August 14, 2013 REPORT ON SHUT DOWN INSPECTION OF 45 TPH HLL BOILER By K.K.

Parthiban, Venus energy audit system The boiler was under shut condition for the following jobs. It is a major shut down taken after experiencing the steam generation problem. The following works were taken up in this shut down. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Replacement of all the existing Bed Coils with New Replacement of existing Top module APH Tubes with New Replacement of damaged 12 Nos Economizer Coils with new coils. Replacement of damaged Super heater coils with new coils. Replacement of existing Fuel Feed Lines with new Entire Refractory & Insulation replacement. ESP Internal Checking & Rectification job All ID, FD & PA Fan Inspection and rectification work along with Damper modification & Alignment Work. 9. Deaerator Internal Inspection Works. Status of work at the time of visit The bed coil fit up work was completed. Final welding was under progress. APH top block tube fit up work was complete. The welding work was under progress. Economiser coil fit up work was complete and the welding work was under progress. Superheater coil replacement work was completed. Deaerator internal inspection work was completed and a new equaliser line was provided. ID fan damper to power cylinder connection work was complete as per earlier recommendation. Refractory work was pending as the boiler hydrotest was to be completed after the tube joint welding work was under progress. Remaining works were under progress.

Observations during shut down inspection and action plan The boiler was shut already before the visit as mentioned above. The various parts of the boilers were inspected by our engineers and by undersigned. Engineer reports as per our standard observation schedules, are attached in annexure 2. Undersigned observations are attached in annexure 1. The following is the summary of observations and actions to be taken by plant engineers for improving the life and performance of the boiler. 1. Coal nozzle cap geometry It is seen that over the period, new coal nozzles were not purchased. Only old nozzles are being replaced with new caps. At least once in 5 years, the total assembly needs to be replaced to avoid excessive distortion and rework at cap support lugs. Invariable this results in improper level & height of the cap. See the figure in annexure 1. Maintain the critical dimensions as per the sketch

shown in annexure 1. The window height should be 40 mm as marked in the drawing. The caps should be erected to spirit level. 2. Fuel cross erosion This problem was referred many times from many sites which work on high ash coal. The fuel pipe has to be in spirit level. Apart from this we can modify the pipe and flange connection as shown in photo 2 in annexure. The thickness of gaskets in fuel line shall be just 1.5 mm. as such both the flanges are well machined already. Even any sealant should work better. There should be no mismatch in ID. 3. Economiser inlet gas duct support The expansion joint above economiser casing is seen cracked and distorted. This was seen earlier also. This time it was noticed that the economiser top duct weight is taken by the expansion joint as there was no support. See drawing attached in photo 3. The economiser column shall be extended as shown and a sliding support shall be provided for the duct. The economiser duct must be jacked up with a temporary jack bolt arrangement shown in the drawing, so that the load on the expansion bellow is released. 4. Boiler penthouse gas leakage and corrosion of casing The penthouse corrosion was informed in earlier inspection. The use of high moisture and sulfur containing imported coal leads to higher corrosion. It was earlier suggested to apply plaster of paris over the insulation. Now the superheater coils were replaced and hence the insulation mattresses were already removed. Hence while fitting back the insulation, POP finish shall be done. This will help persons to walk over without damaging the insulation. Usually 10 mm thick coating is applied. The roof must be brushed off and black bitumen paint shall be applied to avoid further corrosion. It is even recommended to insulate the penthouse casing walls from inside by a 50 mm thick insulation mattress. This can be again finished with Plaster of paris. The openings in the penthouse due to steam pipe, vent pipe and drain pipes shall be sealed better with the suggestion given in the annexure. The inspection door at penthouses shall be either fully welded or sealed with M seal or be flanged. The hand holes doors of headers shall be provided with metal box as shown in figure in annexure.

5. Boiler under capacity problem revealed In December 2012, undersigned visited the plant to diagnose the steam generation problem. Boiler was not generating required steam. The ID fan damper operating cylinder was full open. There was a linkage problem. In addition the APH tube leakage was identified by Oxygen measurement. It was advised to replace the upper APH block tubes. This time the tubes are being replaced. The

failed tubes were seen and operational logs were reviewed since June 2009. The following are the comments and suggestions. APH failure is related to fuel moisture. With rice husk, the moisture is more and ash is less. With imported coal, moisture is more and ash is less. Plugging and condensation of gas inside the upper block will be experienced. Since the air flow meter is fitted before APH, the air ingress will not be known. Only O2 measurement will reveal the short circuiting of air. The air bypassing had reached a level that bottom temperatures had started falling down due inadequate fluidization air. It the last phase, compartment operation was resorted to. The APH tubes plugging aggravated as the flue moisture started condensing more inside APH tubes and at top duct. The fallen rust flakes had aggravated choking of APH tubes. ESP casing failure has added another area for ID fan loading. The manhole area is seen corroded. This was identified in earlier shut down inspection about 2 years back. Boiler penthouse adds additional air externally causing worn O2 indication and affects combustion as we get misguided by the O2 shown with infiltration.

To avoid future problems, the following are suggested. Timely replacement of APH tubes APH tubes particularly the upper block must be replaced once in 3 years or so. The leakage can be known if the O2 % increases across APH. Once O2 rise crosses 2%, APH tubes must be replaced. Providing anubar flow measurement downstream of APH Anubar can be used downstream of the APH to know the air decrease over a period. Another anubar may be used in place of airfoil meter at APH inlet to save FD fan power. Some Chinese CFBC boilers are seen with anubar instruments only for air flow. Some plants have started replacing the air foil meter with hot wire anemometer / averaging anubar. ESP casing repair and insulation a) Inspection doors sealing ropes must be replaced whenever the doors are opened. b) The outer door housing must be seal welded to casing. c) There has to be insulation packing between the inner and outer door so that the inner door does not condense the flue gas. Awkward ducting and draft loss across ESP APH to ESP inlet ducting is awkward. It has multiple bends in the duct. Having two bends in series leads to recirculation zones and high local velocities. This duct is seen with high erosion rate. The APH to ESP inlet duct can be made simpler as done in cement plants. The ESP& ducting pressure drop is around 60 mmWC now. Usually this will be about 35 mmWC maximum. The ducting can be redesigned if work order is given. The ESP inlet funnel has to be changed so that the gas enters at the top. Duct sizing of 1.5 x 1 m is quite OK for service.

Economiser to APH gas duct This duct causes erosion of O2 analyser probe. The gas flow is not smooth here. The duct can be modified as suggested earlier and now also. The modification suggested in shown in annexure. 6. Drag chain feeder pin & chain break down Initially drag chain feeders were not there. On husk firing modifications, the drag chain feeders have been added. Now husk firing is stopped as it cause erosion and burning of ESP electrodes. The drag chain feeder speed is found to be high. The motor speed is 1400. The gearbox reduction ratio is 43.3. The sprocket ratio is 58/66. With this the rpm of drag chain feeder hear sprocket will be 28.41 rpm. With sprocket diameter of 280 mm, the linear speed of drag chain will be pi*0.28*28.41 = 25 meters per minute. This is too high. VFD must be installed to bring down the rpm to 1/6th. Rice husk bulk density is 125 kg/m3 and coal bulk density is 800 kg/m3/ This is about 6.44 times. Hence the rpm must be brought down 5 rpm by a combination of VFD and sprockets. Once the speed comes down by X times, the life will increase by X^2 times. 7. Thermocouple height from bed plate Thermocouples are to be at 175 mm from DP plates at all places. Only in startup compartment one or two thermocouple can be at 350 mm above DP for startup purpose. Another 2 thermocouples have to be at 175 mm from DP. The carrier pipe can be up to 150 mm from DP. 8. Steam drum color and iron control from process condensate Steam drum, mud drum and bank tubes are seen with reddish iron deposits. There is sign of carryover of iron powder. Since the turbine is a back pressure turbine there is no problem seen. However the deposits can cause water tube failures in the coming years. It is advised to take the following steps. Iron dispersant Short term on line dosage of iron dispersant can be attempted to remove the scales inside the tube inner surfaces. The dosage has to be 10 20 ppm and loose iron has to be removed from bed coil headers, by short term blow down. The load has to be reduced to 30 TPH during this period. The chemical is sold by Ion exchange. The chemical dosage and blow down has to be done only for two days. Iron measurement Total Iron measurement ( suspended and dissolved iron ) was advised two years back. This is no done yet. The iron is being trapped by a magnet placed inside the strainer in the condensate return line. The magnet was covered iron powder when it was opened. Further free space was not

available to trap the suspended magnet. It is advised to purchase higher size magnet. Also think of a duplex strainer so that iron admission to boiler can be reduced. Iron powder can cause tube failures. 9. Air cooled beam for front refractory wall and rear refractory wall This was suggested in the previous inspection. There is scope for doing us. This engineering work can be done is work order is given. 10. Use of secondary air The secondary air port is located close to superheater. This is of no use. Already the air is being admitted in the air cooled beam, which is a better arrangement for overbed combustion of unburnt gases. It is advised to dummy the duct. 11. Fan bearing problem The ambient condition is so dusty that the bearings are submerged in ash. It is advised to provide a hood close to plummer block and supply cold air from FD fan discharge to prevent dust ingress in to bearing. This is just like MCC rooms are maintained under positive pressure. 12. Rice husk bunker to be used as coal bunker The above is possible. But the feeders are oversized. The feeders are provided with double sprocket arrangement. The chain has to be shifted. Coal feeder has to be smaller as in the old coal bunker. Otherwise excess coal feed would take place. 13. NRV removal in steam piping to deaerator The NRV in steam supply line to deaerator shall be removed. It will free the steam supply to deaerator. At present bypass valve is opened to get the steam. 14. Flash steam recovery Flash steam recovery is used if the feed water contains high TDS / if the boiler water TDS is to be controlled to very less levels as in high pressure boiler. In HLL boiler the source of TDS is from the process. If money is spent on purification of condensate, blow down will not be there. EARLIER SUGGESTIONS GIVEN 1. It is observed that the PA fan delivery duct is small as compared to suction side. It appeared that there was a modification of PA fan delivery duct due to shifting of PA fan foundation. The present delivery duct is seen to be 320 x 460 mm, which is nothing but the PA fan discharge opening size. The PA fan suction duct size is 400 x 800 mm. The duct size shall be enlarged in such a manner that the c/s area is 0.32 m2.

2. Steam drum is seen with scope for improvement. The flange joints of cyclones are seen improper. There is water leakage direct to drier section. The steam drier unit is not seal welded to steam drum. See photo 11. This must be sealed. The baffle box can be fully welded type. 3. The Feed water & boiler water quality continues to be bad. The corrosion product from process is being transported to boiler. Process condensate has to be analyzed and relevant condensate treatment plant has to be installed. Mostly a magnetic filter should solve this problem. 4. The spoilt insulation at deaerator head shall be shall be replaced. Corrosion can lead to catastrophe. 5. The shields at economiser top coils were found eroded at three coils counting from APH side. See photo 17. The shields shall be replaced. 6. The economiser top coil shields shall be extended at bends in order to have complete protection. See photo 22. Also see photo 18, for the unshielded area in the economiser. 7. The gas baffle at economiser bend area was seen incomplete at casing. Additional plates shall be added as pointed out in photo 32 of annexure. This is just above the bottom bank. Also see the photo 22. 8. It is advised to conduct metallography study of steam drum & mud drum plates that are exposed in flue path. 9. It appears that the economiser inlet duct flange joints have not been seal welded. See photo 24. It is advised to check the air ingress once the boiler goes on line. On a shut down, evidence for air ingress is to be seen. 10. The crack in Economiser inlet gas duct expansion joint shall be repaired. The expansion joint shall be insulated to prevent gas condensation. See photo 25. The expansion joint is also damaged inside due to erosion. See photo 23. Local repair is advised. 11. The Economiser to APH duct is seen with a horizontal duct. It was seen that the expansion joint had failed by erosion. This is to be repaired here. The duct shall be modified to avoid ash settling in this duct. See photo 34. See figure 2 & 3 in annexure. Ash settling leads to increased gas velocity and that can be a cause for failure of expansion joint. 12. The ESP expansion joints being replaced are of single bellow design. This is not right. The expansion joint is required to take a compression as well as a lateral shift.

K.K.Parthiban

ANNEXURE 1 : KKP OBSERVATIONS

Photo 1: PA fan 1B casing internal stiffener to be strength welded. The weld is seen cracked.

Photo 2: The Coal pipe flange connection with cross shall be flushed welded as shown. Since there is step formation, there can be more erosion. The thickness of the gasket shall be as minimum as possible.

Photo 3: The gap between the flange and the pipe edge can be causing a local turbulence. This may be a reason for erosion of the fuel line cross.

Photo 4: The expansion joint in gas path should always be insulated. The stagnant flue gas condenses and leads to failure at some point of time. There is a crack at the corner of this expansion joint.

Photo 5: The economiser bellow is distorted.

Photo 6: The economiser inlet gas duct is loading the expansion joint. A sliding support is suggested below.

Photo 7: The economiser support column has to be extended on all four sides. See support suggestion in next photo.

Photo 8: The economiser duct shall be supported as shown. Jacking the duct is necessary as shown in the sketch.

Photo 7: It is seen that the penthouse plates are corroding. This happens due to flue gas leakage from the refractory / insulation below. It is advised to apply Plaster of Paris over the entire insulation mattress. Further hessian cloth can be applied and black bitumen coating can be given. Casing must be painted with HR bitumen paint / HR aluminium paint.

Photo 8: The POP can seal the gas leakage. This kind of POP is applied over the TG housing.

Photo 9: The inspection door at penthouse shall be sealed better by seal weld / flanged joint.

Photo 10: There are pipe openings in the penthouse these shall be sealed in a manner suggested by us.

Photo 11: This is our suggestion to reduce the air ingress in to the penthouse.

Photo 12: The openings provided for expansion movement points shall be closed to reduce the air ingress.

Photo 13: The hand hole plate at penthouse shall be closed as shown in a sketch below.

Photo 14: Provide an end cover to hand hole plate as shown.

Photo 15: The APH to ESP gas duct is with multiple bends. That is the second bend is immediately after the first bend. And there are two just bends causing high erosion rate and maintenance in the ducting. This duct can be modified with top inlet. For the present the inner bend can be made bevelled to reduce the erosion effect.

Photo 16: Bevelled duct is recommended at two places.

Photo 17: the NRV flap shall be removed in the steam line to deaerator. Low pressure and low steam flow can not lift the disc. Further there is one source of steam supply to deaerator.

Photo 18: It is suggested to have a air cooled beams in front wall and rear above the manhole for better stability and for less work during bed coil replacement & for better refractory stability.

Photo 19: The economiser to APH gas duct needs modification at bottom, so that ash flows freely in to ash hoppers without settling in the duct.

Photo 20: The Eco to APH duct shall be modified as per suggestion below. The modification zone is shown here.

Photo 21: The bottom portion of gas duct between the Economiser and APH hopper shall be modified as below.

Photo 22: At some places, bends are not protected. Additional baffles shall be installed for protection. The impingement shields should extent up to the gas baffle. Cable trays of 100 mm width can be used as perforated baffle.

Photo 23: The ESP inspection doors are not closed properly. The air ingress is leading to corrosion of doors.

Photo 24: The same is the case with other inspection doors. It is advised to properly seal the door. It is advised to put an insulation mattress in between the doors to keep the inner door warmer.

Photo 25: The ESP casing insulation with sealant at insulation cladding joint. This prevents rain water entry in to casing and thus corrosion can be prevented.

Photo 26: The APH inspection door shall be provided insulated box door to prevent moisture condensation.

Photo 27: Inspection doors on gas side have to be as shown in above sketch to prevent gas moisture condensation.

Photo 28 & 29: The top photo shows iron oxides inside the drum. The magnet in the process condensate strainer is too small. Sophisticated iron removal system is recommended to remove the iron ingress. This is to avoid boiler tube failure and reduce blow down losses in the boiler.

Photo 30: The top photo inside of the deaerator. There is iron oxide mark indicating the NWL. This level is OK. The overflow line is of no use in high pressure deaerator.

Photo 31: The dump valve is to be connected to the drain line and not to overflow line. In fact over flow line is not usable as steam would come in that line.

Photo 32: Deaerator must be provided with stand pipe and provide level switches for high and low levels.

Photo 33: The SA system air supply lines shall be cut. SA ports are at very high level and can only dilute the flue gas and result in higher O2.

Photo 34 & 35: The APH tubes are crumbling due to hand pressure itself, indicating they area corroded beyond use. Timely replacement of APH tubes will avoid problem of under capacity.

Photo 36: Averaging anubar can be used to save energy in FD fan. This is recommended for air duct after APH.

Photo 37: The drawing shows the recommended perforated gas baffles for economiser below and above banks to reduce erosion of end tubes and bend tubes. The gas baffles shall be provided both at top and bottom of the bank at a distance of 25 mm as shown here. The plate thickness is 6 mm. The baffles have to be in 1 m lengths only. See further detail below in the next photo.

Photo 38: This photo shows the baffle location for end tube. In the same manner the baffle is provided below the tube also at the bottom of the economiser.

Photo 39: The power cylinder link work at ID fan is seen to be good.

Photo 40: The fan bearing housing shall be provided with closely fitted hood and with air connection from FD fan. This will keep the dust away in economical way.

Photo 41: The drag chain feeder has to be provided with higher reduction ratio at sprockets. Further VFD is recommended for all the drag chain feeders to increase the life of the chain.