The four boilers at MSU's facilities plant produce saturated steam to heat campus buildings. Each boiler is a water tube boiler that uses circulating water to generate steam. The boilers can produce a total of 100 million BTUs per hour within permit limits. Additional components like the deaerator and economizer help remove dissolved gases and preheat feedwater to improve boiler efficiency. Sootblowers are used to clean built-up deposits from inside the furnace.
The four boilers at MSU's facilities plant produce saturated steam to heat campus buildings. Each boiler is a water tube boiler that uses circulating water to generate steam. The boilers can produce a total of 100 million BTUs per hour within permit limits. Additional components like the deaerator and economizer help remove dissolved gases and preheat feedwater to improve boiler efficiency. Sootblowers are used to clean built-up deposits from inside the furnace.
The four boilers at MSU's facilities plant produce saturated steam to heat campus buildings. Each boiler is a water tube boiler that uses circulating water to generate steam. The boilers can produce a total of 100 million BTUs per hour within permit limits. Additional components like the deaerator and economizer help remove dissolved gases and preheat feedwater to improve boiler efficiency. Sootblowers are used to clean built-up deposits from inside the furnace.
Whether it is -10°F or 95°F outside, heating of air The boilers at MSU produce saturated steam, but or water is always required somewhere on the many boilers are made to produce superheated MSU campus. Campus building heating and steam (implying the temperature is above the water heating is all done using steam. The boiling point). facilities plant located at the northwest corner of Picture of a Superheating Drum Type Boiler [1] campus houses four boilers that provide all of the If you think the paperwork you have to fill out as heating required on a student is cumbersome, consider this. The campus. The first two permit acquired by Minnesota State will allow for boilers were installed in steam production up to a total of 100 MBTUH. A 1959, with the third in MBTUH is an abbreviation for one million 1968, and the original BTUs/hr. If the fourth boiler is to run at full fourth boiler in 1972. In capacity the campus would exceed its permit 2004 the fourth boiler was limit. However, running the boiler at only 80,000 replaced with the one in lb/hr satisfies the campus demand and the permit operation today. Watch the video below to see requirements. Therefore, the fourth boiler was re- what the boiler room looks like from the inside. rated. De-rating the boiler by physically changing the spud burners (a device used to bring in fuel to Water Tube Boiler Walkthrough Video the furnace) was an easier solution than applying for a new permit from the state! Each of the four boilers is a "D" type water tube boiler. Each water tube boiler includes two drums Operation connected by steam generating tubes, The basic purpose of a boiler is to turn water into producing steam at steam, in this case saturated steam. This operation 150 psig. A boiler is sounds relatively rated by how many simple but is pounds of steam it actually more produces per hour. complicated. Other The first two boilers components and are rated for 35,000 processes such as the lb/hr, the third is rated for 75,000 lb/hr, and the deaerator and fourth boiler was originally rated for up to 90,000 economizer are lb/hr. An elevated view of the boiler room is necessary to help the shown in the picture at above. overall operation run more efficiently. The boilers utilized on campus are of the stack drum type, Page 2 of 5
Water Tube Boilers
which means there are drums within the boilers due to its decreasing density. Boiling to 100% stacked one above the other. In these particular quality in the tubes is undesirable because water boilers there are two drums. The upper drum is vapor has different heat transfer characteristics called a steam drum (shown in the picture above) than liquid water. This can lead to high wall and is where saturated steam leaves the boiler. temperatures and eventual tube burnout. Once it While the lower drum is called the mud drum and reaches the steam drum the majority of saturated is where liquid feed water enters. It is also where vapor will be sediment carried into the boiler settles. Tubes removed from the called risers and downcomers are used to connect two-phase mixture; the two drums. thereby increasing the remaining All of the energy required within the boiler is mixtures density. produced by the combustion of a fuel. The burner The increase in acts very similar to the gas stove at home, just density will initiate more complicated. It is comprised of a windbox, its descent in the downcomers back to the mud air register assembly, drum. This natural circulation occurs igniter, fuel manifold continuously allowing for a constant flow of and/or atomizing gun, saturated steam exiting the boiler.(In the picture observation port above, a size perspective of the boiler is shown) (shown in the picture) and flame safety Deaerator scanner. Currently the boilers can burn Another component used in the production of either No. 2 fuel oil or natural gas. As drivers steam is the deaerator. with Flexfuel cars are finding out, the option of Dissolved gases such as changing fuels is a large benefit. Fluctuating oxygen and carbon prices of fuel can raise or lower the cost to dioxide are initially produce steam. Having the choice between two present in the feed water. different fuels gives the option of burning the If these gases are not lower cost fuel. removed, they can line the surfaces within the boiler Operation of the boiler begins with feed water and cause accelerated entering the mud drum where it is heated. The corrosion. Because these combustion of fuel within the furnace provides gases cannot be condensed the required energy which is imparted by a out, a different procedure combination of convection and radiation. A two- must be used. There are several different types of phase water mixture forms within the riser and deaerators used today. The begins to ascend to the steam drum Page 3 of 5
Water Tube Boilers
one employed at Minnesota State is a tray-type improve overall efficiency in the boiler(shown in (shown in the picture). The tray-type consists of a picture). Flue gas series of internal cascading trays in which feed exiting the water is directed. Steam bled off from the steam combustion drum is run through a regulator to 10 psig and is chamber is still allowed to rise over the trays. When it comes in very hot and can contact with the feed water a "scrubbing" action be used as a pre- occurs which causes the non-condensable gases to heater for the feed be driven out of the water and released. Non- water. The condensable gases then vent to the atmosphere. economizer used The most important purpose of the deaerator is for these boilers is a horizontal counter current the removal of dissolved gases. It also functions shell and tube heat exchanger. Feedwater enters as a feed water heater, feed water storage, and for finned tubes while hot flue gases pass over the feed water surge prevention. Feed water surge is outside. This allows for the recovery of energy when there is a large and sudden increase in feed which would otherwise be wasted. water flow to the boiler. Sootblower Blowdown When combustion occurs, the flue gas contains Blowdown is a common procedure for a boiler to numerous compounds. Some of these compounds control the contaminants in the boiling water. will collect on surfaces within the furnace and Two types of blowdown exist, manual and start to buildup (the inside of the furnace is shown continuous. For a continuous blow down, a in the picture). Soon the buildup will start to calibrated valve continuously takes water from affect the overall the top of the boiling surface in the steam drum. performance of the In this case, many of the contaminants consist of boiler by obstructing oils floating on top of the water. Once a shift, the the heat transfer. To collected blowdown water is cooled in a tank and cure this problem, returned to the city’s waste water. To replace the two sootblowers are water removed from the system, conditioned city installed inside the water is added to the holding tank where the furnace. One is a condensate is collected after returning from rotating sootblower, campus. while the other is a non-rotating sootblower. Both the rotating and non-rotating sootblower will Economizer extract steam from the steam drum and spray the internal components of the boiler. The rotating An economizer is employed to utilize the waste blower is positioned on a heat generated from the combustion process to Page 4 of 5
Water Tube Boilers
power screw which cleans the steam generating were emitted. If they exceed their allotted tubes and the non-rotating blower is in a fixed amount, additional position to clean the duct blower and induced fines are added on. draft fan. Imagine if you were charged for the Emissions exhaust emissions of your personal car? Special attention must be made to the flue gas When the boilers temperature within the exhaust stack. Sulfur were still running on dioxide and trioxide are formed during No. 6 fuel oil, the emissions had to be very the combustion process. If the flue gas closely monitored. The high sulfur content in this temperature lowers below the dew point of the fuel resulted in the facility almost exceeding their exhaust, sulfuric acid will condense on the stack sulfur discharge limit on a regular basis. walls causing corrosion. The exhaust stack is shown in the picture below. A procedure used to Safety and Inspection reduce nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions is One of the biggest maintenance and inspection called flue gas issues for the facilities plant concerns the boilers. recirculation (FGR) where exhaust from Boiler explosions were quite frequent and the combustion is re- extremely dangerous in the late 1800's and early circulated into the 1900's. Hundreds of people were killed due to combustion chamber boiler failures. In large part this led to the creation again. FGR reduces the NOX emissions, and adoption of industry standards such as the decreases the peak combustion temperature, and ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (a lowers the percentage of oxygen in the picture of the hole the combustion air/flue gas mixture, thereby slowing inspector would need down the formation of NOX caused by high to crawl into for flame temperatures. inspection). The majority of the The amount of emissions produced by the boilers boilers in the late is closely monitored by the utility plant staff and 1800's and early the state government (emission towers are shown 1900's were a fire in the next column). Minnesota State University tube type. This is allotted a certain quantity of emissions to expel design is very similar to the water tube type each year. At the end of the year, MSU must pay except that the hot combustion gases used to heat per ton of emissions the water were Page 5 of 5
Water Tube Boilers
passed through tubes within the boiler surrounded For Extra Information: by water. The problem which arose was that the boiler could not be safely pressurized and The Mechanical Engineering magazine published explosions resulted when the pressure vessel by ASME has several interesting articles failed. This design issue helped usher in the describing the history and development of the current water tube boiler. With the water inside ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. "The the small diameter tubes, the water can reach Origins of ASME's Boiler and Pressure Vessel extremely high pressures with a greater degree of Code" (Feb. 2000) [2] and "The True Harnessing safety. Below is a picture of the hole a boiler of Steam" (Jan. 2005) [3] tell some interesting inspector must crawl up to check. It seems pretty stories such as the explosion of the steamship small! The boilers at Minnesota State are Sultana in 1865. inspected once a year by a State Boiler Inspector. As part of this inspection individuals with contortionist-like abilities will actually crawl into the boiler. Click on the picture to hear Jeff Rendler, the State Boiler Inspector, talk about what happens with inadequate sized boiler tubes.
Jeff Rendler, State Boiler Inspector talks about what happens with inadequate sized tubes.
How it Works: Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use