Auxiliary Boiler Performance Evaluation and Enhancement

Abstract

Boilers are very important components in the industries. Usually, a fluid such as water is used to generate high pressure steam for the heating purposes. In a fertilizer plant, there is a large requirement of this high-pressure steam in various operations of the fertilizer industry. Major components of the water tube boiler are economizer i.e. a tubular type heat exchanger which preheats the BFW to economize the process, steam drum which is located at the top of the water tubes which acts as the reservoir for the water and steam. It is the difference in densities on the basis of which they are stored together in the steam drum in two different layers. There is also a furnace in which the combustion takes place. There are convective and radiative zones in the combustion. There is also a mud drum for the blowdown separation and a blowdown drum to store it. Economy is the most important factor in the industry so we increase the boiler efficiency by certain methods which is the main focus of our project. Auxiliary boilers generate steam by using heat of combustion of fuel. The performance of an auxiliary boiler is taken in terms of its efficiency which tells the ratio of steam generated (Output) using the fuel input. Our project focuses on efficiency enhancement by preheating the air being fed to the furnace and excess air control for loss minimization. This eventually will lead to fuel savings and efficiency enhancement.