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Insulation of Boiler to Save Energy

Conference Paper · May 2016

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Mehmet Ali Topçu Aydın Rusen

Karamanoglu Mehmetbey Üniversitesi Karamanoglu Mehmetbey Üniversitesi
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 Insulation of Boiler to Save Energy
M.A. Topçu and A. Rüşen
Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, KaramanoğluMehmetbey University, Karaman, Turkey

Abstract
The increasing energy demand and decreasing fossil fuel – based
sources in the world have made it necessary for efficiently usage of energy,
investigation of alternative energy sources and energy saving. Countries
that import energy, such as Turkey must use their own energy effectively
and also perform energy saving studies. Insulation having wide application
fields is a way to save energy. In this paper, energy saving by isolating
pipe lines and the boiler (a heat exchanger tank) in a food factory was
studied. Surface temperatures and heat losses of boiler and pipe lines were
detected by multifunctional measuring instrument (Testo – 435) and
thermal camera (Testo 875 – 2i), respectively. As a result, calculated
energy saving amount for the investment cost of isolation is corresponds to
about 0.35 year according to the payback period analysis method.

Keyword: Energy efficiency, Insulation, Boiler

© 2016 IEESE. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Energy consumption is increasing due to the developments in human
life such as fast growth population, urbanization and improvement in
industry [1]. Nowadays, industrial plants are consuming about 37% of the
world’s total energy. Industrial sectors including manufacturing, agriculture,
mining, construction etc. use more energy than the others [2]. Energy cost in
the total production costs has become more important for all industrial
plants due to the rising energy prices. For example, energy cost corresponds
to about 50%, 30% and 10% of the total production costs in a cement plant,
steel production and food industry, respectively [3]. Therefore, energy saving
has become compulsory in all industrial plants. In developed countries, most
of the plants have focused to energy efficiency applications due to the limited
energy sources, environmental effects of fossil-based fuels and sustainable
development [4 - 5].
The purpose of energy savings is to reduce energy consumption per
product. Energy savings include some precautions such as using high
efficiency engines and lighting armatures, heat recovery systems, preheat
combustion air with waste heat and insulation of hot or cold surfaces. By
detecting the unnecessary use of energy fields and minimizing the energy
*Correspondingauthor: topcumali@kmu.edu.tr

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 Topçu and Rüşen / 8th International Ege Energy Symposium and Exhibition - 2016

losses, producers can increase their competitive capacity in national or

global market by producing the same goods with less energy [6].
Since huge amount of energy is consumed by machines and their
tools in a manufacturing process, energy saving applications should be
focused on these equipments [7]. Almost all energy users in the industry use
up the major proportion of their fuels for steam production, i.e. in food
processing (57%), chemical (42%), primary metals (10%). Boilers with an
excellent effect on heating are used as the main equipment in the food
industry to meet the hot water requirement in the processes. However, heat
can be lost from the boiler by a variety of ways such as hot flue gases,
convection, radiation and blow-down losses [8]. Therefore, transferring the
heat to water and minimizing the heat losses from boiler are very crucial.
According to the Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency, there are various
opportunities about the energy recovery from boilers [9]:
1. Preheat combustion air with waste heat,
2. Use variable speed drivers on large boiler combustion air fans with
variable flows.
3. Clean burners, nozzles, strainers etc.
4. Automate/optimize boiler blow-down,
5. Use boiler blow-down to help warm the back-up boiler,
6. Add an economizer to preheat boiler feed-water using exhaust heat,
7. Recycle steam condensate,
8. Insulate the heat surfaces.

Among them thermal insulation is an easy and low cost way which
can be performed by users on industrial processing equipment such as
pipeline, furnace, heat exchanger and valves to reduce the energy usage and
the CO2 emission [10].
In this paper, insulation of a boiler where hot water produced for
different processes in a food factory was studied. Energy losses from the
boiler were detected and the amount of energy saving was calculated after
the boiler insulation.

2. Material and Method

Ambient temperature (Ta) of the boiler room was determined and
surface temperature of the boiler (Ts) was measured by multifunctional
measuring instrument (Testo – 435) and thermal camera (Testo 875 – 2i),
respectively. In addition, the images taken by thermal camera were evaluated
by IR – Soft Pc thermal camera software and the average surface temperature
was used in the calculations. The boiler made by stainless steel has 4.5 m
length and 1.2 m diameter (Fig. 1.). Rockwool was chosen as an insulation
material and applied on the boiler with 50 mm thickness.

6
 Figure 1. Schematic view of the water boiler

Energy losses before and after the boiler insulation was calculated by
following heat transfer formulas by using data which obtained from the
measurements[11]:

 Heat losses before insulation (Eq. 1)

Heat transfer coefficient by radiation
Ur = [(E * 5,67)/(Ts – Ta)]*[(Ts/100)4 - (Ts/100)4]
Q1 = (Uc+ Ur)*A*(Ts – Ta)
Heat transfer coefficient by convection
Uc=B*( Ts– Ta )0,25

 Heat losses after insulation(Eq. 2)  Heat savings(Eq. 3)

Q2 = A x (Ts – Ta)/ [(L/) + (1 / d)] QS = Q1 – Q2

where Tsand Ta are the surface and ambient temperatures, respectively, A is

surface area of the boiler, B is the multiplying factor which equals to 1.2
when the boiler is located to parallel to ground, E is the emissivity coefficient
of surface material of the boiler (0.77), L is the insulation thickness (0.05 m),
 is the thermal conductivity coefficient of the insulation material (0.068
W/m.K) and αd is the thermal conductivity coefficient by heat convection (20
W/m2.K).
The insulation material was chosen as rockwool because it protects
its shape and size when exposed to the heat and moisture. In addition,
rockwool is indefectible and put up resistance against to corrosion. It also
can’t be destroyed by insects and microorganism. By place of use and
purpose, rockwool products which can stand temperature up to 650oC
depending on their densities can be fabricated in different specifications,
sizes and shapes such as plate, pipe or mattress [11].
Investing in an energy efficiency improvement is needed to perform
an economic analysis. Simple payback period as a quick and easy analysis
method can be used to make a decision about the investment for energy
 Topçu and Rüşen / 8th International Ege Energy Symposium and Exhibition - 2016

saving. Therefore, in this study, the economic analysis of investment to save

energy was evaluated by pay-back period analysis method as following;
Pay-back period= Cost of investment ($) / Saving amounts ($/year)

The heat saving amount obtained by after insulation was calculated

by using following assumptions:
1. Boiler works at full capacity during all year,
2. Ambient temperature where the boiler operates is 13 oC and it remains
constant at this temperature.
3. Insulation was designed by using rockwool with 50 mm thickness.
4. The lower heating value and unit cost of fuel was taken from fuel
provider as 8364,6 kcal/Sm3 and 0,35 $/Sm3, respectively.
5. According to the supplier, the investment cost of the insulation is 933$.

4. Results and Discussions

Results obtained by measurements and thermal camera images (Fig.
2 and Fig. 3) shows that there is a homogeneous temperature distribution on
the boiler surface. The average surface temperatures of front and lateral
surfaces of the boiler were 74,9oC and 70,4 oC, respectively. The heat is lost
from the boiler surface to the surrounding due to the differences between its
surface temperatures and ambient temperature (13 oC). Geometric features
of the boiler and calculated heat losses with Eq. 1 from the surface of
uninsulated boiler by convection and radiation were summarized in Table 1.

Figure 2. Thermal and real images of front surface of the boiler with profile
line

6
 Figure 3. Thermal and real images of lateral surface of the boiler with
measuring points

Table 1. Geometric features of the boiler and heat losses from the boiler
surface

Area Ur Uc (Ur+ Uc)*A*(Ty-To)

Surface E (m2)
B
(Watt / m2.K) (Watt / m2.K) (Watt)

Front 0,77 1,13 5,410 1,2 3,366 613.854

Lateral 0,77 17 5,267 1,2 3,303 8362.606

Back 0,77 1,13 5,410 1,2 3,366 613.854

Total 9590.314

By using Equations 1 and 2, the heat losses before and after

insulation of the boiler was calculated as 8247,67 kcal/h and 989,72 kcal/h,
respectively. The difference between these two values equals to energy
saving amount calculated by Equation 3. According to this equation energy
saving amount and energy recovery rate was detected as 7257,95 kcal/h and
88 %, respectively. Annual benefit and payback period can be obtained by
very simple calculations using the following formulas:

1. Annual benefit per hour as natural gas (m3/h);

Annual Benefit = Energy Saving Amount/Lower heating value of fuel
= 7257,95 (kcal/h)/8364,6 (kcal/m3)
= 0.87 m3/h
 Topçu and Rüşen / 8th International Ege Energy Symposium and Exhibition - 2016

2. Boiler works at full capacity during all year;

Energy savings per year as natural gas (m3/year)
Energy savings per year = Annual benefit per hour x Annual working time
= 0,87 (m3/h ) x 8760 (h/year)
= 7621.2 m3/year
3. The amount of savings as cash ($)
Saving amounts as cash = Energy savings per year x unit cost of fuel
= 7621.2 (m3/year) x 0.35 $
= 2667.42$
4. Finally, pay-back period which is most important value for energy
efficiency investments calculates by the following equation;
Pay – back period = Cost of investment/Saving amounts
= (933$)/(2660 $/year) = 0.35 year

According to the pay-back analysis method, energy saving amount

calculated for the investment cost of the isolation is corresponds to about
0.35 year. All of the calculations were summarized in Table 2.

Table 2. Summary of the pay-back analysis

Pay-
CO2 Investment
Energy Saving Amount Back
Remedy Reduction Cost
Type Period
Sm³/h TOE/Y $/Y Tons/Y $/Y Year
Insulation
of the Natural
0.87 6.3 2667.42 9.43 2800 0.35
Boiler Gas

5. Conclusions
Nowadays efficient energy use is indispensable because of the
environmental, legal and economic pressures. Therefore, all users want to
save their money by applying simple energy saving methods such as
insulation which is applicable very easy and quickly to hot or cold surface.
Insulation of the equipment can also provide safety working area with a long

6
 maintenance free operational life. Decreasing in the heat losses by the
isolating hot surfaces is reflected as energy savings to investors. Isolating is
very attractive and common way to save energy due to the its very short pay
back period. As a result, it attempts to demonstrate the importance of the
insulation. It is expected that this paper will help engineers and policy
makers who work in the area of energy management.

References

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