Steam Generation system

5.1 Introduction
The steam generating system, frequently called the boiler, is a system that transfers the
heat from the products of combustion to water and produces hot water or steam. The
combustion is accomplished in a furnace. Heat is transferred in the furnace mainly by
radiation to water-cooled walls, which constitutes the evaporation section of the steam
generation system. After leaving the furnace, the gases pass through a superheater in which
steam receives heat from the gases and has its temperature raised above the saturation
temperature. Since the temperature of the gases leaving the superheater section is still high,
modern steam generators often employ additional heat transfer surfaces to utilize the thermal
energy of the gases. These include the surfaces of reheaters, economizers, and air-preheaters.
Boilers may be classified into three categories according to their applications. These
include industrial, marine, and central electric power station. Generally, the industrial boilers
produces saturated steam or hot water with flow rates up to 50.000 lb/hr. The pressure
condition is frequently 300 psia or lower. The marine boilers are much larger and usually
produces superheated steam at the conditions around 900 psia and 1000F. The boilers for
electric power generation stasions are quite different in terms of steam conditions and
generation rates. These boiler can produces steamat the rate up to several million pounds per
hour. The steam pressure may be either supercritical or subcritical and the temperature is
frequently around 1000F. In this chapter attention is only given to boilers use for electric
power generation.
Boilers may also be classified according to the relative positions of products of
combustion. In one type boiler, called the fire-tube boiler, the products of combustion flow
through tubes surrounded by water. This type of boiler is frequently used in most steam
locomotives, in small factories, and sometimes in heating buildings. In another type of
boiler, called the water-tube boiler, the products of combustion flow over water-filled tubes.
Both ends of the water tubes are connected to the headers or the boiler drums. In the drum the
steam is separated from the saturated water. Then, the saturated steam usually goes to the
superheater in which the steam temperature is increased. All high-pressure and large boilers
are of the water-tube type. The small tubes in the water-tube boiler can withstand high
pressure better than the large drums of a fire-tube boiler.
Boilers are operated by firing various fuels. These fuels include bituminous coal,
lignite, natural gas, and oil. Different fuels result in different boiler designs and operations. In
the United States coal is the most prevalent fuel used in central electric power stations.
Use of steam for electric power generation in this country did not start until the year
1881. In that year the Brush Electric Light Company in Philadelphia started to generate steam
from four 73hp boilers. In 1903, Commonwealth Edison Company became the first utility to
run steam turbines exclusively for electric power generation. In the Commonwealth Edison

Plant, 96 boiler, each rated at 508 hp, were installed and used to supply the turbines with the
steam at 170 psia and 434F. in the ;last several decades progress has been made in steam
generator development. Like turbine development, the progress is mainly in the areas of
steam conditions and unit size. At the present most units generate steam at 2400 psia, 1000F.
to attain high system efficiency, the steam generator usually consists of the evaporation
section, superheaters, reheaters, economizers, and air preheaters. In power plant system
design one steam generator is frequently used to match one turbine unit. Because of this,
steam generator unit size increases as turbine unit size increases. For a 800 MW plant, a
single steam generator produces almost 6 million pounds of steam per hour.

5.2 Boiler Arrangements

All power station boilers are of the water-tube type. Water circulates within the tubes
and partially becomes steam as it receives heat from the products of combustion. When water
circulation within the boiler takes place due to its own density difference, it is called the
natural circulation boiler. In this type of boiler, water from the boiler drum first flows
downward to the bottom of the heated evaporative tubes through several pipes (frequently
called downcomers). Then, the water reverses its flow direction and returns to the drum as it
receives the heat from the furnace. Since the evaporative tubes (frequently called risers)
contain a mixture of steam and water, the average density in the riser is always lower than
that in the downcomer. This density difference gives rise to a driving force that will overcome
all friction in the water stean circuit. Figure 5-1 shows a schematic diagram of water tube
boiler operating on the natural circulation principle. Natural circulation is a simple and
efficient technique and is frequently employed in boiler designs.
As the boiler pressure becomes higher and higher, the difference in density of the fluid
between the downcomers and the risers will become less and less. At a certain boiler
pressure, the driving force, which is proportional to the density difference, is not sufficiently
large to balance the frictional resistance. One alternative is to employ pumps to force the
water through the evaporative tubes. The boiler using circulation pumps is called the forced
circulation boiler. Figure 5-1 shows a schematic diagram of forced circulation water tube
boiler. It is seen that the circulation pumps take the water from the drum and supply it to the
headers at the bottom of the boiler. From the headers water moves upward as it receives heat
from the products of combustion. Becaused sufficient driving force is available, smaller
diameter tubes can be used in the forced circulation boiler. Furthermore, it is possible to
apply an orifice to each tube so that more uniform flow and tube temperature can be
achieved. These advantages frequently offset the cost of circulation pumps and their pumping
power. Similar to the forced circulation boiler is the once through boiler shown in Fig. 51. It is seen that there is no boiler drum. Water flows throught the evaporation section without
any recirculation. This arrangement is frequently employed when the steam pressure in the
boiler is supercritical.

In the three boiler arrangements just introduced, each has its own economizer,
evaporator section and superheater. Not shown in the diagrams is the reheater and air
preheater, which are usually employed in modern boiler design. The economizer is a heat
exchanger used to increase feedwater temperature. The evaporation section, which usually
surrounds the boiler furnace, is to produce saturated steam and supply it to the superheater. In
the superheater the steam is further heated and has its temperature raised to the level above
the saturation temperature. Then, the superheated steam flows to the turbine-generator throttle
for power production. The reheater, when included in a steam generator, is usually installed in
the location adjacent to the superheater. The reheater receives the steam absorbs heat from the
high-pressure turbine after the steam partially expands. In the reheater, steam absorbs heat
from the products of combustion and has its own temperature increased. Usually, the outlet
temperature is identical to the temperature of the steam leaving the superheater. To maintain
high furnace temperature and boiler efficiency, an air preheater is frequently employed in
boiler design. It is usually installed in the location just before the hot gases leave the steam
generation system. More discussion on these components will be presented later.
The products of combustion are generated in the boiler furnace. The hot gases first
transfer heat to the evaporation section by radiation and convection. Then, these gases exit
the furnace and enter the superheater and the reheater zone. In these zones the gases further
transfer heat away. The basic heat transfer mechanisms are still convection and radiation.
Next along the gas path is the economizer. In the economizer heat is transferred to the feed
water from the gases. Because of the low temperature in the products of combustion,
convective heat transfer is the prevalent mode. In the air preheater, the gas temperature is
further reduced. The lower the gas temperature, the higher the boiler efficiency will be.
However, the gas temperature should not be lower than the dew point of water vapor in the
gases. Any water condensation will give rise to a formation of liquid acid, which results in a
corrosion of the air heater surfaces.
Figure 5-2 illustrates the design of a typical water-tube boiler with natural circulation.
For this type of boiler the capacity varies from 300.000 l/hr to 7.000.000 lb/hr. the steam
conditions are usually subcritical with throttle pressure 1.800 to 2.520 psia and the
temperature around 1000F. The boiler can use coal lignite, oil and natural gas as the fuel. In
case of burning coal or lignite, the boiler firing equipment is either a pulverizer-burner system
or a cyclone furnace. Usually the boiler is completely automatic, including combustion,
steam temperature, and feedwater flow.
The design of a typical once-through boiler is illustrated in figure 5-3. This type of
boiler is usually applied to a large turbine-generation unit size. The generating capacity can
exceed 10.000.000 lb/hr. when the subcritical steam is generated, the conditions are usually
2400 or 2520 psia for throttle pressure and 1000F for throttle temperature. For supercritical
steam, the throttle pressure is 3500 psia or higher. Like the natural-circulation boiler, this type
of boiler can burn coal, lignite, oil, and natural gas. In a once-through boiler the feedwater
pump speed and turbine throttle are used to control the steam flow and steam pressure. Steam
temperature is controlled by the fuel firing rate and the gas tempering. The temperature of
steam leaving the reheater is also important. It is frequently controlled by gas-recirculation

and or attemperation. A further discussion of temperature control is presented later in this

chapter.
\Most central station boilers are equipped with air pollution control system. These often
include an efficient precipitator and sometimes an SO2 removal system. In addition,
sufficient stack height is frequently used to ensure an acceptable level of pollution
concentration in the plants surroundings.