AUTOMATION OF BOILER GAS BURNER

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM USING PLC

P. K. Bhowmik,1,* S.K. Dhar,2
1

Department of Instrumentation and Communication, Eastern Refinery Limited, Chittagong, Bangladesh

2
Member IEEE, Chittagong, Bangladesh
*
pkbcuet@yahoo.com

AbstractThis paper outlines the operation and control

features of a gas burner management system for steam boiler
and discuss about the system, structure and implementation for
smooth automatic operation by using programmable logic
controller (PLC). All criteria for safe starting, protection and
operation of the burner are taken into consideration in the PLC
program. This study may helps the professionals to get a clear
understanding about the design, development and analysis of
PLC based burner management system for steam boiler.
Index Terms PLC, Boiler burner management system,
Simatic S7-200 PLC Software.

I. INTRODUCTION
Boiler burner management system is a complicated control
system which requires continuous monitoring and inspection
at frequent intervals. There are possibilities of errors at
measuring and various stages involved with operators. In
order to automate the operation & control of boiler burner
management system and subsiding human intervention, PLC
based control system may be a good option. The internal
storage of instruction of PLC is used for implementing
functions and thus to control various types of equipment &
process variables through digital and or analog input or
output modules [3-6].
The main control strategies in boiler burner management
system are: primary control and combustion control. In the
primary control allows fuel to flow only when all of the safe
conditions for fuel ignition are met. The combustion control
regulates furnace fuel and air ratio within limits for
continuous combustion and stable flame throughout the
demand operating limits of the boiler. The major steps in
boiler burner management system are: checking boiler self
protection for stat up, pre-purging, pilot trial and ignite, main
burner trial and ignite, maintaining air/fuel ratio according to
the load demand and post-purging after burner stop [1].
The ease of programming and simulation on the Siemens
S7-200 ensure accuracy of the system and reducing the
implementation time and cost. The conventional relay based
boiler burner management system of STG Unit-2 of Eastern
Refinery Limited; Bangladesh is taken as the reference
system model in this study. PLC based control systems are
now widely used in the industries like; power plants, oil
refineries, process plant, and chemical industries etc[4-6]. It
is anticipated that this paper will be effective & helpful to
keep pace with the growing needs for PLC based automatic
operation & control in the sector of oil & energy.

II. PLC SYSTEM

PLC is a 'digital operating system' designed especially for
use in an industrial environment, which uses a programmable
memory for its internal operation of user-orientated
instructions and for implementing specific function such as
logic, sequencing, timing, counting and arithmetic [2-6].
Figure 2 shows the block diagram of the complete set up of
the PLC [3-4]. The STEP 7 Microwin PLC programming
software and S7- 200 Simulating software are used in this
study [2-3].
III. PROCESS SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM
The process schematic diagram of crude oil distillation
process is as follows [1]-.

Fig. 1 Schematic drawing of gas burner management system of a boiler [1]

IV. PROCESS MODEL DEVELOPMENT

The process model of boiler burner management system
can be categorized into the following basic type of process
circuit and their components [1].
A. Fuel Gas Circuit
It consists of main gas circuit and the pilot gas circuit.
Pilot gas system is requisite to start the furnace in a low fuel
supply and the main gas system is necessary to ensure supply
of required gas to the furnace according to the demand.
B. Steam and Water Circuit
Boiler drum water level and steam pressure are the vital
parameters that have fundamental importance for boiler
burner start up and safe operation.
C. Combustion Air Circuit
It consists of FD (force draft) fan, air damper, air flow
transmitter. The fuel gas valve and air damper are
simultaneously controlled by AFRC (air/fuel ratio controller).
The AFRC maintain the proper burning of the fuel. It is
important for safe and economical fuel combustion.
The fundamental elements of the above circuit are: gas
regulator, gas pressure switch, gas valve, gas block valve, gas
vent valve and flame detector for both main and pilot gas
system. It also consists of air damper, FD fan and transmitter
for air flow, steam flow and drum water level.
V. PROCESS OPERATION DESCRIPTION
Successful operation of a process system depends upon
careful installation & initial start up. The safe operation &
normal shutdown of a system should be done according to the
design of that unit. Before start up there should be a thorough
check of the system, like valves, control trip, safety device,
and all the mechanical and electrical system that should be in
good condition. The boiler burner management system is
categorized in the subsequent phases: Initial start up and self
protection and precondition for furnace pre-purging check up,
Pre-purging, Pilot valve open and pilot energized by ignition
transformer, Pilot flame detected and fuel valve open to
energized the main burner and ensured by the main burner
flame detector and finally throttling the fuel valve and air
damper to ensure the proper air/fuel ratio according to track
the demand of steam flow form boiler. At any case if main
burner fails or intentionally boiler stopped after pilot valve
opening the process of furnace post purging will initiated.
Thus the entire process is carried out[1].
A. Initial Stat up by Checking for Pre purging
At the initial start up the pre purging system are checked.
During this checking system mainly check the combustion air
flow, respective interlock, drum water level, fuel gas pressure
and alarm condition. If all the criteria for start up protection
are safe condition than the air damper open to the pre purge
condition (10~15% opening) and illuminated the Furnace
ready to pre-purge lamp.
B. Furnace Pre-purging
After illumination of the Furnace ready to pre-purge
lamp, the furnace pre-purging will be started by the Burner
Start Switch. There is fixed time for furnace pre-purging.
This is done to remove gases that may cause explosion during
furnace firing.

C. Pilot Burner Trial Ignition

After completion of furnace pre-purging Furnace Prepurged lamp will be illuminated. Then the pilot block valve
open, vent valve close, pilot gas valve open and CA damper
position to near 20% opening. After that the ignition
transformer energise and pilot ignite and flame detected by
flame scanner. There is fixed time for the ignition trial of the
pilot burner.
D. Main Burner Fire
After energizing of pilot burner and pilot flame detection
afterwards the main gas block valve open, vent valve close
and main gas valve open to start up position. The opening of
gas valve will supply gas to the main burner and it fired by
the pilot burner flame within the ignition trial time of pilot
burner. The UV scanner detected main burner flame and after
expiration of the trial time pilot system will be de-energized.
E. Air/fuel Ratio Control
Ensure that on rising demand the air will lead the fuel and
on falling demand the air will lag the fuel. This keeps that the
air/fuel ratio always higher (air rich) during change in
demand than the normal steady condition.
On rising demand the total combustion air flow cannot rise
more than 1.3 times the total fuel flow and on falling demand
the total fuel flow cannot fall less than 0.7 times the total
combustion air flow. This keeps the air/fuel ratio reasonably
controlled.
Fuel rich alarm set at 0.95 of air/fuel ratio and fuel rich trip
set at or below 0.85 of air/fuel ratio.
FT

PT

Gas Range

H/S

FT
Air Range

PIC

LSS

LSS
<0.7

>1.3
HSS

HSS

FIC

O2
curve

O2 to
AFR

FIC

FCV (Gas)

MCR O2
FRA

<0.95.

FCV (Air)
<0.85.

FRT

FT- Flow Transmitter, PT- Pressure Transmitter, FIC- Flow Indication &
Controller, PIC- Pressure Indication & Controller, LSS- Low Level Set,
HSS- High Level Set, AFR- Air Fuel Ratio, FCV- Fuel Control Valve
Fig. 2 Logic schematic diagram of Air/ Fuel Ratio control of a boiler

F. Burner Fail or Stop and Furnace Post-purging

The gas burner will continue to operate until it is stopped
intentionally by the Gas Stop switch or by interlock failure,
or by flame failure. After stop or fail of pilot or main gas
burner or flame fail after trial of burner the furnace postpurging system will initiated & continue for a fixed time.

G. Process Flow Diagram

Fig. 3 Process flow diagram of gas burner management system

H. Program Development
In this study PLC programme is developed in Simatic Step
7-MicroWIN V.4.0.5.08 and simulate in S7-200 PLC
simulating software. The Ladder Diagram (LD) PLC
programming language used easy to understand. LD is based
on graphical representations with contacts, coils and boxes, as
per the circuit diagrams [3].
I. Program Execution
The ladder logic program execution by Step 7 Microwin
V4.0.5.08 software requires the following steps [3]: program
development, program debugging, program transfer to
Simulator S7-200 and finally simulate the program.
Then the PLC executes the program successfully after
pressing the start switch. PLC always scan its input address
and give an output signal according the corresponding input
and instruction of the program [3-6].

Fig. 4 Process variable declaration for PLC system

VI. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The replacement of conventional existing relay based
instrumentation and control system of boiler gas burner
management system which consisting of many discrete
element like relay, timer, contacts and controller by a single
PLC, will provide more flexibility of the system in case of
operation, control, troubleshooting, commissioning, testing
and modification. The proposed system will also be
beneficiary to the economical aspect. It has also ensured the
option of further advancement in system modification by
advance PLC that is SCADA system. Considering the
limitation of required version of the software and simulator, a
simplified form of the precise control strategy of the air/fuel
ratio controller is described in this paper. The simulation
result of the PLC program give the assurance of the system
accuracy.
VII.
CONCLUSIONS
To cope with the technological advancement, to ensure
higher efficiency and effectiveness and reliability in a more
economical way this proposed system will be a great scope. It
will also provide better flexibility in customization of
operation and control with minimum effort. The paper has
furnished itself to study the integral parts of the entire process
involved, their implementation and the problems that may
show up have also been given their due importance.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Mr. Sharafat Ali, Assistant
General Manager, Department of Instrumentation &
Communication, Eastern Refinery Limited, Bangladesh for
his valuable guidelines and supervision to complete the task.
Cordial thanks also to Md. Ali Zulquarnain, Member,
Planning, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC)
for his valuable review and comments.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]

[5]

[6]

Fig. 5 LD program for gas burner management process of a boiler

Operation Guideline of Boiler of STG Unit-2 of Eastern Refinery

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