APPLIED THERMODYNAMICS

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
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 Assessment of a Boiler
1. Boiler performance

• Causes of poor boiler performance

-Poor combustion
-Heat transfer surface fouling
-Poor operation and maintenance
-Deteriorating fuel and water quality

• Boiler efficiency: determine deviation from

best efficiency
• Heat balance: identify heat losses
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A) Evaporative capacity
or Evaporative ratio

can be expressed in terms of:

a) kg of steam/hr

b) kg of steam/kg of fuel fired

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 But different boilers give out steam at different temperature
and pressure,
 Evaporative capacity expressed in terms of mass of water
getting converted to steam doesn’t give a good comparison
 Equivalent evaporation refers to the quantity of dry saturated
steam generated per unit time from feed water at 1000C to
steam at 1000C at the saturation pressure corresponding to
1000C.

me= ma(h-hf)/h fg (i.e. bundles of Latent Heat)

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 It is defined as the ratio of the heat received
by 1 kg of water at the working conditions to
that received by 1 kg of water evaporated
from and at 1000C

Fe = (h –hf)/2257 KJ

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 Ratio of heat actually utilized in the generator
to the heat supplied by the fuel.

 IS 8753: Indian Standard for Boiler Efficiency

Testing

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Q1) During the boiler trial for 24 hours following
observations were made.
Steam generation: 16 bar, dry saturated.
Coal consumed: 10,000 kg
Rate of steam generation: 2500 kg/hr
Feed water temperature: 27C
Total heating surface area: 3000 m2
Total grate area: 4m2
Calorific value of coal: 28000 kJ/kg
Determine:
(i) the mass of coal burnt per m2 of grate per hour
(ii) the equivalent evaporation from and at 100C per
kg of coal
(iii) the equivalent evaporation from and at 100C per
m2 of total heating surface per hour
(iv) the boiler efficiency ( Onkar 11/488)

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 Equivalent evaporation from and at 100C per kg of coal

 Coal burnt per hour=416.67 kg/hr

 Coal burnt per m2 of grate per hour = 104.17 kg/m2 grate surface per hr
 Rate of steam generated per kg of coal =5.99 = 6 kg steam/kg coal
(approx)
 Heat added to steam per kg of coal = 6 [hg at 16 bar – 4.18 x 27}=16086.84
kJ
 Latent, heat from and at 100C = 2257 kJ/kg
 Equivalent evaporation from and at 100C per kg of coal = 7.13 kg
 Equivalent evaporation from and at 100C per m2 of total surface per hour
= (7.13 x 416.67)/3000 = 0.99 Kg
 Boiler efficiency = (7.13 x2257)/28000 = 57.47 %

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The efficiency test does not account for:
 Standby losses. Efficiency test is to be carried out, when the boiler is operating
under a steady load. Therefore, the combustion efficiency test does not reveal
standby losses,which occur between firing intervals

 . Blow down loss. The amount of energy wasted by blow down varies over a
wide range.

 . Soot blower steam. The amount of steam used by soot blowers is variable that
depends on the type of fuel.

 . Auxiliary equipment energy consumption. The combustion efficiency test

does not account for the energy usage by auxiliary equipments, such as burners,
fans, and pumps.

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 Assessment of a Boiler
Heat Balance
An energy flow diagram describes geographically how energy
is transformed from fuel into useful energy, heat and losses

Stochiometric
Excess Air
Un burnt

Stack Gas

FUEL INPUT STEAM

OUTPUT

Convection & Blow Ash and Un-burnt parts of

Radiation Down Fuel in Ash

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 Assessment of a Boiler
Heat Balance
Balancing total energy entering a boiler against the energy that
leaves the boiler in different forms

12.7 %
Heat loss due to dry flue gas
8.1 %
Heat loss due to steam in fuel gas
1.7 %
100.0 % Heat loss due to moisture in fuel
BOILER 0.3 %
Fuel Heat loss due to moisture in air
2.4 %
Heat loss due to unburnts in residue
1.0 %
Heat loss due to radiation & other unaccounted loss
73.8 %
Heat in Steam

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 Heat utilized in making steam
Heat taken for generation of steam per kg of fuel burnt
shall be
Qsteam = msteam (h – hw)
msteam is mass of steam generated per kg of fuel burnt,
h is enthalpy of final steam produced and
hw is enthalpy of feed water.
Qsteam = Equivalent evaporation x 2257, kJ/kg of fuel
burnt

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 A) Heat lost to flue gases

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B) Heat lost due to incomplete combustion

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C) Heat lost in unburnt fuel:
Some portion of heat may get lost in unburnt fuel, which could be given
as
Qunburnt = mubf x C

In case of solid fuels this loss cannot be completely avoided

D) Heat loss due to moisture in fuel

Moisture present in fuel shall get evaporated and superheated as fuel
is burnt. For this latent and sensible heat requirement shall be met
from heat available in boiler due to burning of fuel.
Mathematically, for unit mass of fuel burnt,
Qmoisture = mmoist (hs2 – hf2) = mmoist [hg +Cp (tg –tsat ) - hf2 ]
= mmoist [ 2676 +Cp (tg -100) - hf2 ] (as flue gases are at atm press)

where mmoist is mass of moisture per kg of fuel burnt,

hs2 is enthalpy of final (superheated) steam produced and
hf2 is enthalpy of water at boiler furnace temperature.

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E) Heat lost to steam by combustion of
Hydrogen per kg of fuel

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F) Heat loss due to convection, radiation
and other unaccountable losses
Exact quantification of these losses is not possible, therefore
these can be estimated by the difference of total heat available
and cumulative heat loss described from A to E.

Qunaccounted = (mf x C) – (Q for generating steam + Qdry flue

+Qsteam in flue + Qincomplete + Qunburnt + Qmoisture
+QHydrogen )

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Heat Balance Sheet

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 Boiler trial refers to running the boiler under test conditions for its
performance estimation.

 It gives the steam generation capacity of boiler, thermal efficiency of

plant and heat balance sheet of the boiler.
 Under trial the boiler is run for quite long durations so as to attain
steady state. Generally the boilers are run for 4 to 6 hours duration
for the boilers of oil fired type and coal fired types. Duration of
boiler run for attaining steady state changes from boiler to boiler.
 Observations are taken after the boiler attains steady state for a
duration ranging from 10–15 minutes. Measurements are made for
fuel supply, combustion analysis, steam generation rate and its
quality/state, flue gas and their analysis, temperature and pressure
at salient locations and all other measurements as required for heat
balance sheet preparation.

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 THANK YOU
&
KEEP STEAMING AHEAD

ANURANJAN
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