AIR PRE HEATER

The damage due to air pre-heater fire is very severe depending upon the intensity
of the fire. In many cases it has made the regenerative air pre-heater elements a molten
mass. The boiler availability loss will be high if a fire takes place in the air heater.

 Air pre-heaters are heat recovery systems used in boilers to improve boiler operating
efficiency. There are two major types of air pre-heaters: the recuperative and the
regenerative. For higher sizes boilers, say 350 t/hr and above, designers adopt the
regenerative type. This is mainly due to the compactness of regenerative air pre-heaters for
higher heat duty. In both cases, air heater fires are not uncommon in boilers, but more
common in the regenerative type. When a boiler is operated with pulverized coal with a
higher load, then the probability of air heater fire is low. An air pre-heater fire can happen
during startup or shutdown when there is a possibility of a large volume of unburnt particles
reaching the air pre-heater. This unburnt gets deposited in the air pre-heaters elements and
gets ignited when the temperature rises and particles that are still burning reach this area.
The plant operator will have to quickly respond to symptoms that show a tendency for air
pre-heater fire to start. The possibility of detecting a fire in the air pre-heater in a boiler is
very difficult from the operating parameters of boiler. However, indications of an air pre-
heater fire can be verified from a certain parameter changing its trend suddenly. When both
air and flue gas temperature leaving the air pre-heater increase suddenly with a steep
gradient, then the reason for it is to be verified. The specific causes for an air pre-heater fire,
the plant response, and the immediate operator response required during this are discussed.

The specific causes

o Heavy Unburnt Oil / soot deposits in air pre-heater due to
 Poor atomization of oil being fired
 Worn-out oil burner tips leading to coarser particles of oil
 Low air flow through the burner leading to unburnt particles
 Improper air distribution between primary, secondary etc
 Wrong tip position with respect to diffuser or spinner
o Inadequate frequency of operation of APH Soot blowers
o Plugged Nozzles of APH Soot blowers
o Low blowing steam pressure in APH Soot blowers
Plant Response
o Sharp rise in air temp at APH outlet will be noticed
o Increase in flue gas temperature at air pre-heater outlet
Immediate Operator Action
o Trip unit on emergency
o Stop all fans immediately
o Close all dampers on the air and flue gas side
o Flood APH with water through air heater water washing system or otherwise
o Rotate APH to avoid buckling of the air pre-heater rotor
Adopting some of the good operating practices of boiler can prevent air pre-heater fire
totally during the life of the boiler.

o Reduce number of start-ups of boiler to a bare minimum.

o Avoid operating boiler in low loads requiring oil support for a prolonged duration.
o It is a good practice to check oil viscosity characteristics on a periodic basis and
whenever there is a change in supplier.
o Clean oil gun tips and lap the internals to satisfy the design requirements.
o Never restart the oil burners without purging during start-up.
o Boiler startup operation must be avoided when air pre-heater soot blowers are not
available.
o Always make it a practice to soot blow all the air pre-heaters, the non-working air pre-
heaters also must be soot blown by keeping the isolation damper marginally open to
allow the soot to be blown out.
o During start-ups, low load operation, and shutting down, makes it a practice to watch the
trend of air and gas temperature leaving the air pre-heaters.
o Operate air pre-heater soot blowers regularly.
o Any fire detecting device provided by supplier has to be kept active and tested as and
when possible.
To repair the air pre-heater damaged due to fire takes large amount of time and needs spares
for replacements. Some of the spares of large air heaters will not be available off-the-shelf
which can further delay the process of repair. The boiler availability loss will be high if a
fire takes place in an air heater. Responding quickly to suspected air pre-heater fire
immediately and taking corrective action can save a lot of money, downtime, and
generation loss.