COMPARISON OF COIL TYPE

AND SMOKE TUBE BOILERS

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COMPARISON OF COIL TYPE AND SMOKE TUBE
BOILERS

Parameter Coil Type Boiler Smoke Tube Boiler
OVERALL STEAM : FUEL
EFFICIENCY
Low, typically 75% as found by
actual trials
As high as 89% on NCV
STEAM SPACE A coil type boiler is water tube
design, the water travels through
the coil and is surrounded with flue
gases. The steam generated is
directly fed to the process. There is
no scope for steam storage as these
are once through type boiler.

Shell and tube type boilers have
adequate steam space above the
normal water level of the shell.
The available steam space caters
to the fluctuation of the steam
load in the plant.

LOAD FLUCTUATION As the steam is continuously fed to
the process and there is no steam
accumulation or buffer, pressure
control is hard to achieve. At
higher loads even, the rate of
steam generation falls below the
water pumping rate. This causes
water carry over, higher moisture
content and thus steam starvation
in the process. The coil type boiler
has poor performance under
fluctuating load.
Whenever the steam load increases
higher amount of steam is drawn
from the boiler steam space and
results in drop of boiler pressure
due to which again burner is fired,
hence the pressure control in the
Smoke Tube boiler is better. This
also avoids water carry over, and
thus dry steam in the process.
WATER HOLDING CAPACITY Cannot exceed water holding
capacity of 22.5 Kg per coil
No such limitation.


DRYNESS FRACTION




Low. Coil type boilers claim to
generate steam with dryness
fraction of about 80% but actual
dryness fractions is around 65-75%.
This means the moisture content in
the steam is 30%. This results in
extended batch timings and lower
productivity and product quality.

High. Shell and tube boilers have
dryness fraction up to 98%. This
means the moisture content in the
steam is 2%. This results in higher
heat content of steam thus shorter
batch timings and higher
productivity and product quality.

CONDENSATE RECOVERY Not possible Possible and thus a better steam to
fuel ratio
SUSCEPTIBILITY TO POOR WATER Water tube design requires strict
water quality treatment
Smoke tube design can do with
medium treatment
SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SCALING Coils get scaled and are prone to
failure due to TDS and pH of the
feed water
In case of smoke tube design, inner
surface of tubes can be cleaned
easily
MAINTENANCE EXPENSES Recurring cost of replacing the coils
frequently
Periodic tube cleaning is sufficient
ON-LINE BLOWDOWN TO
MAINTAIN TDS
Not possible Adequate water holding capacity
enables on-line blowdown & hence
TDS control
BUILD QUALITY OF MANUFACTURE No universal standards depends on
manufacturer, no stage inspection
during manufacture, poor testing
Stage wise inspection at each stage
of manufacture and exhaustive
testing ensures build standard