilled beverages with higher alcohol content. In continuous distillation a liquid mixture (called as feed) is continuously fed into the process and separated fractions are removed continuously as output streams. Continuous binary distillation produces two output fractions, one with lower boiling point will easily get vaporized and collected at the top of the distillation column. This top product which is in vapor form is condensed to liquid using a Condenser. (Condenser consists of pipes with cooled water. Heat energy transfer takes place between vapor and cooled water. The vapor thus gets condensed to liquid). The condensed vapor (now in liquid form) is stored in a tank known as Reflux drum. The top product collected from the reflux drum is called as Distillate. The fraction with higher boiling point will be in liquid form and will be collected at the bottom of the column. The bottom product is called as Bottoms. In order to improve the efficiency of distillation, some part of top product and bottom product are fedback to the column. The part of top product which is returned to column is called as Reflux. At the bottom the liquid which is fedback is first heated to convert it into vapor using a reboiler (Reboiler consists of pipes with super heated steam (heating medium). Heat energy transfer takes place between super heated steam and bottom liquid. The liquid get vaporized).

Fig.17. Schematic diagram of a binary distillation column

DISTILLATION COLUMN CONTROL The primary objective of distillation column is separation of mixture into fractions of desired purity (composition) at a desired production rate (flow rate). Along with this some secondary conditions should be satisfied for the safe operation of distillation column. The required controlled variables (CV) are: Distillate composition (xB) Bottoms composition (xD) Reflux drum level (hD) Bottom liquid level (hB) Column pressure (P)

The possible manipulated variables (MV) are: Distillate flow rate (D) Bottoms flow rate (B) Reflux flow (R) Reboiler duty (QR) {energy used by the reboiler} Condenser duty (QC) {energy used by the condenser}

Then there will be a number of disturbances (DV). Some of them are: Feed flow rate (F) Feed composition (xF) Feed temperature (TF) Steam flow rate etc..

Now the control problem became a multi variable problem with many outputs and inputs (Multi input Multi output (MIMO)). The selection of MV for CV becomes the real problem. The pairing of MV with CV is done based on process knowledge, effect of MV on CV, and to minimize interaction.

One possible pairing and control strategy is: R xD QB xB QD P D hD B hB

Fig.18. Control strategy for Distillation column AT composition analyzer and transmitter AC composition controller LT level transmitter LC level controller PT pressure transmitter PC pressure controller