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What is steam?

Steam is water in the gas phase, and is generated by adding more heat than
required to maintain its liquid phase.

In liquid water, H2O molecules are constantly being joined together and separated. As the
water molecules are heated, however, the bonds connecting the molecules start breaking
more rapidly than they can form. Eventually, when enough heat is supplied, some
molecules will break free. These 'free' molecules form the transparent gas we know as
steam, or more specifically dry steam.

Steam is traditionally created by heating a boiler via burning coal and other fuels, but it is
also possible to create steam with solar energy. Water vapor that includes water droplets
is described as wet steam. About 90% of all electricity is generated using steam as
the working fluid, nearly all by steam turbines.

Dry Steam vs. Wet Steam

In steam-using industries, two commonly referred to types of steam are dry steam (also
called “saturated steam”) and wet steam.
 Dry steam applies to steam when all its water molecules remain in the gaseous
state. It's a transparent gas.
 Wet steam applies to steam when a portion of its water molecules have given up
their energy (latent heat) and condense to form tiny water droplets.

Take the example of a kettle boiling water. Water is first heated using an element. As
water absorbs more and more heat from the element, its molecules become more agitated
and it starts to boil. Once enough energy is absorbed, part of the water vaporizes, which
can represent an increase as much as 1600X in molecular volume.

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Sometimes a mist can be seen coming out of the spout. This mist is an example of
how dry steam, when released into the colder atmosphere, loses some of its energy by
transferring it to the ambient air. If enough energy is lost that intermolecular bonds start
forming again, tiny airborne droplets can be seen. This mixture of water in the liquid state
(tiny droplets) and gaseous state (steam) is called wet steam.

Some uses of steam

1. In agriculture, steam is used for soil sterilization to avoid the use of harmful
chemical agents and increase soil health.
2. In electric generation, steam is typically condensed at the end of its expansion
cycle and returned to the boiler for re-use.
3. In domestic uses, Steam's capacity to transfer heat is also used in the home: for
cooking vegetables, steam cleaning of fabric, carpets and flooring, and for heating
buildings. Steam is also used in ironing clothes to add enough humidity with the
heat to take wrinkles out and put intentional creases into the clothing.

What is a Steam Generator (Boiler)?

A boiler or steam generator is a device used to create steam by applying heat
energy to water.

Although the definitions are somewhat flexible, it can be said that older steam generators
were commonly termed boilers and worked at low to medium pressure (7–2,000 kPa or
1–290 psi) but, at pressures above this, it is more usual to speak of a steam generator.

The form and size depend on the application.

HISTORY

Unlike other inventions in history, the use of steam generators cannot be credited to a
single source. Early boilers were made of wrought iron; as the advantages of high
pressure and temperature were realized, manufacturers turned to steel. Modern boilers are
made of alloy steel to withstand high pressures and extremely high temperatures. The
first boiler with a safety valve was designed by Denis Papin of France in 1679.

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The steam-generating boiler’s roots go back to the late

FACT: Boilers were built as
1700s and early 1800s with the development of the
early as the 1st
kettle-type boiler, which simply boiled water into steam.
century AD by Hero of
The water was placed above a fire box and then boiled Alexandria but were used only
into steam. It wasn’t until around 1867, with the as toys.
development of the convection boiler, that the steam-
generating industry began.

It may be debated who developed the first steam-generating boiler; however, most will
agree that George Babcock and Steven Wilcox were two of the founding fathers of the
steam-generating boiler. They were the first to patent their boiler design, which used
tubes inside a firebrick-walled structure to generate steam, in 1867, and they formed
Babcock & Wilcox Company in New York City in 1891. Their first boilers were quite
small, used lump coal, fired by hand, and operated at a very low rate of heat input. The
solid firebrick walls that formed the enclosure for the unit were necessary because they
helped the combustion process by reradiating heat back into the furnace area.

CLASSIFICATION OF BOILERS

Though there are many classifications of steam boiler, yet the following are the important
from the subject point of view:

A. According to the contents in the tube

(i) Fire tube Boiler: A boiler in which the hot

combustion gases pass through the boiler
tubes, which are surrounded by water. e.g.
Lancashire boiler, Cochran boiler,
Locomotive boiler etc.

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(ii) Water tube Boiler: A boiler in which the

water flows a number of small tubes which
are surrounded by hot combustion gases.
e.g. Babcock and Wilcox boiler, Stirling
boiler, Bension boilers etc.

B. According to the position of the furnace

(i) Internally fired boiler: In internally fired steam boilers, the furnace is located
inside the boiler shell. Most of the fire tube boilers are internally fired.

(ii) Externally fired boiler: In externally fired steam boilers, the furnace is
arranged underneath in a brick work setting. Water tube steam boilers are always
externally fired.

C. According to the axis of the shell

(i) Vertical boilers: In vertical steam boilers, the axis of the shell is vertical.
Simple vertical boiler and Cochran boiler are vertical boilers.

(ii) Horizontal boilers: In horizontal steam boilers, the axis of the shell is
horizontal. Lancashire boiler, Locomotive boiler and Babcock and Wilcox boiler
are horizontal boilers.

D. According to the number of tubes

(i) Single tube boilers: In single tube steam boilers, there is only one fire tube or
water tube. Simple vertical boiler and Cornish boiler are single tube boilers.

(ii) Multitubular boilers: In multitubular steam boilers, there are two or more fire
tubes or water tubes. Lancashire boiler, Locomotive boiler, Cochran boiler,
Babcock and Wilcox boiler are multitubular boilers.

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E. According to the method of circulation of water and steam

(i) Natural circulation boilers: the circulation of water is by natural convection

currents, which are setup during the heating of water. In most of the steam boilers,
there is a natural circulation of water.

(ii) Forced circulation: there is a forced circulation of water by a centrifugal pump

driven by some external power. Use of forced circulation is made in high pressure
boilers such as La-Mont boiler, Bension boiler, Loeffler boiler and Velcon boiler.

F. According to the use

(i) Stationary boilers: The stationary boilers are used in power plants and in
industrial process work.

(ii) Mobile boilers: The mobile boilers are those which move from one place to
another place. These boilers are Locomotive boilers.

G. According to the source of heat

(i) Solid fuel

(ii) Liquid fuel
(iii) Gaseous fuel
(iv) Electrical energy
(v) Nuclear energy
(vi) Solar energy

FIRE TUBE BOILER vs. WATER TUBE BOILER

Most conventional steam boilers are classed as either fire-tube or water tube types.
In the fire-tube type, the water surrounds the steel tubes through which hot gases from the
furnace flow. The steam generated collects above the water level in a cylindrically shaped
drum. A safety valve is set to allow escape of steam at pressures above normal operating
pressure; this device is necessary on all boilers, because continued addition of heat to

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water in a closed vessel without means of steam escape results in a rise in pressure and,
ultimately, in explosion of the boiler.

Fire-tube boilers are:

• Relatively inexpensive
• Easy to clean
• Compact in size
• Available in sizes from 600,000 btu/hr to 50,000,000 btu/hr
• Easy to replace tubes
• Well suited for space heating and industrial process applications

Disadvantages of fire-tube boilers include:

• Not suitable for high pressure applications 250 psig and above
• Limitation for high capacity steam generation

In the watertube boiler, the water is inside tubes with the hot furnace gases
circulating outside the tubes. When the steam turbo generator was developed early in the
20th century, modern watertube boilers were developed in response to the demand for
large quantities of steam at pressures and temperatures far exceeding those possible with
fire-tube boilers. The tubes are outside the steam drum, which has no heating surface and
is much smaller than in the fire-tube boiler. For this reason, the drum of the watertube

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boiler is better able to withstand higher pressures and temperatures. A wide variety of
sizes and designs of watertube boilers are used in ships and factories.

Water-tube boilers:
• Are available in sizes far greater than a fire-tube design, up to several
million pounds-per-hour of steam
• Are able to handle higher pressures up to 5,000 psig
• Recover faster than their fire-tube cousin
• Have the ability to reach very high temperatures

Disadvantages of the water-tube design include:

• High initial capital cost
• Cleaning is more difficult due to the design
• No commonality between tubes

How steam generator/boiler works?

Mechanics of Steam Boilers

The boiler transfers heat from the heat source to the water vessel, thereby turning
the water into steam. This steam exits the vessel through a pipe and is transported to
another location where it can be used for cleaning, to power equipment, to provide heat
or for a number of other functions.

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The heat source in a boiler system is located in a separate compartment within the
water vessel. The water vessel is attached to the heat source by metal rods, which heat the
water directly and convert it to steam. The steam initially collects in an area above the
water vessel known as the dome before exiting the boiler. The dome forces the steam to
become highly condensed so that it will exit the boiler with a significant amount of
pressure. Pressurized steam is particularly important for industrial applications such as
powering turbines and other heavy equipment. All boilers have a safety valve, which
allows excess steam to be released to prevent explosions. A boiler also contains a drain,
which removes contaminants and sediment from the water vessel, and a chimney, which
allows heat to escape once it has passed through the water vessel.