Helsinki University of Technology Department of Mechanical Engineering

Energy Engineering and Environmental Protection Publications

Steam Boiler Technology eBook
Espoo 2002













Basics of Steam Generation

Sebastian Teir





















Helsinki University of Technology
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Energy Engineering and Environmental Protection

The Basics of Steam Generation - 2
Table of contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 3
Basics of boilers and boiler processes.................................................................................................. 3
Definition ......................................................................................................................................... 3
A simple boiler................................................................................................................................. 4
A simple power plant cycle.............................................................................................................. 4
Carnot efficiency.............................................................................................................................. 5
Properties of water and steam.......................................................................................................... 5
Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 5
Boiling of water ........................................................................................................................... 6
Effect of pressure on evaporation temperature ............................................................................ 7
Basics of combustion ....................................................................................................................... 7
Principles...................................................................................................................................... 7
Products of combustion................................................................................................................ 8
Types of combustion.................................................................................................................... 8
Combustion of solid fuels ............................................................................................................ 8
Combustion of coal ...................................................................................................................... 8
Main types of a modern boiler ......................................................................................................... 9
Heat exchanger boiler model ......................................................................................................... 10
General ....................................................................................................................................... 10
Heat exchanger basics................................................................................................................ 10
T-Q diagram............................................................................................................................... 11
Heat recovery steam generator model........................................................................................ 12
Heat exchanger model of furnace-equipped boilers .................................................................. 13
References...................................................................................................................................... 15



The Basics of Steam Generation - 3
Introduction
The world energy consumption has doubled in the last thirty years and it keeps on increasing with
about 1,5 % per year. While the earth's oil and gas reserves are expected to deplete after roughly
one hundred years, the coal reserves will last for almost five hundred years into the future. In
Finland, 50 % of the electrical power produced, is produced in steam power plants. But there are
more reasons to why electricity generation based on steam power plant will continue to grow and
why there still will be a demand for steam boilers in the future:

The cost of the produced electricity is low
The technology has been used for many decades and is reliable and available
Wind and solar power are still expensive compared to steam power
The environmental impact of coal powered steam plants have under the past decade been
heavily diminished thanks to improved SO
x
and NO
x
reduction technology
The paper industry uses steam boilers as a vital utility to recycle chemicals and derive
electricity from black liquor (pulping waste)
Waste and biofuels can effectively be combusted in a boiler
Basics of boilers and boiler processes
Definition
In a traditional context, a boiler is an enclosed container that provides a means for heat from
combustion to be transferred into the working media (usually water) until it becomes heated or a gas
(steam). One could simply say that a boiler is as a heat exchanger between fire and water. The
boiler is the part of a steam power plant process that produces the steam and thus provides the heat.
The steam or hot water under pressure can then be used for transferring the heat to a process that
consumes the heat in the steam and turns it into work. A steam boiler fulfils the following
statements:

It is part of a type of heat engine or process
Heat is generated through combustion (burning)
It has a working fluid, a.k.a. heat carrier that transfers the generated heat away from the
boiler
The heating media and working fluid are separated by walls

In an industrial/technical context, the concept steam boiler (also referred to as steam generator)
includes the whole complex system for producing steam for use e. g. in a turbine or in industrial
process. It includes all the different phases of heat transfer from flames to water/steam mixture
(economizer, boiler, superheater, reheater and air preheater). It also includes different auxiliary
systems (e. g. fuel feeding, water treatment, flue gas channels including stack). [1]

The heat is generated in the furnace part of the boiler, where fuel is combusted. The fuel used in a
boiler contains either chemically bonded energy (like coal, waste and biofuels) or nuclear energy.
Nuclear energy will not be covered in this material. A boiler must be designed to absorb the
maximum amount of heat released in the process of combustion. This heat is transferred to the
boiler water through radiation, conduction and convection. The relative percentage of each is
dependent upon the type of boiler, the designed heat transfer surface and the fuels that power the
combustion.

The Basics of Steam Generation - 4
A simple boiler
In order to describe the principles of a steam
boiler, consider a very simple case, where the
boiler simply is a container, partially filled with
water (Figure 1). Combustion of fuel produce
heat, which is transferred to the container and
makes the water evaporate. The vapor or steam
can escape through a pipe that is connected to
the container and be transported elsewhere.
Another pipe brings water (called feedwater)
to the container to replace the water that has
evaporated and escaped.

Since the pressure level in the boiler should be
kept constant (in order to have stable process
values), the mass of the steam that escapes has
to be equal to the mass of the water that is
added. If steam leaves the boiler faster than
water is added, the pressure in the boiler falls. If
water is added faster than it is evaporated, the
pressure rises.





Figure 1: Simplified boiler drawing.

If more fuel is combusted, more heat is generated and transferred to the water. Thus, more steam is
generated and pressure rises inside the boiler. If less fuel is combusted, less steam is generated and
the pressure sinks.
A simple power plant cycle
The steam boiler provides steam to a heat
consumer, usually to power an engine. In a
steam power plant a steam turbine is used for
extracting the heat from the steam and turning it
into work. The turbine usually drives a generator
that turns the work from the turbine into
electricity. The steam, used by the turbine, can
be recycled by cooling it until it condensates
into water and then return it as feedwater to the
boiler. The condenser, where the steam is
condensed, is a heat exchanger that typically
uses water from a nearby sea or a river to cool
the steam. In a typical power plant the pressure,
at which the steam is produced, is high. But
when the steam has been used to drive the
turbine, the pressure has dropped drastically. A
pump is therefore needed to get the pressure
back up. Since the work needed to compress a
fluid is about a hundred times less than the work

G


Figure 2: Rankine cycle
needed to compress a gas, the pump is located after the condenser. The cycle that the described
process forms, is called a Rankine cycle and is the basis of most modern steam power plant
processes (Figure 2).

The Basics of Steam Generation - 5
Carnot efficiency
When considering any heat process or power
cycle it is necessary to review the Carnot
efficiency that comes from the second law of
thermodynamics. The Carnot efficiency
equation gives the maximum thermal efficiency
of a system (Figure 3) undergoing a reversible
power cycle while operating between two
thermal reservoirs at temperatures T
h
and T
c

(temperature unit Kelvin).

H
C
H
C H
T
T
T
T T
=

= 1
max
(1)

To give a practical example of the use of this
theory on steam boilers, consider the Rankine
cycle example presented in Figure 2. The
temperature of the hot reservoir would then be
the temperature of the steam produced in the
boiler and the temperature of the cold reservoir
would be the temperature of the cooling water
drawn from a nearby river or lake (Figure 4).
The formula in Equation 1 can then be used to
get the theoretical maximum efficiency that we
can get from the turbine.

We can plot curve by of the maximum
efficiency as a function of the steam exhaust
temperature by keeping the cooling water
temperature constant. If we suppose the
temperature of the cooling water is around 20C
(293 K) on a warm summer day, we get a curve,
which is presented in the figure: The bigger
temperature difference, the higher thermal
efficiency.

Although no practical heat process is fully
reversible, many processes can be calculated
precisely enough by approximating them as
reversible processes.
Properties of water and steam
Introduction
Water is a useful and cheap medium to use as a
working fluid. When water is boiled into steam
its volume increases about 1,600 times,
producing a force that is almost as explosive as
gunpowder. The force produced by this
Hot reservoir Qh
(temperature Th)
Cold reservoir Qc
(Temperature Tc)
Wcycle
=
Qh - Qc


Figure 3: Carnot efficiency visualized

Hot reservoir Qh
(temperature Th)
Cold reservoir Qc
(Temperature Tc)
Wp Wt


Figure 4: Carnot efficiency applied on the
Rankine cycle.
.
Carnot efficiency
0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
0,7
200 400 600 800 1000
Temperature [K]


Figure 5: Carnot efficiency graph example.

The Basics of Steam Generation - 6
expansion is the source of power in all steam engines. It also makes the boiler a dangerous device
that must be carefully treated.

The theoretical amount of heat that can be
transferred from the combustion process to
the working fluid in a boiler is equivalent
to the change in its total heat content from
its state at entering to that at exiting the
boiler. In order to be able to select and
design steam- and power-generation
equipment, it is necessary to thoroughly
understand the properties of the working
fluid steam, the use of steam tables and the
use of superheat. These fundamentals of
steam generation will be briefly reviewed
in this chapter. When phase changes of the
water is discussed, only the liquid-vapor
and vapor-liquid phase changes are
mentioned, since these are the phase
changes that the entire boiler technology is
based on. [2]


Evaporation of water
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Net enthalpy of water [kJ/kg water]
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

[
C
]
Phase change

Figure 6: Water evaporation plotted in a
temperature-enthalpy graph.
Boiling of water
Water and steam are typically used as heat carriers in heating systems. Steam, the gas phase of
water, results from adding sufficient heat to water to cause it to evaporate. This boiler process
consists of three main steps: The first step is the adding of heat to the water that raises the
temperature up to the boiling point of water, also called preheating. The second step is the
continuing addition of heat to change the phase from water to steam, the actual evaporation. The
third step is the heating of steam beyond the boiling temperature of water, known as superheating.
The first step and the third steps are the part where heat addition causes a temperature rise but no
phase change, and the second step is the part where the heat addition only causes a phase change. In
Figure 6, the left section represents the preheating, the middle section the evaporation, and the third
section the superheating. When all the water has been evaporated, the steam is called dry saturated
steam. If steam is heated beyond its saturation point, the temperature begins to rise again and the
steam becomes superheated steam. Superheated steam is defined by its zero moisture content: It
contains no water at all, only 100% steam.
Evaporation
During the evaporation the enthalpy rises drastically. If we evaporate the water at atmospheric
pressure from saturated liquid to saturated vapour, the enthalpy rise needed is 2260 kJ/kg, from 430
kJ/kg (sat. water) to 2690 kJ/kg (sat. steam). When the water has reached the dry saturated steam
condition, the steam contains a large amount of latent heat, corresponding to the heat that was led to
the process under constant pressure and temperature. So despite pressure and temperature is the
same for the liquid and the vapour, the amount of heat is much higher in vapour compared to the
liquid.
Superheating
If the steam is heated beyond the dry saturated steam condition, the temperature begins to rise again
and the properties of the steam start to resemble those of a perfect gas. Steam with higher

The Basics of Steam Generation - 7
temperature than that of saturated steam is called superheated steam. It contains no moisture and
cannot condense until its temperature has been lowered to that of saturated steam at the same
pressure. Superheating the steam is particularly useful for eliminating condensation in steam lines,
decreasing the moisture in the turbine exhaust and increasing the efficiency (i.e. Carnot efficiency)
of the power plant.
Effect of pressure on evaporation temperature
It is well known that water boils and
evaporates at 100C under atmospheric
pressure. By higher pressure, water
evaporates at higher temperature - e.g. a
pressure of 10 bar equals an evaporation
temperature of 184C. The pressure and the
corresponding temperature when a phase
change occurs are called the saturation
temperature and saturation pressure. During
the evaporation process, pressure and
temperature are constant, but if the
vaporization occurs in a closed vessel, the
expansion that occurs due to the phase change
of water into steam causes the pressure to rise
and thus the boiling temperature rises.

From the diagram (Figure 7) we can se that
when we exceed a certain pressure, 22,12
Mpa (the corresponding temperature is
374C), the line stops. The reason is that the
border between gas phase and liquid phase is
blurred out at that pressure. That point, where
the different phases cease to exist, is called
the critical point of water.
22,12 MPa
0,01
0,1
1
10
100
1000
0 100 200 300 400
Temperature [C]
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

[
b
a
r
]


Figure 7: Evaporation pressure as a function of
evaporation temperature.
Basics of combustion
Principles
The process of combustion is a high speed, high
temperature chemical reaction. It is the rapid
union of an element or a compound with oxygen
that results in the production of heat -
essentially, it is a controlled explosion.
Combustion occurs when the elements in a fuel
combine with oxygen and produce heat. All
fuels, whether they are solid, liquid or in
gaseous form, consist primarily of compounds
of carbon and hydrogen called hydrocarbons.
Sulphur is also present in these fuels.


Figure 8: A pulverized coal fired burner in
action.

The Basics of Steam Generation - 8

Products of combustion
When the hydrogen and oxygen combine, intense heat and water vapor is formed. When carbon and
oxygen combine, intense heat and the compounds of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide are
formed. When sulfur and oxygen combine, sulfur dioxide and heat are formed. These chemical
reactions take place in a furnace during the burning of fuel, provided there is sufficient air (oxygen)
to completely burn the fuel. Very little of the released carbon is actually "consumed" in the
combustion reaction because flame temperature seldom reaches the vaporization point of carbon.
Most of it combines with oxygen to form CO
2
and passes out the vent. Carbon, which cools before
it can combine with oxygen to form CO
2
, passes out the vent as visible smoke. The intense yellow
color of an oil flame is largely caused by incandescent carbon particles. As we mentioned in the
introduction to this segment, combustion can never be 100% efficient. All fuels contain some
moisture and non-combustibles:

Top-quality coal has 20% noncombustibles.
Residual oil is 10% noncombustible.
Natural gas has 1 - 15% (depending on origin) of noncombustible gases like N
2
and CO
2
.
Types of combustion
There are three types of combustion:

Perfect Combustion is achieved when all the fuel is burned using only the theoretical
amount of air, but as we said before perfect combustion cannot be achieved in a boiler.
Complete Combustion is achieved when all the fuel is burned using the minimal amount of
air above the theoretical amount of air needed to burn the fuel. Complete combustion is
always our goal. With complete combustion, the fuel is burned at the highest combustion
efficiency with low pollution.
Incomplete Combustion occurs when all the fuel is not burned, which results in the
formation of soot and smoke.
Combustion of solid fuels
Solid fuels can be divided into high grade; coal
and low grade; peat and bark. The most typical
firing methods are grate firing, cyclone firing,
pulverized firing and fluidized bed firing, as
described below. Pulverized firing has been used
in industrial and utility boilers from 60 MWt to
6000 MWt. Grate firing (Figure 9) has been
used to fire biofuels from 5 MWt to 600 MWt
and cyclone firing has been used in small scale
3-6 MWt.


Figure 9: Stoker or grate firing.
Combustion of coal
Oil and gas are always combusted with a burner, but there are three different ways to combust coal:

The Basics of Steam Generation - 9

Fluidized bed combustion
Fixed bed combustion (grate boilers)
Entrained bed combustion (pulverized coal combustion)

In fixed bed combustion, larger-sized coal is
combusted in the bottom part of the combustor with
low-velocity air. Stoker boilers also employ this type
of combustion. Large-capacity pulverized coal fired
boilers for power plants usually employ entrained bed
combustion. In fluidized bed combustion, fuel is
introduced into the fluidized bed and combusted.
Main types of a modern boiler
In a modern boiler, there are two main types of boilers
when considering the heat transfer means from flue
gases to feed water: Fire tube boilers and water tube
boilers.

In a fire tube boiler the flue gases from the furnace are
conducted to flue passages, which consist of several
parallel-connected tubes. The tubes run through the
boiler vessel, which contains the feedwater. The tubes
are thus surrounded by water. The heat from the flue
gases is transferred from the tubes to the water in the
container, thus the water is heated into steam. An easy
way to remember the principle is to say that a fire tube
boiler has "fire in the tubes".


Figure 10: Fluidized bed combustion.

1. Turning chamber
2. Flue gas collection
chamber
3. Open furnace
4. Flame tube
5. Burner seat
6. Manhole
7. Fire tubes
8. Water space
9. Steam space
10. Outlet and circulation
11. Flue gas out
12. Blow-out hatch
13. Main hatch
14. Cleaning hatch
15. Main steam outlet
16. Level control assembly
17. Feedwater inlet
18. Utility steam outlet
19. Safety valve assembly
20. Feet
21. Inslulation

Figure 11: Schematic of a Hyrytys TTK fire tube steam boiler [Hyrytys].

The Basics of Steam Generation - 10
In a water tube boiler, the conditions are the
opposite of a fire tube boiler. The water
circulates in many parallel-connected tubes. The
tubes are situated in the flue gas channel, and are
heated by the flue gases, which are led from the
furnace through the flue gas passage. In a
modern boiler, the tubes, where water circulates,
are welded together and form the furnace walls.
Therefore the water tubes are directly exposed to
radiation and gases from the combustion (Figure
12). Similarly to the fire tube boiler, the water
tube boiler received its name from having "water
in the tubes".

A modern utility boiler is usually a water tube
boiler, because a fire tube boiler is limited in
capacity and only feasible in small systems.


Figure 12: Simplified drawing describing the
water tube boiler principle. /4/
Heat exchanger boiler model
General
If a modern water tube boiler utilizes a furnace,
the furnace and the evaporator is usually the
same construction the inner furnace walls
consists solely of boiler tubes, conducting feed
water, which absorbs the combustion heat and
evaporates.

In process engineering a boiler is modelled as a
network of heat exchangers, which symbolizes
the transfer of heat from the flue gas to the
steam/water in boiler pipes.

For instance, the furnace, abstracted as a heat
exchanger (Figure 13), consists of the following
streams: the fuel (at storage temperature),
combustion air (at outdoors temperature) and
feedwater as input streams. The output streams
are the flue gas from the combustion of the fuel-
air mixture, and the steam.
air fuel
flue gas
feed water
process steam


Figure 13: Furnace heat exchanger model.
Heat exchanger basics
The task of a heat exchanger is to transfer the heat from one flow of medium (fluid/gas stream) to
another - without any physical contact, i.e. without actually mixing the two media. When speaking
about the two streams that interact (exchange heat) in a heat exchanger we usually talk about the hot
stream and the cold stream (Figure 14). The hot stream (a.k.a. heat source) is the stream that gives
away heat to the cold stream (a.k.a. heat sink) that absorbs the heat. Thus, in a boiler the flue gas
stream is the hot stream (heat source) and the water/steam stream is the cold stream (heat sink).

The Basics of Steam Generation - 11
There are two different main types of heat
exchangers: Parallel-flow and counter-flow. In a
parallel flow heat exchanger the fluids flow in
the same direction and in a counter flow heat
exchanger the fluids flow in the opposite
direction. Combinations of these types (like
cross-flow exchangers and more complicated
ones, like boilers) can usually be approximately
calculated according to the counter-flow type.

T-Q diagram
A useful tool for designing a heat exchanger is
the T-Q diagram. The diagram consists of two
axes: Temperature (T) and transferred heat (Q).
The hot stream and the cold stream are
represented in the diagram by two lines on top
of each other. If the exchanger is of parallel-
flow type, the lines proceed in the same
direction (Figure 15). If the exchanger is a
counter-flow (or cross-flow-combination, like a
boiler), the lines points in the opposite direction
(Figure 16). The length of the lines on the Q-
axis shows the transferred heat rate and the T-
axis the rise/drop in temperature that the heat
transfer has caused.

Since the heat strays from a higher temperature
to a lower (according to the second law of
thermodynamics) the wanted heat transfer
happens by itself if and only if the hot stream is
always hotter than the cold stream. That's why
the streams must never cross. Since no material
has an infinite heat transfer rate, the pinch
temperature (Tpinch) of the heat exchanger
defines the minimum allowed temperature
difference between the two flows.

If the streams cross, the lines must be
horizontally adjusted (that is, external heating
and cooling must be supplied) in order to
correspond with the pinch temperature (Figure
17).



hot stream
cold stream


Figure 14: A heat exchanger (also furnace).

T
Q
T1
T2
t2
t1
hot stream
cold stream

Figure 15: T-Q diagram of a parallel-flow type
heat exchanger.

T
Q
T1
T2
t2
t1
deltaQ

Figure 16: T-Q diagram of a counter-flow type
heat exchanger.





The Basics of Steam Generation - 12

T
Q
Tpinch
T1
T2
t1
t1
external heating
required
external cooling
required


Figure 17: Adjusted streams.

Heat recovery steam generator model
To give an example of the construction of a heat exchanger model, a heat recovery steam generator
(HRSG) is constructed next as a heat exchanger cascade. The HRSG is basically a boiler without a
furnace the HRSG extracts heat from flue gases originating from fuel combusted in an external
unit. Since the HRSG only deals with two streams (flue gases as the hot stream and steam/water as
the cold stream), it represents the simplest heat exchanger model of a modern boiler application.
Since the heating of water occurs in three steps (Figure 6), the heat exchanger model is usually
divided into at least three units.

We start with the heat exchanger unit, where the evaporation occurs the evaporator. Assuming
that water enters the evaporator as saturated water and exits as saturated steam, the heat transferred
from the flue gas is the required heat to change the phase of water into steam. The phase change
occurs (water boils) at a constant temperature, and therefore the steam/water stream temperature
wont change in the evaporator.

In order to preheat the water for the evaporator, another heat exchanger unit is needed. This unit is
called economizer, and is a cross-flow type of heat exchanger. It is placed after the evaporator in the
flue gas stream, since the evaporator requires higher flue gas temperature than the economizer.

The heat exchanger unit that superheats the saturated steam is called superheater. The superheater
heats the saturated steam beyond the saturation point until it reaches the designed maximum
temperature. It requires therefore the highest flue gas temperature to receive heat and is thus placed
first in the flue gas stream. The maximum temperature of the boiler is limited by the properties of

The Basics of Steam Generation - 13
the superheater tube material. Today's economically feasible material can take temperatures of 550-
600 C.

The result is a heat exchanger cascade of a HRSG (with a single pressure level), which can be found
in Figure 18. The T-Q diagram of the model is visualized in Figure 19.

Economizer
Evaporator
Superheater
water
saturated
water
saturated
steam


Figure 18: Heat exchanger model of the HRSG.






T
Q
Eco Eva Sup

Figure 19: T-Q diagram of the HRSG model in
Figure 18.


Heat exchanger model of furnace-equipped boilers
The order of the heat transfer units on the water/steam side is always economizer - evaporator -
superheater (downstream order). The temperature levels and the temperature difference between the
flue gases and the working fluid usually limits the arrangement variation possibilities of the heat
transfer surfaces on the flue gas side.

In a boiler with a furnace, adequate cooling has to be maintained and material temperature should
not exceed 600C. Thus the evaporator part of the water/steam cycle is placed in the furnace walls,
since the heat of the evaporation provides enough cooling for the furnace, which is the hottest part
of the boiler.

Since the furnace is inside the boiler, high flue gas temperatures (over 1000C) are obtained. After
the flue gas has given off heat for the steam production, it is still quite hot. In order to cool down
the flue gases further to gain higher boiler efficiency, flue gases can be used to preheat the
combustion air. The heat exchanger used for this purpose is called an air preheater.


The Basics of Steam Generation - 14
The result is a heat exchanger model of a furnace-equipped boiler (e.g. PCF-boiler, grate boiler or
oil/gas boiler), which can be found in Figure 20. The T-Q diagram of the model is visualized in
Figure 21

Air preheater
Air in
Air out


Figure 20: Furnace equipped boiler with air
preheater.
T
Q
Eco
Eva Sup Air

Figure 21: T-Q diagram of the heat exchanger
model in Figure 20.



The Basics of Steam Generation - 15
References

1. Ahonen, V. Hyrytekniikka II. Otakustantamo, Espoo. 1978.

2. Combustion Engineering. Combustion: Fossil power systems. 3
rd
ed. Windsor. 1981.

3. Esa Vakkilainen, lecture slides and material on steam boiler technology, 2001

4. American Heritage

Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition,

http://www.bartleby.com