Caribbean Maritime Institute

School of Academic Studies

Industrial Boiler Operation
Unit 2 Boiler Types (Fire Tube) Lecture # 4 (1 of 2) Eng. Earl S. Green, Ph.D.

Reading/Reference
Kohan, A. L. Boiler Operators Guide.

Boiler Types
1. Smoke/Fire tube (shell boilers)

2. Water Tube

UNIT OUTLAY
Smoke/Fire tube (shell boilers
)

Description of fire-tube boilers, their general construction, and P limitations.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Lancashire boiler Economic boiler (two-pass, dry back) Economic boiler (three-pass, wet back) Packaged boiler Exhaust gas boilers

Firetube Boilers
FTBs are containers of water which get heated by tubes filled with hot gases from a burning fire.

Firetube Boiler

Firetube Boilers
FTBs consist of a series of straight tubes that are housed inside a water-filled outer shell. The tubes are arranged so that hot combustion gases flow through the tubes. As the hot gases flow through the tubes, they heat the water surrounding the tubes. The water is confined by the outer shell of boiler. To avoid the need for a thick outer shell FTBs are used for lower P applications. Generally, the heat input capacities for FTB are limited to 50 mbtu per hour or less, but in recent years the size of FTBs has increased.

Firetube Boilers
FTBs are subdivided into 3 groups. Horizontal return tubular (HRT) boilers typically have horizontal, self-contained fire tubes with a separate combustion chamber. Scotch, Scotch marine, or shell boilers have the fire tubes and combustion chamber housed within the same shell. Firebox boilers have a water-jacketed firebox and employ at most three passes of combustion gases.

Firetube Boilers
Most modern fire tube boilers have cylindrical outer shells with a small round combustion chamber located inside the bottom of the shell. Depending on the construction details, these boilers have tubes configured in either 1, 2, 3, or 4 pass arrangements. Because the design of FTB boilers is simple, they are easy to construct in a shop and can be shipped fully assembled as a package unit. FTBs typically have a lower initial cost, are more fuel efficient and are easier to operate, but they are limited generally to capacities of 25 tonnes per hour and pressures of 17.5 kg per cm2.

Lancashire Boilers
These were first designed by Fairbairn in 1844 Although the Lancashire boiler is considered to be an antiquated design, provided that the flue is long enough it can be reasonably efficient. This does lead to a bulky boiler though, particularly for its length, and this has always limited its use to stationary installations. It was the standard boiler in Greater Manchester and Lancashire cotton mills.

Lancashire Boilers

Lancashire Boilers

Lancashire Boilers
The Lancashire boiler is comprised of a large steel shell usually between 5 - 9 m long through which two large-bore furnace tubes called flues are passed. Part of each flue is corrugated to take up the expansion when the boiler becomes hot, and to prevent collapse under pressure. A furnace is installed at the entrance to each flue, at the front end of the boiler. Typically, the furnace would be arranged to burn coal, being either manually or automatically stoked.

Lancashire Boilers
The hot gaseous products of combustion passes from the furnace through the large-bore corrugated flues. Heat from the hot flue gases is transferred into the water surrounding these flues. The boiler is in a brickwork setting which is arranged to duct the hot gases emerging from the flues downwards and beneath the boiler, transferring heat through the bottom of the boiler shell, and secondly back along the sides of the boiler before exiting through the stack.

Lancashire Boilers
These two side ducts meet at the back of the boiler and feed into the chimney. These passes are designed to extract the maximum amount of energy from the hot product gases before they are released to the atmosphere. Later, the efficiency was improved by the addition of an economiser. The gas stream, after the third pass, passed through the economiser into the chimney. The economiser heats the feedwater and results in an improvement in thermal efficiency.

Lancashire Boilers
One of the disadvantages of the Lancashire boiler is that repeated heating and cooling of the boiler, with the resultant expansion and contraction that occurs, upset the brickwork setting and ducting. This results in the infiltration of air, which upsets the furnace draught. These boilers are now very expensive to produce, due to the large amounts of material used and the labour required to build the brick setting.

Economic Boilers (two-pass, dry back)

What is a dry back boiler and how does it compare to a wet back boiler? A dry back boiler has a rear wall that is lined with a refractory, a wet back boiler has a rear wall that is jacketed by water.

Economic Boilers (two-pass, dry back)

Because of this fact, wet back boilers typically boast higher efficiencies than dry back boilers as the heat from combustion goes directly into heating water instead of refractory. Wet back boilers are also more forgiving with load changes as the reversal chamber of the boiler is totally submerged in water creating an even heat transfer on the intermediate tube sheet to furnace joint.

Economic Boiler (two-pass, dry back)

Economic Boilers (two-pass, dry back)

The two-pass economic boiler is only about half the size of an equivalent Lancashire boiler but boasts a higher thermal efficiency. It has a cylindrical outer shell containing two large-bore corrugated furnace flues acting as the main combustion chambers.

Economic Boilers (two-pass, dry back)

The hot flue gases pass out of the two furnace flues at the back of the boiler into a brickwork setting (dry back) and are deflected through a number of small-bore tubes arranged above the large-bore furnace flues. These small bore tubes present a large heating surface to the water. The flue gases pass out of the boiler at the front and into an induced draught fan, which passes them into the chimney.

Economic Boilers (two-pass, dry back)

Economic Boilers (three-pass, wet back)

Standard Features

Factory packaged units with operating controls, relief valves, burner and fuel train. Installation is made simple in that only service connections are needed to place in operation. Flexible burner systems are available for firing natural gas, LP gas, #2-6 oil or combinations. High density mineral wool insulation assures lower radiant heat loss. Burner system/s meet/s UL & other requirements.

Economic Boilers (three-pass, wet back)

Steam Trim
Steam pressure gauge with syphon and
testcock Probe type combination low water cutoff and pump control/feeder Water column gauge glass set and drain valve ASME safety relief valve(s) Operating, high limit and modulating pressure controls.

Economic Boilers (three-pass, wet back)

Economic Boilers (three-pass, wet back)

Economic Boilers (three-pass, wet back)

Question
Why only water tube boilers and not fire tube boilers are designed and used for power plant industries?

Questions?