Industrial thermal utilities

MT 363

Lecture # 3: Boilers

Muhammad Ali Shahbaz

Boilers

 Types
 Properties of steam
 Assessment of steam distribution losses, Steam leakages, Steam trapping,
Condensate and flash steam recovery system
 Identifying opportunities for energy savings
 Combustion in boilers
 Performance evaluation, Analysis of losses, Feed water treatment, Blow down,
 Energy conservation opportunities, HRSG (heat recovery steam generator)

 Introduction
 Basic working
 Performance evaluation
 Energy efficiency
 Sustainability

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Contents

 Boiler blow down

 Feed water treatment
 Energy conservation opportunities

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 Boiler blow down

 When water is boiled and steam is generated, any dissolved solids contained in
the water remain in the boiler.
 Eventually, the concentration of the solids increase will concentrate and may
reach a level where their solubility in the water is exceeded and they deposit from
the solution.
 These solids may encourage foaming and cause carryover of water into the
steam.
 The deposits also lead to scale formation inside the boiler, resulting in localized
overheating and finally causing boiler tube failure.

It is important to control the level of concentration of total dissolved

solids (TDS) in the water by BLOW DOWN

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Boiler blow down

Deposits are caused by different sources

 Hard salts in the feed water resulting from poor pre-treatment

• Ca and Mg salts deposit and form scales
 Corrosion products from the condensate
 Silica, causing the formation of hard silicate scales with very low thermal
conductivity
 Silica also deposits on the steam turbine blade after being carried with the steam,
and result in deposits on the turbine blades

 The sources of all these deposits need to be identified and water needs to be
treated.

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Boiler blow down

 A small volume of water is blown off and replaced by treated feed water.
 May result in a considerable heat loss if not done properly.

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 Conductivity as Indicator of Boiler Water
Quality
 It is tedious and time consuming to measure total dissolved solids (TDS) in boiler
water system by taking sample and analyzing in the lab
 conductivity measurement is used for monitoring the overall TDS present in the
boiler.

A rise in conductivity indicates a rise in the “contamination” of the

boiler water.

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Boiler blow down

Two types

 Continuous blow down

 Intermittent blow down

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Intermittent blow down

 Typically done by manually operating a valve fitted to discharge pipe at the lowest
point of boiler shell
 to reduce parameters (TDS or conductivity, pH, Silica and Phosphates
concentration) within prescribed limits.
 the time of opening the valve is based on a thumb rules such as “once in a shift
for 2 minutes”.

 It requires large short-term increases in the amount of feed water put into the
boiler
 larger feed water pumps is needed than if continuous blow down is used
 Also, TDS level vary, thereby causing fluctuations of the water level in the boiler
due to changes in steam bubble size and distribution which accompany changes
in concentration of solids

Substantial heat loss, but necessary

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 Continuous blow down

 A small, steady stream of concentrated boiler water is extracted from the boiler
shell and replaced by a steady stream of feed water.
 A steady TDS and steam purity is ensured (at a steady operating point)

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Benefits of Blowdown

Good boiler blow down control can significantly reduce treatment and
operational costs that include:

 Lower pre-treatment costs

 Less make-up water consumption
 Reduced maintenance downtime
 Increased boiler life
 Lower consumption of treatment chemicals

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 Feed water treatment

Boiler is at the sump of the boiler systems….the performance of the

system depends largely on the selection and quality control of feed
water used.

Blow down is good, but pre-treatment is better

 Internal water treatment

 External water treatment
 Ion-exchange process
 Demineralization
 De-aeration
 Reverse osmosis

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Internal water treatment

 Adding chemicals to the water to prevent scale formation

• Convert the scale forming compounds to sludges and removed by blow down.
 Limited to boilers with
• water that is low in hardness level
• Low pressure
• High level of TDS is tolerated
• Only small quantity of water needs to be treated

 Otherwise, high blow down rate result in high heat loss

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External water treatment

It removes
 suspended and dissolved solids (particularly Ca and Mg salts)
 Dissolved gases

Processes included are:

 Ion exchange
 Demineralization
 Reverse osmosis
 De-aeration.

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 Assignment # 1

2 pages. Included in the course

 Ion exchange
 Demineralization
 Reverse osmosis
 De-aeration.

The basic idea

A figure/schematic

Limitations

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Recommended water quality charts

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Next

Energy conservation opportunities

Sustainable practices

Followed by online quiz # 1

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