Energy is an indispensable resource that is required to run the economy
and sustain the well being of people. Every day new discoveries are made
to improve efficiency of the methods of power generation and
transmission. After all, energy conservation must be our social
responsibility.
Social responsibilities for exploring, harnessing, adopting the given energy sources to obtain effective means to consume those are no less important. The rapidly developing economies of Third World countries like India, China need to generate increasing amounts of energy as they grow. Energy shortages with rising cost confront every nation, especially those aspiring for industrial development. A time has come when no resource of this planet, including energy, should be used wastefully. To achieve this ideal, the society as a whole would require collective efforts of all groups, especially between the organizations harnessing energy and the consumers of energy. And both must understand the underlying principles of energy generation and energy consumption.
Every day new discoveries are made to improve efficiency of the methods of power generation and transmission. Some of the discoveries would fail to attract the users while some may be rejected or replaced by new claims. Such a circumstance would demand repeated explorations of energy opportunities and the way social responses can facilitate the use of new discoveries.
Energy Conservation Opportunities
The various energy efficiency opportunities in boiler system can be related to combustion, heat transfer, avoidable losses, high auxiliary power consumption, water quality and blowdown. Flue gases are the single most important cause of energy loss. As much as 18 to 22 percent of available energy goes up the chimney. Heat radiation and convection from boiler walls raise heat loss another 1 to 4 percent. Examining the following factors can indicate if a boiler is being run to maximize its efficiency:
1. Stack Temperature
The stack temperature should be as low as possible. However, it should not be so low that water vapor in the exhaust condenses on the stack walls. This is important in fuels containing signficant sulphur as low temperature can lead to sulphur dew point corrosion. Stack o temperatures greater than 200 C indicates potential for recovery of waste heat. It also indicate the scaling of heat transfer/recovery equipment and hence the urgency of taking an early shut down for water / flue side cleaning.
2. Feed Water Preheating using Economiser
Typically, the flue gases leaving a modern 3-pass shell o boiler are at temperatures of 200 to 300 C. Thus, there is a potential to recover heat from these gases. The flue gas exit temperature from a boiler is usually maintained at a o minimum of 200 C, so that the sulphur oxides in the flue gas do not condense and cause corrosion in heat transfer surfaces. When a clean fuel such as natural gas, LPG or gas oil is used, the economy of heat recovery must be worked out, as the flue gas temperature may be well o below 200 C.
The potential for energy saving depends on the type of boiler installed and the fuel used. For a typically older model shell boiler, with a flue gas exit temperature of o 260 C, an economizer could be used to reduce it to o o 200 C, increasing the feed water temperature by 15 C. Increase in overall thermal efficiency would be in the order of 3%. For a modern 3-pass shell boiler firing o natural gas with a flue gas exit temperature of 140 C a condensing economizer would reduce the exit o temperature to 65 C increasing thermal efficiency by 5%.
3. Combustion Air Preheat
Combustion air preheating is an alternative to feed water heating. In order to improve thermal efficiency by 1%, o the combustion air temperature must be raised by 20 C. Most gas and oil burners used in a boiler plant are not designed for high air preheat temperatures. Modern burners can withstand much higher combustion air preheat, so it is possible to consider such units as heat exchangers in the exit flue as an alternative to an economizer, when either space or a high feed water return temperature make it viable.
4. Incomplete Combustion
Incomplete combustion can arise from a shortage of air or surplus of fuel or poor distribution of fuel. It is usually obvious from the colour or smoke, and must be corrected immediately.
In the case of oil and gas fired systems, CO or smoke (for oil fired systems only) with normal or high excess air indicates burner system problems. A more frequent cause of incomplete combustion is the poor mixing of fuel and air at the burner. Poor oil fires can result from improper viscosity, worn tips, carbonization on tips and deterioration of diffusers or spinner plates.
With coal firing, unburned carbon can comprise a big loss. It occurs as grit carry-over or carbon-in-ash and may amount to more than 2% of the heat supplied to the boiler. Non uniform fuel size could be one of the reasons for incomplete combustion. In chain grate stokers, large lumps will not burn out completely, while small pieces and fines may block the air passage, thus causing poor air distribution. In sprinkler stokers, stoker grate condition, fuel distributors, wind box air regulation and over-fire systems can affect carbon loss. Increase in the fines in pulverized coal also increases carbon loss.
5. Excess Air Control
Excess air is required in all practical cases to ensure complete combustion, to allow for the normal variations in combustion and to ensure satisfactory stack conditions for some fuels. The optimum excess air level for maximum boiler efficiency occurs when the sum of the losses due to incomplete combustion and loss due to heat in flue gases is minimum. This level varies with furnace design, type of burner, fuel and process variables. It can be determined by conducting tests with different air fuel ratios.
Typical values of excess air supplied for various fuels are given in Table. The Table gives the theoretical amount of air required for combustion of various types of fuel. Controlling excess air to an optimum level always results in reduction in flue gas losses; for every 1% reduction in excess air there is approximately 0.6% rise in efficiency.
* Portable oxygen analysers and draft gauges can be used to make periodic readings to guide the operator to manually adjust the flow of air for optimum operation. Excess air reduction up to 20% is feasible.
* The most common method is the continuous oxygen analyzer with a local readout mounted draft gauge, by which the operator can adjust air flow. A further reduction of 10-15% can be achieved over the previous system.
* The same continuous oxygen analyzer can have a remote controlled pneumatic damper positioner, by which the readouts are available in a control room. This enables an operator to remotely control a number of firing systems simultaneously.
The most sophisticated system is the automatic stack damper control, whose cost is really justified only for large systems.
6. Radiation and Convection Heat Loss
The external surfaces of a shell boiler are hotter than the surroundings. The surfaces thus lose heat to the surroundings depending on the surface area and the difference in temperature between the surface and the surroundings.
The heat loss from the boiler shell is normally a fixed energy loss, irrespective of the boiler output. With modern boiler designs, this may represent only 1.5% on the gross calorific value at full rating, but will increase to around 6%, if the boiler operates at only 25 percent output. Repairing or augmenting insulation can reduce heat loss through boiler walls and piping.
7. Automatic Blowdown Control
Uncontrolled continuous blowdown is very wasteful. Automatic blowdown controls can be installed that sense and respond to boiler water conductivity and pH. A 10% blow down in a 15 kg/cm2 boiler results in 3% efficiency loss.
8. Reduction of Scaling and Soot Losses
In oil and coal-fired boilers, soot buildup on tubes acts as an insulator against heat transfer. Any such deposits should be removed on a regular basis. Elevated stack temperatures may indicate excessive soot buildup. Also same result will occur due to scaling on the water side. High exit gas temperatures at normal excess air indicate poor heat transfer performance. This condition can result from a gradual build-up of gas-side or waterside deposits. Waterside deposits require a review of water treatment procedures and tube cleaning to remove deposits. An estimated o 1% efficiency loss occurs with every 22 C increase in stack temperature.
Stack temperature should be checked and recorded regularly as an indicator of soot deposits. When the flue o gas temperature rises about 20 C above the temperature for a newly cleaned boiler, it is time to remove the soot deposits. It is, therefore, recommended to install a dial type thermometer at the base of the stack to monitor the exhaust flue gas temperature. It is estimated that 3 mm of soot can cause an increase in fuel consumption by 2.5% due to increased flue gas temperatures. Periodic off-line cleaning of radiant furnace surfaces, boiler tube banks, economizers and air heaters may be necessary to remove stubborn deposits.
9. Reduction of Boiler Steam Pressure
This is an effective means of reducing fuel consumption, if permissible, by as much as 1 to 2%. Lower steam pressure gives a lower saturated steam temperature and without stack heat recovery, a similar reduction in the temperature of the flue gas temperature results. Steam is generated at pressures normally dictated by the highest pressure / temperature requirements for a particular process. In some cases, the process does not operate all the time, and there are periods when the boiler pressure could be reduced. The energy manager should consider pressure reduction carefully, before recommending it. Adverse effects, such as an increase in water carryover from the boiler owing to pressure reduction, may negate any potential saving. Pressure should be reduced in stages, and no more than a 20 percent reduction should be considered.
10. Variable Speed Control for Fans, Blowers and Pumps
Variable speed control (VSD) is an important means of achieving energy savings. Generally, combustion air control is affected by throttling dampers fitted at forced and induced draft fans. Though dampers are simple means of control, they lack accuracy, giving poor control characteristics at the top and bottom of the operating range. In general, if the load characteristic of the boiler is variable, the possibility of replacing the dampers by a VSD should be evaluated.
11. Effect of Boiler Loading on Efficiency
The maximum efficiency of the boiler does not occur at full load, but at about two-thirds of the full load. If the load on the boiler decreases further, efficiency also tends to decrease. At zero output, the efficiency of the boiler is zero, and any fuel fired is used only to supply the losses.
The factors affecting boiler efficiency are:
* As the load falls, so does the value of the mass flow rate of the flue gases through the tubes. This reduction in flow rate for the same heat transfer area, reduced the exit flue gas temperatures by a small extent, reducing the sensible heat loss. * Below half load, most combustion appliances need more excess air to burn the fuel completely. This increases the sensible heat loss.
In general, efficiency of the boiler reduces significantly below 25% of the rated load and as far as possible; operation of boilers below this level should be avoided.
12. Proper Boiler Scheduling
Since, the optimum efficiency of boilers occurs at 65- 85% of full load, it is usually more efficient, on the whole, to operate a fewer number of boilers at higher loads, than to operate a large number at low loads.
13. Boiler Replacement
The potential savings from replacing a boiler depend on the anticipated change in overall efficiency. A change in a boiler can be financially attractive if the existing boiler is:
* old and inefficient
* not capable of firing cheaper substitution fuel
* over or under-sized for present requirements
* not designed for ideal loading conditions
The feasibility study should examine all implications of long-term fuel availability and company growth plans. All financial and engineering factors should be considered. Since boiler plants traditionally have a useful life of well over 25 years, replacement must be carefully studied.
Energy Conservation Boilers
Burning of unprocessed coal can release enormous quantities of obnoxious gases. Combustion of coal, like any other fossil fuel produces carbon dioxide (CO ), 2 nitrogen oxide (NOx) along with varying amounts of sulphur dioxide (SO ). Sulphur dioxide reacts with 2 oxygen to form sulphur trioxide (SO ), which with water 3 forms sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid passed into the atmosphere is returned to thearth as acid rain. Many other pollutants are present in coal power station emissions, as solid coal is more difficult to clean than petroleum. After observation of the above different factors the following steps to be considered for the energy conservation boilers.
* Ensure proper selection fuel-firing equipment, viz. Burners, mechanical stokers etc.
* Ensure correct temperature and pressure of fuel oil at the burner tip as per manufacturers specifications.
* Reduce radiation losses from boilers, furnaces and auxiliary equip- meant by improved thermal insulation. This will also improve thermal insulation. This will also improve the working conditions within the building and eliminate, unnecessary ventilation.
* Employ blow down and water process-heat to preheat the boiler to feed water.
* Use of steam and power within the boiler house should be subject to critical scrutiny. For instance, loss of steam from relief valves and other fittings should be minimized.
http://www.elp.com/news/2013/04/30/energy-conservation-in-boilers.html
Social responsibilities for exploring, harnessing, adopting the given energy sources to obtain effective means to consume those are no less important. The rapidly developing economies of Third World countries like India, China need to generate increasing amounts of energy as they grow. Energy shortages with rising cost confront every nation, especially those aspiring for industrial development. A time has come when no resource of this planet, including energy, should be used wastefully. To achieve this ideal, the society as a whole would require collective efforts of all groups, especially between the organizations harnessing energy and the consumers of energy. And both must understand the underlying principles of energy generation and energy consumption.
Every day new discoveries are made to improve efficiency of the methods of power generation and transmission. Some of the discoveries would fail to attract the users while some may be rejected or replaced by new claims. Such a circumstance would demand repeated explorations of energy opportunities and the way social responses can facilitate the use of new discoveries.
Energy Conservation Opportunities
The various energy efficiency opportunities in boiler system can be related to combustion, heat transfer, avoidable losses, high auxiliary power consumption, water quality and blowdown. Flue gases are the single most important cause of energy loss. As much as 18 to 22 percent of available energy goes up the chimney. Heat radiation and convection from boiler walls raise heat loss another 1 to 4 percent. Examining the following factors can indicate if a boiler is being run to maximize its efficiency:
1. Stack Temperature
The stack temperature should be as low as possible. However, it should not be so low that water vapor in the exhaust condenses on the stack walls. This is important in fuels containing signficant sulphur as low temperature can lead to sulphur dew point corrosion. Stack o temperatures greater than 200 C indicates potential for recovery of waste heat. It also indicate the scaling of heat transfer/recovery equipment and hence the urgency of taking an early shut down for water / flue side cleaning.
2. Feed Water Preheating using Economiser
Typically, the flue gases leaving a modern 3-pass shell o boiler are at temperatures of 200 to 300 C. Thus, there is a potential to recover heat from these gases. The flue gas exit temperature from a boiler is usually maintained at a o minimum of 200 C, so that the sulphur oxides in the flue gas do not condense and cause corrosion in heat transfer surfaces. When a clean fuel such as natural gas, LPG or gas oil is used, the economy of heat recovery must be worked out, as the flue gas temperature may be well o below 200 C.
The potential for energy saving depends on the type of boiler installed and the fuel used. For a typically older model shell boiler, with a flue gas exit temperature of o 260 C, an economizer could be used to reduce it to o o 200 C, increasing the feed water temperature by 15 C. Increase in overall thermal efficiency would be in the order of 3%. For a modern 3-pass shell boiler firing o natural gas with a flue gas exit temperature of 140 C a condensing economizer would reduce the exit o temperature to 65 C increasing thermal efficiency by 5%.
3. Combustion Air Preheat
Combustion air preheating is an alternative to feed water heating. In order to improve thermal efficiency by 1%, o the combustion air temperature must be raised by 20 C. Most gas and oil burners used in a boiler plant are not designed for high air preheat temperatures. Modern burners can withstand much higher combustion air preheat, so it is possible to consider such units as heat exchangers in the exit flue as an alternative to an economizer, when either space or a high feed water return temperature make it viable.
4. Incomplete Combustion
Incomplete combustion can arise from a shortage of air or surplus of fuel or poor distribution of fuel. It is usually obvious from the colour or smoke, and must be corrected immediately.
In the case of oil and gas fired systems, CO or smoke (for oil fired systems only) with normal or high excess air indicates burner system problems. A more frequent cause of incomplete combustion is the poor mixing of fuel and air at the burner. Poor oil fires can result from improper viscosity, worn tips, carbonization on tips and deterioration of diffusers or spinner plates.
With coal firing, unburned carbon can comprise a big loss. It occurs as grit carry-over or carbon-in-ash and may amount to more than 2% of the heat supplied to the boiler. Non uniform fuel size could be one of the reasons for incomplete combustion. In chain grate stokers, large lumps will not burn out completely, while small pieces and fines may block the air passage, thus causing poor air distribution. In sprinkler stokers, stoker grate condition, fuel distributors, wind box air regulation and over-fire systems can affect carbon loss. Increase in the fines in pulverized coal also increases carbon loss.
5. Excess Air Control
Excess air is required in all practical cases to ensure complete combustion, to allow for the normal variations in combustion and to ensure satisfactory stack conditions for some fuels. The optimum excess air level for maximum boiler efficiency occurs when the sum of the losses due to incomplete combustion and loss due to heat in flue gases is minimum. This level varies with furnace design, type of burner, fuel and process variables. It can be determined by conducting tests with different air fuel ratios.
Typical values of excess air supplied for various fuels are given in Table. The Table gives the theoretical amount of air required for combustion of various types of fuel. Controlling excess air to an optimum level always results in reduction in flue gas losses; for every 1% reduction in excess air there is approximately 0.6% rise in efficiency.
* Portable oxygen analysers and draft gauges can be used to make periodic readings to guide the operator to manually adjust the flow of air for optimum operation. Excess air reduction up to 20% is feasible.
* The most common method is the continuous oxygen analyzer with a local readout mounted draft gauge, by which the operator can adjust air flow. A further reduction of 10-15% can be achieved over the previous system.
* The same continuous oxygen analyzer can have a remote controlled pneumatic damper positioner, by which the readouts are available in a control room. This enables an operator to remotely control a number of firing systems simultaneously.
The most sophisticated system is the automatic stack damper control, whose cost is really justified only for large systems.
6. Radiation and Convection Heat Loss
The external surfaces of a shell boiler are hotter than the surroundings. The surfaces thus lose heat to the surroundings depending on the surface area and the difference in temperature between the surface and the surroundings.
The heat loss from the boiler shell is normally a fixed energy loss, irrespective of the boiler output. With modern boiler designs, this may represent only 1.5% on the gross calorific value at full rating, but will increase to around 6%, if the boiler operates at only 25 percent output. Repairing or augmenting insulation can reduce heat loss through boiler walls and piping.
7. Automatic Blowdown Control
Uncontrolled continuous blowdown is very wasteful. Automatic blowdown controls can be installed that sense and respond to boiler water conductivity and pH. A 10% blow down in a 15 kg/cm2 boiler results in 3% efficiency loss.
8. Reduction of Scaling and Soot Losses
In oil and coal-fired boilers, soot buildup on tubes acts as an insulator against heat transfer. Any such deposits should be removed on a regular basis. Elevated stack temperatures may indicate excessive soot buildup. Also same result will occur due to scaling on the water side. High exit gas temperatures at normal excess air indicate poor heat transfer performance. This condition can result from a gradual build-up of gas-side or waterside deposits. Waterside deposits require a review of water treatment procedures and tube cleaning to remove deposits. An estimated o 1% efficiency loss occurs with every 22 C increase in stack temperature.
Stack temperature should be checked and recorded regularly as an indicator of soot deposits. When the flue o gas temperature rises about 20 C above the temperature for a newly cleaned boiler, it is time to remove the soot deposits. It is, therefore, recommended to install a dial type thermometer at the base of the stack to monitor the exhaust flue gas temperature. It is estimated that 3 mm of soot can cause an increase in fuel consumption by 2.5% due to increased flue gas temperatures. Periodic off-line cleaning of radiant furnace surfaces, boiler tube banks, economizers and air heaters may be necessary to remove stubborn deposits.
9. Reduction of Boiler Steam Pressure
This is an effective means of reducing fuel consumption, if permissible, by as much as 1 to 2%. Lower steam pressure gives a lower saturated steam temperature and without stack heat recovery, a similar reduction in the temperature of the flue gas temperature results. Steam is generated at pressures normally dictated by the highest pressure / temperature requirements for a particular process. In some cases, the process does not operate all the time, and there are periods when the boiler pressure could be reduced. The energy manager should consider pressure reduction carefully, before recommending it. Adverse effects, such as an increase in water carryover from the boiler owing to pressure reduction, may negate any potential saving. Pressure should be reduced in stages, and no more than a 20 percent reduction should be considered.
10. Variable Speed Control for Fans, Blowers and Pumps
Variable speed control (VSD) is an important means of achieving energy savings. Generally, combustion air control is affected by throttling dampers fitted at forced and induced draft fans. Though dampers are simple means of control, they lack accuracy, giving poor control characteristics at the top and bottom of the operating range. In general, if the load characteristic of the boiler is variable, the possibility of replacing the dampers by a VSD should be evaluated.
11. Effect of Boiler Loading on Efficiency
The maximum efficiency of the boiler does not occur at full load, but at about two-thirds of the full load. If the load on the boiler decreases further, efficiency also tends to decrease. At zero output, the efficiency of the boiler is zero, and any fuel fired is used only to supply the losses.
The factors affecting boiler efficiency are:
* As the load falls, so does the value of the mass flow rate of the flue gases through the tubes. This reduction in flow rate for the same heat transfer area, reduced the exit flue gas temperatures by a small extent, reducing the sensible heat loss. * Below half load, most combustion appliances need more excess air to burn the fuel completely. This increases the sensible heat loss.
In general, efficiency of the boiler reduces significantly below 25% of the rated load and as far as possible; operation of boilers below this level should be avoided.
12. Proper Boiler Scheduling
Since, the optimum efficiency of boilers occurs at 65- 85% of full load, it is usually more efficient, on the whole, to operate a fewer number of boilers at higher loads, than to operate a large number at low loads.
13. Boiler Replacement
The potential savings from replacing a boiler depend on the anticipated change in overall efficiency. A change in a boiler can be financially attractive if the existing boiler is:
* old and inefficient
* not capable of firing cheaper substitution fuel
* over or under-sized for present requirements
* not designed for ideal loading conditions
The feasibility study should examine all implications of long-term fuel availability and company growth plans. All financial and engineering factors should be considered. Since boiler plants traditionally have a useful life of well over 25 years, replacement must be carefully studied.
Energy Conservation Boilers
Burning of unprocessed coal can release enormous quantities of obnoxious gases. Combustion of coal, like any other fossil fuel produces carbon dioxide (CO ), 2 nitrogen oxide (NOx) along with varying amounts of sulphur dioxide (SO ). Sulphur dioxide reacts with 2 oxygen to form sulphur trioxide (SO ), which with water 3 forms sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid passed into the atmosphere is returned to thearth as acid rain. Many other pollutants are present in coal power station emissions, as solid coal is more difficult to clean than petroleum. After observation of the above different factors the following steps to be considered for the energy conservation boilers.
* Ensure proper selection fuel-firing equipment, viz. Burners, mechanical stokers etc.
* Ensure correct temperature and pressure of fuel oil at the burner tip as per manufacturers specifications.
* Reduce radiation losses from boilers, furnaces and auxiliary equip- meant by improved thermal insulation. This will also improve thermal insulation. This will also improve the working conditions within the building and eliminate, unnecessary ventilation.
* Employ blow down and water process-heat to preheat the boiler to feed water.
* Use of steam and power within the boiler house should be subject to critical scrutiny. For instance, loss of steam from relief valves and other fittings should be minimized.
http://www.elp.com/news/2013/04/30/energy-conservation-in-boilers.html
