STRATEGY FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION IN BALL & TUBE MILLS

A.K. Chaudhary, DGM (BMD) R.N. Pujari, Sr. Supdt. (BMD) J. S. Singh, Engr. (BMD) Amit Kumar, Sr. A. E. (BMD)
1.0 A BRIEF ABOUT NTPC-VINDHYACHAL: Vindhyachal project of NTPC is the largest Thermal Power Project of India. The station is located in Singrauli District of Madhya Pradesh and is nearly 200 Kms. from Varanasi. The present generating capacity of the station is 3260 MW. The project has been constructed in three stages. The 1st stage is consisting of six Units of 210 MW, the 2nd Stage is consisting of two Units of 500 MW and the 3rd Stage is consisting of another two Units of 500 MW. NTPC-Vindhyachal is on the verge of starting its Stage-IV very soon for construction of another 1500 MW. With this, Vindhyachal shall be the largest and the 1st Ultra Mega Power Project of the country. 2.0 MILLING SYSTEMS IN NTPC-VINDHYACHAL: In stage-I, each unit is provided with 6 nos. XRP-803 Bowl Mills supplied by M/s BHEL. In Stage-II Units, there are 5 Ball Tube Mills in each unit. Each Unit has been provided with BBD 4772 Mills. In stage-III, there are 20 nos. XRP-1003 Bowl Mills. So, in all there are 66 Mills and 76 coal feeders in Vindhyachal. While, many retrofitting have been done in XRP-803 Mills to get the desired output at the desired fineness level, the initial days with BBD-4772 Mills in stage-II Units in the years 2000 and 2001 saw many difficulties. Working with the Ball Tube Mills both from operation and Maintenance point of view was very tough. There were very difficult times in operating and maintaining the Mills for a sustained generation. However, after two years of struggle to stabilise the Mills, we could be able to overcome the problems and the Mills operated for a sustained generation. In stage-III, the mills have been supplied by M/s BHEL with many of the retrofits but, still some difficulties are faced in maintenance of Mills as regards to wear and tear of the components. While each type of Mill has some advantages, still there are some disadvantages. This paper focuses on the Ball and Tube Mills of Stage-II. The major disadvantage of these Mills is huge power absorption and hence, many of the power plants do not prefer these mills. Stations with Ball & Tube Mills strive for optimizing the power consumption and hence try to optimize the life of the wearing elements. In various stations, the mills have the Grinding Balls and Liners of different metallurgy and also the stations have different practices. There is regular upgradation of metallurgy and profile of the liners in order to reduce the mill power consumption without sacrificing the mill output.

In this paper a case study of Ball & Tube Mills of Vindhyachal has been presented with regard to the strategy for energy conservation opportunities in these mills. The authors have compared the Mills of Vindhyachal-7 and Vindhyachal-8. Although, the Mill shell liners were initially guaranteed for 30000 hours, still the mills have run for more than 50000 hours. Station has also carried out sorting of Balls during last overhaul of Unit-8, while Ball sorting has not been done in Unit-7 for last 4 years. While, liners of two mills have been replaced completely, liners of other mills are awaiting for replacement. This study on the need of Ball sorting in Ball and Tube Mills and the need for timely replacement of Liners to conserve energy is very interesting. 3.0 BALL TUBE MILLS: BRIEF CONSTRUCTIONAL FEATURES, GRINDING PRINCIPLE AND PERFOMANACE: As the name suggests, the Mills are mainly consisting of a Tube shaped shell containing Balls. The BBD 4772 Mills are direct firing type Mills with shell size of 4.7 mtrs. dia and 7.2 mtrs length. These are slow speed Mills and the shell rotates horizontally at 16 rpm. The Mills consist of two perfectly symmetrical grinding circuits provided in each end of the Mill shell. Raw Coal from R.C. feeders fall through a chute, pass through a mixing box and the feed pipe. The raw Coal enters into the Mill by means of the Screw Conveyors provided in each end. By-pass air entering the Mixing Box dries the Raw Coal before its entry into the Mill. The screw conveyors push the Raw Coal into the Mill shell for Pulverization. Coal is pulverized mainly by impact and attrition. Balls getting lifted by the Mill shell liners due to rotation fall after reaching a particular height on the Coal and perform pulverization. The Tube Mill system has a number of Auxiliaries and sub-systems such as the Auxiliary Reducer, Main Motor and Main Reducer, Pinion and Girth Gear, Main lube oil system, Reducer lube oil system, Girth Gear lubrication system, Girth gear sealing system and Mill Seal Air System. Also, a number of dampers, Mill level measurement system, Noise level monitoring System has been provided in these Mills. For safe and reliable operation of the Mills, a set of permissive and interlocks based on multiple and complex logics have been provided. Hot Primary air enters the Mill through Screw Conveyor central Tube and lifts the pulverized fuel. The pulverized fuel moves through the annular space between fixed Trunion Tube and rotating Hot Air Tube on its way to the classifier. Coal laden air passes through the double cone static classifiers with adjustable classifier vanes for segregation to produce pulverized fuel of desired fineness. The finer particles move to the burners for combustion in the Boiler and the coarse particles come back into the raw Coal feed pipe for further grinding. The shell always contains Coal (raw and pulverized). Primary air directly proportional to the Boiler load demand is passed through the Mill. To ensure and maintain sufficient velocity of pulverized fuel and to avoid settling in P.F. pipes, an additional quantity of primary air known as the by-pass air tapped from the primary air duct is fed into the mixing box on raw Coal circuit. Tube Mill output is controlled by regulating the primary air flow, while responding to Boiler load demand. Variation of Boiler load is very fast

and is well comparable with oil firing response as it is achieved by varying the air flow through Mill. This is the biggest advantage of the Tube Mills. Fineness obtained with these Mills are very high, which is of the order of 85-90% through 200 mesh sieve and less than 0.5% is retained on the 50 mesh sieve. The unburnt Carbon in bottom ash is 1.8% - 1.9 % and that in fly ash is 0.18% - 0.19%. 4.0 MILL GRINDING ELEMENTS: The grinding elements of Ball & Tube Mills are mainly Grinding Balls and Shell liners. Over a period, the metallurgy of materials have changed. Originally, the balls were of Forged steel with manganese steel shell liners were there. The consumption of Grinding Balls was 450-500 gms. / Tonne of coal crushed. The liners were replaced after 8000-10000 hours of operation. But, in Vindhyachal Ball & Tube Mills, the Mills were provided with High chrome Grinding Balls and High chrome liners. The initial ball charge was 90 Tons. The shell liners are of 10 variants, 600 in numbers weighing 60.26 Tonnes. The chemical composition and mechanical properties of Grinding Balls and Mill shell liners are as given below: Element Carbon Manganese Silicon Nickel Chromium Molybdenum Copper Sulphur Phosphorous Hardness Microstructure Grinding Balls Min.(%) Max.(%) 2.0 2.7 0.5 1.5 1.0 -2.0 -11.0 13.0 1.0 2.5 2.0 --0.10 -0.10 600 HB (57 HRC) The microstructure of the balls after the heat treatment reveals carbides and tempered martensite. The retained austenite content does not exceed 15% and is aimed to be maintained as low as possible. Shell liners Min.(%) Max.(%) 2.4 2.8 0.5 1.5 -1.0 -0.5 22.0 28.0 -0.6 -1.0 -0.05 -0.06 57 to 62 HRC Microstructure of castings consists of primary carbides in martensitic matrix. Microstructure is checked on sample extracted from liner.

In the grinding balls, the carbon content is aimed at lower range so as to get better toughness and impact resistance. Cr/C ratio is maintained at 5.0 minimum adhering to range specified for both the elements.

5.0 MAINTENANCE OF WEAR ELEMENTS: The wear elements are most critical components of Tube Mills as they affect the mill output directly and in a large way while ensuring the milling plant auxiliary power consumption. The mill throughput depends on the size of the grinding balls and the wear profile of the liners. The design of the liners over the period has been upgraded both from the metallurgy point of view and from the profile point of view. In Vindhyachal the Grinding Balls are of high chrome material and the liners are also of high chrome material and with non-reversal type profile. Considering the cost of the grinding media and the liners, it is highly necessary to maintain an optimum level of grinding balls in the mill so as to optimise the power absorbed by the mills. To keep an optimum ball charge, the two main criteria are: Sorting of Grinding Balls Timely and cost-effective replacement schedule of Mill shell liners

5.1 Ball sorting: To match high chrome liners, high chrome balls are provided in the mill. The initial ball charge is of 30mm, 40 mm, 50 mm dia. Grinding media. These balls gradually reduce in size and the refilling is done with the higher dia. i.e. 50 mm. dia. Balls during the mill operation only. While, the smaller dia. Balls contribute in mill fineness through 200 mesh sieve, the larger dia. Balls contribute in reducing 50 mesh retention size of pulverised fuel. But, studies have revealed that very small size balls do not at all contribute in pulverisation of fuel. The balls of size less than 20mm. dia. are merely present inside the mill shell to absorb grinding power without contributing either in increasing the pulverised fuel fineness through 200 mesh sieve or, reducing the retention in 50 mesh sieve. In order to purge out the non-contributing small size balls, ball sorting is recommended by the manufacturers. The manufacturers recommend ball sorting during every annual overhaul of the mills. This being a time consuming, intensive labour oriented job and in the absence of any permanent mechanism to remove the smaller size balls, most of the tube mill owners do not prefer to carry out ball sorting during annual overhauls. The issue of ball sorting has always been a debatable issue. The main issues are whether ball sorting should be done or, not to be done If it should be done, then at what intervals, it should be done If it should be done, then whether it should be done mechanised or, manually How to ensure removal of 100% non-contributing ball charge i.e. balls of below 20 mm. dia. 5.2 Criteria for replacement of Mill shell liners: The tube mill shells are fitted with liners, which help in protecting the mill shell as well as in lifting of balls to make the raw coal to pulverised fuel. The initial design of Tube Mill liners as shown below in Fig.1 was of manganese steel liners which were reversed after 6000 hours and were being replaced finally after 8000-9000 hours.

Fig.1: Manganese steel liners with old Profile in earlier days Due to this cumbersome exercise, the mill availability was less and the tube mills were unattractive for maintenance. But, with the advent in metallurgy, the new profiled high chrome liners as provided in Vindhyachal shown below in fig. 2 do not warrant for any reversal of liners and the wear out being less do not lead to longer outage of mills.

Original Profile

Worn Out Profile

Fig.2 : Modified Profiled High chrome liners as provided in Vindhyachal Mills As per the manufacturers of High chrome liners, the liners need to be replaced after the wear is more than 45 mm. from the top. The original lift of Mill liners is 55 mm. (Refer fig. 2 above ( Dim. A Dim. B). The manufacturer says that the liners should be run till the lift is 30 mm. or, the end thickness of the liners become less than 20 mm. from the original 40 mm. thick ( Dim. C, Refer fig. 2 above ) While, the mill output plays an important role in deciding the criteria for mill shell liners replacement, the cost of the liners and manufacturers recommendation also guide the maintenance engineer to decide the strategy for replacement of the mill liners. 5.3 Practices at NTPC-Vindhyachal: All the Tube Mills of Vindhyachal were commissioned in the year 2000 and it took nearly 1 year to stabilise the milling system. The Mills have run for nearly 55000 hours. The ball consumption rate in Vindhyachal is 95-100 grams per tonne of coal crushed. The initial ball charge was high chrome balls of 30 mm., 40 mm. and 50 mm. dia.. The refill ball charge is of 50 mm. dia. High chrome balls. Every Monday, the Mill current reading is taken. If the base current decided is more than the current drawn by the Mill, then Ball charging is carried out. The ball charging is carried out till the current is 3-5 amps. more than the base current level decided. Ball sorting was initially carried out in the year 2001 by using a machine provided by the OEM. Subsequently, no ball sorting was carried out. Only, small balls were removed from the top surface of the ball and coal

mixture from inside the shell. But, in the year 2008, a ball sorting machine was developed in-house as shown below in Fig. 3.

Driving Motor Speed Reducer Perforated Sheet Sorting Tray Sorted out undersized balls
Fig.3: In-house designed Ball sorting machine

Balls for reloading

By using this machine, ball sorting was carried out in Unit-8. All non-contributing balls of size below 25 mm. were removed from the balls removed from mill shell. After ball sorting, the performance of the mills is found to have improved. The details of performance improvement are discussed in the next section. The Mill Liners are of high chrome material and were guaranteed for 30000 hours. Initially, after running of the Mills for approximately 4000 hours, failure of the oblique wave and conical liners were noticed in the mills. The problem was rectified and the mills performed satisfactorily. The liners have completed more than 50000 hours of operation in eight mills as on date. Since, gradual mill performance deterioration was being observed, hence, in order to avoid the need of replacement of liners in eight mills at the same time, staggering strategy was planned. Accordingly, the liners of Mill#8AB and Mill#8EF were replaced during Unit overhauling. Every overhauling, the cylindrical liner in the shell door is removed and the liner profile tracing is carried out to understand the wear pattern of the mill shell liners. The liner weight is also measured and the loss of weight per ton of coal crushed is calculated. A chart for the wear measurement and calculation of life is shown in Table-40.

Table-1: Calculation of wear rate of liners by size measurement and weight

It has also been observed in the mills that there is severe erosion of conical liners and the oblique wave liners as compared to the cylindrical liners. 6.0 TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: As seen in the mills, the cylindrical liners are having very less wear. In a year i.e. for a running hour of 6000-7000 hours of the mill, the wear is nearly 2mm. So, according to the manufacturers recommendations, the life of the liners should at least last for 22 years as the liners after an erosion of 45mm. from top should be replaced. This guideline shall at least provide a life of at least 1,30,000 hours. But, practically due to change in the profile of the liners and due to reduction of mill lift there was a need of increased PA flow and need of maintaining higher hot air header pressure. The hot air header pressure was even 900 mmwc when the coal quality was poor and when there was a need of firing nearly 400 T/hr. of coal. To ensure proper mill loading, this necessitated higher ball charge. Accordingly, mill current base level was raised to the range of 108-110 amps. from the earlier 95-100 amps. range. After replacement of Liners of two mills and carrying out mechanised sorting of Grinding Balls in Unit-8, it has been found that the performance parameters of Unit-8

mills have improved. It is evident from the chart in Fig.4 below that the mill current after liner replacement has reduced by 9 amperes.
Average Current in amperes before and after replacement of Liners and Ball sorting in Unit-8 vis--vis the operating average current of Unit-7 Mills 120 110 100 90 80
AB CD EF GH JK

Current Jun.08 Unit-8

Current Dec.08 Unit-8

Current Dec.08 Unit-7

Fig.4: Average Mill current of Unit-8 before and after Replacement of liners in two Mills Coal flow and Air Flow before and after replacement of Liners in Unit-8
130 (in Tons / hr.)

110

90

70

50 8AB 8CD Jun'08 Air Flow 8EF 8GH Dec'08 coal flow Dec'08 air Flow 8JK Jun'08 coal Flow

Fig.5: Average coal flow and Air Flow of Unit-8 Mills before and after Replacement of liners in two Mills

As seen the Fig.5 above, the average mill loading of Mill#8AB and Mill#8EF has improved after replacement of Mill liners by 8 TPH and 18 TPH respectively. The air flow as seen above has also reduced considerably. This has helped in maintaining a PA header pressure of 800-820 mmwc as against 900 mmwc in the unit where no liner replacement activity has been carried out. If the grinding Ball loading is reduced in the Mills of Unit-7, where no liner replacement has been done, the coal lift from mills reduces affecting unit load. This necessitates a higher volume loading of Grinding balls. The effect of ball sorting can be seen from fig.4 and Fig.5 above that even if the liners of Mill#8CD, Mill#8JK have not been replaced, the air / coal ratio has reduced from nearly 1.3 to 1.15. This implies that the ball sorting is also plays an important role in improving the energy consumption by the Mills and PA fans. 7.0 BENEFIT ANALYSIS: The cost benefit analysis has been done after replacement of two full sets of liners in two mills of Unit#8. The benefit analysis has been made by considering that 2 sets of liners are only replaced in a year. The mill performance parameters of Unit#8 and Unit#7 have been considered. The pre liner replacement and post liner replacement performance parameters of Unit-8 have been analysed. It has been observed that the average current of Mills and PA fans of Unit-8 has reduced. The cost benefit analysis presented below is based on the following assumptions. Cost of one set of Liners : Rs.85.2 lakh Cost of replacement work of one set of liner : Rs. 1.8 Lakh Cost of replacement of Liners in One Mill : Rs. 87 lakh Sets of Liners that can be replaced in a year : 2 No. of Mills operated at full load at coal conditions : 4 PLF of the Unit : 93% Power factor of Motors : 0.82 Cost of sale of Power : Rs.1.52 Increase in average Mill current and PA fan current if liners are not replaced : 3 amps. Decrease in average Mill current and PA fan current if liners are replaced : 2 amps. : For compensating purpose only Liner replacement of 5th Mill

Year -1 : As evident from Fig.4 above, the average mill and PA Fan current in the units: With no liners replaced in With 2 sets of liners Year-1 replaced in Year-1 and additional 2 sets of liners replaced in Year-2 Average Mill current 106 99 Average PA Fan Current 85 74

Saving in Power due to 4 mills operation : 3 * 11 * {4*(106-99)} * 0.82 = 437 KW Also as the liners are becoming old, the PA header pressure is required to be maintained more to facilitate lifting of coal from mill shell. The average current of PA Fans maintained in the units are as shown above Saving in Power consumption by PA fans due to 4 mills operation : 3 * 11 * {2*(85-74)} * 0.82 = 344 KW Hence, net saving in Power consumption after replacement of 2 sets of Liners in Year-1 : 437 + 344 = 781 KW In a year with 93% PLF of the unit, the net savings shall be the cost of the power saved = 781 * 24 * 365 * 0.93 * Rs. 1.52 = Rs. 96.72 lakh Year -2 : Now, when, additional two sets of Liners are replaced in two other Mills, then, the average Mill current and PA fan current based on our assumptions derived from experience shall be as follows: With no liners replaced in Year-1 and Year-2 With 2 sets of liners replaced in Year-1 and additional 2 sets of liners replaced in Year-2 97 72

Average Mill current Average PA Fan Current

109 88

Saving in Power due to 4 mills operation : 3 * 11 * {4*(109-97)} * 0.82 = 750 KW and Saving in Power consumption by PA fans due to 4 mills operation : 3 * 11 * {2*(88-72)} * 0.82 = 500 KW So, total saving in Power consumption after replacement of 2 sets of Liner in Year-1 and 2 sets of Liners in Year-2 : 750+500 = 1250 KW Hence, incremental saving in power consumption after replacement of additional 2 sets of liners in year-2 : 1250-781 = 469 KW In a year with 93% PLF of the unit, the net savings in power due to additional replacement of 2 sets of liners shall be the cost of the power saved due to year-2 = 469 * 24 * 365 * 0.93 * Rs. 1.52 = Rs. 58.07 lakh Based on the above calculations shown in Table-2 and Table-3 (placed at the end) have been prepared with discount factors of 14% and 20%. The investments, gain due to power saving for the replacement activities carried out in Year-1 and Year-2 have been shown. The net gain has been plotted as shown below in Fig.6. For both the scenario, it has been observed that, benefit starts after completion of 3 years 8 months. Running hours of Mills in a year at 93% PLF of the unit = 4 * 365 * 24 * 0.93 = 32587 hours. Hence, Running hour per Mill in a year = 8147 hours.

Running hour of a mill in 3 years and 8 months = 29872 hours. Hence, the liners, if replaced after 29872 hours are beneficial.
GAIN DUE TO LINER REPLACEMENT WITH DISCOUNTING FACTORS OF 14% AND 20%

150 100 50 0 -50 -100 -150

D.F. =14% D.F. =20%

Break-even cost at 3 Years 8 months time

Year1

Year2

Year3

Year4

Year5

Fig.6: Overall Gain due to liner replacement of Tube Mills. Other benefits due to liner replacement : Faster response to load variation as coal lifting is easier Operation of the plant with reduced PA header pressure Loading on PA Fans is less. Life of motors of Mills and PA fans shall be better due to operation of the equipments at lower current range. PA header pressure being less, leakage through PAPH seals shall be less Performance of Air preheaters shall be better ESP loading shall be less as APH seal leakages reduce, hence, better ESP performance will be there. Loading on ID Fans shall also reduce Better combustion due to better fineness of pulverised fuel. 8.0 CONCLUSION: In view of the analysis carried out, it is suggested that the high chrome liners of Ball and Tube Mills may be replaced after the guaranteed life of 30000 running hours is achieved and not purely on the basis of the lift value or, the wear value of 45 mm. as recommended by the manufacturer. As observed that ball sorting also helps in reduced PA flow as well as improved mill loading due to segregation of redundant and noncontributing grinding balls, it is also suggested that Ball sorting needs to be carried out by using a mechanised device during each overhaul. Hence, it is suggested to formulate strategy for liner replacement and ball sorting so as to conserve energy and increase marginal contribution.

Table-2: Cost saving calculation sheet with discount factor of 14%

Cost of Liners: 87 Lakhs, gain: 96.72, 58.07, 19.34

Discount factor for Year1 1.00 1.14 1.30 1.48 1.69 Discount factor for Year2 0.00 1.00 1.14 1.30 1.48 Discount factor for Year3 0.00 0.00 1.00 1.14 1.30

Year1 Year2 Year3 Year4 Year5

Investment -174 -174 -87 0 0

Gain 96.72 58.07 19.34

ROE: 14% Gain Gain for for Yr1 Yr2 work work 96.72 0.00 84.84 58.07 74.42 50.94 65.28 44.68 57.27 39.20

Gain for Yr3 work 0.00 0.00 19.34 16.96 14.88

Net gain -77.28 -108.37 -70.01 39.96 136.42

Table-3: Cost saving calculation sheet with discount factor of 20%

Cost of Liners: 87 Lakhs, gain: 96.72, 58.07, 19.34

Discount factor for Year1 1.00 1.20 1.44 1.73 2.07 Discount factor for Year2 0.00 1.00 1.20 1.44 1.73 Discoun t factor for Year3 0.00 0.00 1.00 1.20 1.44

Year1 Year2 Year3 Year4 Year5

Investment -174 -174 -87 0 0

Gain 96.72 58.07 19.34

ROE: 20% Gain Gain for for Yr1 Yr2 work work 96.72 0.00 80.60 58.07 67.17 48.39 55.97 40.33 46.64 33.61

Gain for Yr3 work 0.00 0.00 19.34 16.12 13.43

Net gain -77.28 -112.61 -64.71 31.59 111.84