Energy Conversion Engineering

Steam Power Plants

General layout of steam power plant

Schematic diagram of coal based steam power plant

To chimney
Coal storage

Flue gases

Air preheater

Coal handling
plant

Economizer

Ash storage

Ash handling
plant

Boiler

Flue
gases
Steam

LEGEND
Coal

Air
Feed
water

Super heater

Main
valve

Super heated
Steam

Turbine

HP heater

Boiler feed
pump

To power grid

Generator

Condensate
extraction pump

Condenser
LP heater

Ash
Air
Water

Circulating
water pump
Cooling tower

Flue gases
Steam
Cooling water

River or Canal

How coal power plants produce electricity

The conversion from coal to electricity takes place in three stages.
Stage 1
The first conversion of energy takes place in the boiler. Coal is burnt in the boiler
furnace to produce heat. Carbon in the coal and Oxygen in the air combine to
produce Carbon Dioxide and heat.
Stage 2
The second stage is the thermodynamic process. The heat from combustion of
the coal boils water in the boiler to produce steam. In modern power plant, boilers
produce steam at a high pressure and temperature. The steam is then piped to a
turbine. The high pressure steam impinges and expands across a number of sets
of blades in the turbine. The impulse and the thrust created rotates the turbine.
The steam is then condensed to water and pumped back into the boiler to repeat
the cycle.
Stage 3
In the third stage, rotation of the turbine rotates the generator rotor to produce
electricity based of Faradays Principle of electromagnetic induction.

General layout of coal based steam power plant

The different types of systems and components used in steam
power plants are:
High pressure boiler
Prime mover
Condensers and cooling towers
Coal handling system
Ash handling system
Draught system
Feed water treatment plant
Pumping system
Air preheater, super heater, feed water heater

General layout of coal based steam power plant

Though each plant is unique in itself in terms of specific features
and functionalities, there are four main circuits in any thermal
power plant:
1. Coal & Ash Circuit This circuit deals mainly with feeding the
boiler with coal for combustion purposes and taking care of the ash
that is generated during the combustion process and includes
equipment and peripherals that is used to handle the transfer and
storage of coal and ash.
2. Air & Gas Circuit Since lots of coal is burnt inside the boiler it
needs a sufficient quantity of air which is supplied using either
forced draught or induced draught fans. The exhaust gases from
the combustion are in turn used to heat the incoming air and water
through heat exchangers before being let off in the atmosphere.
The equipment which handles all these processes fall under this
circuit.

General layout of coal based steam power plant

3. Feed Water & Steam Circuit This section deals with supplying
of steam generated from the boiler to the turbines and to handle
the outgoing steam from the turbine by cooling it to form water in
the condenser so that it can be reused in the boiler plus making
good any losses due to evaporation etc.
4. Cooling Water Circuit This part of the thermal power plant
deals with handling of the cooling water required in the system.
Since the amount of water required to cool the outgoing steam
from the boiler is substantial, it is either taken from a nearby water
source such as a river, or it is done through evaporation if the
quantity of cooling water available is limited.
A power plant using steam as working substance works basically on
Rankine cycle. For plants operating with steam at subcritical pressures
(less than 221 bar) and steam temperatures of 570 C, the Rankine cycle
efficiency is around 43 %. For the state of the art plants running at greater
than supercritical pressure and steam temperatures near to 600 C, the
efficiency is around 47 %.

Why is the efficiency low for thermal plant?

The heating value or the energy available in the coal, is in the range of
10,500 kJ/kg to 27,000 kJ/kg. A heating value of 20,000 kJ/kg is equivalent
to 5.56 kwh of electrical energy. In practice the effective conversion is only
around 43% to 47% of the theoretically possible value.
Reasons for low thermal efficiency:
Due to practical limitations in heat transfer, all the heat produced by
combustion is not transferred to the water; some is lost to the atmosphere
as hot gases. Moisture in coal vapourises taking latent heat from the
combustion heat and exits the boiler along with the hot gases. This is a loss.
The steam is condensed for re-use. During this process the latent heat of
condensation is lost to the cooling water. This is the major loss and is
almost 40 % of the energy input. Losses in the turbine blades and exit
losses at turbine end are some of the other losses.
The Rankine cycle efficiency is dictated by the maximum temperature of
steam that can be admitted into the turbine. Due to metallurgical constraints
steam temperatures are at present limited to slightly more than 600 C.
Various auxiliary equipment like pulverizers, fans, pumps and precipitators
in large power plants consume around 6 % of the generator output for
internal consumption.

Fuels used for steam generation

The primary fuels which are burned to release heat and generate
steam in boilers are the fossil fuels coal, fuel oil and natural
gas.
Besides these, industrial wastes like blast furnace gas, coke
oven gas, refinery gas, bagasse, saw mill wood dust, rice husk
etc. are also used to boost primary fossil fuels in the form of
combination firing.

Coal
In India, coal is the main source of energy because of its large
deposits and availability.
Coal originates from millions of years old vegetable matter
transformed by subterranean heat and soil pressure. The
vegetable decay first produces peat bogs, which after distillation
of its moisture by subterranean forces hardens to brown coal or
lignite. Continuing metamorphosis produces higher grade coals.

Fuels used for steam generation

Coal (contd..)
According to geological order of formation, coal may be of the
following types with increasing carbon content:
Peat
Lignite
Sub-bituminous
Bituminous
Sub-anthracite
Anthracite
Graphite
Each type of coal has a certain set of physical parameters which are
mostly controlled by moisture, volatile content (in terms of aliphatic or
aromatic hydrocarbons) and carbon content.
Peat contains up to 90% moisture and is not attractive as a utility fuel.
Coal Ranking is a measure of carbon content in the coal. Lignite is
considered to be low rank and anthracite to be high rank.

Coal analysis
Coal ranking is made based on coal analysis. Basically there are two
types of coal analysis:
Proximate analysis
Ultimate analysis
Proximate analysis
The objective of coal proximate analysis is to determine the amount of
fixed carbon (FC), volatile matters (VM), moisture (M), and ash (A) within
the coal sample.
FC + VM + M + A = 100% by mass
The variables are measured in weight percent (wt. %) and are calculated
in several different bases as follows.
As Received (AR)
Air Dried (AD)
Dry Basis (DB)
Dry Ash Free (DAF)
Dry Mineral Matter Free (DMMF)

Coal analysis
AR (as-received) basis is the most widely used basis in industrial applications.
It takes all variables into consideration and uses the total weight as the basis of
measurement.
AD (air-dried) basis neglects the presence of moisture other than inherent
moisture.
DB (dry-basis) leaves out all moistures, including inherent moisture.
DAF (dry, ash free) basis neglects all moisture and ash constituent in coal
DMMF (dry, mineral-matter-free) basis leaves out the presence of moisture
and mineral matters in coal like quartz, pyrite, calcite, etc.
A typical proximate analysis of coal looks like this:

Proximate analysis

Unit

AR

AD

DB

DAF

Moisture

(wt. %)

3.30

2.70

Ash

(wt. %)

22.10

22.20

22.80

Volatile Matter

(wt. %)

27.30

27.50

28.30

36.60

Fixed Carbon

(wt. %)

47.30

47.60

48.90

63.40

Coal analysis
Figure below shows the trend in moisture, volatile matter and fixed
carbon expressed on DAF basis.
With increasing rank, there is an increase of heating value and carbon
content with a corresponding decrease of moisture and VM.
Lower rank coals also contain greater oxygen, which helps combustion

Coal rank compared with proximate analysis

Coal analysis
Ultimate analysis
Similar to coal proximate analysis, the objective of coal ultimate
analysis is to determine the constituent of coal, but in a form of its basic
chemical elements.
The ultimate analysis determines the amount of carbon (C), hydrogen
(H), oxygen (O), sulphur (S), and other elements within the coal sample.
These variables are also measured in weight percent (wt. %) and are
calculated in the bases explained above.
C + H + O + N + S + M + A = 100% by mass
A typical ultimate analysis of coal looks like this:
Ultimate analysis

Unit

AR

AD

DB

DAF

Carbon (C)

(wt. %)

61.1

61.5

63.2

81.90

Hydrogen (H)

(wt. %)

3.00

3.02

3.10

4.02

Nitrogen (N)

(wt. %)

1.35

1.36

1.40

1.81

Total Sulphur (S)

(wt. %)

0.40

0.39

0.39

Oxygen (O)

(wt. %)

8.80

8.80

9.10

Coal ranking
Rank of Coal

Fixed
Carbon*

Volatile
Matter*

Moisture*

Lignite

29

26

46

Subbituminous

42

34

23

Low-rank/volatile
bituminous

47

41

12

Medium-rank/volatile
bituminous

54

41

High-rank/volatile
bituminous

65

32

Low-rank/volatile
semibituminous

75

22

Semianthracite

86

12

Anthracite

96

1.2

* Figures indicate weight by percentage

Boilers
Boiler is an apparatus to produce steam. Thermal energy
released by combustion of fuel is transferred to water, which
vapourises and gets converted to steam at the desired
temperature and pressure.
The performance of a boiler is measured in terms of its
evaporative capacity which is also called as Boiler Power. It is
defined as the amount of steam produced in kg/hour. It may also
be expressed in kg of steam per kg of fuel burnt or kg/hr/m2 of
heating surface.
Boilers are classified according to the following criteria:
According to flow of water and hot gases.
Water tube
Fire tube

Boilers
According to flow of water and hot gases.
Water tube
Fire tube

According to position of furnace

Internally fired
Externally fired

According to the position of the principle axis

Vertical
Horizontal
Inclined

According to application
Stationary
Mobile (Marine, Locomotive)

According to circulating water

Natural circulation
Forced circulation

According to steam pressure

Low pressure
Medium pressure
High pressure

Water Tube Boilers

In water tube boilers, water is circulated through tubes and
hot products of combustion flow over these tubes

Water Tube Boilers

Water tube boilers can further be classified as follows:
Horizontal

straight tube boilers

Bent tube boilers

Cyclone fired boilers
Water tube boilers have the following advantages:
High pressures (about 140 kg/cm2) can be
obtained
Large heating surfaces can be obtained by use of
large number of tubes therefore steam can be
generated easily.
Efficiency is higher because of high velocity of
water in tubes which improves heat transfer.

Fire Tube Boilers

In fire tube boilers, the hot combustion gases pass through the
tubes, which are surrounded by water.

Fire Tube Boilers

Fire Tube Boilers

Fire tube boilers can further be classified as follows:
External

furnace

Internal furnace
Fire tube boilers have the following advantages:
Low cost
Fluctuations of steam demand can be easily met
Compact in size
Disadvantage of fire tube boilers is that they contain
more water in the drum and if the flue gas circulation is
poor, they can not quickly meet the steam demand. For
the same output, the outer shell of fire tube boiler is
much larger than the shell of a water tube boiler.

Combustion equipment for burning coal

Coal burning methods are classified into two types:
Stoker firing used for solid coal
Pulverized fuel firing used for pulverized coal
Selection of one of the above methods depends upon
Characteristics of the coal available
Capacity of the plant
Load fluctuations
Efficiency / Reliability of combustion equipments
The boiler furnaces that burn coal can be classified as follows:
Fuel bed furnaces (coarse particles)
Pulverized coal furnaces (fine particles)
Cyclone furnaces (crushed particles)
Fluidized bed furnaces (crushed small particles)

Stoker firing
In small boilers, coal is fed manually on to a
stationary grate. But in large boilers, to attain
uniform operating condition, higher burning rate and
better efficiency, mechanical stokers are employed.
A stoker consists of a power operated coal feeding
mechanism and grate.
Mechanical stokers are of two types:
1. Overfeed stoker
2. Underfeed stoker

Overfeed stoker
Overfeed stokers are used for large capacity boilers where coal
is burnt as lumps (i.e., without pulverization). In this type of
stoker, the fuel bed receives fresh coal on top surface; ignition
plane lies between green coal and incandescent coke.

Overfeed stoker - Processes

In the first layer (top layer), fresh coal is added
Second layer is the drying zone, where coal loses
moisture
Third layer is distillation zone, where coal loses
volatile matter
Fourth layer is the combustion zone, where the fixed
carbon in coal is consumed.
Fifth layer is the ash cooling zone.

Underfeed stoker
In the case of underfeed stoker, the coal is fed into the grate
below the point of air admission, or air entering the stoker
comes in contact with fresh coal before reaching the
incandescent coke.

Types of stokers

Stokers

Overfeed

Conveyor Stoker

Chain Grate Stoker

Spreader Stoker

Travelling Grate
Stoker

Underfeed

Single Retort Stoker

Multi-Retort Stoker

Travelling or Chain Grate stokers

Traveling or chain grate stokers feed coal out onto a
rotating metal belt that supports the fire.
Coal is fed from a hopper.
Grate speed is automatically controlled to maintain
desired steam pressure.
Burning progresses as the belt moves from front to back
of furnace.
Combustion is essentially complete at the back end of
belt, and ash is dumped off into an ash pit.
Can burn all coals, except strongly caking bituminous
coal. Caking coals tend to block the flow of air through
fuel bed and cause loss of carbon in ash.

Chain Grate stokers

Chain Grate stokers

Spreader stokers
Coal from hopper is fed into the path of a rotor by a conveyor, and
is thrown into the furnace by the rotor and the coal is burnt in
suspension.
Spreader stokers can burn any type of coal

Single retort stokers

A screw conveyor or a ram transfers coal to the furnace.
Surrounding the conveyor or ram is the primary air duct.

Multi retort stokers

The stoker consists of a series of sloping parallel troughs called
retorts. Reciprocating rams push the coal into the retort.

Pulverized coal firing system

In the pulverized coal firing
system, the coal is reduced to a
fine powder with the help of
grinding mill and then admitted
into the combustion chamber with
the help of primary hot air.
The primary air also helps to dry
the coal before entering the
combustion chamber.
Secondary air required to
complete the combustion process
is supplied separately to the
combustion chamber.
The resulting turbulence in the
combustion chamber helps in
uniform mixing of fuel and air and
good combustion.

Elements of a pulverized coal firing system

Pulverized coal
Coal is pulverized (powdered) to increase its surface area (and
therefore exposure) thus permitting rapid combustion.
The pulverized coal is obtained by grinding the raw coal in
pulverizing mills. Various types of pulverizing mills are:
Ball mill
Ball and race mill
Hammer mill
Bowl mill

Essential functions of pulverizing mills are:

Drying of the coal
Grinding
Separation of particles of a desired size.
Coal pulverizing mills reduce coal to powder by any (or all) action such as
Impact, Abrasion and Crushing

Ball and race mill for pulverizing coal

Advantages of Pulverized coal firing system

Any grade of coal can be used because coal is powdered before
use.
Rate of feed of fuel can be easily regulated better fuel economy.
Since there is almost complete combustion of fuel, there is
increased rate of evaporation and hence better boiler efficiency.
Greater capacity to meet peak load.
System is free from sagging and clinkering troubles associated
with lump coal.
Practically no ash handling problems.
No moving parts within the furnace that is subjected to high
temperatures.
This system works successfully in combination with gas and oil.
Requires much less air compared to stoker firing
Furnace volume is considerably small.

Disadvantages of Pulverized coal firing system

High capital cost.
Lot of fly-ash in the exhaust removal of fine dust is expensive.
Possibility of explosion is high because pulverized coal burns like
gas.
Maintenance of furnace brickwork is costly because of high
temperatures.
Special equipments required to start the system.
Skilled operators are required.
Separate coal preparation plant is necessary.
Periodic maintenance of pulverized coal dispensing system is
needed.

Pulverized coal firing

Basically, pulverized fuel plants may be
divided into two systems based on the
method used for firing the coal:
Unit System or Direct System
Bin System or Central System
Unit or Direct System: This system works
as follows:

RAW COAL BUNKER

FURNACE

PRIMARY AIR + COAL

BURNER

FEEDER

Coal from bunker drops on to the feeder.

PRIMARY
AIR

Coal is dried in the feeder by passage of hot

air.

PULVERIZING
MILL

The coal then moves to a mill for pulverizing.

A fan supplies primary air to the pulverizing
mill.

SECONDARY
AIR

FAN

HOT AIR

Pulverized coal and primary air are mixed and

sent to a burner where secondary air is
added.
It is called Unit System because each burner or a group of burners and pulverizer constitute a unit.

Pulverized coal firing

Bin or Central System:
Coal from bunker is fed by gravity to a dryer where hot air is admitted to
dry the coal.
Dry coal is then transferred to the pulverizing mill.
Pulverized coal then moves to a cyclone separator where transporting air
is separated from coal.
Primary air is mixed with coal at the feeder and supplied to the burner.
Secondary air is supplied separately to complete the combustion.
CYCLONE SEPARATOR

EXHAUST
FAN
VENT

Dryer

RETURN AIR

RAW COAL BUNKER

SECONDARY
AIR

CONVEYOR

PRIMARY AIR +
COAL

FAN
PULVERIZING
MILL
HOT AIR

PRIMARY
AIR FAN

FEEDER

BURNER

FURNACE

Equipments for Unit and Bin Systems

RAW COAL
PRIMARY CRUSHER

MAGNETIC SEPARATOR

COAL DRYER

COAL BUNKERS
UNIT SYSTEM

SCALE

PULVERIZER

BURNERS

BIN SYSTEM

SCALE

PULVERIZER

CENTRAL BIN
FEEDER

BURNERS

Pulverized Coal Burners

Burners are used to burn pulverized coal. Burner configurations
differ in the rapidity with which air-coal mixing (turbulence) takes
place.
Requirements of pulverized coal burners:
Mix coal and primary air thoroughly before secondary air is added.
Deliver air to the furnace in the right proportion and maintain
stable ignition of coal-air mixture.
Control the shape and travel of flame within the furnace. The flame
shape is controlled by the secondary air vanes and their control
adjustments incorporated into the burner. Too much of secondary
air may cool the mixture and prevent ignition.
Control the rate of travel of coal-air mixture away from the burner
to avoid flash back into the burner.

Types of Burners for Pulverized Coal

Various types of burners are used for combustion of pulverized
coal.
Long Flame (U-Flame) Burner: In this burner, air and coal mixture
travels a considerable distance thus providing sufficient time for
complete combustion.

Primary air+Coal

Flame
Primary air+Coal

Flame

Secondary air
Secondary air

Long Flame Burners

Types of Burners for Pulverized Coal

Short Flame (Turbulent) Burner: The burner is fitted in the
furnace wall and the flame enters the furnace horizontally with
great turbulence.

FLAME
COAL AND PRIMARY
AIR

FLOW
CONTROL

FURNACE

SECONDARY
AIR

Short Flame Burner

Types of Burners for Pulverized Coal

Tangential Burner: In this system, one burner is attached at each
corner of the furnace. The inclination of the burners is so made
that the flame produced is tangential to an imaginary circle at the
centre.

Types of Burners for Pulverized Coal

Cyclone Burner: In this system, the cyclonic action whirls coal and
air against the wall of the furnace to facilitate thorough mixing of
coal and air. Advantage of this burner is that it can also use
crushed coal in addition to pulverized coal thus providing an
option. When crushed coal is used, ash is collected in molten form
for easy disposal.

Typical Pulverized Coal Boiler

Oil and Gas Burners

Thermal power plants can also be operated on oil and gas in
addition to coal. Highly volatile petroleum fuels are too expensive
for boiler firing. Therefore, heavy fuel oils (left after refining of
crude petroleum) are used. Schematic of an oil burning system is
depicted below:

Combustion of fuel oil

Because of high viscosity of fuel oil, steam heating coils
are installed in the oil tank to reduce viscosity and
facilitate pumping.
Reciprocating type pumps receive oil from filters and
discharge it to the burners through heaters and a flow
measuring system.
Oil temperature is generally controlled between 65C and
115C for obtaining a good spray pattern. Higher
temperatures may cause vapourization of oil or may lead
to decomposition of oil.
Recirculation of oil is necessary initially to purge the
pipe lines so that heavy oil does not collect and plug the
passages. Usually a light oil is used for some time
during starting and stopping the
boiler to wash the
pipes clean of heavy oil.

Oil Burners
The major parts of an oil burner are:
Atomizer
Air register
Oil lines with filters and valves
Atomization of fuel oil exposes more surface area per unit mass,
thus promoting ignition and complete combustion.
Atomization of fuel oil is accomplished mechanically or with
steam or air.
In twin-fluid burners, high pressure steam or air is used to break
up oil drops to fine droplets, enabling better mixing with air
for combustion.
For large boilers, oil burners with pressure atomization are
suitable. Oil under pressure (6 20bar) is atomized by ejecting
the oil through very small oil injector orifices.

Oil Burners

Typical configurations of Steam or Air atomized oil burners

Gas Burners
Burning of gas is easy and clean. There is no need for
atomization. Combustion of 1m3 of natural gas requires about
20m3 of hot air. Proper mixing of gas and air can be achieved by
introducing gas into a swirling air flow in the form of thin jets.

Furnace

Ash Handling
Large power plants produce a huge quantity of ash, sometimes
as much as 10 to 20% of the coal burnt per day. Therefore,
mechanical devices are used for effective collection and disposal
of ash.
Ash handling includes:
Removal of ash from furnace
Loading to conveyors and delivery to fill or dump from where
it can be disposed off.
Handling of ash is a problem because it is too hot when it comes
out of furnace, dusty and sometimes poisonous and corrosive.
Ash needs to be quenched before handling due to following
reasons:
Quenching reduces corrosive action of ash
It reduces the dust accompanying the ash
It reduces the temperature of ash
Fused clinkers will disintegrate making it easier to handle

Ash Handling Equipment

A good ash handling equipment should have the following
characteristics:
It should have enough capacity to cope with the volume of ash that
may be produced in a station.
It should be able to handle large clinkers, boiler refuse, soot etc.,
with little attention from workers.
It should be able to handle hot and wet ash effectively and with
good speed.
It should be possible to minimise the corrosive or abrasive action
of ash.
Operation of the plant should be easy, economical, simple and
noiseless.
It should be able to operate effectively under all variable load
conditions.
It should also remove fly ash and smoke to control air pollution.

Ash Handling Equipment

The commonly used equipment for ash handling in large and
medium size plants may comprise of:
Bucket elevator
Bucket conveyor
Belt conveyor
Pneumatic conveyor
Hydraulic sluicing equipment
Trollies and Rail cars etc.
These are mainly classified into:
Mechanical handling systems
Hydraulic systems
Pneumatic systems
Steam jet systems

Ash Collection and Transportation

Coal Handling System

Equipments
Rail
Trucks

Coal delivery

Ships
Unloading

Lift trucks
Cranes
Unloading towers
Buckets

Preparation
Transfer

Outdoor storage

Covered storage

Crushers
Mills
Driers
Screw Conveyors
Belt conveyors
Bucket conveyors / elevators
Bins
Bunkers

In-plant handling

Weighing & Measuring

Furnace firing

Scales
Coal meters

Coal Handling System

Screw Conveyor

Belt Conveyor

Coal Handling System

Bucket Elevator

Typical input and output for a 500 MW boiler

225 tons/hr coal

5400 tons/day coal (54 rail cars)
Bottom Ash 108 tons/hr
Fly Ash 432 tons/hr
SOx 228 tons/day
NOx 20 tons/day
Steam 2000 tons/hr

Coal and Ash handling in a typical coal fired

power plant

High Pressure Boilers

In all modern power plants, high pressure boilers (> 100 bar) are
invariably used due to their inherent advantages.
If high pressure steam is used, plant efficiency is increased because
lesser quantity of steam is required for generating a given power; i.e.,
work done per unit mass of steam is higher.
Forced circulation of water can be used which helps arrangement of
furnace and water surfaces and reduction of heat exchange area.
Tendency for scale formation is reduced due to high velocity of
Danger of overheating id reduced as all parts are more
heated.

uniformly

Differential expansion is less due to more uniform temperature

distribution thus reducing possibility of gas and air leakages.
Following types of high pressure boilers are generally used:
La Mont Boiler
Benson Boiler
Loeffler Boiler
Schmidt-Hartmann Boiler

water.

Water Circulation in Boilers

WATER IN
DRUM

WATER IN

TO CHIMNEY

PUMP

ECONOMISER

WATER OUT

EVAPORATOR

HEAT

SUPER HEATER
SUPER
HEATED
STEAM

Once through circulation

FLUE GAS

Forced circulation

ECONOMISER

BOILER
EVAPORATOR

SUPERHEATER

FLUE
GAS

CHIMNEY

WATER IN

STEAM OUT

Forced circulation
is generally used in
high pressure boilers
Natural circulation

La Mont Boiler
Feed water is supplied to the boiler
drum through an economiser.

Flue gas

A pump circulates water at 8 to 10

times the mass of steam evaporated.
The large quantity of water circulated
prevents overheating of tubes.

Air
Water

The pump delivers water to headers

at a pressure of 2.5 bar above the
drum pressure and the distribution
headers distribute the water through
nozzles into the evaporators.

Super
heated
steam

The steam separated in the boiler is

further passed through the super
heater.
This type of boiler can generate 45 to
50 tonnes of superheated steam at
120 bar and 500C

Circulation
pump

Primary evaporator

Schematic representation of La Mont Boiler

La Mont Boiler

Flow schematic of La Mont boiler

The main difficulty experienced in the La Mont boiler is the formation and
attachment of bubbles on the inner surface of tubes. These bubbles reduce
the heat flow and steam generation as it offers higher thermal resistance
compared to water film.

Benson Boiler
It is a water tube boiler capable of
producing steam at super critical
pressure (> 225 bar).
At super critical pressure, water
flashes into steam without any latent
heat requirement. Therefore steam
generation is faster.

Feed water
pump

Above critical point, water transforms

into steam without boiling and without
change in volume. i.e., same
density.
Super critical steam generation does
not have bubble formation and
consequent pulsations.
Materials of construction should be
strong to withstand high pressure and
temperature.
130 135 tonnes of steam per hour is
generated at > 225 bar and ~90% thermal
efficiency.

Schematic representation of Benson boiler

Benson Boiler

Flow schematic of Benson boiler

The main drawback of Benson boiler is deposition of salt and sediment on the
inner surface of water tubes which offers high thermal resistance.

Loeffler Boiler

Schematic representation of Loeffler boiler

Loeffler Boiler
The limitation of Benson boiler is the deposition of salts on water
tube walls. This is solved in Loeffler boiler by evaporation of feed
water by means of superheated steam from the super heater.
Loeffler boiler uses forced circulation and the hot gases from the
furnace are primarily used for superheating purposes.
The high pressure feed pump draws water through the
economiser and delivers it to the evaporating drum.
The steam circulating pump draws saturated steam from the
drum and passes it through convective and radiative superheaters
where steam is heated to required temperature.
From the superheater, about 35% of the superheated steam goes
to the turbine and the remaining 65% passes through water in the
evaporating drum to evaporate feed water.

Loeffler Boiler

Flow schematic of Loeffler boiler

Schmidt-Hartmann Boiler
There are two pressure circuits in this
boiler
Primary circuit
Secondary circuit

Steam thus produced is superheated

and passed on to the turbines.

WATER LINE

SUPER HEATER

SUPER HEATED
STEAM

CONDENSATE COOLER

In the secondary circuit, normal water is

pumped to evaporator drum which picks
up heat from steam in submerged coils.

DRUM

HEATING SURFACE

Primary circuit uses distilled water that

goes from the drum to primary
evaporator kept at the furnace. Steam
generated is passed through a
submerged heating coil kept inside the
drum. It loses heat to water in secondary
circuit and condenses. A condensate
pump maintains primary water
circulation.

PUMP
FIRE GRATE

Schmidt-Hartmann Boiler

Bfw : Boiler feed water

NRV : Non Return Valve

Flow schematic of Loeffler boiler