CH-5 Boilers

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TUTORIAL FOR SECOND CLASS BOILER ENGINEER’S PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION

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CHAPTER – 5
Boilers
1.0 Introduction
A Boiler is a closed vessel, in which steam is produced by evaporation of water, at a
designated pressure and temperature, on application of heat, generated by firing fuel. It is
imperative to say that in a boiler, by firing fuel, chemical energy gets converted into heat
energy, and the heat generated is transferred to water, under storage or circulation in a
system, by way of convection, conduction or radiation process. The fuel fired may be
either in solid, liquid or gaseous form.
2.0 Boilers and IBR:
As per the Indian Boiler Act & Regulations (IBR), a boiler may be defined as a
closed vessel with a capacity of 22.75 liters or more in which water is converted into
steam for external use, under pressurized condition. The term ‘boiler’ includes all such
mountings fitted to the vessel, which remain wholly or partly under pressure when steam is
shut off.
IBR is an Indian regulatory code governing the construction and operation of Boilers to
ensure safety for prevention of loss of lives and properties. However this code is no way
bears any guidelines for efficiency, MCR and other operational parameters. Central Boiler
Board is a central authority, which formulates and amends the regulations governing
boilers to keep pace with technological advancement and oversees that the stipulated rules
framed by the different State Governments and regulations under IBR are strictly followed by
all concerned authorities. The Indian Boilers Act, 1923 is enacted by the parliament and
administered by the all State Governments through Chief Inspector of Boilers, as the subject
"Boiler" comes under the concurrent list of the constitution of India. The State
Level Regulatory Bodies under the Chief Inspector of Boilers, in every state, are solely
responsible for implementation of various regulations of the Indian Boiler Regulation
(IBR) concerning all types of boilers for their manufacture, erection, operation and
maintenance. During manufacture and erection the CIB inspects various stages and finally
issues manufacturing certificates in statutory formats and if any owner of a boiler intends to
run it, he has to apply to the CIB with manufacturing certificates for registration of the same.
For boiler under use, CIB will inspect it once in a year in normal condition. However, in
emergency the frequency of inspections may increase.
The State Directorate of Chief Inspector of Boilers also governs the quality and
capability of personnel handling jobs of manufacturing, maintenance and operating.
Welders deployed in manufacture and maintenance and repairs of pressure vessels are
also covered under such rules. The state Chief Inspector of Boilers is authorized to
conduct regular examinations for testing and certifying candidates working on boiler or a
pressure vessel.
3.0 Terminology used in Boilers:
A boiler consists of several components and various parts. Some of them are termed as
mountings and accessories and the others are called auxiliary equipment, depending on
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the method of mounting or the fittings or the associated functional equipment essentially
required for the boiler operation. Each of the components of a boiler is designated by
specified terminology. A few of such terminology, which are commonly used, are
brought out hereunder.
3.1 Shell:
The boiler shell consists of one or more steel plates bent into cylindrical form and riveted
or welded together. The ends of the shell are closed by means of end plates or heads,
which are either flat, convex or concave (in general, these are convex). The shell together
with the closing heads is called the drum.
3.2 Settings:
The settings form the walls of the combustion chamber. The settings confine the heat to
the boiler and form a passage through which the combustion gases pass through, which is
commonly known as flue gas path. Settings are mainly found in old class of boilers or
small package boilers where steaming capacity is quite less.
3.3 Grate:
The grate in a coal or wood fired boiler is the platform in the furnace upon which the fuel
is burnt. The grate consists of cast iron bars, which are spaced apart so that air for
combustion can pass through them.
3.4 Grate Surface:
It is area of the grate on which the firing takes place in a coal or wood fired boiler and is
expressed in square meters.
3.5 Furnace:
In olden the days, it was also known as firebox. It is the effective space above the grate
and below the boiler shell in which the fuel is burnt.
3.6 Heating Surface:
It is the surface area of a boiler, which is exposed to heat generated inside a furnace, and
wherein the heat absorption takes place for transfer of energy to the medium in liquid and
vapour form.
3.7 Water Walls:
In modern boilers the combustion chamber is formed by tubes containing water and
configured in such a manner as to form the walls of combustion chamber. Thus, the
Combustion Chamber of modern boilers comprises of Water Walls.
4.0 The essential qualities of a good boiler:
a. It should be capable of quick start-up,
b. Should meet large load fluctuations,
c. Occupy less floor space,
d. Should afford easy maintenance and inspection,
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e. Should essentially posses the capacity of producing maximum steam with minimum
fuel consumption,
f. Should be light and simple in construction,
g. Various joints should be accessible for inspection and should be away from direct
flame impact,
h. Tubes should be sufficiently strong to resist wear and corrosion,
i. Mud and other deposits should not collect on heated plates and
j. The velocity of water and that of flue gas should be a minimum.
5.0 Selection of a boiler:

The basic factors, which are considered in the selection of a boiler, are:
a. Steam quantity required to be generated (in t/hr),
b. Pressure and Temperature of Steam required to be generated,
c. Type of Fuel to be used and its quality,
d. Quality of Water available,
e. Probable load factor,
f. Location of the Steam Consuming Plant in relation to location of boiler,
g. Availability of floor space,
h. Cost of installation,
i. Cost of operation and maintenance and
j. Pollution Control and Emission Limiting requirements and capability of the selected
boiler to meet these requirements.
6.0 Classification of Boilers:

Boilers can be classified on the basis of:
i. Mode of circulation of working fluid: i.e., Natural Circulation or Forced Circulation,
ii. Type of fuel: (Solid Fuel e.g., Coal, Lignite and Peat; Gaseous Fuel e.g., Natural Gas,
Blast Furnace Gas, Water Gas etc.; Liquid Fuel e.g., Diesel Oil, Furnace Oil, LSHS,
Crude, Black Liquor etc.),
iii. Mode of Firing: Stoker, Pulverised, Fluidised Bed etc. in case of Solid Fuel Fired
Boilers, Steam Atomised or Air Atomised in case of Liquid Fuel Fired.
iv. Fired and Non-fired,
v. Nature of heat source (Fuel fired, Waste heat boiler, Electrical powered, Nuclear
powered),
vi. Nature of working fluid (Common Water or Heavy Water),
vii. Position of the furnace (Externally fired furnace & Internally fired furnace),
viii. Type of furnace (Dutch oven boiler, Open boiler, Scotch boiler, Screened boiler,
Twin boiler),
ix. Boiler size,
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x. Materials of construction,
xi. Shape of tube and their spatial position (Straight tube & Bent tube boilers),
xii. Content of the tubes (Firetube & Watertube boilers),
xiii. Steam pressure,
xiv. Specific purpose of utilization,
xv. General shape,
xvi. Manufacturer’s trade name,
xvii. Special features and
xviii.On the basis of mode of circulation of working fluid, boilers are classified into (a)
Natural circulation boiler (b) Forced (i.e. positive) circulation boiler.
In Natural circulation type of boilers circulation of water in the boiler takes place due to
natural convection currents produced by the application of heat. Saturated water flows
down the unheated downcomer and receives heat in the riser whereupon a part of it gets
converted into steam. The difference in densities of saturated water in the downcomer
and the steam-water mixer in the riser brings about natural circulation. It is applicable to
all those boilers, which are operating at a pressure less than critical pressure.
Some examples are Lancashire, Locomotive, Babcock & Wilcox boilers etc.
In a Forced circulation, the working fluid is forced through the boiler circuits by an
external pump. Some examples are La-Mont boiler, Velox boiler etc.
Advantages of Forced circulation over natural circulation:
1. Steam generation rate is higher for same physical dimensions and weight,
2. Greater capacity to meet load variation,
3. Quicker start-up from cold,
4. Lower scaling problem due to high circulation velocity,
5. More uniform heating of all parts reduces the danger of overheating and thermal
stresses,
6. Smaller tube diameter and hence lighter tubes and
7. Greater freedom in arrangement of furnace, boiler component and tube layout.
Circulation ratio:
It is the ratio of the mass flow rate of circulating water Gfw (t/hr) to the rate of steam
generation Gs (t/h); thus Circulation Ratio = Gfw / Gs
It usually ranges from 4 to 30 for Natural Circulation and 3 to 10 for Forced Circulation
boilers.
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7.0 Various Types of Boilers:

7.1 Simple Vertical Boiler:
The simple vertical boiler consists of a cylindrical shell to carry water, concentrically
surrounded by another cylindrical shell as a firebox where fuel is fired. It has a fire grate
in the firebox over which the fuel is fed for firing. The ashes get collected at the bottom
below the firing grate; where from these have to be manually removed. A vertical uptake
pipe is provided projecting out from the crown of the firebox and passing through the
crown of the shell through which hot flue gas is made to pass and finally discharge to
atmosphere through an extension pipe on the top of this uptake tube, which is known
as the chimney. The firebox is fitted with two cross-tubes. The cross tube increases the
heating surface as well as improves the circulation of water. The cross tubes are fitted
slightly inclined to ensure efficient circulation of water. Hand holes are provided for
clearing the cross tubes. A manhole is also provided for cleaning and inspection of the
boiler. Generally these boilers are fit only for supply of very low-pressure saturated
steam.
7.2 Fire Tube Boilers:

A fire tube boilers, is the boiler wherein the products of combustion pass through inside
of the tubes (either one or several) and water which is to be converted in to steam is made
to surround outside these tubes. Fire Tube Boilers are used where the steam pressure is
normally low and the steam is not generally required to be the superheated. Fire tube
boilers are compact and can be easily manufactured in a factory and assembled as a
packaged boiler. Fire tube boilers cannot be manufactured in large sizes beyond certain
limit due to large size of shell involved.
Fire tube boilers have the advantage of low manufacturing and operating cost.
A few of the well-known Boilers, which come under this class of fire tube construction,
are:
a) Cornish Boiler,
b) Lancashire Boiler,
c) Simple vertical boiler,
d) Cochran boiler,
e) Locomotive Boiler and
f) Scotch Marine Boiler.
The advantages of fire-tube boilers are:
a) Investment Cost of fire-tube boilers is comparatively lower than water tube Boilers
for the similar capacity,
b) The design of fire-tube boiler is simple and construction is rugged,
c) The water holding capacity of a fire-tube boiler is larger than that of water tube
boilers and fire tube boiler is versatile to meet the steam load changes.
The disadvantages of fire-tube boilers are:
a) Since fire tube boilers have huge capacity for water storage, with big water
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accumulators, its steaming capacity is reduced,

b) In order to resist the internal pressure, non-cylindrical sections and flat surfaces are
required to be stayed and
c) High pressure and large diameter fire-tube boilers would need thick shell plates,
which will be uneconomical and impractical.
7.3 Water Tube Boilers:

In this type of construction of Boilers the fuel is fired in a confined chamber and the
water is circulated through divided flow path inside a number of small-bore tubes, which
are exposed to the heat generated inside the combustion chamber.
A few of the well known Boilers, which come under this class of water tube construction,
are:
a) Babcock and Wilcox Boiler,
b) Stirling Boiler,
c) La-Mont Boiler,
d) Benson Boiler,
e) Yarrow Boiler, and
f) Loeffler Boiler
The advantages of water tube boiler over the fire tube boiler are:
a) Furnace and pressure parts are more easily accessible for cleaning, inspection and
repairs,
b) Comparatively, water tube boilers can operate at high steam and superheat
temperature,
c) Start up and bringing to full load is faster compared to fire tube boilers,
d) Fairly long path of flue gas flow coming in contact with a larger area of heat transfer
and as a result better efficiency of operation,
e) Due to fairly large heat transfer surface and flue gas retention time more effective
transfer of heat by radiation, conduction and convection takes place, giving more
flexibility in operation,
f) Fairly non-complicated construction which does not pose great problems of thermal
expansion of individual components,
g) Pressure parts are not subjected to undue thermal stress,
h) Provides ease of adopting better efficient fuel firing system,
i) Boiler can respond well for sudden load variations and
j) Boiler is safe to operate and maintain and less prone for serious accidents compared
to fire tube boilers.
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The disadvantages of water-tube boilers are,

a) Water chemistry poses a big problem. Comparatively pure non corrosive, non-scale
forming water is necessary for use as feed water,
b) Necessity of keeping better feed water control to avoid low water level operation,
which may otherwise result in tube failure due to starvation,
c) Initial cost of installation and gestation period are more due to complicated water
circulation system,
Note: Firetube boiler is usually preferred where the steam pressure required is less
than about 30 kg/cm2(g) and steaming rate is lesser than 30 t/hr. Above this limits,
watertube boilers are more economical.
In power plants, normally, high pressure water-tube type boilers are used, where
capacity rages from 30 to 650 t/hr, having pressure & temperature upto 160
kg/cm2(g) and 540 0C respectively.
7.4 Shell Type Boiler:

A shell type boiler is the one, which essentially consists of a shell generally cylindrical in
shape and positioned either vertical or horizontal, for the purpose of holding water. The
Boiler shell is located in such a way that it is directly above firing zone and is heated. In
some of the boiler designs the shell is protected by lagging or brickwork, so that it is not
exposed to direct heat. However the entire flue gases are circulated within and
surrounding the shell.
7.4.1 Types of Shell Boilers
The following steam boilers can be classified under this category:
g) Lancashire,
h) Cornish,
i) Britannia,
j) Vertical cross tubes,
k) Cochran,
l) Simpson Hopwood,
m) Vertical Multitubular,
n) Locomotive,
o) Marine,
p) Horizontal Return Tubes,
q) Package Smoke Tubes,
r) Waste Heat and
s) Electrode.
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7.5 Description of various types of boilers:
7.5.1 Cornish Boiler:

Economics and the need to get the cargo safely to a destination was the driving force
behind new designs for boilers. Development of the Cornish Boiler was a step in that
direction.
In the earlier days, the design of the boiler had always placed the furnace beneath the
water cylinder. Attempts to make use of the heat that was going up the chimney were
limited to simply rapping the hot gasses around the boiler several times. The newly
developed Cornish boiler the fire grate and the main flue was
located inside the cylinder containing the water, where it can do a little more good in total
heat transfer to the water surrounding.
This type of a boiler consists of a horizontal cylindrical shell, fabricated with flat plates
which are fitted with supporting gusset plates or longitudinal stay at ends, or dished ends
and one horizontal cylindrical furnace is fitted through the end plate. There is one oval
shaped mud hole with cover door fitted to the front end plate, below the furnace and one
round oval shaped manhole is fitted at the top of the shell. There is a set of water level
gauge, one standpipe for pressure gauge; one standpipe for feed water connection fitted to
the front end plates. Standpipes for safety valve, main steam connection, auxiliary valve
are provided at the top of the shell. The shell is installed on the sets of cast iron support
frames and rested on refractory brick lined seating blocks keeping bottom flue space at
the bottom of the shell. There are sidewalls constructed out of firebricks on either side of
the shells to form flue path on side ways. There is another brick lined wall constructed at
the extreme rear end of the shell, which forms the downward diversion to direct the flue
gases coming from furnace towards the bottom flue. The total construction looks just like
Lancashire boiler, the only difference being that there are two furnace flues in Lancashire
and there is only one furnace flue in the Cornish boiler.
The first few feet of the furnace flue is converted into fire grate by means of laying fire
bars supported over the clits. There is one refractory wall for half the height, which is
called bridge to divert the fire / hot gases effectively towards the end of the furnace.
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7.5.2 Lancashire Boiler:

The need for smaller more powerful steam boilers led to the Lancashire Boiler design.
Basically the same as the Cornish Boiler with its internal furnace design, but vastly
improved both in efficiency and safety.
The first advance was in the number of furnaces. Each boiler had two completely
separate furnaces sitting side by side. And each furnace had a separate flue system.
Everything that burns, wood and coal especially, contains some amount of water and that
water must be evaporated before the fuel will burn efficiently. In the time it takes the fuel
to be heated, the furnace cools somewhat and that in turn lowers
the amount of air being drawn into the furnace. The less air drawn in the less heat created
in the furnace. This slight cooling allowed the metal flue to contract placing a heavy
strain on the ends of the boiler. It also slowed the heating of the water inside the boiler
reducing the amount of steam available.
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Lancashire boiler consists of a cylindrical shell, horizontally laid. It has on either sides
flat end plates, which are supported by plate gussets or longitudinal round bars lay
horizontally across the end plates. Some of the Lancashire Boilers dished end plates are
provided, which do not require any type of gussets, as they themselves can hold the ends
under pressure. There is a cylindrical type of water holding drum, inside which two more
shell type small cylindrical drums are laid horizontally across the end plates. The fuel is
burnt over fire grates at the front end of these cylindrical shells. This is called the furnace
and further beyond the flue gas fills up the shell and passes through, towards the other
end before escaping to atmosphere through the chimney. The short length of the flue
path, forming the fire grate, consists of fire bars laid flat across and horizontal over
supporting clits. Firebricks are lined over the wall, called bridge, which diverts the hot
gases arising out of fuel combustion taking place over the grates in the furnace. The
boiler shell is rested on cast iron supports and refractory seating blocks, making the
sidewalls. In between these sidewalls and shell the side flues are formed to direct the hot
gases to give additional heating surface to the boiler. In some of the boilers of this type a
vertical super heater of “Sugdens” type is provided between the rear end plate and rear
brick wall of the boiler, thus the hot gases traveling from furnace flues are diverted
through the super heater while they descend downwards, before entering into the bottom
flue. There is a manhole provided on the top of the shell and a mud hole on the front end
below the flues at 6 O’ Clock position. On the front end plate are provided a set of water
gauges, one standpipe for pressure gauge and one standpipe for feed pipe. There are
standpipes for safety valves, steam auxiliary valve and main steam valve on the top of the
shell.
These boilers are sturdy and strong in construction. There is ample space provided around
the flues and below the flues for manual cleaning in the boiler shell. And for this reason
even low quality feed water can be used in this boiler.
7.5.3 Vertical cross tube boiler.
These boilers are fabricated of a vertical cylindrical shell fitted either at the top by
hemispherical, dished or flat plate with vertical round stay bars. The top of the vertical
boiler is called shell Crown. There is a tapered integral furnace fabricated from
cylindrical drum fitted inside concentrically to the shell. The furnace at top end is either
fitted with a hemispherical or dished or flat plate supported by the round bars fitted to the
shell crown and a uptake pipe is fitted to the toe of the shell crown and the furnace top
usually called furnace Crown to lead the fire or gases of the furnace towards the chimney.
The bottom of the surface and the shell is joined by means of ogee ring. The bottom of
the furnace is fitted with clits to accommodate fire-grate consisting of fire bars. There is a
fire hole either round or oval shaped at the grate level to push the fuel. There is a
manhole fitted at the top portion of the shell with cover for cleaning purpose. There are
also oval shaped hand holes/sight holes opposite to the cross tubes. The cross tubes are
fitted across the furnace horizontally in slant position to make effective the circulation of
water. Mud holes are fitted to the shell at firehole level for giving access for the effective
internal cleaning of the internal narrow water portion. There are pads or stand pipes with
flanges fitted for water level gauge mountings at the man hole level, one for pressure
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gauge, one at the middle portion for feed check valve and one for the blow off valve at
the bottom of the shell. There are pads or standpipes
VERTICAL CROSS TUBE BOILER

fitted at the top of the shell crown for main stop valve, safety valves and for auxiliary
valve.
There is a fusible plug fitted on the furnace crown, which is a safety device, in case the
water level in working boiler goes down the fusible plug melts, releasing the pressure and
killing the fire for saving the boiler from explosion. When the boiler is big there are short
screwed stays fitted internally in between the furnace and the shell at approximately
middle of the boiler. These types of boilers are strong in construction and are simple in
fabrication but having only one pass and can be erected anywhere. Only by tapping the
floor hard the boiler can be installed and commissioned in a very short period. The boiler
can be cleaned internally and externally manually. It can be fed by available water.
7.5.4 Cochrane Boiler:
Cochrane Boiler is an example of vertical type fire tube boilers with cross tubes. The
name is given after M/s Cochrane and Annen Co. who first manufactured and brought
these boilers in market.
There is a vertical cylindrical shell having a hemispherical/dished or flat shell crown with
longitudinal vertical round section stay bars, fitted at the top end of the shell. The shell is
joggled out on both sides and two flat plates are fitted to it.
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Smoke tubes are horizontally in between the plates. There are gussets fitted to the flat
portion of the joggled shell above the tube plates. At the front tube plate end on flat
joggled portion of the shell, in between the stays a fusible plug is fitted as an emergency
device in case of low water level.
Below the shell an ogee ring is fitted and to it a dished or hemispherical furnace called
firebox is fitted. There is an oval shaped fire hole at the bottom of the firebox and at the
top corner opposite to the fire hole and oval shaped access ring is fitted opening into the
bottom portion of the rear tube plate. The front and rear tube plates are fitted with cover
plates lined with refractory to form combustion chamber and smoke box. The smoke box
is at the front tube plate and the combustion chamber at the rear tube plate. The smoke
box at the top is having access for chimney. The firebox at the bottom is fitted with clits
to carry fire grate. Fire bars are laid on the ring placed on the clits. There are stand pipes
or pads for mountings viz. water gauge, pressure gauge, feed check and a blow off on the
shell sides and for main steam valve, safety valve and auxiliary valve at the top of shell
crown. There are mud holes with covers at the narrow water spaces in shell bottom. The
boiler is compact as vertical boilers can be conveniently installed after leveling and
tapping the floor strong. Since the gases fire from the
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firebox, first they are diverted to the access ring and then they enter the combustion
chamber and onwards through rear tube plate enter tubes and then enters smoke box and
are discharged through chimney. It is a two-pass boiler.
7.5.5 Vertical Fire Tubes/Vertical Multitubular boilers:
Vertical Fire Tubes/Vertical Multitubular boilers
These boilers have a vertical cylindrical shell, fitted at the top with flat tube plate. One
cylindrical firebox with top fitted by flat tube plate is concentrically, positioned inside of
the shell and the shell bottom is joggled out to fit the firebox’s bottom end. An oval
shaped fire hole is fitted at the bottom of the firebox in between the shell and firebox.
Smoke tubes are run vertically in between the top and bottom tube plates. The flue gases
from the firebox pass through the tubes straight towards the smoke box, fitted on to the
top tube plate and then discharged through chimney. This is a single pass fire tube boiler.
The firebox bottom is fitted with clits to carry fire grate. Standpipes to set water gauges,
pressure gauge, feed pipe inlet and blow off connection are fitted on the shell. There are
sight and mud holes with covers fitted on the shell. It is a sturdy and compact boiler
which can be installed anywhere on a flat leveled floor but since the narrow water space
is almost at all around internally shell cleaning it is a problem. Secondly as the top
portion of the tube remains in steam space above the normal water level, the tubes
corrode on the waterside and are sometimes burnt at their top ends. M/s Laxmi Boilers
Co., Mumbai have modified the design and tried to keep the tubes merged in water space
to eliminate this defect.
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7.5.6 Locomotive (stationary) boilers:
This is also a fire or smoke tube boiler. The whole construction is mounted over wheels
and can be mobile. Hence it is called Locomotive Boiler. The typical construction of such
boilers is as shown in the figure. There is a construction of a rectangular shape of a
casing, called the firebox casing. Short screw stays at regular pitch support the flat plates
of the firebox and casing. The casing crown and the firebox crown are supported with
long screw stays. On the casing, over the front side of the firebox, an oval shaped fire
hole is mounted. The firebox at bottom carries clits, on which the fire grate is built up of
consisting of fire bars. There is a sight hole at each corners of firebox, casing crown and
side plates for inspection and cleaning and at the bottom of the casing there are mud holes
with covers at every corners. The rear end plate of the casing generally known as saddle
plate is reduced circularly to accommodate cylindrical barrel horizontally fitted, which
carries rear tube plate or usually called smoke box tube plate. The rear plate of the
firebox is drilled and used as front tube plate. The smoke box tubes are horizontally fitted
in between the tube plates. The smoke box tube plate and front plate of the casing are
supported with gussets/linked or round longitudinal stay bars. There is a vertical
cylindrical dome fitted at the top of the barrel for giving more steam space to the boiler
and a standpipe for main steam valve is fitted at the top of the dome. A safety valve
standpipe and auxiliary steam stop valve pad or standpipes are fitted on the top of the
barrel. There are standpipes to set water level gauges, pressure gauge, feed inlet and blow
off outlet to the front end plate of the casing. In some boilers the firebox plates have a
peculiar corrugation to avoid stays. The top of the casing and the firebox are called casing
crown and firebox crown respectively. The boiler is a single pass sturdy and can be fitted
on a pakka-leveled soil.
Babcock and Wilcox Water-tube Boiler:
This is best known water-tube of boiler and is made of one or more horizontal, steam and
water drums. The drum is connected to a series of front end and rear (back) end headers
by short riser tubes. A series of inclined water tubes of solid drawn mild steel are
connected to these headers. Each nest of tubes is made of several vertical rows. The tubes
are expanded into headers which are provided with staggered or zigzag holes. Figure
below illustrates the Babcock and Wilcox water-tube boiler of the land type.
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The staggered arrangement of the water tubes will allow the surface of every tube to be
exposed to the hot gases. A hand hole is provided in the header in front of each tube,
which allows cleaning and inspection of tubes. Each hole is covered by a steel cap which
is secured in its position by a steel clamp.
The hot gases from the furnace are forced to move upwards between the water tubes by
fire brick baffles provided. They then move downwards between the tubes and then to
chimney or stack. The movement of gases in this manner facilitates the heat transfer even
to the highest part of the tubes. The feed water enters the front of the drum, passes to the
back of the drum, and then descends through the down coming vertical tubes and enters
the headers. The water then enters the water tubes, moves upwards through the inclined
tubes and finally rises through the front riser tubes to the drum. The circulation of water
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is produced due to difference of density of water which in turn is due to difference of

temperature in the front and rear (back) parts of the furnace. Thus, a thermo-siphon effect
is created which results in continuous and rapid circulation of water.
The steam and water drum of the boiler is suspended from horizontal beams by means of
metallic slings or straps. The horizontal beams in turn are supported on cast iron columns.
This arrangement makes the boiler unit independent of the brickwork which eliminates
troubles due to expansion. The brickwork around the boiler is only meant to enclose the
furnace and the hot gases. A mud drum is provided at the lowest part of the inclined
tubes. The sediment in water collects in the mud drum from where it is blown off by
means of blow-off valve at regular intervals.
The boiler is provided with the usual mountings, as well as a superheater. The soot from
the gases accumulating on the surface of the water tubes is removed at intervals, either by
mechanical scrapers or it is blown off by high pressure steam blowers. This is necessary
to keep the heat transfer by conduction effective.
7.5.7 Straight tube and staggered header Boilers:

It is a Water Tube Boiler. There is essentially a cylindrical steam and water drum laid
horizontally with uptake nipple box and down comer box attached to it. To each nipple a
straight header or staggered header is fitted.
There is a horizontal rectangular mud box fitted to the bottom of the rear down comer
headers with short nipples. The blow off standpipe is attached to the mud box. The
straight tubes are fitted in between these front and rear headers by expanding into a bell
mouth shape. The tubes are fitted in slanting position, inclined at 10° to the horizontal, in
order to better circulation of water within the water circuit so that there will be good heat
transfer. There are oval shaped hand holes fitted with caps opposite to every tube hole on
front and rear headers for effective internal tube cleaning and also for replacement of
tubes. The steam and water drum is suspended from heat resistance firebricks. There are
baffle plates arranged for effective flue gas circulation, heating all pressure parts as per
the design. The super heater is fitted in the pocket formed in between the steam / water
drum and the top of the top row straight tubes. Two rectangular headers are laid across
the tubes and U shaped superheater coils are fitted longitudinal to the headers by
expanding and belling the mouths in the tube holes prepared in the headers. The inlet
header is connected to the steam space of the steam water drum. The outlet header of the
super heater is connected to the additional header installed on the top of the steam water
drum, which is ultimately connected to the main steam outlet valve.
The super heater is provided with soot blowers for removal of soot deposits periodically.
There are caps; oval shaped fitted in front of super heater element tubes for internal
cleaning. The combustion gases are diverted by arrangements of baffle plates. The
furnace is arranged at the bottom of the bottom-most tube row. Manual fired furnace, low
ram stocker or traveling grate stocker can be fitted to the furnace. There are walls
constructed of firebricks around the furnace. In some of the designs of these types of
boilers, the furnace is provided by means of water wall tubes arranged to utilize the
radiation heat of the furnace fire and gases. In such types of boilers even two or more
steam water drums are fitted for additional evaporative capacity. These boilers can be
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fired with solid fuel like coal, Bagasse husk and liquid fuels such as furnace oil, L.S.H.S.
or gaseous fuel also.
The tube bore used is around 4” due to which internal manual cleaning is possible. The
super heater element tube bore is 1.5”. The inside diameter of the steam and water and
fitted with dished ends at both the ends either riveted or fusion welded which are
provided with man holes with covers for easy entry for internal cleaning and inspection
of the boiler parts. To the front end of the drum a set of stand pipes are fitted for water
level connections, a standpipe for pressure gauge, a standpipe for feed check valve and
scum cock. The internal feed pipe runs longitudinal to the drum down comer nipples for
better circulation of the water. There are standpipes on top of the drum for main steam
valve, safety valves and auxiliary valves. The economizer can be fitted in flues for fuel
economy.
This design is used in industrial boiler requirements in the industries.
7.5.7 Bent water tubes boilers:
There are many types and designs of the bent tube boilers. There is essentially a steam
and water drum drilled to accommodate bent tubes at the top. There are headers, mud
drum fitted at the bottom.
In some of the designs there are two or more steam and water drums. The bent tubes are
so arranged with the help of baffles the fire and gases are circulated to ensure maximum
absorption of heat available in the fuel. The water is fed through the internal feed pipe in
the top steam / water drum, which is circulated through the down comer tubes / pipes and
then circulated through the riser or uptake tubes where steam is generated. The steam
bubbles evolved in riser tubes are separated in steam and water drum. The furnace and
combustion chamber is lined with water wall tubes. The steam water drum is a cylindrical
horizontally laid shell having dished end plates attached to both the ends. The dished
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ends are provided with oval or round shaped manholes with covers, through which the
internal cleaning and inspection is carried out. The drum is drilled to take the tubes either
expanded and belled or welded. The mud drum is fitted at the bottom-most portion of the
boiler.
The mud drum is a horizontal shell, cylindrical shaped fitted with dished ends provided
with oval or round shaped manhole with covers for better cleaning and internal
inspection. The mud drum is also drilled to fit the tubes.
7.5.9 Marine Boilers:
7.5.9.1 Single ended Scotch Marine Boiler:
This is a fire tube boiler. These types of boilers are generally used on ships. It has a
single furnace fabricated with corrugated steel sheets. The furnace is designed for
internally firing arrangements and is surrounded by water. At the back end of the
furnace is the combustion chamber, which is also surrounded by water. A large
number of fire tubes run from the front tube plate to the back tube plate. The hot flue
gases from the furnace pass through the fire tubes due to the draught created, into the
combustion chamber and then discharge through the tubes into the smoke
box, situated at the front end of the boiler, before escaping through the chimney.
7.5.9.2 Double-Ended Scotch Marine Boiler:

This is almost looking like a single ended Scotch Boiler by the way of construction.
It has double furnaces placed back to back. Compared to single-ended, Double-
ended boiler has the advantages of being lighter, cheaper and occupies less space for
the same evaporation capacity.
7.5.10 Water Tube Packaged Boiler:
Package water tube boilers are as popular as packaged fire tube boilers. Such boilers
are compact and standardized for pressure and capacity. They are shop assembled
having a furnace accommodated with water walls. Generating tubes, superheater and
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economiser ready for transportation by road or sea. They are equipped with firing
equipments, feed pumps, auxiliaries and ancillaries, oil pumps, oil heaters, draught fans,
feed water regulator, soot blowers and automatic control for efficient performance.
In such boilers, coal, oil or gas could be burnt efficiently. Such boilers are composed of
one top and one bottom drum. Feed water enters the top drum from where it flows to
the bank of tubes into the lower drum then through the circulating tubes to the water
walls header & up to the water wall tubes into the top drum. Therefore, a continuous
& positive circulation of water is established.
7.5.11 Packaged Horizontal Smoke Tubes Boilers: These boilers are now a days installed in
almost every industry. There is a horizontal cylindrical shell which is fitted with flat
plates supported by means of gussets, round sectioned longitudinal stay bars or tee
stiffeners. There are dry back types as well as wet back types of such boilers. In dry back
the radiant heat is lost through the dry back of the combustion chamber ends. These
boilers are designed as three passes. There are one or two horizontal either plain furnaces
supported by stiffening rings at intervals or corrugated furnaces or partly plain and
corrugated furnaces; laid in between end plates in dry back and in between front end plate
and front tubes plate of the combustion chamber, in case of wet back boiler. The
combustion chamber is often called reversing chamber and is fabricated of a cylindrical
shell horizontally fitted with end plates. The front plate is used as tube plate for second
pass and the rear flat plate is supported by screw stays fitted in between rear end plates of
the shell. The set of oil or gas burner assembly is fitted to the front part of the furnace and
fire/gases run through the furnace and enters to the combustion or reversing chamber and
passes through the second pass tubes and then onwards through the front part of the shell
through third pass tubes in smoke box from where they pass out through the chimney.
These boilers are very compact and can be installed in industries conveniently.
The shell at sides and bottom are fitted with hand holes/sight holes or mud holes with
covers. The shell at the bottom is fitted with an oval shaped man hole with cover. There
is a set of stand pipes or pads fitted for set of water gauges, one for pressure gauge and
for feed inlet pipe on the shell side. A stand pipe at the shell bottom is fitted for blow off
and at the top of the shell one for main steam outlet, one or two for safety valves and one
for the auxiliary valves. The shell is installed on M.S. fabricated chairs.
Efficiency of such boiler is about 82% on gross calorific value of fuel oil. Packaged fire
tube boilers are designed for coal oil and gaseous fuels.
7.5.12 Waste heat boiler:

It is a special purpose boiler designed to generate steam by removing the generated heat,
as called for, by the
a) Chemical processes involving exothermic reactions viz.,
i. the partial gasification of fuel oil;
ii. synthesis of ammonia (N2 + 3H2 ⊗ 2NH3 + 22 kcal);
iii. oxidation of Sulphur dioxide to trioxide (2SO2 + O2 ⊗ 2SO3 + 45 kcal);
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iv. conversion of ammonia to nitric oxide (4NH3 + 5O2 ⊗ 4NO + 6H2O + 3O2
kcal)
b) Recovering heat that is:

i. evolved as an integral part of the process and would otherwise go waste, such
as from an open-hearth furnace
ii. a by-product of chemical process, e.g. black liquor recovery
iii. made available by burning waste, e.g. wood scraps.
It reduces air and water pollution and lowers the flue gas temperature, reducing the
maintenance of flues, fans and stacks.
Design considerations in the selection of a waste heat boiler are:
1. Heat load and temperature of the gases available for waste heat recovery for steam
generation,
2. Chemical nature and corrosiveness of the gases,
3. Available draught (draft),
4. Whether the gases are under pressure or suction,
5. Dust load and its nature in the gases,
6. Available space,
7. Requirement for a start-up furnace, gas preheating emergency use or added capacity,
etc. and
8. Location for the outlet in the case of flue gases.
Application of waste heat boilers:

A waste heat boiler finds its application in the following industries:
1. Steel mills – use the following types of Waste Heat and Small Boilers:
(a) Horizontal and vertical Gastube WHB
(b) Horizontal straight tubular WHB
(c) Bent water tube type boilers.
Waste heat boilers are fitted to open-hearth, forge and continuous heating furnaces. Coke
Oven and Blast Furnace Gases being heavily dust laden need special handling in the
burner.
2. Cement kilns – need a WHB that must be specially designed to handle extremely
dust-laden gases of Cement Kilns. Hoppers are provided under the boiler and
economiser to remove dust continuously.
As much as 20-40 tons of cement dust is recovered per day from a single kiln. Two-
drum and three-drum WHBs are particularly used. These are fitted with economisers,
superheaters and soot blowers.
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3. Ore roaster – A typical WHB for recovering waste heat from ore roasters is a three-
drum, low-head boiler fitted with hoppers under the sections of gas path to collect
gas-borne ore particles as they settle when the gases make low-velocity turns around
the baffles.
4. Lead and Zinc smelters – These need a WHB capable of handling a gas whose
temperature is as high as 1450-1480ºK and which is laden with solids in a semi-
molten or sticky form. Usually a vertical watertube WHB is used, which must cool
the gas down to 1000-1300ºK in the radiant chamber to condense out the metal (Zn,
Pb) vapour from the hot gas before its entry to the superheater and convection shaft.
5. Paper making – uses a WHB to

(a) generate process steam by burning the waste liquor,
(b) recover the salt cake and
(c) eliminate stream pollution.
The waste liquor is dehydrated to produce char, which is burnt in a large heap in a
reducing atmosphere in the recovery furnace. The furnace temperature is as high as
1500-1530ºK. Gas velocities are kept low to avoid fouling of the heat absorbing
surfaces, which comprise waterwall tubes laid on the refractory lined boiler furnace.
The flue gases after passing through the economiser go through the evaporator to
concentrate the black liquor.
8.0 Technological Development in Boilers:
8.1 Super Critical Boiler:

two factors, namely the necessity to reduce emission of CO2 (Green House Gas) and ever
increasing cost of fuel have always attracted the attention of the designer. In order to
achieve these two objectives, the designers have taken steps to increase the thermal
efficiency & power cycle by adopting the usage of Super Critical Pressure steam. A super
critical boiler is one, which operates above the critical steam pressure of 229 kg/cm2(g) at
3740 C. At this critical pressure, steam and water are at the same density, which means
steam, is as compressed as water and at a temperature of 3740 C, water can does not
require any latent heat to become vapour from fluid. When such substance is heated
above the critical temperature, dry superheated steam is produced, which is very suitable
for driving turbo generators. In super critical boiler, are provided with only pre-heater
and super heaters and there is no boiler drum. Also, the super critical pressure boilers are
of once through, forced circulation type.
8.1.1 The Advantages of Super Critical Boiler over Sub Critical Boiler:
a) The heat transfer rate is very high. (Typically, the heat transfer co-efficient in sub-
critical boiler is 400 kcal/m2.hr.C while that in super-critical boiler is 50000
kcal/m2.hr.C).
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b) By using super critical boiler, steam efficiency of power plant can be as high as about
40 to 42%.
c) Due to absence of steam-water mixture (no two-phase effect), there is very less
erosion and corrosion.
d) The overall operation is very easy.
e) The turbo generator connected to super critical boiler can easily attain peak-loads.
8.2 Fluidized Bed Combustion:

When air or gas is passed through an inert bed of solid particles such as sand or crushed
refractories supported on a fine mesh or grid the air will initially seek a path of least
resistance, and pass upwards through the bed.
With further increase in the velocity, the air starts bubbling through the bed and the
particle attains a state of high turbulence. Under such conditions, the bed assumes the
appearance of a fluid and exhibits the properties associated with a fluid and hence the
name ‘FLUIDISED BED’.
If the bed material in fluidized state is heated to the ignition temperature of the fuel and
fuel is injected continuously into the bed, the fuel will turn rapidly and the bed attains a
uniform temperature due to effective mixing. This, in short, is fluidized bed combustion
(or FBC)
While it is essential that the temperature of the bed should be at least equal to ignition
temperature of coal, it must not be allowed to approach the adiabatic combustion
temperature (1600-1700ºC) to avoid melting of the ash. The combustion is carried out
essentially at a temperature below ash fusion temp. This is achieved by extracting heat
from the bed through heat transfer tubes immersed in the bed, as well as through walls of
the bed.
If the air velocity is too high the bed particles are entrained in the air stream and are lost.
Hence air velocity is maintained between minimum fluidizing velocity and particle
entrainment velocity. The integration of the fluidized bed combustion process with a
boiler results in a system that has several advantages.
8.2.1 Operational Advantages of Fluidized Bed Combustion Boilers.
Following are the main advantages of Fluidized Bed Combustion Boilers:
a) Low NOx emission due to low temperature combustion (800-900ºC) NOx formation
is avoided and adding limestone for high Sulphur fuels such as Lignites, Peats and
High Sulphur Coal arrests SOx. Thus, expensive downstream scrubbing equipments
are not necessary.
b) Prevention of vitrification of ash particles causing them to be less than ash from fire
or p.f. boilers.
c) Minimal Instruments & Controls required. No flame monitoring system being
necessary for monitoring the flame of boiler furnace.
d) Unlike Pulverised Fuel Fired Boilers, no flame supporting and stabilizing firing of
Secondary Fuel such as Oil is required.
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e) High availability and reliability with poor grade coal,

f) Rated parameters are obtained faster and the time taken from the instant of lighting
up is quite less.
g) Wide Turn-down Ratio of 4 to 1 is achievable, due to which rated steam conditions
are maintained down to very low loads and response to load variations is fast.
h) Coal quality much inferior to the quality envisaged during design and wide
fluctuation in quality can often be accommodated without sacrificing the generation
or efficiency.
i) Fluidized Bed Combustion Boilers can be designed to burn Waste Fuels such as
bagasse, husk saw dust or washery middling.
j) Reduction in Boiler efficiency with reduction in boiler load is much lesser as
compared with other type of boilers.
k) Boiler can be comfortably operated at low loads without any support fuel due to
segmental airbox and fuel combustion bed.
l) Boiler start up (cold start)is fast.
m) Hot start is faster due to heat retention in bed.
n) Soot blowers are not required as it has minimum touching and slagging potential
o) Operation is simple and generally there is lesser danger of explosion.
p) Less of maintenance due to absence of moving parts.
q) Low operation & maintenance cost.
r) Bottom feeding system helps in ensuring uniform bed temperature and high
efficiency even when the content of fines in the coal is very high.
s) Compact design due to high heat transfer rate over a small heat transfer area
immersed in bed.
t) Low cost of steam generation. High efficiency (85-86%), use of low cost fuel, less
maintenance cost, and negligible oil consumption reduce the cost of steam generation
considerably.
u) Thermally homogenous combustion, hence lower potential for local hot or cold
spots.
8.2.2 Classification of fluidized-bed boiler :

Fluidized-bed boilers can be categorized into two main groups, depending on the mode of
operation of the fluidized bed. These are:
(a) Atmospheric Fluidized Bed (AFB) boilers and
(b) Pressurized Fluidized Bed (PFB) boilers.
Atmospheric Fluidized Bed boilers can be of two types:
(a) Atmospheric Bubbling Bed boilers and
(b) Atmospheric Circulating-Bed boilers
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A distinction can also be made on the basis of fluidizing velocity of air, which is the
fundamental distinguishing feature of fluidized-bed-combustion units.
8.2.3 Atmospheric Fluidized Bed (AFB) boilers:

Fluidised bed combustion (FBC) is ideally suited to the burning of solid fuel or low
calorific value waste. In the FBC system, fuel is added to a fire bed (composed of inert
particles, such as sand - or limestone if sulphur capture is required), which is 'fluidised'
by blowing combustion air upwards through it. This produces highly efficient combustion
and allows the use of low-grade fuels that are not suitable for conventional combustion
plant designs.
Operational efficiencies for AFBCs are 25-35%, similar to conventional coal-fired plant.
The atmospheric fluidised bed combustion (AFBC) systems run close to atmospheric
pressure. There are two types of AFBCs:
¾ Bubbling Fluidised bed combustors (BFBC), where combustion is in a conventional
bubbling bed and combustion efficiencies of 90-98% are achieved; and
¾ Circulating Fluidised bed combustors (CFBC), where the bed medium is entrained and
circulated with the combustion gases. A cyclone separates the bed material and returns
it to the main chamber. CFBCs can achieve combustion efficiencies greater than 98%.
Fig. Outline of AFBC
Typical fuels for AFBCs are coal, anthracite, petroleum coke, oil shale, biomass,
shredded tyres, paper sludge, wood waste, high sulphur solid fuels, municipal sledges and
industrial process waste. The ash is used as a cement aggregate or for other construction
materials. It is generally inert and non-hazardous, although testing may be performed to
detect any possible hazardous residuals.
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8.2.4 Application of FBC

For power generation with low-grade fuel, this is an ideal technology with numerous
advantages stated before. Old boilers can be converted into FBC or retrofitting is easily
possible.
8.2.5 Further Advancement in Fluidized Bed Combustion Technology, the Pressurized

Fluidized Bed (PFB) boilers:
In a PFBC boiler, improvements in the design of FBC technology have been made to
reach higher operating efficiencies by using differential air pressures, special bed
geometries, etc - aiming to improve the combustion of difficult materials such as high
sulphur solid fuels and biomass. Operating efficiencies for PFBCs are 33-42%, depending
on fuel characteristics (i.e., Sulphur content, ash content, caloric value), type of PBFC
system (i.e. combined cycle versus turbo-charged, circulating versus bubbling), and peak
temperature of the gas turbine. Second-generation units, which integrate gas and steam
turbines, are expected to have efficiencies in the range of 45-50%.
The space required for repowering a conventional coal-fired power plant with PFBC
technology would be similar to that required for a flue-gas scrubber unit. Conventional
particulate removal from a PFBC is by cyclone, bag house and/or electrostatic
precipitator.
Solid waste from PFBCs (containing fuel ash, calcium sulphate and consumed sorbent)
can be safely used for landfill or sold as a byproduct.
ELECTRODE BOILERS:
It is built of a vertical/cylindrical shell with a dished plate at the bottom and a stand pipe for
blow off connection attached to the dished bottom. The top end of the shell is fitted with a
suitable tabled flangeon which a cover flat or dished end plate consisting of three electrodes is
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fitted by means of suitable bolts and nuts. There are pads or stand pipes fitted for set of water
gauges, pressure gauge, feed inlet and safety valve and main steam outlets on the shell sides at
respective places. These boilers are very compact in construction and can be conveniently
installed. Since it is working on electric supply there are no blowers/oil burners, chimney, etc.
required. These boilers are suitable for giving heat treatment to tools and other similar industries
and laboratories. Three electrodes with connections are immersed inside the shell.
Heat Recovery Steam Generator in Power Plant: The HRSG [Heat Recovery Steam
Generator] is a system that generates steam from a primary source of heat, like gas turbine
exhaust, or the waste Incinerators etc.
The main function of the HRSG is to serve as the link between two different thermodynamic
cycles. These are:
The gas turbine cycle (Brayton) and
The water steam cycle (Rankine).
These two cycles conform what is called a combined cycle.
To efficiently mate the Rankine steam cycle with high-temperature gas turbines, HRSGs are
developed to operate at substantially higher flue-gas temperatures. New HRSG designs also are
required to match each incremental jump in gas-turbine size as combined cycle units grow larger
and larger. Perhaps the most important development in HRSG design is the move from single to
dual-pressure steam production. This change, which enabled lower stack temperatures and thus
greater recovery of thermal energy from the gas turbine exhaust, increased thermal efficiency of
a combined-cycle plant by nearly four percentage points. Later designs has gone one step further,
from dual to triple-pressure steam production, and yielded approximately one more percentage
point gain for the overall cycle. Today, most of the HRSGs for large combined cycle power
plants are designed for triple pressure reheat steam systems to maximized efficiency.
Importance of Pinch Point and Approach Point in HRSG
Unlike conventional steam generators, where the inlet gas temperatures are very high namely
adiabatic combustion temperatures of the fuel fired (1600-1800oC), the gas turbine exhaust inlet
gas temperature to the HRSGs is very low, on the order of 500 - 580 oC. This creates a problem.
We cannot arbitrarily assume an exit gas temperature to determine the steam flow. There are a
few reasons for this, such as the low ratio of gas/steam and capacity of heat sink in the form of
economizer. A lot of energy is transferred to the steam before the flue gases enter the
economizer, while in HRSGs, it could be very small due to the low inlet gas temperature. This in
turn affects the energy absorbed in economizer and hence the HRSG exit gas temperature. Hence
gas/steam profiles cannot be easily predicted.
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The pinch point is the difference between the gas temperature leaving the evaporator and the
saturation temperature, while approach point is the difference between the water temperature
leaving the economizer and saturation temperature.
Approach point is used in the sizing of the Economizer. A good approach point is between
10°C-15°C. This temperature will guarantee that no steaming will occur in the economizer
section.
Pinch is used in sizing the heat transfer surface area of the HRSG. It is desirable to make the
pinch point as small as possible with out making the cost of the HRSG too high.
Pinch and approach points are to a great extent dependent on the inlet gas temperature and
whether the evaporator is bare or finned.
With single pressure or even multiple pressure HRSGs, an option to improve energy recovery is
to use lower pinch and approach points.
A Typical exhaust gas/steam cycle temperature profile "Q-T diagram" for three-pressure system
is given below indicating Gas turbine exhaust gas temperature, the highest pressure level,
superheated steam temperature, minimum temperature difference (pinch point), approach
temperature difference, stack gas temperature, reheat steam temperature, etc.
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Heat Transfer and Tube Finning

The temperature differential between the flue gas, steam and water, especially around the back
end of the evaporators, is very poor. The situation is compounded by the poor heat transfer
coefficient on the flue gas side. Water side and steam side coefficients are much better as will
seen in the Table below.
Typical HRSG Heat Transfer Coefficients
Section of Flue Gas Water in Water in HP Steam
HRSG Economiser Evaporator
Heat Transfer 50 500 2500-10000 1000
Coefficient
(W.m-2.K-1)
It follows from this that tube wall temperatures tend to run quite close to the water and steam
side temperatures. Even when temperature differentials are at their highest, the heat transfer rates
are very modest. For example with a 100ºC difference the flue gas, as at the beginning of an HP
evaporator, the actual heat transfer rate will not be much more than 5-10 kW.m-2. This compares
with peak heat transfer rates in pulverized boilers which can be well over 200 kW.m-2.
Given such poor flue gas side heat transfer rates, tubes must be of small diameter, with tight
spacings and be of the finned type to provide sufficient heat transfer area. The only section of the
HRSG which might not use finned tubes is the HP superheater where there might be a possibility
of oxidation of the finning.
High efficiency finning is desirable as this reduces the size of the HRSG. Fin material with a
high conductivity is needed.
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Fin shape and pitch are also critical due to the need to prevent excessive pressure drops through
the system, otherwise gas turbine output will suffer. The overall pressure drop across the whole
HRSG should not be much more than 25 mbar. A potential problem with finning, where different
types of materials are employed, is expansion differences leading to thermal fatigue.
Classification of HRSG
There are a few variants to the basic design of the HRSG. These variants define the type of
HRSG and the variant is determined by a specific aspect of the HRSG operation. These are as
below:
• Horizontal or Vertical design
• Circulation - Natural, Forced, assisted Circulation or once through
• Supplementary fired, and Auxiliary fired.
• Single, Dual or Triple pressure levels
Horizontal or Vertical design

The vertical or the Horizontal design is basically the particular manufacturer's design feature. In
the Horizontal design the exhaust hot gases from the primary heat source flow in a horizontal
direction over the exchanger tubes. In a vertical design the gases flow in a vertical direction
[bottom to top] over the exchanger tubes. Though both designs work equally effectively, certain
countries have preference for one over the above.
Vertical designs, which have originally been developed in Europe, offer a smaller footprint and
are less vulnerable to thermal cycling problems than the horizontal designs commonly applied
and originated in North America.
Horizontal vs Vertical HRSG (some of the important comparisons)
Horizontal HRSG Vertical HRSG

Surface Area for equal Similar, except the re- Base
Output heater and super heater
section which might
require slightly more
heating surface area
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mainly due to less

advantageous flue gas
flow distribution with
regard to temperatures and
mass flow
Plot Plan Area for equal Up to 30% more, mainly Base
Output due to the opening angle
of the inlet duct and the
stack, and if
supplementary firing
systems, SCR’s, CO
Catalysts, etc. are required
Emission control Requires more HRSG Requires more HRSG
length height, cleaning of
downstream fouled
surfaces has to be carried
out carefully, not to
poison the catalyst.
Supplementary Firing Readily installed in the Readily installed in the
HRSG inlet duct or within HRSG inlet duct, difficult
the boiler surface area to install within the boiler
surface area
HRSG enclosure/Boiler Free standing, self Attached to and supported
house supporting enclosure by the HRSG structure,
light enclosure
Regular Inspections Headers and surfaces not Header and surface
easy to access inspection carried out
accessing through
manholes with-out
requirement for additional
auxiliaries
Circulation
As the HRSG exchanger tubes are constantly exposed to the hot gases from the primary heat
source, the tubes cannot be dry at anytime. Hence there is need to keep the water circulating all
the time through the various exchangers. This can be Natural, Forced, Assisted or Once through
flow. In the vertical HRSG design where the exchanger tubes are horizontal, often forced
circulation is deployed. These days there are vertical HRSGs with natural circulation also.
On the other hand, the horizontal HRSGs with vertical exchanger tubes deploy natural
circulation as the norm.
Natural Circulation:
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Natural Circulation
The circulation arises from the density difference between water and steam.
It normally includes a drum.
Forced Circulation:
Forced Circulation
The circulation arises from the work done by a water circulation pump.
The Assisted Circulation

Similar to forced circulation
The circulation arises from the work done by a water circulation pump that is only in
service during the start-up of the HRSB.
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Applies normally for vertical HRSB types.

The Once Through Flow
The circulation arises from the weight force of the water entering the boiler at a very high
point.
It normally has no drum.
There is no recirculation taking place in the evaporator.
Supplementary-fired, and Auxilliary fired

If the heat from the primary source is not adequate to meet the specific plant requirements, then
supplementary firing is required in the HRSG using some burner system. In the supplementary
fired HRSG heat from the primary source and from the burner are always available. Auxiliary
firing will be required if the HRSG is to produce steam for the plant even when the primary heat
source is not available.
Per ASME Power Test Code 4.4, the HRSG efficiency is defined as:
E= (energy to steam/water/fluids)/[exhaust gas flow x enthalpy + fuel
input on LHV basis]
Compared to an unfired HRSG, the fired unit is more efficient for the following reasons:
Addition of auxiliary fuel reduces the effective excess air in the exhaust gases, as no air is
added. The fuel utilizes only the excess oxygen in the turbine exhaust. This is opposite to
what happens in a steam generator, where with increase in excess air, the heat losses are
more and thus efficiency is reduced.
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With increased steam generation, usually the exhaust gas temperature decreases in a single
pressure system. This is due to the increased ratio of steam/gas. In a conventional steam
generator, the gas/steam ratio is nearly constant, while in a HRSG, exhaust gas flow remains
the same, while the steam generation increases due to auxiliary firing. The increased water
flow through the economizer (with gas flow remaining same) can pull the gas temperature
further down due to the increased duty.
But in practice, it has been found that the heat rate increases with auxiliary firing. Radiation
heat pick up in the HRSG designed to utilize low grade heat is poor and thus contributes to the
decrease of the overall efficiency of the power plant. It is therefore prudent to use duct firing as
Supplementary firing instead of auxiliary firing only to augment power generation at the time of
need.
Single, Dual or Triple pressure levels

HRSGs, may have single or multiple pressure levels, to suit a specific plant requirement. The
pressure and flow values are dictated by the downstream equipment's requirement. There are
obvious differences in HRSGs from a coal fired or oil fired steam plant. The HRSG does not
have a furnace and all the heat coming from a Gas Turbine exhaust. Where in conventional
boiler, the superheater is located after the evaporator, in an HRSG, the evaporators are located at
downstream of superheater and reheater. In a triple pressure HRSG, there are actually three sets
of evaporators, an HP set, an IP and an LP set. There are also separate sets of HP, IP and LP
economizers. In an conventional fired boiler, although there are HP, IP and LP steam turbines,
all the evaporation takes place at just one very high pressure. These differences can be traced
back to heat transfer consideration, which dominates the HRSG design.
The temperature in the furnace of a conventional coal or oil fired steam plant is around 2000oC,
and in the superheater and reheater region, temperatures run between 800 to 1400oC.
It is a truism for both gas and steam turbines, that to attain the highest practicable efficiencies,
the turbine entry temperature needs to be as high as possible. Steam temperatures of most HRSG
units lie in the range of 480 to 530oC, to make use of a steam temperature of the order of 500oC
or more, the steam must be expanded through an adequate pressure ratio. Since the pressure in
condenser is more or less fixed, this requires an adequate steam pressure into the turbine. For an
HRSG equipped with a superheater and a reheater these days, the pressure is more than 120 bar.
Generating steam at this pressure has a huge impact on HRSG design, basically because much of
the heat uptake happens at the evaporator due to the higher requirement of latent heat. Since the
saturation temperature increases with the increase of pressure, the water side has to be raised to a
very high temperature – to the extent of 300 – 320oC. Given that the flue gas entering an HRSG
is around 600ºC, and the bulk of the heat uptake occurs at around the boiling point, this would
mean that the temperature of the flue gas going up the stack would be just over 300ºC. In other
words, about half of the available heat in the flue gas would be lost up the stack, in a HRSG that
produced steam at just one very high pressure, as in a pulverized fuel boiler.
This problem is overcome by installing a further set of evaporators, economizers and
superheaters in the HRSG, down stream of the high pressure steam. This additional set produces
steam at a much lower pressure, somewhere between 4 and 10 bar, the actual value being that
which corresponds to the exit pressure from the HP turbine, or if the plant is fitted with a
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reheater, the IP turbine. As the boiling point of water at this sort of pressure is in the range of
140ºC-180ºC low temperature heat in the flue gases can be picked up quite easily. In addition
some superheating of the LP steam is done with the aim of matching the temperature of the
“cold” steam from the HP or IP turbine. It is then possible to merge the steam from these two
different systems and put them to the LP turbine.
Steam, for deaeration, at an even lower pressure, can also be raised using the last vestige of heat
in the flue gases. To summarise in a modern HRSG steam would be raised at three different
pressures with separate evaporator and pumping circuits for each. This is in complete contrast to
a pulverized fuel steam plant, where all the evaporation takes place at one very high pressure.
Another difference is that feedheaters, of the type used on conventional pulverized fuel plant,
using steam extracted from the turbines are not used on HRSG systems. This would simply raise
the water temperature at the inlet to the economizers, and would reduce the amount of heat,
which could be transferred from the flue gases.
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Examples
Question: What is the difference between a horizontal boiler and a vertical boiler?
Answer: The difference basically lies in the geometric position of the boilers. A horizontal
boiler has its principal axis horizontal or slightly inclined while that of a vertical boiler
is perpendicular to the horizontal plane.
Question: How can boilers be classified on the basis of use?
Answer: This is done on the basis of the nature of service they perform. Customarily boilers are
called:
Stationary: These are land-based boilers. Such boilers, as the name implies, are not
required to be transported from one place to the other.
Mobile: These are mounted on marine vessels and steam locomotives. Locomotive
and marine boilers, which are moved from place to place, are mobile boilers
Question: What are the classifications of watertube and Firetube boilers?
Answer: Boilers are classified under two basic classes as follows:
(A) Water tube boilers:
1. Horizontal straight tube:
a. Boxed header type
b. Sectional header type
2. Bent tube boilers:
a. Mono-drum type
b. Bidrum type
c. Tridrum type
d. Quadridrum type
If the drum is parallel to the tubes, it is called longitudinal drum type boiler; if across
the tubes, it is called a cross-drum type.
(B) Firetube boilers:
a. Short fire box type
b. Compact
c. Vertical tube type
d. Horizontal type
e. Locomotive
f. Scotch type
Question: What is gas tube WHB?

Answer:
Gas Tube Waste Heat Boilers are shell-and-tube type boilers with hot gases flowing in
the tube-side and water and steam in the shell-side.
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They are usually single-pass in arrangement and absorb only convection heat from the
hot gases.
They have a high weight-to-heat output ratio.
They are usually found in applications for gas pressure 27-35 atm. and temperature up
to 1255ºK (982ºC).
The external surface of the boiler is heat insulated.
The boiler tubes are of smaller diameter and more closely spaced than direct-fired
waste heat boilers.
Soot blowers with nozzles directed towards the tube ends are used to clean the
deposits.
Gastube boilers are used in the case of gases with light dust loadings, for obvious
reasons.
Question: Where are Waste Heat Boilers, which are generally employed?
Answer:
Sr. WHB Type Application
1 Watertube For clean or dust laden flue gas
2 Gastube For relatively clean flue gases
3 Bent tube Handles heavily dust laden gases
4 Positive circulation For clean low temperature gases
5 Supercharged Gas turbine exhaust
6 Three-drum-low-head boiler Suitable for light dust loadings
7 Waterwall bidrum type For gases with suspended sticky particles.
Question: Why are watertube boilers most frequently used for waste heat recovery?
Answer: Reasons are the following:
1. They can work successfully at higher pressures.
2. Since water is circulated in the tube-side, which can be readily cleaned, Watertube
WHBs are not so susceptible to damage from poor feedwater quality.
3. Better capacity to withstand the shock due to fluctuation of gas temperature.
4. The furnace wall can be adequately cooled by applying water-wall tubes. This
imparts a long life to the refractory lined WHB interior wall.
5. The slagging and erosion problems can be minimized by varying the tube size and
spacing.
6. Dust particles may be recovered.
7. Lends itself to a more economic arrangement.
Question: Why must water wall headers not be blown down when a boiler is in service or
running?
Answer: Water must never be blown down from water wall headers when the boiler is in
service, as normal circulation of water will get disturbed causing reduced cooling
effect due to which the water wall tubes may get distorted, bulged and ruptured due
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to overheating.
Question: What happens if the baffle is damaged from its position?
Answer: If any baffle is shifted or breaks down, short-circuiting of gases in the passes causes
excessive gas temperature resulting in loss of boiler performance. Also, due to short-
circuiting some parts of the boiler, designed for low gas temp, will get overheated
and may get damaged.
Question: What are the other types of boilers, except scotch type used on ships?
Answer: They are, Yarrow Marine Boilers and Babcock & Marine Boilers.
Question: Is a fire tube subjected to explosion hazard in fire tube boiler?
Answer: As the fire tubes are under external pressure, there are no chances of their bursting.
But their components are likely to sag, bulge & collapse which are under external
pressure. Shell of fire tube boiler, which is under internal pressure, is subjected to
explosion hazard.
Question: What defects are likely to be encountered in fire tubes?
Answer: Due to overheating caused by scale deposits, oil or starvation of water, tubes may get
overheated, distorted and their ends may get loosened in the tube sheets. Waste and
burn out leakages may occur due to improper expanding technique adopted or due to
accumulation of scale in neck of tubes and the tubes may pull out of the tube sheets.
Misalignment of front and rear tube plate holes is likely to cause tube leakages at
ends.
Question: Why is the volumetric capacity of each gas pass progressively reduced?
Answer: Gases contract in volume as they pass from furnace towards the chimney because of
reduction in their temperature and to maintain velocity to sweep the gases for good
heat transfer, the cross sectional area of passes are required to be reduced as cooler
gases require lesser cross section than the hotter ones.
Question: Does variation of load affect availability of a boiler?
Answer: Yes, it does. Fluctuating load set up thermal strains, which affect tube expansion and
wear & tear of brickwork increases. Fluctuating load may cause breathing between
refractory insulation and casing and there will be a tendency for fine dust to
accumulate between the refractory and insulation and disturb the whole structure,
which would result in distortion of brickwork and overheating of external casing.
Question: Does external cleanliness affect availability?
Answer: Yes, it does. If the heating surfaces are fouled, the deposit increases the resistance of
gas flow and reduces the efficiency of heat transfer. The effect of high exit gas
temperature and high draught loss will limit the volume of gases, which induced
draught fan can handle and the rate of combustion and evaporation will be adversely
affected.
Question: What is bird nesting?
Answer: Accumulation of porous masses of loosely adhering refuse and slag particles in a
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tube bank in a water tube boiler is called bird nesting.

Question: What is bridging?
Answer: Accumulation of refuse and slag particles completely blocking spaces between heat-
absorbing surfaces is called bridging.
Question: What is the difference between a tube and a flue?
Answer: Both are cylindrical but the term tube is usually applied to those of small
diameter up to about 6 inches, above which they are called flues (Here tube size
refer to outside diameter).
Question: What constitutes the heating surface of a steam boiler?
Answer: The heating surface is that area of tubes, furnace, tube sheets and headers that is
exposed to the products of combustions.
Question: What is the pressure limitation of fire-tube boilers?
Answer: An operating pressure of about 17 to 18 kg/gm2 is considered as the practical ceiling,
while capacity rarely exceeds about 11000-11500 kgs of steam per hour.
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Examples for Practice
Q.1 Draw neat sketch of the Cochrane boiler showing the path of flue gases. Indicate on it
the location of the various boiler mountings. Why the crown of the fire box is made
hemispherical
Q.2 Explain with neat sketch the arrangement of dry back and wet back construction in a
package boiler.
What are the advantages of wet back construction over dry back construction.
Q.3 Differentiate between the following:

a) Water tube boiler and fire tube boiler
b) FBC boiler and spread stoker boiler.
Q.4 Describe with neat sketch of B & W water tube boiler, list out all mountings and
accessories and state location of them in the sketch.
Q.5 Describe the working of a Lancashire Boiler with the aid of neat sketch. Show the path of
flue gases to stack and the relative position of economiser and superheater.
Q.6 Write a short note on Atmospheric fluidized bed combustion boiler.
Q.7 Why are bent tubes used in a water tube boiler?
Q.8 How are steam boilers classified? Name at least one steam boiler of each type. Give a
brief description of any one type of boiler and show its main essential mountings and
accessories with the help of a neat sketch.
Q.9 From operational point of view, compare the fluidized bed combustion boiler with
mechanical stoker fired boiler in detail.
Q.10 What are waste heat boilers? Give examples of industries where waste heat boilers are
used. Draw a sketch of any one type of waste heat boiler used in Indian Industries.
Q.11 How would you select a boiler for given duty. Explain in details all the aspects of
selection factors such as pressure capacity etc.
11-10-1995
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TUTORIAL FOR SECOND CLASS BOILER ENGINEER’S PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION

5.0 Selection of a boiler:

6.0 Classification of Boilers:

7.0 Various Types of Boilers:

7.2 Fire Tube Boilers:

accumulators, its steaming capacity is reduced,

7.3 Water Tube Boilers:

The disadvantages of water-tube boilers are,

7.4 Shell Type Boiler:

7.5 Description of various types of boilers:

7.5.1 Cornish Boiler:

7.5.2 Lancashire Boiler:

VERTICAL CROSS TUBE BOILER

7.5.5 Vertical Fire Tubes/Vertical Multitubular boilers:

Vertical Fire Tubes/Vertical Multitubular boilers

7.5.6 Locomotive (stationary) boilers:

is produced due to difference of density of water which in turn is due to difference of

7.5.7 Straight tube and staggered header Boilers:

7.5.9.2 Double-Ended Scotch Marine Boiler:

7.5.12 Waste heat boiler:

b) Recovering heat that is:

Application of waste heat boilers:

5. Paper making – uses a WHB to

8.0 Technological Development in Boilers:

8.1 Super Critical Boiler:

8.2 Fluidized Bed Combustion:

e) High availability and reliability with poor grade coal,

8.2.2 Classification of fluidized-bed boiler :

8.2.3 Atmospheric Fluidized Bed (AFB) boilers:

Fig. Outline of AFBC

8.2.4 Application of FBC

8.2.5 Further Advancement in Fluidized Bed Combustion Technology, the Pressurized

Heat Transfer and Tube Finning

Horizontal or Vertical design

Horizontal vs Vertical HRSG (some of the important comparisons)

Horizontal HRSG Vertical HRSG

mainly due to less

The Assisted Circulation

 Applies normally for vertical HRSB types.

The Once Through Flow

Supplementary-fired, and Auxilliary fired

Single, Dual or Triple pressure levels

Question: What is gas tube WHB?

tube bank in a water tube boiler is called bird nesting.

Examples for Practice

Q.3 Differentiate between the following:

Q.6 Write a short note on Atmospheric fluidized bed combustion boiler.

Q.7 Why are bent tubes used in a water tube boiler?

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Applies normally for vertical HRSB types.