Gas Inlet Temperature and Analysis

Inlet gas temperature to the waste heat boiler is an important parameter. Generally, if the inlet gas
temperature is above 700°C, a single-pressure heat recovery boiler will be adequate to cool the flue gas to
about 130°C–150°C. Hence, the lower the inlet gas temperature, the lesser the amount of steam that can
be generated with a given pinch point

Flue Gas Composition and Gas Pressure

Flue gas analysis is important to the design of the boiler. A large amount of water vapor or hydrogen
increases the gas specific heat and thermal conductivity and hence the gas and overall heat transfer
coefficient, boiler duty, and heat flux. Presence of SO2 lowers the gas specific heat and hence the duty.

gas should be cooled very quickly in the waste heat boiler, typically in less than 0.5 s to ensure dioxins are
not formed. Finned water tube boilers have shorter gas path and hence shorter residence time. With fire
tube boilers, the residence time may be longer and has to be checked.

Water Tube versus Fire Tube Boilers

A common classification of boilers is whether the gas flows inside the tubes as in fire tube boilers (Figure
4.10) or outside the tubes as in water tube boilers (Figure 4.5). The features of each type are discussed in
Table 4.2 [2].
Generally, water tube boilers are suitable for large gas flows in the range of millions of kg/h and can handle
high steam pressures and temperatures. Fire tube boilers are suitable for low steam pressures generally
below 3500 kPa (35 bar) and low gas flows. Table 4.3 shows the effect of pressure on tube thickness for
both types. A given tube thickness can withstand about twice the pressure when it is inside than when
outside. Hence, fire tube boilers require large thickness as the steam pressure increases and thus become
uneconomical;