Fossil-Fuel steam Generators

Introduction
• Steam generators are used in both fossil-fuel and nuclear fuel electric generating
power plants
• Modern steam generators produce high pressure (165-240 bar) superheated steam.
• Steam is used in Rankine cycle
• Steam generator is a complex combination of
economizer, boiler, super heater, reheater and
air preheater.
• Auxiliaries of steam generators include
stokers, pulverizers, burners, fans and stack.
• A boiler is that portion of steam generator
where saturated liquid is converted into
saturated steam, although it may be difficult
to separate this part of steam generator
physically from economizer.
 Steam Generators Classifications
1. Utility steam generators
2. Industrial steam generators
• First type is used by utilities for electric power
generation
• These are of two kinds
i. Subcritical water-tube drum type (operates about 130 bar)
ii. Supercritical once-through type(operates above 240 bar)
– Burn pulverized coal or oil
Industrial steam generators are used in industrial and
institutional applications
Fossil fuel generators classification based on
components or characteristics
1. Fire tube boilers
2. Water tube boilers
3. Natural circulation boilers
4. Controlled circulation boilers
5. Once through flow
6. Subcritical pressure
7. Supercritical pressure
1. Fire tube boilers
• They are the earliest form of boilers to
produce steam for industrial purposes since
18th century
• No longer used in large utility power plants
• But are still used in industrial power plants to
produce saturated steam at the upper limits of
250 psi (18 bar)
• The fire tube boiler is a special type of the
shell type boiler
• A shell type boiler is a closed, usually cylindrical,
vessel or shell that contains water and an exposed
portion to heat.
• The shell boiler evolved into more modern forms
such as electric boiler, in which heat is supplied by
electrodes embedded in the water, or accumulator
in which heat is supplied by steam from an outside
source passing through tubes within the shell.
• In both the cases, shell itself is not exposed to heat.
• Shell boilers evolved into fire tube boilers, in which
hot gases are made to pass through tubes within
the shell
 New Evolutions of Fire-type Boiler

1. Electric boiler, where electrodes embedded in water.

2. Fire-tube-boiler: vertical, horizontal or inclined tubes are
placed, where hot gases pass through them. There are two
types of fire-tube boiler:
a. Fire box, where the furnace is located within the shell
together with the fire tubes.
b. Scotch marine: combustion takes place within one more
cylindrical chambers that are situated inside and near the
main shell at the bottom.
 Water-tube boiler
• The old model was developed by Gorge Babcock and
Stephan Wilcox in 1867.
• The water-tube boiler was developed to overcome the
fire-tube boiler problems such as:
1. Operating under extreme pressure and temperature
needs a special design, where the diameter is large and
the thickness of walls is also large.
2. They were subjected to scale deposits and boiler
explosions and became intolerably costly
The water tube boiler puts the pressure in tubes and
relatively small dia drums that are capable of withstanding
the extreme pressure of the modern steam turbine.
 Models of water-tube-boiler

1. The straight-tube boiler: the tubes are straight 3-4

inch in outer diameter (OD) with 7-8 inch in
spacing, connected to vertical headers.
These headers are the down-comer or downtake,
which supply saturated water. The other header is
the riser or up-take, which receives water-steam
mixture.
2. Bent-tube-boiler: it is bent, rather than straight
tubes between several drums where they enter and
leave rabidly
 Recent Developments

• It includes the integration of furnace,

economizer, boiler, super heater, reheater, and
pre-heater.
• The modern high pressure steam generator
requires more super heating and reheating
surface and less boiler surface than older
units. Air pre-heaters are also used in modern
boilers using a forced-draft (FD) fan.
Water circulation:
• The density of the saturated
water in the down comer is
greater than the two-phase
mixture in the Riser
• Natural circulation is dependent
upon these density difference
and height of the drum
• In forced circulation steam
generators pumps are used
• Steam drum
– In steam drum feed water from economizer is fed
– Saturated steam is separated from the boiling
water
– Remaining water is recirculated
• Superheaters and reheaters
– Made of tubes of 2-3 in OD
– Modern superheaters and reheaters use high
strength alloy steel and operate above 10000 F
• Types are based on mode of heat transfer
1. Convection
• Low temperature
2. Radiant
• High temperature
Once through boilers
• These are also called forced circulation or
universal pressure boiler
• These are applicable to all temperatures and
pressures
• There is no steam drum
• Feed water directly goes to economizer,
furnace walls and superheater
 Economizer
• Economizer is the heat exchanger that raise the feed
water temperature to a level corresponding to saturated
temperature at boiler pressure
• This is done by gases leaving the superheater or reheater
• Economizers tubes are made of steel with OD 1.75 to
2.75 in
• To decrease internal corrosion, pH of water is maintained
about 8 to 9
• To decrease outer scaling by flue gases, heated feed
water is used in economizer