February

2016

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Materials Selection for

2 Machining Processes
Advances in Paints
Steam
and Coatings
Improvements in
Generators:
Seals and Gaskets Standing up to
Managing Small- and
Medium-Sized Projects
Superheater Problems
page 38
Facts at Your
Fingertips:
Weighing Equipment
Focus on Software
and Mobile Apps
 Superheater Problems
in Steam Generators
Knowing the features of a good boiler will
prevent problems associated with a poor design
Cleaver Brooks
Viswanathan

O
il- and gas-fired package steam
Ganapathy generators (or boilers; Figure
Boiler Consultant 1) are used in chemical plants,
power plants, petroleum refiner-
ies and in cogeneration plants to generate
IN BRIEF steam for process and power-generation
OVERVIEW OF THE applications. Steam parameters are typically
PROBLEM in the following ranges: steam flowrate, 40
REASONS FOR TUBE to 200 ton/h; pressure, 30 to 100 barg; and
FAILURE temperatures, 350 to 500ºC. A widespread
problem in several plants is the failure of su-
THREE DECADES OF perheater tubes due to overheating and the
IMPROVEMENTS
reasons can often be traced to either poor
FIGURE 1. A package oil- and gas-fired, D-type boiler in
TYPES OF design or poor operation, or a combination shipment
SUPERHEATERS of the two.
CUSTOM-DESIGNED
emphasis on process and thermal design
BOILERS Overview of the problem aspects and good features a boiler should
In the author’s opinion, based on his inter- have. These topics are somewhat grey to
CONVECTIVE VERSUS national boiler consulting experience over plant engineers, who are more familiar with
RADIANT the last decade, poor design accounts for mundane aspects of a boiler, such as main-
FAILURE ANALYSIS a significant number of problems. It should tenance, operation, repair, welding issues,
be kept in mind that the average life of a refractory pouring, shipping and erection.
boiler, whose cost runs into millions of dol- Engineers tend to concentrate only on such
lars, is more than thirty years, and a well- issues before purchasing a boiler. However,
designed superheater also should last that only an engineer well versed in thermal de-
long. If the plant personnel have to spend sign aspects can quiz the boiler supplier
sleepless nights every few months fixing a about the design details and performance
poorly designed boiler that has frequent su- to ensure the right design has been offered
perheater tube failures, then it is an expen- for purchase rather than a compromised
sive nightmare they have purchased and design that can pose problems later. This is
not a steam generator. more easily said than done.
Some plants are also, unfortunately, The author also advises plants to get a re-
forced to operate their boilers at 40 to 60% view of the steam generator design they plan
capacity instead of at 100% as originally to purchase from a good boiler consultant
envisaged by them, because superheaters before they place the order so that poten-
fail if operated at higher loads. This results tial problem areas are identified before the
in under-utilization of the boiler and sig- equipment is purchased.
nificant financial losses, because the ad- One may wonder if boiler suppliers around
ditional steam has to be generated from the world are not offering well-designed
some other boiler or purchased from an steam generators. A few boiler suppliers still
expensive source. offer designs that are “dated” — designed 30
Education of plant engineers is one to 50 years ago — and are unwilling to im-
way to ensure they become knowledge- prove or modify their design due to the signifi-
able customers and don’t purchase boil- cant engineering expenses and time involved
ers without asking the boiler supplier the in updating their older designs and preparing
right questions. Hence, the author has also new drawings and standards. Also engineers
been conducting courses on boilers with well-versed in thermal and process design
38 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2016
topics may not be available in every boiler ing sections highlight the thermal design
supplier’s company. Unfortunately, many aspects with which plant engineers should
boiler sales engineers still pull out drawings be familiar to avoid selecting a boiler with
of a boiler sold 25–40 years ago (for similar dated design features or with poorly de-
parameters) from their archives and offer the signed superheaters.
dated design to unwitting plant engineers,
who buy them without raising queries on Three decades of improvements
thermal design and performance aspects, Plant engineers should be familiar with some
and live with superheater failures or under of the developments that have taken place
performance for the rest of their lives. I have during the last 30 to 40 years that have
seen this during the last twelve years of my added value to steam generators in terms
international consulting experience. of thermal performance, operating costs and
This article briefly outlines the features of superheater life. If the boiler they are likely to
a good oil- and gas-fired steam generator, buy does not have any of the features listed
mainly of the D-type design, which is very below, they can question the boiler supplier
common in the industry. The features of a or opt for better boiler designs available in
good superheater design and thermal per- the market place.
formance aspects that should be looked into Completely water-cooled furnace. The oil-
are also discussed. The comments hold true and gas-fired steam generators designed 30
for the other boiler designs, too, namely the to 50 years ago did not have to deal with the
A and O-type boilers. problem of emissions regulations, particu-
larly those due to oxides of nitrogen (NOx)
Reasons for tube failures and carbon monoxide. The only concern
There are several reasons for boiler super- was efficiency, and oil- and gas-fired boilers
heater tube failures, including the following: were operating at 5 to 10% excess air.
1. Use of radiant or semi-radiant superheater Also, not much time was spent by many
design exposed to high heat flux from a package-boiler companies in understand-
furnace with low steam-side velocity or ing issues such as DNB (departure from
low steam-side pressure drop; cross-flow nucleate boiling), furnace effectiveness,
or counter-flow design; oversizing, when furnace heat flux and circulation aspects.
steam temperature is around 400–500ºC To protect the regions prone to high heat
2. Carry-over of solids from the drum due flux in the furnace and possible departure
to poorly designed drum internals or poor from nucleate boiling, they simply poured
feed-water or boiler-water quality can re- refractory over the areas such as the fur-
sult in deposition of solids inside super- nace floor, boiler front wall and in some
heater tubes and consequent overheat- regions on the partition wall. Some older
ing. Sometimes the drum size is smaller designs still have a refractory-lined front
than it should be to prevent carryover of wall, which makes it difficult to ensure a
moisture. Load fluctuations leading to leak-proof furnace. Fluegas can leak to the
large fluctuations in steam pressure and atmosphere between the membrane side
drum level also cause carry-over of solids walls and refractory joints and if it contains
from drum vapors of sulfuric acid, this can condense
3. Burners not tuned properly can lead to on the casing to form sulfuric acid resulting
flame impingement on the superheater. If in casing corrosion.
several burners are used, certain combina- Not having a completely water-cooled fur-
tions of burners may result in non-uniform nace also results in underutilization of the
gas flow or temperature distribution at the furnace heating surface by 10 to 20% and
superheater inlet, leading to overheating of an increase in furnace exit-gas temperature
some tubes (FEGT). The higher the FEGT, the higher the
4. Mechanical issues, such as thermal direct radiation to the heating surface lo-
stresses, creep, stress corrosion, erosion cated at the furnace exit, namely the radiant
(due to particulate matter in fluegas) and superheater. Pouring refractory on furnace
compromised tube metallurgy water-cooled surfaces is like buying a long-
As mentioned earlier, a large percentage sleeved shirt in a department store and then
of plant engineers, including the manage- going to a tailor and paying him additional
ment, take it for granted when they buy money to make it a short-sleeve shirt. You
a boiler that the boiler design itself is fine are not only adding to the cost of the boiler,
and the superheater tube failures are only but also wasting a lot of labor and time on
due to operational problems. The follow- annual maintenance of refractory. Refrac-

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2016 39

 Front Back

FIGURE 2. Completely water- tory-lined boilers have to be started up more In order to meet NOx and CO emissions
cooled furnaces, such as the slowly than a water-cooled furnace due to standards of today, steam generators widely
one shown here, help lower
NOx emission and increase
potential formation of cracks in the refractory use fluegas recirculation (FGR) ranging from
furnace effectiveness if started up quickly. 10 to 25% depending on the combustion
The completely water-cooled furnace temperature of the fuel and NOx emission
(Figure 2) has several advantages over re- limits; excess air ranges from 12 to 18% to
fractory-lined boilers, such as lower NOx limit the CO emissions in natural-gas- and
emission rates, better utilization of furnace oil-fired boilers. In a completely water-cooled
surface and lower FEGT. This results in lower furnace that offers a cooler enclosure all
tube-wall temperatures in the heat transfer around the flame, the NOx emissions are
surfaces located downstream of the furnace, lower compared to a refractory-lined boiler.
such as the superheater, which, as a result, Refractory used in the front wall and areas
enjoys longer life. The FEGT is lower due to close to the floor and side walls reradiates
the higher furnace effective area for a given energy back to the flame, increasing NOx
volume of furnace; hence the ratio of net formation. Hence lower FGR is required to
heat input to furnace divided by the effective limit the NOx in a fully water-cooled furnace
furnace area is smaller (Figure 3) [1]. compared to the refractory-lined boiler.
The refractory-lined front wall reradiates Higher excess air and FGR simply in-
energy back to the flame, increasing its local crease the fluegas mass flow through the
temperatures and thus increasing the NOx boiler for the same steam parameters, thus
FIGURE 3. This chart shows levels. A furnace with water-cooled front wall, increasing the fan power consumption. Re-
the effect of heat input side walls and floor, as shown in Figure 2 (left), member that the size of a boiler depends on
divided by effective surface offers a benign enclosure to the flame and the fluegas quantity handled by the boiler
area versus FEGT [sometimes
known as furnace outlet tem- lowers the NOx emissions, besides lowering heating surfaces and not the steam param-
perature (FOT)] the heat flux and area heat-release rate. eters. Custom-designed boiler manufac-
turers consider this fact and redesign their
heating surfaces (by changing tube spac-
1400 ing, increasing the size of economizer) and
1350 ensure high efficiency and low fluegas pres-
sure drop through the unit. Unfortunately, a
1300 few boiler suppliers still offer standard, off-
1250
the-shelf designs selected based on steam
parameters alone, which will have lower ef-
FOT, oC

Gas
1200
Oil
ficiency or higher fan power consumption if
1150
FGR has to be used.
Convective superheater design versus
1100 radiant superheater. Superheaters of boil-
1050
ers designed decades ago were located at
the furnace exit, irrespective of steam tem-
1000
150 200 250 300 250 400 450 500 550 600
perature required; the superheater was in
Neat heat release rate, kW/m2 the radiant zone and hence exposed to high
40 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2016
heat flux and direct radiation from the 3
furnace flame, resulting often in tube 2 Furnace
failures (Figure 4A). These superheaters 1
3
were called radiant superheaters. There 1 2 Furnace
is another option where the superheater
is located in the convection bank itself,
but without a screen. This is called a
semi-radiant superheater (Figure 4B).
Gas out
Present-day designs from a few boiler
FIGURE 4A. Depending on its location, a superheater can be either convective (left) or radiant (right).
suppliers who specialize in custom- The numbers identify the superheater (1), burner (2) and screen, evaporator (3)
designed units, have convective su-
perheaters with a large screen section,
shielding it from direct furnace radiation
(Figure 4C). Burner Furnace
A radiant superheater is not good Gas in

choice for package boilers and is bet-

ter avoided because the superheater
is located in a harsh environment. A Evaporator Evaporator 2 stage SH
radiant superheater receives radiant
energy from the furnace flame, while a
convective superheater is shielded from
furnace radiation because it is located Gas out

in a much cooler region behind several To economizer Desuperheater

rows of screen (evaporator) tubes. FIGURE 4B. A semi-radiant superheater without a screen section is shown here
A number of factors impact the design
and thermal performance of semi-radiant
or radiant superheaters and boiler plant
Burner Furnace
engineers must be aware of them. Only
then can they appreciate the fact that
they are buying a design with great po-
tential for tube overheating and failures.
1. It is difficult to estimate the FEGT ac-
curately. A good boiler designer knows Evaporator 2 stage SH Screen
this. Variations in fuel analysis, excess
air, furnace geometry, burner location
and flame shape to mention a few, af-
fect the FEGT, which in turn directly
Gas out
affects the superheater duty and tube
To economizer
wall temperature. The correlations for Desuperheater
furnace performance are not clearly FIGURE 4C. Shown here is a convective superheater with vertical headers and horizontal tubes lo-
established (like the convective heat- cated beyond the screen section
transfer-coefficient correlations for flu-
id flow inside or outside tubes, which [(1,373)4 versus (1,273)4]. The loga-
you can see in any textbook on heat rithmic mean temperature difference
transfer). FEGT is mainly established (LMTD) in the superheater also will
based on field data of similar boiler be affected, resulting in some uncer-
designs and operating data. Variations tainty in the duty and performance
of 50–120ºC are likely in its estimation, evaluation of the superheater. A high-
which can affect the energy transfer er LMTD than estimated will not only
to the superheater and its tube wall increase the duty of the superheater
temperature. The external radiation but will also increase the heat flux and
energy transferred to the superheater the tube wall temperature.
tubes will also be proportional to the 2. A semi-radiant superheater receives
FEGT to the power of four. One can direct radiation from the furnace and
appreciate the problem if, while esti- depending on the tube spacing-to-
mating the FEGT, the designer comes diameter ratio, the fraction of energy
up with a value like 1,000ºC while in absorbed in each row will vary (Figure
operation it is close to 1,100ºC. The 5). If the superheater tubes are closely
direct radiation will be higher by 35% spaced, then more direct radiation

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2016 41

 1.0 the superheater can have cross flow and a
0.9
portion can have parallel flow and the frac-
24
22
20
tion of each can vary with load. Thus its
0.8 18 performance prediction becomes a guess-
16
14 ing game. One is taking chances with such
0.7
12 a location for the superheater.
0.6 10 5. If the flame shape is not properly set, the
9
flame can lick the first few rows of su-
8
Kn

0.5 perheater facing the furnace. Since the

7

0.4
6 heat-transfer coefficient is much lower
5 inside a superheater tube (about 6 to 10
4
0.3 times lower than that of the evaporator or
3
furnace tubes), the increase in tube wall
0.2 ST
O O 2 No. of rows de
ep n
temperature can be high, leading to tube
O O failures.
0.1 O O 1
Gas flow 6. On the other hand, the convective super-
0 heater is located in a safe region far away
1 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
ST/d from the furnace outlet. The number of
Distribution of external radiation to tubes screen rows (the function of screen tubes
is the same as that of the evaporator) can
FIGURE 5. This chart shows will be absorbed by the superheater in the be as high as 10 to even 40 rows depend-
the distribution of external ra- first two to three rows facing the furnace, ing on steam temperature desired. There
diation from furnace to heat-
ing surfaces at the furnace thus increasing the tube wall temperature are three advantages of using a screen
exit (Kn is fraction of direct in these rows. Typically four to five rows of section. One, the gas temperature drops
radiation absorbed by each tubes absorb the complete external radia- significantly before entering the super-
row and ST is the transverse tion, as seen from the chart in Figure 5. This heater say by 250–500ºF (depending on
spacing of tubes)
adds to the heat flux inside the superheater the number of screen rows) and the heat
tubes. Typically the tube wall temperature flux inside the tubes is significantly lower
can go up by 20 to 40ºC due to external ra- compared to the radiant design. The sec-
diation; at tube wall operating temperatures ond is that the fluegas mixes well beyond
close to 600–650ºC, even a 10ºC increase the turn and becomes uniform before
can result in tube failure. At partial loads, entering the superheater due to the gas
the increase in tube wall temperature will pressure drop in the screen section, and
be higher, as shown in some worked out hence the prediction of superheater per-
examples in Ref. 1. formance is far more reliable, unlike the
3. With uncertainty in the estimation of FEGT, situation for a radiant superheater. Thirdly,
the direct radiation from furnace to the su- the direct radiation contribution from the
perheater is also difficult to predict. While furnace is also avoided as the screen or
evaluating the tube wall temperature in the evaporator tubes pick up the direct radia-
superheater, one has to add the heat flux tion and since the screen or evaporator
arising out of direct radiation, convection tubes have a high-boiling heat-transfer
and non-luminous radiation. The contribu- coefficient inside the tubes (exceeding
tion of direct radiation is a function of the 2,500 Btu/ft2hºF compared to 200–350
location of the tube facing the opening and Btu/ft2hºF for the superheater), the evap-
the tube spacing as shown in Figure 5. It orator tube wall temperature increase is
can be seen that when the tube spacing not a concern at all.
to the convection bank is large, a large 7. A major advantage for the convective su-
amount of energy is sent to the next row perheater is its lower tube-wall tempera-
and so on. The radiant superheater also ture, which results in a longer life com-
absorbs more enthalpy at partial loads pared to the radiant superheater. This is
compared to full load. At low loads, the due to the lower gas-entering temperature
flow distribution on both gas and steam and absence of direct radiation. A simplis-
side will be poor. Hence tube overheating tic tube life calculation below illustrates this
is likely at all loads [1]. point.
4. The turning section where the superheater 8. In heavy-oil-fired boilers, the slag formed
is located adds to non-uniformity in gas due to the melting of ash in fuel oil can
flow, velocity and temperature profiles deposit on a radiant superheater, which
across the superheater, making it difficult is operating at high temperature and can
to predict its performance. A portion of cause high-temperature corrosion failures,
42 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2016
FIGURE 6A. Shown here is a superheater with a vertical tube FIGURE 6B. Two different views of a superheater with a hori-
of inverted loop design zontal tube design

mainly due to vanadium, sodium salts it is an unnecessary risk for steam temper-
and their compounds. The convective su- atures up to 500ºC. High-pressure, high-
perheater can be located where fluegas temperature utility boilers, which operate
temperatures are far below the slagging at 165 kg/cm2g and 540–550ºC with re-
temperature. heat require radiant designs as superheat-
9. Variations in excess air, flame shape or ers, and have to be located in high gas-
FGR will have a lesser effect on steam temperature regions for compactness. But
temperature in a convective superheater package boilers operating at much lower
due to the additional cooling and mixing steam pressures need not have radiant or
in the screen section ahead of the super- semi-radiant superheaters. The author has
heater. designed several hundred units with fully
10. The boiler can be started up faster convective type superheaters which are in
because the gas temperature entering operation around the world without prob-
the superheater will be much lower in a lems since 1990. The only advantage of
convective design compared to the radi- radiant design is that some surface area is
ant design. If the guideline is, say, 600ºC reduced and hence labor costs are lower
maximum at the superheater, then it takes for superheater fabrication, but materials
less time to reach this temperature with are costlier, and shorter life and frequent
a convective superheater. A boiler with failures and repair costs more than com-
a radiant superheater has to be started pensate for this small advantage.
up more slowly to ensure that 550–600ºC
is not reached at the superheater before Types of superheaters
steam starts flowing through the super- Basically two types of superheater designs
heater. are available for package boilers and are
Hence the radiant or semi-radiant super- widely used. One is the inverted loop super-
heater design should be avoided if possible heater (Figure 6A), and the other is the hori-
for a longer life of superheater and trouble- zontal tube superheater (Figure 6B).
free operation as it poses more risks com- Inverted loop. In the inverted loop design,
pared to a convective superheater. the inlet and exit steam headers are hori-
This is not to say that all boilers with zontal and located inside or outside the
radiant superheaters will have problems gas path; baffle plates are used at appro-
in operation. Good radiant superheaters priate places in the header to obtain the
are designed with better materials, steam necessary number of streams (or tubes
flow arrangement (referring to whether carrying the total steam flow) in order to
it is the primary or intermediate stage of optimize the steam-side pressure drop.
superheating, and flow direction, whether If 100,000 lb/h is the steam flowrate and
parallel or counter flow) and high tube-side there are six tubes on each header (12
mass velocities and steam-side pressure across the boiler bank width) and, say, 20
drops to ensure trouble-free operation, but rows deep (along gas flow direction) and

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2016 43

 40 wrong selection of this parameter [2].
35
Horizontal tube. In the horizontal-tube su-
perheater design, vertical headers are used;
Stress, × 1,000 psi

30
the number of tubes in each row (or a mul-
25 tiple of it) can be the number of streams.
20 Central inlet and exit nozzles are preferred
15 for steam inlet or exit.
T22
A superheater configuration can be par-
10 T11 allel-flow or counter-flow or cross-flow and
0 with single or multi-stages with intermediate
32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
LMP parameter (T + 460) (20 + log t)/1,000 desuperheating for steam temperature con-
trol. Performance calculations will reveal the
FIGURE 7. This plot of stress 24 streams are required to meet the ve- best option for the superheater and are done
versus LMP for T11,T22 ma- locity and pressure drop considerations, on a case-by-case basis, as illustrated in ex-
terials is useful for predicting
then there will be a baffle after the 4 th row amples in the references.
the life of a superheater (T is
in the inlet header (6 × 4 = 24 streams),
the temperature in °F, t the life
in h, and LMP is the Larson after the 8 th row in the outlet header, after Custom designed boilers
Miller Parameter [1]) the 12 th row in the inlet header and so on. The concept of custom-designed boilers
Selection of streams for the superheater started evolving around the 1980s when
is a very important task and many super- emissions of NOx and CO were regulated
heater failures have been attributed to a and new boilers were required to adhere to
limits on these pollutants. Fluegas recircu-
lation was one method used to limit NOx
TABLE 1. TUBE GEOMETRY OF BOILER WITH RADIANT SUPERHEATER
and excess air and low-NOx burners with
Section Screen Superheater Evaporator Economizer staged combustion were introduced. Even
Tube OD, in. 2.0 2.0 2.0 2 today, several boiler suppliers offer what
Thickness, in. 0.120 0.200 0.120 0.120 are called “standard, off-the-shelf pack-
Tubes/row 12 12 12 16 age boilers” with low cost. However, a few
boiler suppliers also offer what are called
Rows deep 2 16 72 12
custom-designed boilers, which consider
Length, ft 9 8.5 9 15 the impact of fluegas flow on boiler perfor-
Transverse pitch, in. 5 4.8 5 4 mance and optimize the design for lower
Longitudinal pitch 4 4 4 4 operating cost and better efficiency. This
Streams 24 8 is done by manipulating the boiler bank
spacing, length of evaporator tubes, su-
Material Sa 178a T22 Sa 178a Sa 178a
perheater location, number of screen
Flow direction Counter Counter tubes, economizer fin optimization and so
Fins/in. × height × thickness 5 × 0.75 × on. Custom-designed units can lower fan
0.05 power consumption and also ensure long
Surface area, ft2 113 855 4,072 16,417 superheater life. When the degree of steam
superheat is, say, only 5 to 10ºC, the su-
TABLE 2. TUBE GEOMETRY OF BOILER WITH CONVECTIVE SUPERHEATER perheater may be located between the
Section Screen Superheater Evaporator Economizer evaporator and economizer. A great flexibil-
ity thus exists in custom-designed boilers.
Tube OD, in 2.0 2.0 2.0 2
The author is even aware of a case where
Thickness, in 0.120 0.15 0.120 0.12 a customer wanted only 20ºC of superheat
Tubes/row 12 12 12 16 and the boiler supplier had no idea how to
Rows deep 13 24 53 12 handle such a low degree of superheat and
Length, ft 9 8.5 9 15 suggested to the plant to purchase a sepa-
rately fired superheater. This clearly shows
Transverse pitch, in 5 4.8 5 4
that not many boiler suppliers can custom-
Longitudinal pitch 4 4 4 4 design boilers for a difficult and challenging
Streams 24 8 boiler application.
Material Sa 178a T22 Sa 178a Sa 178a Several examples of custom-designed
Flow direction Counter Counter boiler applications that have created value
for end users may be seen in the references
Fins/in × height × thickness 5 × 0.75 ×
0.05
cited. A standard off-the-shelf boiler is like a
ready-made garment, it may fit you well or
Surface area, ft2 735 1,065 2,997 16,417
not, whereas a custom-designed boiler is
44 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2016
like a tailor-made dress that fits perfectly. TABLE 3. PERFORMANCE OF BOILER WITH AND WITHOUT FGR
Designs of standard boilers were devel- Item Radiant Convective Radiant su- Convective
oped several decades ago when there were super- superheater perheater superheater
no emission regulations. As mentioned ear- heater
lier The FGR and excess air rates will vary Excess air,% 15 15 15 15
with type of fuel, combustion temperature, Fluegas Recirculation rate,% 0 0 20 20
NOx and CO emission limits, and hence,
Steam temp. at 100% load,±10ºF 807 812 777 800
two boilers with identical steam parameters
may differ in size depending on the total flu- SH tube wall temperature, ±10ºF 1,085 1,020 1,030 990
egas quantity flowing through the unit. Stan- Gas temp to superheater, ±10ºF 2,379 1,980 2,138 1,828
dard boiler suppliers have fewer options to Gas temp to evaporator, ±10ºF 1,897 1478 1,762 1,420
choose from and one has to carefully review Gas temp to economizer, ,±10ºF 795 823 809 834
the efficiency, fan power consumption and
Gas temp leaving eco, ,±10ºF 300 300 320 324
overall performance.
Efficiency, % HHV 84.27 84.27 83.6 83.5
Convective versus radiant superheaters Steam temperature@ 50% load 815 767 814 785
In order to understand how boilers with radi-
ant versus convective superheaters differ in from direct radiation from the furnace. By
performance, an example is now presented. using a slightly higher tube thickness, the
Design and operating parameters. A same superheater material can be used for
boiler is designed to deliver 137,000 lb/h of both the radiant and convective design.
steam at 720 psig and 800ºF, with a feed- 2. The life of the superheater is significantly
water temperature of 230ºF. Fuel is natural reduced due to an increase in tube wall
gas (90% methane, 5% ethane and 5% ni- temperature. Let us estimate the life as-
trogen). Tables 1 and 2 show the tube ge- suming the boiler operates at 100% load
ometry that is used for both designs. The all the time. Figure 7, showing the stress
radiant superheater is located at the turn- versus Larson Miller Parameter (LMP), is
ing section as shown in Figure 4B, while used to estimate the life [1].
the convective superheater is located sev- First estimate the operating stress, which
eral rows downstream of the screen sec- is given by the relation: Stress = pressure ×
tion (Figure 4C). The superheated steam radius/thickness.
temperature is uncontrolled as variations For the radiant superheater: Stress = 720
up to ±20°F are accepted by the plant. × 1/0.2 = 3,600 psi. From Figure 6, the LMP
Furnace dimensions are the same for both corresponding to this value is 39. The absolute
options, namely 30-ft long, 8.5-ft high and tube-wall temperature is found by T = 1,085 +
7-ft wide, and is a completely water-cooled 460 = 1,545ºR. 39,000/1,545 = 25.24 = (20 +
furnace. The same economizer is used in log t) or t = 174,000 h or about 22 yr.
both options. The only difference is in the For the convective superheater: Stress =
tube thickness of the superheater and the 720 × 1/0.15 = 4,800 psi. LMP = 38.3. T
number of rows of screen and evaporator. = 1,020 + 460=1,480°R. 38,300/1,480 =
Excess air used is 15% and no fluegas re- 25.87 = (20 + log t) or t=743,000 h or more
circulation is used in the basic design. The than 92 yr.
same boiler is likely to operate with 20% Though this is a simplistic method of esti-
fluegas recirculation (FGR) later. The per- mation of potential lifespan, it shows that the
formance for both designs was calculated life of the convective design is much longer
and the results are presented in Table 3 than that of the radiant design, due to the
(Design and off-design calculation meth- lower operating temperatures.
ods for superheaters and tube-wall tem- 3. The surface area of the convective super-
perature are detailed in Ref. 2). heater is much larger and hence costlier,
Discussions on the two designs. The fol- but considering the low operating tube-
lowing points may be noted from Table 3. wall temperature, it is considered a bet-
1. Though the steam temperature is nearly ter design. The author has seen several
the same at 100% load for both the radi- superheaters with radiant design fail in a
ant and convective designs, the tube wall short period due to overheating. Frequent
temperature for the radiant design is about repairs and shutdowns are expensive and
1,085ºF versus 1,020ºF for the convective impacts the cost of business. As men-
design. This is due to the higher gas tem- tioned earlier, there are non-uniformities
perature (nearly 400ºF) entering the radiant in gas temperatures and fluegas flows
superheater and with some contribution entering the superheater, particularly if it

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2016 45

 p concerns with this design:
p Friction loss
• Superheater location is at the turn around
Total loss section at the furnace exit with uncertain
Total loss
h gas flow pattern and non-uniformity in flu-
0 egas flow and gas temperatures
p
Gravity loss p m1 m2 Mass loss • It is a single-pass cross-flow design with
Friction loss low steam-mass velocity inside the tubes
Gravity loss
0 Mass loss m1 Ambiguous region
and hence low steam-side pressure drop
–p • The superheater is facing the furnace and
Upward flow Downward flow
hence has direct radiation from the furnace
in addition to convective and non-luminous
FIGURE 8. Flow versus pres- is located at the turning section. Hence, heat fluxes
sure drop in upward- and prediction of its performance and tube wall • Low steam-side pressure drop impacts
downward-flowing tubes
temperature is less accurate compared to the downward flow of steam in long tubes,
that of the convective design. When buy- as explained below
ing new boilers, plant engineers should One of the problems with tall inverted-
give preference to designs with convective loop superheaters is the effect of steam-
superheaters and be aware of the likely side pressure drop at low loads as shown
problems with a radiant design. At par- in Figure 8 when steam flow is in the vertical
tial loads, the steam flow inside the tubes downward direction.
also will have a non-uniformity due to low When steam flows upward, both the
steam pressure drop and this can also add gravity loss and friction loss are additive
to the increase in tube wall temperature in and hence their sum is always positive and
certain tubes. the total pressure loss versus flow curve is
4. Effect of adding FGR: As far as the steam monotonic [2].
temperature is concerned, the variation In the downward flow section, at low
in steam temperature is much larger be- loads, the enthalpy pick up will be higher
tween 100 and 50% loads with a radiant in a radiant superheater compared to a
superheater compared to the convective convective one (due to the contribution of
design, where the screen section damp- furnace radiation) and the density of steam
ens the large variations in fluegas flow decreases and hence lower gravity loss.
and temperature. As steam flow increases, the specific vol-
ume reaches a steady value and the steam
Failure analysis density also will be higher while friction loss
The author was asked to investigate fre- increases as the square of flow. The total
quent tube-failure problems in an inverted- loss curve will have two operating points as
loop superheater with cross-flow design as shown at low loads while at higher loads
shown in Figure 6A. This boiler could nei- the total loss curve is monotonic and hence
ther be operated near 90–100% load nor stagnation is not a concern. This trend is
at lower than 40% load, as tube failures exhibited with a convective superheater
would occur. This is a poor superheater also, but due to lower gas temperatures
design to start with and the author would at lower loads, the tubes are much safer.
FIGURE 9. The problem of tube have advised the plant against purchasing Hence superheaters of inverted-loop de-
failures discussed in the text
was solved with baffles and a this boiler and to go for a design with a con- sign should be designed with a reasonably
parallel flow design vective superheater. There were a few major high steam-side pressure drop, which en-
sures gravity loss is not low enough at low
+ Superheated steam out
loads to cause flow stagnation or ambigu-
ity in flow. A “safe” pressure drop is arrived
at in the design stage at 100% load based
on steam pressure, height of superheater
tubes and steam pressure. One has to also
Gas flow Gas flow
perform partial-load calculations and ensure
flow stagnation will not be an issue. Unfor-
Upper
tunately, many boiler designers do not un-
+ header derstand this, and design superheaters with
a low steam-side pressure drop resulting in
Lower tube failures at low loads.
+ header
Solution. Nothing much could be done
+
Saturated steam in Saturated steam in Saturated steam out
about the location of the superheater. It was
Mud drum present design Suggested modification determined through calculations that the
46 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2016
superheater was designed with a ture region into the cooler gas- granted. Plant engineers should
low steam pressure drop resulting in temperature region, thus limiting look at designs of custom-designed
overheating of the tubes over a wide the tube wall temperatures. boilers and learn about their features
load range due to a low tube-side However, it should be noted that and advantages and not simply buy
heat-transfer coefficient and direct to begin with, the design could a boiler because the same design
radiation from the furnace. At lower have been avoided. The best op- has been offered by the boiler com-
loads, the problem became worse, tion would have been to purchase a pany for five decades. n
as there was stagnation in some convective superheater with a large Edited by Gerald Ondrey
tubes due to the gravity head loss screen section with several advan-
being higher than the steam pres- tages as cited earlier. References
sure drop, as explained earlier. The 1. Ganapathy, V., ”Industrial Boilers and HRSGs,” CRC
boiler could be operated only in a Concluding remarks Press, Florida, 2003.
narrow range of load and even then Plants invest several million dollars 2. Ganapathy, V., ”Steam Generators and Waste Heat
Boilers for Process and Plant Engineers,” CRC Press,
tube failures were rampant. in steam generators and should re- Florida, 2015.
The author reviewed the design and view if a particular design is good in
introduced a baffle in the inlet header, the long run. Even if the superheater Author
thereby making the superheater a runs well, the higher tube wall tem- Viswanathan Ganapathy is a
two-pass design with parallel flow perature limits the life as shown boiler consultant from Chennai,
India (v_ganapathy@yahoo.
configuration (Figure 9). This modifica- earlier. A convective superheater com), who specializes in thermal
tion brought in several advantages. design should be preferred. Though design and performance as-
1. The steam-side pressure drop in- the steam generator may be slightly pects. He has over 40 years of
experience in the thermal design
creased eight times, which was more expensive, it pays off in the and performance aspects of
still acceptable to the plant. The long run due to lower maintenance steam generators and waste-
heat boilers. He has authored
cooling effect of steam was much and repair costs. Plants should also over 250 articles on boiler-related subjects that have
better and there were no concerns hire a consultant to review the boiler been published in a number of U.S., Indian and U.K.
about stagnation at low loads. design from a thermal and process magazines. He has also authored several books and
conducts courses on boilers. He graduated from the
2. The parallel flow configuration took viewpoint instead of simply tak- Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras with a degree in
away the higher steam tempera- ing the boiler suppliers’ words for mechanical engineering.

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