Feature Report

Performance Prediction for

Industrial Boilers
Understanding boiler performance calculations can allow engineers to improve the
operation of their facility’s steam system and better engage with boiler-system vendors

C
Cleaver Brooks
Viswanathan hemical plants, petroleum refiner-
Ganapathy ies, power plants and cogenera-
Boiler consultant tion systems use oil-and-gas-fired
steam generators, fluid heaters and
waste-heat boilers of various types. Under-
IN BRIEF standing how a boiler behaves with variations
in parameters such as capacity, fluegas flow,
DATA FOR BOILER
inlet gas temperature or steam pressure can
PURCHASES
help plant engineers evaluate boilers better
BASIC ENERGY- and understand why failures occur in crucial
TRANSFER EQUATIONS boiler components, such as superheaters,
WHICH COEFFICIENT evaporators or economizers. Also, better un-
GOVERNS U? derstanding of boiler behavior can help plant
engineers identify the reasons for decreases
TWO CALCULATION
in efficiency. Figures 1 and 2 show heat-re-
CATEGORIES
covery steam generators (HRSGs) of natural- FIGURE 1. Shown here is a modular heat-recovery steam gen-
OFF-DESIGN and forced-circulation designs behind gas erator (HRSG) system at a chemical manufacturing facility
CALCULATION METHODS turbines. Figure 3 shows a typical fire tube the operations group or to the plant operating
EVAPORATOR boiler used in a chemical plant and Figure 4 parameters. In other cases, the plant may not
PERFORMANCE shows an oil-and-gas fired steam generator. get a timely reply from the equipment vendor
In many of today’s cases, plant engineers if the problem occurs several years after the
CHALLENGING THE
rush to the vendor who supplied the equip- equipment is installed.
HRSG VENDOR
ment to ask opinions and get repair help, even Because boiler calculations are quite in-
CONCLUDING REMARKS if the boiler component is only experiencing volved, many plant engineers are unable or
minor performance problems. In this scenario, unwilling to undertake them on their own.
the vendor company is not likely to find faults For many engineers, the basic heat-transfer
with its own equipment design, even if there principles covered in university degree pro-
are flaws present. Rather, the vendor is likely grams are forgotten once they leave the insti-
to divert the attention of the plant engineers to tution behind for an industry job. This article

NOMENCLATURE
A Surface area, ft2 (subscripts i and o refer T Temperature of hot fluid, °F (subscripts 1
to inside and outside) and 2 indicate temperature at inlet and exit,
C-factor Thermal conductance factor Cmin/Cmax respectively)
Cmin, Cmax (WCp)min , (WCp)max t Temperature of cold fluid, °F (subscript s is
Cp Specfic heat (subscript g for gas, s for for saturation temperature)
steam, w for water) ∆T Temperature difference, °F (log-mean tem-
d Tube diameter, in. (subscript i for inside) perature difference, LMTD)
Fg Factor considering gas properties used in U Overall heat-transfer coefficient, Btu/ft2h°F
heat transfer coefficient calculation (subscripts i and o for inside and outside, c
h Heat transfer coefficient, Btu/ft2h°F (sub- for corrected)
scripts i for inside, o for outside, c for con- ε Effectiveness, used in NTU method
vective, n for non-luminous) η fin effectiveness, fraction
K Constant used in simplified equations con- Q Duty, Btu/h (subscripts c for convective, r
sidering tube geometry data (subscript m for external radiation, n for non-luminous)
denotes thermal conductivity of tube metal W Total flow, lb/h (subscripts i for inside, o for
at operating temperature) outside, h and c for hot and cold fluids)
k Thermal conductivity of fluid, Btu/ft h°F w Flow per tube, lb/h

58 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JUNE 2018

is written to help process engineers
perform basic boiler calculations and
to help engineers apply heat-transfer To stack Drum
and energy-engineering principles to Water in
understand and improve the opera-
Pump
tion of their plant’s steam system. Economizer

Using the simplified approach out- Evaporator

lined in this article, process engineers
can predict the thermal performance Superheater
SH steam

of boiler components, including su- GT exhaust in

perheaters, evaporators, economiz-

ers, fluid heaters or HRSGs of fire-
A. Natural circulation HRSG B. Forced circulation HRSG
tube or water-tube types, with ease FIGURE 2. The diagram shows the components of natural-circulation HRSG and a forced-circulation HRSG
and with reasonable accuracy. Plant
engineers can then confirm their pre-
dictions using field measurements. Economizer
These procedures may also be used
to make minor modifications to exist-
ing equipment at a later date, when
Superheater
operating parameters are changed
or the plant is upgraded.
While major modifications to the
boiler may require help or advice
from the equipment vendors, per-
forming the calculations presented
here will allow plant engineers to
quickly get an idea of the perfor-
mance or duty of the boiler and its
components. Knowledge of these
calculations will help plant engineers
in the future as well. FIGURE 3. This diagram depicts a typical fire-tube boiler that would be used in a chemical plant
During interactions with various fa- TABLE 1. STEAM GENERATOR TUBE GEOMETRY DATA
cilities, I have suggested that plants Screen Final superhtr. Pry superhtr. Evaporator Economizer
develop a team of process engineers Tube O.D., mm 50.8 50.8 50.8 50.8 50.8
who specialize only in boiler-related Tube I.D., mm 44.0 43.0 43.0 44.0 44.0
calculations, in an effort to determine Fins/m 0.000 0.00 0.00 0.000 197
if the field data of steam-generat- Fin height, mm 0.000 0.00 0.00 0.000 19
ing equipment are reasonable and Fin thickness, mm 0.000 0.000 0.00 0.000 1.27
Serration, mm 0.000 0.00 0.00 0.000 4.37
whether or not they can be confirmed
Tubes/row 12 12.00 12.00 12 24
by thermal calculations. This type of Number of rows deep 15 16 12.00 46 12
specialized team can also develop Length, m 3.650 3.35 3.35 3.650 4.87
calculation modules or computer Transverse pitch, mm 127 122 122 127 101
codes to check if there are significant Longitudinal pitch, mm 101 127 127 101 101
deviations from normal operating pa- Streams 0 48.00 36 0 12
rameters for every boiler component Arrangement inline inline inline inline inline
in the plant. These calculation mod- Direction of flow counter counter counter
Note: furnace length = 9.76 m, height = 3.96 m, width = 2.44 m, projected area = 142 m2
ules can also be used to determine
whether fouling is present. engineers should demand similar point of view must have such data
data from boiler vendors before they for performing heat-transfer calcula-
Data for boiler purchases purchase the boiler, and should en- tions to check whether the original
Industrial boilers can cost millions sure they have at least most of the proposal was reasonable or whether
of dollars, but often, facility person- information shown here in the tables. the field data correlate with the origi-
nel purchase a boiler without ob- The lack of such thorough data nal design data. Many boiler vendors
taining crucial data about it. Tables can often lead to confusion in evalu- do not furnish these data as a matter
1–6 show typical data sheets for a ating boiler performance problems of common practice, and plant engi-
steam generator and a water-tube or tube failures and can lead to de- neers often do not realize that they
waste-heat boiler. Water-tube data lays when the problem must be fixed need all this information to evaluate
are typically given in two parts: first, immediately. A thermal process con- the boiler performance. They may
the tube’s geometric data, and sec- sultant tasked with analyzing boiler not need the data at the time of the
ond, its thermal performance. Plant performance from a heat-transfer boiler purchase, but they likely will

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JUNE 2018 59

 TABLE 2. DETAILED BOILER PERFORMANCE — AT 100% LOAD Cleaver Brooks

Surface Screen Final SH Pry SH Evaporator Economizer

Gas temp in ±5°C 1,360 1,072 892 778 465
Gas temp out ±5°C 1,072 892 778 465 154
Gas spec. heat, Kcal/kg°C 0.3328 0.3244 0.3163 0.3024 0.2815
Duty, MM Kcal/h 11.78 7.16 4.44 11.60 10.78
U, Kcal/m2h°C 117.81 109.29 104.92 105.23 40.61
Surface area, m2 105 103 77 322 2395
LMTD, °C 953 639 550 343 111
Gas pressure drop, mm wc 55.22 83.47 54.63 97.00 45.10
Max gas velocity, m/s 51 49 43 33 16
Tube wall temp ±5°C 322 511 386 284 123 FIGURE 4. The photograph shows the exterior of an
Fin tip temp ±5°C 322 511 386 284 136 elevated-drum steam generator for large capacity
Weight, kg 2,774 3,298 2,473 8,506 16,071
Fluid temp in, ˚C 222 286 256 222 116
Fluid temp out ±5°C 256 400 313 256 222 The above equations may be
Pressure drop, kg/cm2 0.00 0.50 0.71 0.00 0.93 used while sizing or evaluating the
Fluid velocity, m/s 24.4 26.9 1.7 performance of water-tube boilers,
Fluid heat transfer coeff. 9780 1299 1799 9780 9390 superheaters, economizers and fire-
Fouling factor, gas 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 tube boilers.
Fouling factor, fluid 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002
Spray, kg/h 3,260
Which coefficient governs U?
need it in the future. face, then U should also be based The gas-side heat-transfer coef-
I have experienced this problem on tube inner surface. Expressed as ficient governs the performance
when plants contact me to solve a equation, it would be the following: of boiler components, such as the
problems related to underperform- evaporator, economizer, superheater
ing steam systems and lower-than- UiAi = UoAo = Q/∆T (2) and gas-fluid heaters. Why is this
expected efficiency. The problems important to know? When simulat-
include boiler circulation issues, su- If a heat-transfer component re- ing the performance of boiler com-
perheater or economizer tube fail- ceives external radiation from the ponents or of the boiler as a whole,
ures, or underperforming steam gen- furnace or cavity, then: the effect of gas-side parameters
erators and waste heat boilers. The will govern the overall performance,
tube geometry data are either un- Q – Qr = Qc + Qn = UA∆T (3) while the steam-water-side parame-
available or are not clear and have to ters will have minimal impact. There-
be “made up” in order to evaluate the The energy lost by the hot fluegas fore, concentrating on gas-side data
thermal performance. In some cases, stream is absorbed by the colder will enable engineers to perform the
I have also seen drawings that should fluid (steam or water), as shown in analysis for off-design performance
show tube spacing or the number of the equation below: rather quickly, instead of having to
streams, but nevertheless is not pro- evaluate both gas- and steam-side
vided. In other cases, the thermal per- Wh ∆hh = Wc ∆hc = Q (4) heat-transfer coefficients.
formance information given is sketchy In a typical fire tube for example,
and without details. This situation is This equation neglects heat losses the gas-side heat-transfer coefficient
like buying a gadget without an own- from the casing, which are typically ranges from 10 to 20 Btu/ft2h°F,
er’s manual and trying to figure out a 0.5 to 1.0%. Generally, the higher while the boiling steam-side or water-
solution when the gadget fails. the boiler duty, the lower the heat side coefficient ranges from 1,500
There is a clear need for process loss percentage. to 3,000 Btu/ft2h°F, depending on
and plant engineers to become more In all sizing or performance calcu- steam pressure and heat flux [1, 2]. If
familiar with basic boiler calculations, lations, U (the overall heat-transfer d = 2 in., di = 1.7 in., ffi = ffo = 0.001,
as well as with the data that they coefficient) must be computed. For and Km = 25 Btu/ft h°F, then the fol-
should demand to obtain from boiler tubes with extended surfaces, the lowing calculation can be made:
and HRSG suppliers. following equations apply: 1/Uo = (2/1.7)/15 + 0.001 × (2/1.7)
+ 0.001 + 1/1,500 + (2/24/25)
Basic energy-transfer equations 1/Uo = (At/Ai)/hi + ffi(At/Ai) + ffo + ln (2/1.7) = 0.07843 + 0.001176
The basic equation for energy trans- (At/Aw) (d/24Km) ln(d/di) + 1/hoη + 0.001 + 0.000667 + 0.00054 =
fer in a boiler component is given by (5) 0.0818, or Uo = 12.22 or Ui = 12.22
Equations (1) and (2). × 2/1.7 = 14.38 Btu/ft2h°F or Ui =
If plain tubes are used, Equation 0.958 hi
Q = UA∆T (1) (5) may be simplified to the following Similarly, in a water-tube boiler, steam
Equation (6): is boiling inside the tubes and hence,
∆T is log mean temperature differ- hi = 1,500–4,000 Btu/ft2h°F, while flue-
ence (LMTD; nomenclature on p. 58). 1/Uo = d/di/hi + ffi(d/di) + (d/24Km) gas flows outside and ho ranges from
If A is based on the tube inner sur- ln (d/di) + ffo + 1/ho (6) 10–20 Btu/ft2h°F. It can be shown from
60 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JUNE 2018
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 Equation (6) above that Uo = 14.18 Btu/ Start
tg1 tg2
ft2h°F or Uo = 0.945 ho. ts2
tg3
Now, consider a finned tube evap- Input Wg, tg1, gas, analysis, ts tg4
steam pressure, tw1, A1, A2, A3
orator with the following tube geom- tw2
tw1
etry: d = 2 in., di = 1.77 in., fins/in. = Assume Ws

2, fin height = 0.75 in., fin thickness Assume ts2 Wg

Compute Qa Assume tw2
= 0.049 in. The ratio of outside to in- Compute tg2 compute Qa, tg4
side area is 5.9. Compute Qt
Q1 = Qt
compute Qt SH evap. eco.
Let us say ho = 15 Btu/ft2h°F and No
hi = 2,500 Btu/ft2h°F. (Qa-Qt)/Qa (Qa-Qt)/Qa
<0.01 Notes: Unfired performance, NTU method
<0.01
In this situation, the calculation Yes used for solving all surfaces
Yes A1, A2, A3 = surface areas of superheater
goes as follows: Q3 = Qt
(SH), evaporator (evap.), economizer (eco.)
Compute Q2, tg3 Compute Wc using Wg, Ws = gas, steam flows
1/Uo = 5.9/2,500 + 0.001 × 5.9 + Q1, Q2, Q3, ts2 Q1, Q2, Q3 = duty of superheater, evaporator
0.001 + 5.9 × (2/24/25) ln(2/1.77) and economizer
+ 1/(0.73 × 15) = 0.00236 + 0.0059 No
Wc=Ws (Ws-Wc)/Ws
+.001 + 0.0024 + 0.0913 = 0.109, <0.01
or Uo = 9.18 Btu/ft2h°F or Uo =
Yes
9.18/0.73/15 = 0.84hoη (fin effec-
End
tiveness is 0.73; Refs. 1 and 2 give
details of their evaluation). FIGURE 5. Following a logic tree, such as the one shown here for off-design performance of a simple HRSG,
For a case in which there is a higher can help plant engineers evaluate the effects of various operating conditions
fin density and lower tube-side coef-
TABLE 3. STEAM GENERATOR PERFORMANCE AT VARIOUS LOADS
ficient (such as a superheater), the
Boiler load, % 100 75 50 25 Units
ratio will be lower (around 0.75 hoη. Boiler duty 64.68 48.51 32.34 15.98 Million Kcal/h
Hence, for finned tubes, depending Ambient temperature 21.1 21.1 21.1 21.1 °C
on fin geometry, Uo = 0.75 to 0.8 Relative humidity 60 60 60 60 %
hoη. In this case, ho still governs Uo. Excess air 15 15 15 35 %
The gas-side heat-transfer coeffi- Fluegas recirculation 0 0 0 0 %
cient, ho, consists of convective and Fuel input (hhv) 77.58 57.89 38.52 19.36 Million Kcal/h
non-luminous coefficients. Proce- Heat relative rate(HHV) 823,241 614,296 408,750 205,403 Kcal/m3h
Heat relative rate(HHV) 546,978 408,152 271,584 136,476 Kcal/m2h
dures for estimating convective and
Steam flow 99,819 74,864 49,909 24,955 kg/h
non-luminous heat-transfer coeffi- Steam pressure 42.2 42.2 42.2 42.2 kg/cm2g
cients in boiler components are given Steam temperature 399 399 399 386 ±5°C
in Ref. 1. Fluid pressure drops inside Feedwater temperature 116 116 116 116 ±5°C
and outside tubes may also be ob- Water temp. leaving eco. 222 207 190 183 ±5°C
tained from Ref. 1. This article does Blowdown, % 1 1 1 1 %
not deal with the estimation of flue- Boiler exit gas temp. 469 417 359 306 ±5°C
gas or steam-water-side pressure Eco. exit gas temp. 158 143 132 125 ±5°C
Air flow 116,909 87,237 58,047 34,243 kg/h
drops, only thermal performance.
Fluegas flow 122,934 91,733 61,039 35,746 kg/h
Spray flow 3,260 1,869 492 0 kg/h
ho = hc + hn (7) Fluegas analysis, losses, efficiency, %
Dry gas loss 4.62 4.14 3.74 4.18 %
The expanded online version of Air moisture loss 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.08 %
this article (at www.chemengonline. Fuel moisture loss 10.55 10.45 10.36 10.31 %
com/performance-prediction-in- Casing loss 0.50 0.67 1.00 2.00 %
dustrial-boilers) describes the pro- Unacceptable/margin 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 %
Efficiency, LHV 92.56 93.03 93.21 91.67 %
cedure for computing heat transfer
Efficiency, HHV 83.75 84.17 84.33 82.94 %
coefficients for flow inside and out- Furnace backpressure 370 201 86 28 mm wc
side plain tubes. The expanded ver- % vol. CO2 8.56 8.56 8.56 7.38
sion also provides an idea of how H2O 17.30 17.30 17.30 15.12
the fluegas transport properties can N2 71.65 71.65 71.65 72.51
be obtained for a gas mixture. If one O2 2.48 2.48 2.48 4.99
can obtain the steam-side heat- SO2 0 0 0 0
fuel flow 6,024 4,494 2,990 1,502
transfer coefficient hi inside a super-
heater tube, it will help in evaluating its performance, as it governs U, as inner diameter, hn, will be small and
tube wall temperatures, as shown in shown above. can be neglected. Then hi = hc.
an example also included in the lon- For gas temperatures below
ger online version of this article. In 1,500ºF, neglecting hn may not lead Two calculation categories
a fire tube boiler, hi helps to deter- to significant errors. In fire-tube boil- In general, calculations carried out
mine the size of the boiler or predict ers, since the beam length is tube in boiler practice can be divided into
62 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JUNE 2018
 1100 Performance Guarantee
1000
Field data TABLE 6. FIELD DATA
950
878 Gas temp. in to SH 1,000 ±10°F
892 Gas temp. leaving econ. 350 ±10°F
863
Steam flow 55,600 lb/h
500
485 492 Steam press 500 psig
472
475 337 SH steam temp. 863 ±10°F
55600 lb/h at 500 psig 469 350 81000 lb/h at 600 psig Feed water temp. 230 ±10°F
230 Water temp leaving econ. 469 ±10°F
230 SH EVAP ECON Drum sat temp. 472 ±10°F
SH EVAP ECON
Drum pressure 510 psig
FIGURE 6. HRSG gas-steam temperature profiles in the performance guarantee case (right) and field-data Blowdown 0 %
case (left) Exhaust gas analysis % vol CO2 = 3 vol. % , H2O =
7 vol. %, N2 = 75 vol. %, O2 = 15 vol. %
TABLE 4. HRSG TUBE GEOMETRY DATA
Superheater (SH) Evaporator (EVAP) Economizer (ECON) perform this type of calculation.
Tube OD, in. 1.75 2 2 Off-design, or performance, cal-
Tube ID, in. 1.456 1.706 1.706 culations. In this type of calcula-
Fins/in. 2 5 5 tion, the tube geometry and surface
Fin height, in. 0.625 0.75 0.75
area of the boiler (or superheater or
Fin thickness, in. 0.049 0.049 0.049
Serration, in. 0.172 0.172 0.172
economizer, as the case may be)
Tubes/row 30 30 30 are known, as are the fluid flows and
Number of rows deep 6 20 14 inlet temperatures of both hot and
Length, ft 25 25 16 cold fluids. It is possible to arrive at
Transverse pitch, in. 4 4 4 the duty, as well as the gas- and
Longitudinal pitch, in. 4.5 4 5 fluid-side exit temperatures within a
Streams 30 10 few iterations. Though boiler suppli-
Direction of flow counter counter
ers have to perform this calculation in
Arrangement inline inline staggered
part to check the load performance
TABLE 5. HRSG GUARANTEE PERFORMANCE of their components, plant engineers
Exhaust gas flow 500,000 lb/h Steam pressure 600 psig invariably perform this type of cal-
Exhaust gas temp. 1,100 ±10°F Steam temp. 892 ±10°F culation when the surface area and
Exhaust gas pressure 14.4 psia Steam flow 81,094 lb/h
tube geometry of the heat-transfer
Heat loss 0.5 % Feed water temp. 230 ±10°F
Blowdown 0 %
equipment are already available, and
Process results the only variables are the hot- and
Surface SH Evaporator Economizer Units cold-side fluid flows, analysis, fluid
Gas temp. in 1,100 950 500 ±10°F temperatures and steam pressure.
Gas temp. out 950 500 337 ±10°F While there can be only a single
Gas specific heat 0.2776 0.2697 0.2591 Btu/lb°F design calculation, there can be nu-
Duty 20.8 60.37 21.02 Million Btu/h merous off-design calculations. Al-
Surface area 8,941 86,379 38,698 ft2
though boilers are designed for one
Gas press drop 0.22 1.46 3.55 in wc
Foul factor, gas 0.001 0.001 0.001
set of parameters, any given boiler
Steam side will likely operate under variable loads
Steam pressure 600 616 623 psig and parameters. Becoming familiar
Steam flow 81,094 81,094 81,094 lb/h with off-design calculations will help
Fluid temperature in 492 475 230 ±10°F plant engineers evaluate “what if”
Fluid temperature out 892 492 475 ±10°F scenarios on boiler components and
Pressure drop 16 7 psi enable them to notify plant personnel
Foul factor-fluid 0.001 0.001 0.001
of potential problems resulting from
two categories: design calculations other words, the energy required to changing process parameters.
and off-design calculations (Figure 5). be absorbed by each component is
Design, or sizing, calculations. known, and also termed the LMTD Off-design calculation methods
Design calculations are used for siz- (logarithmic mean temperature differ- There are two approaches to per-
ing a new heat-transfer component, ence). U values are then computed forming off-design calculations for
such as superheater, evaporator or based on the tube geometry and equipment, such as a superheater
economizer, steam generator or a the surface area A is then obtained. or economizer or a fluid heater. Note
waste heat boiler. Tube size, number Then, process designers check the that evaporator calculations are
of tubes wide and deep, tube and gas- and fluid-side pressure drops simpler due to the fact that the boil-
fin geometry and tube spacing are and tube-wall temperatures to make ing water temperature is constant
assumed for each component. The sure they are reasonable. If not, the throughout the exchanger. The hot-
hot- and cold-fluid side flows and exercise is repeated. All boiler suppli- and cold-side fluegas flows and inlet
their inlet and exit temperatures are ers or anyone designing a new heat- temperature and analysis are known.
known from the energy balance. In ing surface for a given duty would The objective is to obtain the duty

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JUNE 2018 63

 TABLE 8. EFFECTIVENESS FACTORS FOR EXCHANGERS can also be evaluated by the NTU
method. Simply change the tube
geometry of the heat exchanger to
Parallel-flow, single-pass
match the desired performance, and
then freeze the design. Following
that, the off-design performance is
Counter-flow, single-pass evaluated for several cases. Hence,
the NTU method can be used for a
design calculation or an off-design
calculation. Effectiveness, ε, is the
Shell-and-tube (one shell pass;
two, four, six and so on, tube most important factor in these cal-
passes) culations and once it is arrived at,
the duty of the exchanger can be
obtained.
Shell-and-tube (n shell pass; 2n, Table 8 shows the effectiveness
4n, 6n, and so on, tube passes) factor for various arrangements. It
is sufficient if the fluid flows and the
hot and cold fluid inlet temperatures
are known. In that case, the following
Cross-flow, both streams unmixed
equations apply.

Q = εCmin (T1 – t1) (8)

Cross-flow, both streams mixed Cmin = (WCp)min (9)
Cmax = (WCp)max (10)
C = Cmin/Cmax (11)
NTU = UA/(WCp)min (12)
Cross-flow, streams Cmin unmixed

These terms may be used in the

Cross-flow, streams Cmax unmixed equations shown in Table 8 to esti-
mate ε for the exchanger configura-
tion in question. Once ε is obtained,
and the exit hot- and cold-side fluid Quick convergence logic may be the duty may be obtained. Thereaf-
temperatures. These calculations used to speed up the calculations. ter, the exit fluid temperatures are
are applicable for single-phase fluids Each time the gas or steam/water obtained. Using multiple iterations
only and no external radiation is as- temperature is corrected, the cor- will improve the accuracy of the fluid
sumed to be present. responding gas and fluid proper- properties and specific heats. Exam-
Conventional method. The proce- ties, and also the heat-transfer co- ples shown in the online version of
dure for the conventional method is efficients, will change. A computer this article illustrate this procedure for
as follows: program is ideal for such an exer- evaluating off-design performance
• Assume the exit temperatures of cise, because the manual calcula- of superheater, economizer, fluid
the hot gas stream (T2, T1, t1) are tions become tedious. However, heater, such as glycol heated by ex-
known engineers should know how to do haust gases from a gas turbine.
• Compute the assumed duty Qa these calculations manually in order
= WhCph (T1 – T2) (Wh, Wc are to develop a computer program. Evaporator performance
known) Ref. 1 also contains numerous Fire-tube boiler or water-tube evapo-
• Compute the exit temperature of manually calculated examples for rator performance may be obtained
the cold fluid t2 using t2 = t1 + Qa/ various types of boiler equipment. in a far easier manner compared to
Wc/Cpc NTU method of performance superheaters or economizers. Since
• Compute the LMTD, since all four evaluation. The Number of Trans- the cold-side fluid temperature is
temperatures are known fer Units (NTU) method is the most constant at saturation temperature,
• Compute U using equations dis- widely used method in the chemical this evaluation is rather simple. T1
cussed in the online section of process industries (CPI), as it “di- and T2 refer to hot gas inlet and exit
this article and in Refs. 1 and 2. rectly” solves for the duty, although temperatures, respectively, and ts is
Compute the transferred duty Qt a few iterations will help to improve the saturation temperature. Neglect-
= UA∆T the accuracy. U is dependent on ing casing heat losses, the following
• If both Qa and Qt are within a the average gas temperature or film equation can be written:
small range (~0.5%), then we may temperature and on the fluid proper-
stop the iteration. If not, change T2 ties, which impact the heat-transfer WgCpg (T1 – T2) = Q = UA∆T =
in Step 1 and repeat the protocol coefficients with changing tempera- UA [(T1 – ts) – (T2 – ts)] / ln[(T1 – ts) /
until the difference is 0.2% or less. tures. A new equipment design also (T2 – ts)] (13)
64 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JUNE 2018
 Simplifying Equation (13) yields: Plant engineers can perform such
analyses for each section once they
ln [(T1 – ts) / (T2 – ts)] = UA / (WgCpg) become familiar with these calcula-
(14) tions and challenge the boiler supplier
if performance is significantly different
This equation may be used either from predicted. However, in order to
for designing an evaporator or for do this as mentioned earlier, good
checking its off-design performance. field data must be available. They can
If T1 and ts are known, Equa- measure the gas temperatures at the
tion (14) may be used to obtain T2, evaporator inlet and exit, and prove
and from that, duty (Q), as well as that the performance is close to what
the steam generation in the evapo- is predicted by the vendor.
rator, may be estimated, if the en- For example, in the actual opera-
thalpy of the feed water entering tion case, if the steam temperature
the evaporator and the enthalpy of of 863°F, gas temperature at exit of
saturated steam at operating pres- evaporator and economizer of 485°F
sure are both known. The value for and 350°F and steam/water flow of
T2 obtained from the previous cal- 55,600 lb/h are accurately measured
culations may be compared with and shown to be close, then they
the field data to check whether the have established their energy bal-
evaporator is performing well. This ance by calculation, as well as by
equation may also be used to ar- measurements, and the HRSG ven-
rive at the surface area A, if T1, T2, ts dor will have a difficult time justifying
and tube geometry and gas flow are the design and guarantees.
known. The important Equation (14) Plant owners spend millions of
also allows users to see what hap- dollars on HRSGs. They should
pens to the boiler duty with steam also ensure the HRSG is well-in-
pressure changes. strumented with numerous gas
and water/steam measurement
Challenging the HRSG vendor points. Presently, many HRSG ven-
Savvy process engineers familiar with dors provide a tapping point at the
such calculations can use the data HRSG exit alone and plant owners
provided by the HRSG supplier, along do not generally think much about
with field data, to evaluate whether or HRSG instrumentation at multiple
not the boiler supplier has overstated locations of the HRSG. This is not a
claims regarding steam generation good practice. There should be mul-
and temperature profiles. Using the tiple tapping points ahead and after
data provided by the HRSG supplier each heating surface (particularly if
(Table 5) we see that the duty shown the cross-section of HRSG is large),
by the supplier for the evaporator is well-calibrated instruments and fre-
60.37 million Btu/h, while our esti- quent checks on these readings by
mate (using the field data at a lower qualified instrumentation engineers
load) for the same guarantee case is to ensure the thermocouples are
only 58.7 million Btu/h. not plugged or damaged. Armed
Equation (14) comes in handy to with such field data, it will be easier
see what is really happening here. for the plant to simulate the HRSG
Our estimate of UA for the evapo- performance at any operating point
rator from above is 4.92 × 86,379 and extrapolate the results to guar-
= 424,985. Now using vendor data, antee conditions, or vice versa, and
we see from Equation (14) that: challenge the HRSG supplier if large
ln[(950–492) / (500–492)] = UA/ deviations in steam generation or
(500,000 × 0.27 × 0.995) = 4.0474 gas/steam temperatures are ob-
from which UAvendor = 543,670 Btu/ served (Figure 6). Such independent
h˚F], or a 28% higher value of UA analysis capability goes a long way
has been used by a vendor for the toward ensuring effective HRSG op-
same cross-section, tube spacing, eration and thorough examination of
surface area. This means that the proposals from HRSG suppliers who
supplier has overestimated the U do not “wing it” when it comes to
value by 28% and submitted guar- stating thermal performance just to
anteed results. sell the equipment.
For details visit adlinks.chemengonline.com/70307-13

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JUNE 2018 65

 Concluding remarks erating conditions to determine the ing direct radiation, non-luminous
The examples shown in the ex- thermal performance. It is important radiation and hence more accurate
tended online-only version of this that plant engineers obtain as much procedures can be set up by plant
article illustrate the point that a sim- tube geometry data and thermal engineers for each boiler in their
plified approach could be used to performance information from boiler plant, including steam generators.
evaluate the thermal performance suppliers before ordering the boilers, They can use the results to monitor
of boilers and their components, which will help them in their calcu- the performance of various compo-
such as superheater, economizer lations at a later date. Using these, nents and large deviations from “pre-
fire tube or water tube evaporator they can evaluate the performance dicted” values can be taken up for
or fluid heaters. U or (UA) could be at off-design conditions. more detailed analysis.
obtained for the field data case and Ref. 1 provides more information Though these procedures may
extrapolated for another set of op- on calculation procedures consider- not be as accurate as predicted by
a complete boiler performance pro-

Dependable seals
gram, these calculations give an idea
how process engineers can use field
data to predict performance at any
other operating point. The calcula-

start with DeWAL

tions should be backed up by proven
instrumentation, which will make
their performance predictions more
reliable. Knowledge of these proce-
Seals, gaskets and diaphragms can all leak, so DeWAL dures will help plant engineers to be-
Industries has developed a broad range of durable, come more informed and challenge
bondable PTFE and UHMW film and tape compositions boiler vendors in case they offer
that create dependable seals despite abrasion, harsh “inadequate” or inaccurate process
chemicals, high temperatures or irregular surfaces. thermal performance data while sell-
ing their boilers. Computer code can
be developed by process engineers
to model each boiler performance in
their plant, which will help them to
assess whether or not changes in
the operating conditions are likely to
cause unfavorable conditions in their
boiler equipment. n
Edited by Scott Jenkins
References
1. Ganapathy, V., “Steam Generators and Waste Heat Boilers
More than a dozen DeWAL PTFE and UHMW films and for Process and Power Plant Engineers”, CRC press,
tapes are designed specifically for gaskets, expansion Florida, 2014.
joints, valve seals and diaphragms. 2. Ganapathy, V., “Industrial Boilers and Heat Recovery
Steam Generators”, CRC Press, Florida, USA, 2003.
3. Ganapathy, V., Simplify Heat Recovery Steam Generator
Evaluation, Hydrocarbon Process., March 1990.
4. Ganapathy, V., Understanding Finned Heat Exchangers,
Chem. Eng., Sept 2013, pp. 62–65.
5. Ganapathy, V., Evaluate Extended Surface Exchangers
Carefully, Hydrocarbon Process., October 1990.
6. Ganapathy, V., Superheater Problems in Steam Genera-
tors, Chem. Eng., February 2016, pp. 38–47.

Author
Viswanathan Ganapathy is an
international boiler consultant
from Chennai, India (Email:
Let DeWAL engineering [email protected]). He
help you with your most has over 45 years of experience
in the area of design and thermal
difficult challenges. performance aspects of steam
Quality of Product...First generators, HRSGs and waste-
heat boilers. He has authored
Narragansett, RI 02882 over 250 boiler-related articles,
www.dewal.com • [email protected]
800-366-8356 • 001-401-789-9736 which have been published in several U.S., U.K. and
Indian publications. He has authored six books on boil-
ers, the most recent being, “Steam Generators and
Waste Heat Boilers for process and plant engineers,”
For details visit adlinks.chemengonline.com/70307-22 published in 2015 by CRC Press, Florida.
66 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JUNE 2018