1

Sl.N
CONTENTS Page No
o

GG B01 G General description of Boiler 2

B02 Boiler Specification 9

B03 Firing System 22

B04 Water and Steam circuit 50

B05 Air and Flue gas circuit 55

Cleaning systems- WSB, SSB,

B06 71
WL

B07 Electrostatic precipitators 102

B08 Hydro- ash disposal system 114

B09 Chemical regime 119

B01
Protection & Interlocks 136
0

B01 Operating guidelines & special

146
1 activities

B01
Modifications &Improvements 173
2
 2

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BOILER

1.0 Introduction

2.0 System Functioning

3.0 Boiler parts

 Draught systems
 Pressure parts
 Firing system
 Ash separation& disposal

1.0 INTRODUCTION
 3

Neyveli Thermal Power Station-II comprises of seven units each 210MW

capacity, comprising three units in stage one and four units in stage two.
The general arrangements of stage-II steam generators are described here.
M/S. Bharath Heavy Electricals Limited, India had designed, manufactured,
supplied and erected the main boiler, auxiliary equipments, Electrostatic
precipitators, Air preheaters etc.. Where as m/s. EVT of West Germany had
designed and supplied the tangential firing system. m/s. Mahindra and
Mahindra India had exclusively designed and erected wet ash disposal
system for these steam generators

The boiler is of single pass tower type with a designed capacity to

generate superheated steam at a rate of 690t/hr, at a pressure 158 ata
and temperature 540ºc. The salient features of these boilers are detailed as
under.
 Natural circulation system comprising of single drum
 Non steaming economiser in two stages
 Membrane radiant water walls in a dry bottom furnace
 Reheaters in two stages
 Four auxiliary fuel oil burners using light diesel oil or low sulphur
heavy stock oil
 Six independent pulverized lignite firing units with beater wheel mills
 Balanced draught system with axial profile blading fans
 Two regenerative air preheaters along with two steam coil air
preheaters
 Electro static precipitors and wet ash disposal system

2.0 SYSTEM FUNCTIONING

Basically the system functions as follows, Feed water is supplied to the
steam drum from the economiser through the economiser outlet links
and drum feed pipe. The waterside of the steam drum is connected
with the furnace bottom water wall headers through down comers and
supply tubes.
 4

The front and rear wall bottom headers feed the front and rear furnace
wall tubes; the furnace side walls are supplied by the sidewall bottom
headers. All the bottom headers are connected with down comer pipes
by means of supply tubes.
The water in the furnace walls absorbs heat. The resulting mixture of
water and steam is collected in the outlet headers and discharged into
the steam drum through a series of riser tubes. In the steam drum
separation of water and steam takes place. The boiler water mixes with
the incoming water. The saturated steam is led to the super heater
connecting tubes. Passing through the various stages of super heaters,
the steam is superheated to design temperature. From the super heater
outlet header, the superheated steam is led to the turbine via the main
steam lines.

3.0 BOILER PARTS

3.1.Draught system
Air required for complete combustion is supplied by two numbers of
forced draught fans. The quantity of combustion air is varied by
controlling the blade angle using pitch control mechanism. Four
sections of steam coil air preheater are installed in the discharge of
each forced draught fan. Steam drawn from AST is used to preheat the
cold air during initial start up to minimize cold end corrosion.
Two Ljungstrom rotary air preheaters rotating at 1.4 RPM are provided
in the gas duct between the furnace outlet and ESP. Air from SCAPH is
heated here by the hot flue gas from the furnace. Flue gas enters from
the top and leaves at the bottom, where as air enters from the bottom
and leaves at the top of the air preheaters. Radial, circumferential and
axial seals are provided to minimize air ingress to the gas stream. Each
air preheater is equipped with a steam soot blower.
Flue gas traveling upwards from the combustion zone transfer heat to
super heaters, reheaters, economizers arranged in the upper elevation
of the furnace and then enter 8 meter diameter duct for the down ward
travel to RAPHs. After transferring some of its heat to air heaters, flue
 5

gas travels in two independent streams through ESP where 99% of fly
ash is separated. Subsequently the flue gas is drawn by two single
stage axial flow reaction typeID fans thus to have balanced draught.
The fan is provided variable pitch blading with pneumatic control drive
similar to that in FD fans for regulation of the quantity of flue gases
handled. Flue gas finally discharged through 225 M high stack.

3.2 BOILER PRESSURE PARTS

3.2.1 Boiler drum
Drum is the central unit of natural circulation evaporation system to
separate the steam water mixture formed in the boiler drum. The drum
is suspended between frame stands at a height of 83.5 ML on the steel
structure of the boiler for expansion.

3.2.2Economiser
The purpose of the economiser is to preheat the boiler feed water
before it is introduced into the steam drum, and to recover some of the
heat from flue gases leaving the boiler.
Four banks of horizontal type of economiser are located at the top of
the boiler below the radiant roof. Each section is composed of a number
of parallel tube circuits . All the tube circuits originate from the
economiser inlet header and discharge into the economiser outlet
header. The horizontal banks of the economiser are supported by
steam cooled hanger tubes.

3.2.3 Super heater and Reheater

The superheater is composed of three stages of section a) low
temperature section SH1 b) intermediate temperature SH2 c) High
temperature section SH3.
Low temperature superheater SH1 is located directly above the
furnace. It absorbs heat mainly by radiation.
 6

SH2 assemblies are located in the intermediate level of the boiler. SH2
assemblies are provided above RH2 assemblies and below RH1
assemblies.
SH3 assemblies are located above the SH1 and below RH2.
These SH assemblies are horizontal banks and penetrating the
Front/Rear wall to join with headers. These assemblies are supported by
steam-cooled hangers
3.2.4 Reheater
The Reheater is composed of 2 stages, Low temperature reheaterRH1
and high temperature reheater RH2.
RH1 assemblies are located in upper side of the boiler. RH1 assemblies
are provided below the economiser assemblies and above the SH2
assemblies. Final reheater RH2 assemblies are provided above SH3 and
below SH2.These reheater assemblies are horizontal banks and
penetrating the rear wall to join with headers. These assemblies are
supported by steam-cooled hangers.

3.2.5 Safety Valves

As long as there is a fire in the furnace, adequate protection must be
provided for Superheater and Reheater elements. This is especially
important during periods when there is no demand for steam, such as
when starting up and when shutting down. During these periods of no
steam flow through the turbine, adequate flow through the superheater
is assured by means of drains and vents in the headers and main
steam piping. Re-heater header drains and vents provide means to boil
off residual water in the reheater elements during initial firing of the
boiler.
Safety valves on the superheater main lines, set below the lowest set
drum safety valve, provide another means of protection by assuring
adequate flow through the superheater if the steam demand should
suddenly and unexpectedly drop. Reheater safety valves, located on
the hot and cold reheat piping serve to protect the reheater, if the
steam flow through the reheater is suddenly interrupted. An
 7

electromatic relief valve on the superheater main steam line set below
the lowest set superheater safety valve is provided as a working valve
to give an initial indication of excessive steam pressure.

4.0 FIRING SYSTEM

4.1 Boiler bunkers and feeders
The lignite handling system at TPS-II had been designed to feed lignite
for the boilers in stage-I and stage-II. Two series of conveying system
have a designed handling capacity of 2800t/hr. each, receiving lignite
from mine-II. Two lakhs tones of lignite can be readily stored in stock
piles 1 and 2 called as stock yard. At junction tower 1, diverting of
lignite either to stage-1 or stage-2 boilers can be done to feed lignite to
the boilers each having 6 boiler bunkers. Lignite is drawn from the
bunker by 3 plate belt feeders. Needle gates are provided at the
bottom of each bunker to isolate all plate belt feeders for maintenance.
These plate belt feeders discharge lignite to a conveyor belt feeder of
capacity 65t/hr, which in turn feed to mills for pulverization.

4.2 Beater wheel mill

Six numbers of beater wheel mills are provided to pulverize the lignite.
Two mills each are located in the front and rear, one mill each on the
left and right side.

4.3 Fuel oil system

A pair of screw pumps of 500 liters/min at 35 bar is provided for
boilers 4/5 out of which one pump will be in service. Similar facility is
provided for boiler6/7. Oil is heated in secondary heaters upto 130 0c
and is sent to respective boilers through filter and flow control stations.
In addition to LSHS/HFO, light diesel oil is supplied through a pair of
pumps at 16 bar, 185 L/min. Four oil burners 2 in the right and 2 on
the left side of the boiler are located at 20 ML .For atomization steam is
used for LSHS /HFO and air /steam for LDO. The maximum capacity of
 8

each burner is 4T/hr and the turn down ratio is 4:1.The capacity of
LSHS/HFO and LDO is 30% and 7.5% MCR respectively.
5.0 ASH SEPAPARATION AND DISPOSAL SYSTEM.
5.1 Slag disposal
Each boiler has a slag conveyor running in a trough filled with water to
carry the slag falling in the slag bath at the bottom and discharge it to
the slag channel.
5.2 Ash separation (Electro static precipitator).
In order to minimize the air pollution by fly ash electro static
precipitators are installed. In ESP, ash particles are charged by ions
generated by a corona discharge. The charged ash particles are
deposited on collecting electrodes by electrical forces and are then
removed and disposed off.
5.3 Ash water and ash disposal system.
Wet slag from slag conveyor and ash slurry from ash mixing vessels
pass through open channels and then closed channels to the slurry
pumps. The ash disposal system consists of two ash slurry pump
houses. The ash water ratio required is 1: 25.To meet the water
requirements of ash disposal system, two water sources namely High
pressure water and Low pressure water are supplied through ash
disposal system to all boilers. The slurry is pumped to an ash bund.

BO2. TECHNICAL BOILER DATA

Boiler data in case of nominal load

Design pressure HP outlet 180kg/cm2
Design pressure MP outlet 50kg/cm2
Design data
Capacity 100%MCR 60%MCR
Steam output 690 657 401 t/hr
Pressure before ECO 180 173 173 kg/cm2
Pressure HP outlet 157 156 149.8
kg/cm2
Temperature before E 245 243 220.6 °c
 9

Spray water 71.5 540 51.8 t/hr

Pressure MP inlet 37.7 36.2 22.7
kg/cm2
MP inlet temperature 342.7 341 328.6 ºC
MP outlet temperature 540 540 540 ºc
Spray water 9.37 7.4 1.1 t/hr
Waste gas temperature 147 149.4 137.7 ºc
Operating data
Steam output 690 657 401 t/hr
Pressure before ECO 168 167 167 kg/cm2
Pressure HP outlet 158 157 151
kg/cm2
Temperature before ECO 245 243 220.6 ºc
Temperature HP outlet 540 540 540 ºc
Spray water 113 85 41 t/hr
Pressure MP inlet 37.7 36.2 22.7
kg/cm2
Pressure MP outlet 36 34.6 21.17
kg/cm2
MP inlet temperature 343 341 328.6 ºC
MP outlet temperature 540 540 540 ºc
Spray water 16.4 6.7 3.1 t/hr
Waste gas temperature 147 146 132 ºc

Maximum permissible steam temperature

SH 1 outlet 485 ºc
SH 2 inlet 430 ºc
SH 2 outlet 515 ºc
SH 3 inlet 495 ºc
SH 3 outlet 540 ºc
RH 1 inlet 360 ºc
RH 1 outlet 505 ºc
 10

RH 2 inlet 485 ºc
RH 2 outlet 540 ºc

Dimensions of heating surfaces

Effective heating surfaces 15034 m2
Evaporator, furnace+radiation space 1689 m2
Enclosure walls 1441 m2
Evaporator grid 769 m2
Heating surface 3999 m2
Super heater 1 1094 m2
Super heater 2 (suppory+grid) 3579 m2
Super heater 3 1600 m2
Reheater 1 4358 m2
Reheater 2 1915 m2
ECO 1 7080 m2
ECO 2 7954 m2
RAPH (each one) 17430 m2

Volumes
Water contained in the boiler 175,63 m3
Combustion space 39,507 m3
Radiation space 9,171 m3
Super heater 1 5,716 m3
Super heater2 20,13 m3
Super heater 3 7,207 m3
Reheater 1 42,142 m3
Reheater 2 25,457 m3
ECO 1&2 113,71 m3
Total heating surface 307,16 m3

FUEL DATA
Light fuel oil (LDO)
NCV 42000 KJ/Kg
 11

Sulphur (max) 1.8%

Ash 0.02%
Water 0.25%
Heavy fuel oil (HFO)
NCV 41160 KJ/Kg
Sulphur(max) 4.5%
Ash 0.1%
Water 1%
Heavy fuel oil (LSHS)
Pour point of LSHS +54 °C
Average calorific valve 41870 KJ/Kg
Viscosity at 60.c 49.8 cst
Total sulphur 0.49 %
Sodium 14 ppm
Vanadium 12 ppm

Lignite
Gross calorific value GCV 11769 KJ/Kg
Lower calorific valve NCV 10048 Kg/kg
Ash 7%
Water 48.5 %
Volatiles 24 %
Fixed carbon 20.5 %
Grindability 140 hard grove
Ash melting IDP > 950 °c
Ash melting FP >1200 °c

Feed water data

Water contained in the steam generator 175,63 m3
Max. allowable working pressure 180 bar
Max. allowable inlet temperature 245 °c
Recommended pH valve 9.5 + 0.2
Conductivity < 0.2 S/cm
 12

Phosphate in case of dosing <3 mg/ltrs

Silica acid (Sio2) 0.005 mg/ltrs
Total iron (Fe) 0.01 mg/ltrs
Total copper (cu) 0.001 mg/ltrs
Natrium(Na) 0.002 mg/ltrs

Force Draught fan

Manufacturer BHEL
Type API-20/12
Design axial reaction fan
Nos per boiler 2
Speed 1480 rpm
Motor rating 166.0 m3/sec

Density of air 1.105 kg/ m3

Total pressure 510 mmwc
Inlet air temperature 39.4 °c

Induced Draught fan

Manufacturer BHEL
Type API-30/20
Design Axial reaction fan
Nos per boiler 2
Speed 980 rpm
Motor rating 1800 kw
Capacity 302.5 m3/sec
Density of flue gas 0.811 kg/ m3
Total pressure 450 mmwc
Waste gas temperature 141 °c

Steam coil air preheater

Manufacturer M/S C.Doctor & Co
Type Finned tube type
 13

Nos per boiler 2

Construction type Horizontal
Size 3889 X 4130 X 300 mm
Heating surface 823 m2
Steam pressure 17 kg/cm2
Design temperature 230 °c
Airside pressure drop at 100 % MCR 3.17 m bar
Air temperature inlet 38.5 °c
Air temperature outlet 120 °c
Regenerative Air Preheater
Manufacturer BHEL
Type Bisector - 27.5 VI 1700
Design Rotary regenerative air
heater
Nos per boiler 2
Speed 1.4 rpm
Motor rating 11.0 kW
Heating surface 17420 m2
Height of heating elements 800 mm
Height of hot end elements 600 mm
Height of cold end elements 300 mm
Temperature of flue gas at inlet 320 °c
Temperature of flue gas at outlet 164 °c
Temperature of air at inlet 40 °c
Temperature of air at outlet 305 °c
Flue gas quantity before airpreheater 333.6 kg/sec
Air quantity before airpreheater 258.7 kg/sec
Leakage air quantity 21.2 kg/sec
Air preheater admission (leakage) 6.6 %
Pressure loss in flue gas side 11.6 mbar
Pressure loss in air side 5.3 mbar
 14

Oil firing system

Scanner air fan
Manufacturer pillar
Type 1636MX-8-100
Nos per boiler 2
Capacity 0.133 kg/s
Speed 2930 rpm
Motor rating 5.5 kW
Pressure increase 62.9 mbar

Burner data (light oil)

Firing rate (referred to 100%MCR) 7.5%

Manufacturer EVT
Burner system air pressure atomiser
Number of levels 1
Number of burners per level/boiler 4
Arrangement of burners opposed firing
Burner design EVT single lance burner
Horizontal burner distance 6300 mm
Min.firing rate /burner 935 kg/h
Max.firing rate/burner 3700 kg/h
Control range 1:4
Oil temperature 30°c

Burner data( heavy oil)

Firing rate (refered to 100%) 30%
Manufacturer EVT
Burner system steam pressure atomiser
Number of levels 1
Number of burners per level/boiler 4
 15

Arrangement of burners opposed firing

Burner design EVT single lance burner
Horizontal burner distance 6300mm
Min.firing rate /burner 1000kg/h
Max.firing rate/burner 4000kg/h
Control range 1:4
Oil temperature 130°c
High voltage ignitor
Manufacturer DURAG
Type D-HG400-50
Ignition type high voltage
Number of ignitors/boiler 4
Ignition voltage 220 volt

Light oil pumps

Manufacturer Allweiler
Type SMH 120ER D6.9W
Design booster pump
Number 2
Max.capacity 185Lt/min
Max.pressure behind pump 35 bar

Heavy oil pumps

Manufacturer Allweiler
Type SMH 660ER D6.9y
Design booster pump
Number 2
Max.capacity 520Lt/min
Max.pressure behind pump 35 bar

Light oil filter

Manufacturer boll&kirsch
Type 1.651 200.500 2
 16

Flow 2.85kg/s
Number 2
Low pressure(nominal pressure) 10 bar
Temperature 50°c
Nominal diameter(DN) 80,100mm
Mesh size of the filter 500µm

Heavy oil filter

Manufacturer boll&kirsch
Type 1.65.1 .4.355.500 DN 6”
Flow 8.5 kg/s
Number 2
Low pressure(nominal pressure) 10 bar
Temperature 30°c
Nominal diameter(DN) 50 mm
Mesh size of the filter 500 µm

Fuel oil heater

Manufacturer OEL TECHNIK
Type 103/4630-3/87
Number 2
Maximum steam pressure 25 bar
Maximum steam Temperature 300 °c
Maximum oil Temperature 150 °c
Steam volume 1200 litre
Oil volume 670 litre

PULVERISING SYSTEM
Lignite bunker

Number (per boiler) 6

Volume per bunker 472 m3
 17

Lining kalen

Plate Belt Conveyor

Manufacturer EVT
Type PBZ 1600 X 3700
Number (per mill) 3

Max.capacity (per conveyor) 30 t/hr

Min.layer thickness 100 mm
Max.layer thickness 350 mm
set.layer thickness 275 mm
Distance between axes 3700 mm
Interior width 1560
Speed 0.17 – 2.6 min –1

Gear manufacturer SEW

Type K126R72DV112M4TF
Motor rating 4 Kw
Speed 0.63-2.6 min –1

Control range 1:4

Conveyor Belt
Manufacturer Woehr
Type 800 X length
Number (per mill A,F / B-E) 2/1 nos./no.
gear manufacturer SEW
type K126R72DV112M4TF
motor rating 4 Kw
speed 11 – 50 min –1

control range 1: 5
Beater Wheel Mills
Manufacturer EVT
Type N 110.60
Design beater wheel mill
Number( per boiler ) 6
 18

Nominal capacity 55/t/hr

Capacity at 100 % 41.67/t/hr
Motor rating 420 KW
Motor speed 600 min –1

Temperature before mill 770 °c

Temperature after mill 120 – 180 °c

Capacity of mill 40.28 m3 /sec
Hot air quantity 0.28 – 12.5 kg/sec
Drying gas quantity 12.88 kg/sec
Hydraulic coupling
Manufacturer Voith
Type 1150 TVY
Design turbo coupling
Pulverised fuel burners
Burner manufacturer EVT
Burner system pulverized lignite
burners
Burner design jet burners
Burner arrangement tangential & 2 side
Number per boiler 6 nos

After Burning Grate

Manufacturer EVT
Type NANR
Number per boiler 2 nos
Grate forward movement 125 – 750 mm
Motor rating 5.5 k w
Gear manufacturer PIV
Type R 400 -PIV
Speed 0.062 – 0.37 min –1

Control range 1:6

 19

Slag Conveyor

Manufacturer EVT
Number per boiler 1 no
Motor rating 7.5 k w
Speed 1450 min –1

Water Soot Blowers

Manufacturer Bergemann
Type SK 58-7e
Number per boiler 38
Installation place furnace
Blowing medium water
Blowing pressure 3-10 bar
Blowing time 8 min

Steam Soot Blowers

Manufacturer BHEL
Type LRD-1E
Number per boiler 30
Installation place SH,RH, ECO banks
Blowing medium steam
Blowing pressure 11 bar
Blowing time 7.7 min.
Travel 6.5 m

Electrostatic precipitator
Manufacturer BHEL
Type FAA-66x37.5-
2xlo2125-2
Number per boiler 2 nos
Construction type welded casing
Gas quantity inlet (worst lignite) 480.6 m3/sec
Suction at ESP inlet -22.5 m bar
 20

Temperature 157 °c
Moisture in gas (% by weight) 15.84 %
Inlet dust concentration 26.5 g/Nm3
O/L dust concent.with one field out of service 150 mg/Nm3

Removal efficiency, design 99.43 %

Projected filter surface area 159.7 m2
Total effective collecting area 76500 m2
Gas velocity 0.94 m/sec
Treatment time 23.94 sec
Number of parallel gas streams per ESP 1 no
Height of electrodes 12.5 m
Length of electrodes 0.75 m
Transformers 2 X 12 nos
Peak voltage 70 k.volt
Nominal current 1000 mA
Rating 1850 KVA
Power required 1000 KW
Dissipated energy (corona power) 770 KW
No. Of discharge electrode rapping gear shaft drive 24
No of collecting electrode rapping gear shaft drive 12
Hopper heating/hopper 6 KW
Pressure loss 2.5 m bar
Number of dust hoppers per ESP 24
 21

BO3- FIRING SYSTEM

OIL FIRING SYSTEM

1.0 INTRODUCTION

An entity, which politically pronounces national economy and the others

costs growing dependence, is petroleum. Liquid fuels derived from it are
ideal energy sources for industries and utilities, although their availability
in recent years has worsened. Nevertheless, they are generally easy to
handle, store and burn. But an efficient combustion of liquid fuels is not
simple; it requires optimization of many variables including fuels’ physical
and chemical characteristics, the selection, type of combustion
equipment and power station practice.
It is undeniable that operation of oil firing system has captured a vital role
in the operation of coal fired steam generators. The predicted occasions
like start up, shut down etc. could not be made possible in the operation
of steam generators unless until the oil firing facility has already been
built in. The capacity of oil firing system is usually designed to cater the
needs of turbo generator for its synchronization with power grid.
However, it has been further developed to generate part load on the unit.
In spite of valuable operational experience gained from the past, a
sophisticated automation has become an integral one in the oil firing
system for safe and reliable operation of steam generators.
comprehensive oil firing system designed and supplied by M/s. Energie –
Und Verfahrens. Tehcnik, (EVT) Germany has been adopted in stage-II
steam Generators of Thermal Power Station-II where two kinds of liquid
fuels are being utilized.
 22

2.0 ROLE OF OIL FIRING SYSTEM:

The steam generators in Stage-II units are provided with EVT Ignition and
support firing system. This would be intended to fulfill the following
requirements.
1.Warming up of cold furnace.
2.Gradual increase of heat flux so as to minimize thermal stresses in
the heat transfer areas.
3.Raising furnace core temperature, which would enable to change over
to lignite firing.
4.Stabilizing the lignite firing in case of any abrupt interruption in
lignite supply to the furnace.
5.Maintaining the furnace flame stability incase of unit running at part
load.
6.Gradual reduction of heat input during shutting down of the boilers.
7.Floating of safety valves as and when it is required and
8.Passivation of boiler before it is being released for major overhaul.

3.0 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF OIL FIRING SYSTEM

An elaborate oil firing scheme has been built individually for burning two
liquid fuels viz. Light Diesel oil (LDO) and Low Sulphur Heavy Stock Oil
(LSHS) in the steam generators. In LDO scheme, flow measuring station
and a flow control station are the two main elements whereas in LSHS
scheme, a filtering station common for two steam generators is provided
in addition to the above mentioned stations in the steam generator. Any of
the liquid fuels can be used in any of four wall mounted retractable type
oil burners in the boiler, through their respective burner valve control
stations. The burner valve control stations are controlled by Burner
Management System (BMS) meant for safe and reliable operation of oil
burners as well as boilers as a whole. Both oil schemes are situated at
right side of furnace at 15 meter elevation, but the burner valve control
stations are at about 19 meter elevation near the oil burner. The main
 23

burners are mounted in the left and a right wall of the furnace in a single
elevation at 20-meter level.
Two cooling air fans are provided to supply cold atmospheric air to the oil
burners mainly as a protecting medium. They are located in the rear side
of the furnace at 15-meter level. Ultra violet scanners are also mounted
on the oil burner register to monitor oil flame so as to maintain a reliable
and continuous operation of oil burners. The control stations of atomizing
media viz. atomising steam and compressed air are situated near the oil
schemes. Operations of oil burners are initiated from Unit Control Desk.
In any oil burner either LDO or LSHS oil can be burnt. The capacity of oil
firing system has been designed to generate 30% MCR load and 7.5%
M.C.R. Load on the unit with LSHS and LDO respectively.

4.0 LIGHT DIESEL OIL SCHEME:

LDO has been envisaged and built-in Stage-II Steam Generators mainly for
(1) start up of cold furnace (2) start up hot furnace in case of non-
availability of auxiliary steam. It is obtained from Fuel Oil Pump House
(FOPH) Stage-II at the rate of 185 lpm (11.1Kl/hr.) at a pressure of
25Kg/cm2. LDO supply will be normally available only after making a
request to FOPH II Staff-in-charge. It will be supplied through a common
delivery line for all steam generators which forms a LDO bus in the boiler
area at about 15 meters level. A LDO tapping is taken for each boiler from
the LDO bus. Hand operated isolation valves are provided in these
tappings and also in between the tappings in the LDO bus. This facility
enables to isolate LDO supply either to the Boiler individually or together.
In the steam generators, Light Diesel Oil Supply is made to the burners via
common flow metering and flow control stations and through concerned
burner valve control station. A branch is taken before the flow metering
station to feed LDO as flushing medium to LSHS oil scheme to avoid
clogging in the LSHS oil pipings during overhaul periods.

4.1 Flow metering station:

 24

The flow-measuring element provided in the LDO line is flanked by hand

operated isolating valves. A ‘Y’ type strainer is installed just before flow
measuring element. A bypass line with a hand-operated valve is provided for
the flow measuring system. The oil flow shown by the flow measuring station
is the actual consumption of LDO in the oil burners. Draining facility is also
provided in this system viz. one drain line before the filter to drain the oil to
Fuel Oil Drain Tank.
A BMS LDO trip valve is located after the flow measuring station, otherwise to
say before flow control station. This valve can be operated only from Unit
Control Desk. The main actuating medium for this valve is instrument air.
This LDO trip valve is to be opened for boiler start up.

4.2. Flow control station

Next to LDO trip valve, there is flow control station. It has a pneumatic type
flow control valve and a hand operated isolating valve on either side of it. A
bypass line with a valve is also provided. The function of the flow control
valve is actually to regulate oil pressure to supply desired oil flow to the oil
burners. If the oil pressure is 16 bar, there will be a maximum oil flow to the
burner i.e. 4t/h. When it is 6 bar, the oil flow will be the minimum i.e. 1t/h.
There is only one common flow regulating valve for all burners.
The flow control valve can be operated only from unit control desk. It could
be operated either in manual mode or in auto mode. In remote mode, the
desired oil flow can be maintained by regulating this flow control valve
manually by observing oil flow indication available on the desk. In auto mode,
the desired oil flow can be maintained by setting computed oil pressure in oil
pressure set point station. Then flow control valve will be actuated
automatically to maintain the desired oil flow.
Pressure indicators, pressure switch and pressure transmitters are provided in
LDO line after the flow control station. A branch carrying LDO to each burner
from this main, has a quick closing valve, a hand operated isolating valve, a
‘Y’ type
 25

strainer and a BMS oil valve. The BMS oil valve will open automatically, while
burner is cut in from control desk. It will close automatically when Burner is
cut out and as well as during inadequate combustion conditions.

5.0. ATOMISING AIR SCHME:

Light Diesel Oil can be effectively burnt only if it is properly atomized.
Compressed air will be the usual atomising medium for LDO atomization. The
atomising air is tapped from the unit compressed air bus called service air
bus (at a pressure of 5-6 bar and at a temperature of 45 °C). This
compressed air line is then branched into two, one feeds compressed air
directly as purging air and the other supplies compressed air as Atomising air
after due pressure reduction via a atomising air pressure control station.
Atomising air pressure control station located near oil flow control station
comprises of a pressure control valve and a strainer flanked by hand
operated isolating valves. A bypass with hand-operated valve can be used to
maintain desired atomising air pressure in case of defective pressure control
value. The atomising air pressure is maintained at 5.5 bar and atomising air
flows at the rate of 870m3/hr. for the four burners.
The BMS atomising air valve will function through the BMS, only when
atomising air selection has already been made for operation of oil burner in
the control desk. In the event of non-availability of atomising air, auxiliary
steam can be used as atomising medium for LDO. Moreover, LDO firing
system will come for rescue for starting the unit whenever all units are
tripped / no auxiliary steam is available.

6.0. LOW SULPHUR STOCK OIL SCHEME:

LSHS oil is normally used in the steam generator for start-up ,furnace flame
stability and for some special operations like Passivation, safety valve
floating. It is being obtained from FOPH-II continuously through two LSHS oil
pipings; one common line for Boiler 4&5 and the other common line for Boiler
6&7. LSHS oil is supplied at 26Kg/cm2. The oil lines for the boiler 4&5 and
6&7 are brought to 15 meter level of Boiler 4 & 6 respectively; then the
schemes erected thereafter are very similar.
 26

6.1. LSHS OIL scheme at boiler 4 / 6:

A common filtering station is installed in Boiler 4 for Boiler 4&5 and in Boiler 6
for Boiler 6&7. The filtering station has two streams of filters. They are of
type3”-600 lbs-RF. There are holes of size 300 microns in the filtering
element. A hand-operated valve is provided on either side of the filter in
each stream. An air vent and drain line are there in the filter for charging and
draining purpose.
A temperature indicator is provided before the filtering units. A differential
pressure indicator and colour indicator are provided across the filtering
element. Normal differential pressure across a clean filter is 0.1 bar, and if
the filter gets 50% clogged, it will be 0.22 bar. An oil tray is kept below the
filter to collect drained oil and it is being drained to Unit drain oil tank. The
two streams of filters join as a single oil line, wherein one more drain oil line
is provided.
This oil line is now branched into two, the feeds LSHS oil to Boiler 4 and the
other line to Boiler 5. A hand operated isolating valve is provided in each
branch.
A light diesel oil line which is taken before LDO filtering station is connected
to the above-mentioned LSHS oil branches for the boilers. A hand-operated
valve is provided in each LDO line connected to LSHS oil schemes. LDO will
be used to flush the LSHS oil pipings. LSHS schemes after the filtering station
are available at Boiler 4 & 5 separately and that too they are similar.

6.2 LSHS oil scheme at boiler 4/5/6/7:

The LSHS oil scheme is located at 15-meter level near LDO scheme. Two flow
metering stations and a flow control stations are the main elements in LSHS
oil scheme for the boiler.

6.3. Flow metering station:

The flow metering station provided before the flow control station is called as
Inlet Flow metering station. It has a flow-measuring element flanked by
hand-
 27

operated valves on either side. A bypass line with a hand-operated valve is

provided for the flow-measuring element. A drain oil line is taken before flow
metering element. This flow-measuring element is actually measuring the oil
flow towards the burner.
After the flow metering station, a BMS LSHS inlet trip valve is provided. It is
actuated by instrument air. This LSHS inlet trip valve is otherwise called as
LSHS oil main valve. Operation of this valve can be done only from Unit
control desk. Moreover, it should be opened before the boiler is started.

6.4 LSHS OIL flow control station:

Next to BMS LSHS main oil valve, a flow control station similar to LDO flow
control station is provided. The function is also same as that of LDO flow
control station. But the difference is all the oil flowing towards the burner will
not be fully consumed, a small quantity is being returned from the boiler.
Hence taking the return flow into consideration, necessary pressure should be
set in Flow control station in order to have desired oil flow to the burners in
service.
Three pressure transmitters, one temperature transmitter, one pressure
indicator and one temperature indicator are installed after the flow control
station. With this control station, a maximum of 16.5t/h of oil can be supplied
towards the burners. Out of thus, normally 0.5t/h of oil will be the return
from the burners but during start up a maximum of 4t/h of oil can also be
made as return.

6.5 BMS LSHS oil return valve:

A return oil line is emanating from “U” shaped LSHS oil main ring near left
from burner i.e. oil burner C. This line is brought nearer the flow control
station at the same elevation i.e. 15 meter level. In this line, a BMS return
valve is installed. In addition, two by pass lines for this BMS return valve are
provided. In BMS return oil line, any amount of oil can be allowed. In the first
bypass line only one hand operated valve is installed and through this line,
maximum of 4t/h of oil is passed as return flow.
 28

Whereas the second bypass line, which has a hand, operated valve with an
orifice will permit a maximum return oil flow of 0.5t/h. The BMS return oil line
will be used for oil recirculation before start up of oil burners. The first
bypass line will be used in the event of failure of BMS return valve, where as
the second bypass line permits return oil flow when oil burners are in service.
The BMS return valve can be operated from the unit control desk. It gets
opened automatically when BMS LSHS oil main valve is opened. Automatic
closing of this valve will occur when three or more oil burners are cut in.

6.6 Return flow metering station

A flow metering station next to the BMS return valve system measures return
oil flow from the boiler. The difference between the inlet and return oil flow is
the actual consumption of LSHS oil in the burners and this oil flow is mainly
used for maintaining a correct airflow to the burners in service. This return
flow metering station is very similar to that of inlet flow metering station.
Individual flow indicators for inlet and return oil flow are provided in unit
desk. These measurements are required whenever oil flow control is in
remote mode. Moreover it gives proper guidance to adjust value of pressure
in the pressure set point station while oil flow control is in auto mode. A non-
return valve is provided after LSHS oil return flow measuring station.

6.7. Recirculation line:

A line with a motor operated valve connects the inlet of inlet flow
measuring station and outlet of return oil flow measuring station after NRV.
This line recirculates preheated oil from the secondary oil preheating station
to the boiler area up to flow measuring station and returns the oil back to the
main LSHS oil tanks. The process of recirculation takes considerable time,
which will hinder scheduled lighting up event. So recirculation of LSHS oil
with a direct recirculation line will be commissioned an hour before the boiler
lighting up.
 29

A hand-operated valve is provided in the return oil line from the boiler after
the recirculation line connection.

7.0. DRAIN OIL SYSTEM:

Drain lines are provided in the LDO and LSHS oil system to drain the oil
before the line is released for maintenance work. In order to collect oil being
drained from oil lines, oil filters, and an oil tank is installed in each unit.
This tank is located at zero meter level. This tank is known as Unit Drain oil
tank. It is of size 100mm x 1550mm with a volume of 1 m3. A steam pipe of
48.3 x 3.7mm with a heating area of 0.8m2 is fitted inside the tank. Heating
steam supplied through this pipe enables to maintain the fluidity of oil stored
in the drain oil tank. This tank is equipped with a level indicator, two level
switches, a manhole, a drain and an air vent.

A pump designated as drain oil pump is installed to pump oil to the main
LSHS tanks. In the inlet side of the pump, a filter is provided. Isolation valve
is provided before the filter. In the delivery side of the pump, a discharge
valve and a NRV are provided. The pump is capable of pumping oil at the
rate of 39 liters per minute at a discharge pressure of 5 bar, and driven by a
motor of rating 3ø; 415v; 1.1 K.W. 1415 rpm; 2.65 amps. The delivery line
from the pump joins the LSHS return oil line at 15-meter level.

Such return oil lines from all the Units (4, 5, 6 & 7) are connected as a single
return oil line carrying oil (maximum of 17.l m 3/hr; 130°C) towards FOPH II.
This return oil line and LSHS oil pressure control lines (/Recirculation lines)
tapped before each secondary oil heating station are connected to a single
line carrying hot oil to the LSHS oil main tank area. This line is now branched
into two, and each is connected just before suction heater. Provisions are
available to divert return oil to the tank top whenever the return oil
temperature create problems in the pumping. Necessary hand operated
isolation valves are provided in the return oil schemes for the above
purposes.
 30

8.0. ATOMISING AND PURGE STEAM SCHEME:

LSHS oil can be burnt effectively only after proper atomization with steam.
This steam is tapped from auxiliary steam system. In each unit, auxiliary
steam is drawn from the Unit auxiliary steam header through a single line.
From the line, a branch is taken which is again branched into two lines. One
line supplies auxiliary steam as purge steam and the other line feeds
auxiliary steam after certain pressure reduction as atomising steam.

8.1. Purge Steam Scheme:

Auxiliary steam at 14 bar; 230°c is diverted to a purge steam line directly.

This line has a hand-operated valve. It is connected to a purge airline
wherein two hand operated valves and a NRV are there. Purging air or
purging steam can be admitted to “U” shaped main. From the main purging
steam / airline is taken for each burner. A hand operated valve, a ‘Y’ type
strainer, two BMS cleaning valves (otherwise called as BMS purging steam /
air trip valves) and a non-return valve are provided in this line. This purge
steam/air line is again connected to the LSHS/LDO line after its common BMS
valve. Whenever purging steam/air is admitted, it will flow to the oil burner
gun, especially through the oil passage and clean oil residues if any. Purging
steam/air valves cannot be operated manually from the control desk. The
operation of these valves will be initiated only in the sequence of burner
operation.

8.2. Atomising Steam Scheme

Auxiliary steam after certain pressure reduction is used as atomising medium

mainly for LSHS oil; but it can be used for LDO also. A common pressure
control station is laid near the Fuel oil flow Control station. A pneumatic
operated pressure control valve is provided in this control station. A hand
operated valve and a ‘Y’ type strainer are provided before the pressure
control valve and a hand operated valve is provided after the pressure control
valve. A bypass line
 31

with a hand operated valve will be the reserve for this pressure control valve.
This pressure control station maintains the steam pressure at 10.5 Kg/cm 2 .

A pressure indicator is provided before and after the pressure control valve
and number of pressure transmitters are laid in the bypass line too. The
atomising steam line is connected to “U” shaped main. A line is taken for
each burner and is provided with a hand-operated valve, a ‘Y’ type strainer, a
BMS atomising steam valve and a non-return valve. This line is then
connected to the atomising airline to form a single line to the burner gun. For
operation of any oil burner, selection of atomising medium, either atomising
steam or atomising air for that burner should be done earlier from the control
desk.

9.0. BURNER VALVE CONTROL STATION:

Burner valve control station has LDO & LSHS oil lines, atomising air &
atomising steam lines and purging line. In these lines, no. Of BMS valves
have been provided so that operation of oil burner can be carried out in
particular sequence for safety and reliability. The LDO and LSHS oil line
merge together as a single line and is connected to an adopter. Similarly,
atomising air and steam lines join together as a single line connected to the
same adopter. There are two flexible hoses emanating from the adopter, one
carries either LDO or LSHS oil and another carries either atomising air or
steam to the oil burner gun.Purge steam/air line is connected to the oil line.
The purge steam line has two BMS purge valves. Out of them, first valve is
three-way change over valve. This three way change over valve gives free
way for the purge steam to the burners during the purging period only. The
other way is open to atmosphere to drain locked up steam condensate after
BMS atomising valves up to the adopter. The dirt condensate from the three-
way valve of all the burners joins together and is allowed to go as waste.

10.0 OIL BURNERS

 32

10.1. Arrangement Of Oil Burners

Each boiler is equipped with four oil burners. The oil burners two in the right
side and two in the left side are located at 20-meter elevation the same as
that of the lower elevation p.f. Burners. Right rear burner is designated as
‘A’, right front as ‘B’, left front as ‘C’ and left rear as ‘D’. The centre-to-centre
distance between two oil burners is 6300mm and they are placed at a
distance of 3150mm from the furnace centre line. The location of oil burners
is so chosen to ensure proximity of each oil burner to two p.f. Burners at the
lower elevation. This facilitates easy ignition of pulverized fuel during
lighting up of a boiler. The oil burner is 3337.5mm away from the nearest
water wall and this avoids flame impingement on the water wall tubes.

10.2. Oil Burner Gun:

The oil burner is of retractable type and is having three concentric tubes, an
inner tube of 70 x 3mm. The length of the burner gun is 2020mm. Inside
the burner gun, two numbers tri-supports are provided at120 degree
intervals, one between the inner and middle tube and the other between
middle and outer tube. The supports are located at 800mm from the burner
tip. This arrangement keeps all the three tubes concentric and prevents any
sagging due to cantilever type support. Atomising steam flows through the
inner tube of the burner, while oil flows through the annular space between
the inner and middle tube and cooling air between the middle and outer
tube.

In one end of the burner gun a nozzle support is welded to the middle tube.
The burner nozzle is positioned and fixed adjacent to the nozzle support by
screwing a nozzle cap to the nozzle support. The other end of the burner gun
is provided with a gun coupling. The gun coupling consists of two parts i.e.
fixed gun coupling and loose gun coupling. The fixed gun coupling, which has
provisions

for connecting oil and steam hoses, is fixed to the cooling air pipe by a split
circular clamp with a bolt. The cooling air tube has an inlet tube of  28x2mm
 33

near the fixed gun coupling for connecting the cooling air hose. A grooved
circular ring provided with a rubber “O” ring is welded to the oil pipe of the
burner gun (near the loose gun coupling and). This ring fits in and seals at
the end of the cooling air pipe thus preventing escaping of cooling air. This
arrangement also facilitates removal of burner gun without disturbing cooling
air tube. The burner gun can be inserted into the furnace while cutting in a
burner or retracted while cutting out. This movement is facilitated by the
provision of a pneumatic cylinder with a piston and connecting rod assembly.
The connecting rod assembly moves in sliding sleeve which is welded to the
burner register. Two numbers limit switches provided in the sleeve limit the
movement of the connecting rod assembly and consequently that of the
burner gun connected to it. The length of travel of the gun is 500mm. In the
forward position of the gun, the burner tip remains at 455mm before the
evaporator tube centre line. A flap (a small circular door) is provided at the
end of the gun support pipe (the guide pipe on which the stabilizer vanes are
fixed). This opens when the burner gun is inserted and closes when the gun
is retracted. Thus the burner gun and tip are protected from intense
radiation from the furnace.

10.3. Oil Burner Tip:

The burner nozzle consists of eight numbers ‘Y’ type holes. The atomising
steam supplied to the burner at a constant pressure of 10.5 bar flows through
the inner tube of the burner gun and comes out through the eight nozzle
holes. The velocity of steam increases while passing through the eight
divergent nozzle holes arranged at 45° angular interval. The fuel oil passing
in the middle pipe gets distributed through the 8 holes of the nozzle support
and enters the nozzle holes. The oil stream gets a mixed with the expanding
steam stream in the ‘Y’ type connection, gets atomized and comes out of the
nozzle in a fine spray form.

11.0 COOLING AIR SUPPLY

 34

Cooling air for the oil burners is supplied by a separate fan called Scanner air
fan. There are two-scanner air fans located at 15 meter level rear side. Of
this, one will be in service and the other will be reserve. This fan handles air
at the rate of 0.133Kg/s and develops a pressure of 62.9-milli bar. One fan is
driven by 3; 415V A.C. motor while the other is driven by 220 volts D.C.

Air drawn from atmosphere by the fan is discharged through pipings to the oil
burners for cooling. Cooling air fed to the annular space between middle and
outer tube comes out of the burner tip through the small annular space
between the nozzle cap and outer tube of the gun. This ensures continuous
cooling of the burner gun as well as protection of burner tip against excessive
heating buy furnace radiation.

Cooling air supplied by scanner air fans is also used for

1.Cooling of ignitor guns.

2.Oil burners flame scanners cooling and

3.Lignite flame scanners cooling.

12.0. OIL BURNER AIR SUPPLY:

Combustion air supply for the burners is taken from the secondary air
distribution boxes through two circular ducts. Each of these two ducts
coming vertically downwards from the secondary air box divides into two and
takes a 90-degree bend and goes below 15-meter platform. Just below the
burner it rises upwards. A flow meter of ventury type is installed in the
circular duct just below the 15 meters level.A pneumatically operated damper
is provided in the air supply duct. The burner air duct joins the burner air
register through a square duct. This square duct is divided into two.
Normally about 10% , of the burner air is supplied

through one opening of 934x180mm. This component is called the primary

air. Major portion of the burner air called secondary air goes through the
 35

remaining portion of the square duct. The primary air quantity can be
adjusted by a hand-operated shut off flap at the entry. Adjustment of this
flap is done during commissioning in order to feed combustion air required to
start ignition of oil air mixture. This damper is then permanently fixed at the
particular position. It will not be necessary to modify the position of it for the
various ranges of load.In the burner air register, primary air flows through a
circular duct (of diameter 508mm) surrounding the burner gun. In this duct 8
stabiliser vanes are there, fixed to the gun support pipe in order to create
vortex motion to the primary air for through mixing with oil spray. The
secondary air gets supplied through the annular space in between the
primary air duct and the outer duct of 910mm diameter for complete
combustion.

13.0 BURNER SUPPORT FACILITIES:

13.1. Burner view glass:

A blue tinted view glass is provided for each oil burner at 7° angle. This
facilitates inspection of burner flame. Recently IR scanners are placed in the
place of burner view glass in order to have reliable operation on IR scanner.

13.2 Flame scanner:

The DURAG ultraviolet radiation flame controller D-UV 400 monitors are
provided for oil burners. Each monitor is at 570mm on left or right side of oil
gun at an inward angle of 7 degree. This flame monitor monitors oil and / or
gas flames. The unit operates in the spectral range of 190 to 270nm. and
therefore is largely unaffected by daylight and radiation from hot refractory
faces. The self-monitoring feature guarantees that the ‘flame out’ signal will
always be initiated if flame failure occurs (one set or two sets of contacts will
open). The response sensitivity is adjustable within a range of 100:1 in ten
steps. The sensitivity selector switch and circuitry is duplicated giving the
possibility of adjusting the unit for two

different intensity settings. Changeover may be actuated remotely on

demand by simply closing switch (contacts). Each sensitivity control has a
 36

separate ‘safe time’ limit adjustments. The circuit design employed ensures
absolute operational reliability, even with flames, which emit very low UV
radiation levels. The nearly linear relationship between UV intensity and
flame signal makes extremely good differentiation (selectivity) possible.
Flame differentiation is further improved by the small scanning angle of the
UV receiver, about 6 degrees, which permits simple and effective alignment
of the receiver to the UV source. Several flames in one fire box can be
monitored simultaneously by using one unit for each flame and arranging the
receivers to view only their respective flame. It is also possible to
simultaneously scan a flame with two UV receivers connected to a single
controller.

13.2.1 Operating Principle

The unit basically consists of an UV light receiver a controller with a power

section and an UV intensity meter. The light receiver utilizes a gas filled
photocell as an UV sensitive element responsive only within the UV frequency
range of 190 to 270nm. The photocell discharges energy pulses at a
frequency depending upon the radiation intensity. These energy pulses are
transmitted through a cable to the control unit. The photocell internal
resistance and the entrance resistance of the controller are suitably matched
to the frequency resistance of the cable enabling on one hand, external
interference are suppressed to the greatest possible extent. As the energy
pulses enter the controller, they are converted by a multivibrator amplifier
into square wave signals / impulses of a fixed frequency. These impulses
charge a capacitor which at the same time is also being charged from an
independent power source. The charge in the capacitor depends on the
number of impulses / signals and the current strength delivered by the power
source. Therefore the sensitivity will vary with variation of the current
strength. For a fixed current strength, i.e. sensitivity setting, the potential
across the capacitor is proportional to the UV radiation intensity. The
capacitor potential difference can be measured with a micro ammeter and
thus the UV intensity is indicated. Simultaneously, the capacitor potential
difference causes a current to pass to a threshold value switch controller by a
 37

timer unit, which determines the ‘safe time’. As circuit outlets, two reversing
contact sets are provided. The flame relay and self-monitor relay contacts
are internally wired in series.

13.2.2. Self-Monitoring Feature

An internal pulse generator causes an electromagnetic operated shutter to

periodically interrupt the sight port of UV photocell. During the optical
interruption period, a photocell functions correctly when it does not produce
discharge energy pulses. So long as both the UV photocell and the controller
function correctly, the periodical interruption of the UV radiation by the
shutter generates an alternating current which keeps the so-called
monitoring relay energized. In the event of component failure, no current is
generated and the monitoring relay is de-energized.

13.3 IGNITORS

13.3.1 General

The DURAG high-tension ignition device D-HG-400-50 is used to ignite oil or

gas burners of any capacity in plant and power stations. The Ignition lance
and power pack are combined to form a compact unit.

13.3.2. Description of operation

A high-tension capacitor in the control unit is in charged condition and then

released via a wear free switching unit to the ignition tip. The resultant arc
discharge converts the energy into heat, which ignites the fuel. To ensure
successful ignition, the device operates for the first 60 seconds at a discharge
frequency of 20 impulses per second and afterwards reduces 5 impulses per
second.

As soon as the device is switched on to the power supply, the ignition

functioning indication is shown by the built-in-LED indicator and via the outlet
contacts of the ignition signal relay. A voltage of 1500V is generated within
the Unit. The ignition device starts operating as soon as the power supply
voltage is connected.
 38

13.3.3. Ignitor Position:

With oil burners, the optimum position of the ignition tip is in general at the
edge of the fuel spray zone just after the vortex vanes or flame stabilizer
disc.The absolute position can be best determined by adjusting the axial
position of the tip by hand in the field with an axial movement of the lance.
When firing the fuel, an adequate oil preheat temperature (90-130degreeC)
must be provided. To minimize wear and tear at the ignition tip, the lance
should be withdrawn out of the flame region and the device seethed off as
soon as successful ignition is achieved. The operational life of the tip is 10 6
ignition impulses, which is equivalent to 14 hours service at the higher
ignition frequency sequence. High temperatures and burn out in the flame
zone lead to increased wear at the ignition tip.

13.3.6. Pneumatic retraction unit d-ve 404-32

The ignition tip of the ignition device should only remain in the fuel air
mixture during the ignition process until the flame is established. After
successful ignition, the tip must be withdrawn from the combustion zone.
The ignitor gun can be inserted or retracted by a device called pneumatic
position cylinder. It comprises of a cylinder with a reciprocating piston and a
rail frame assembly with a roller carriage. The reciprocating piston rod is
connected to the roller carriage and the roller carriage carries the ignitor gun
pipe through split circular clamps. The roller carriage runs over the rails like,
frames in the assembly for insertion / retraction. This actuation is made by
admitting dry compressed air (Instrument air) at either ends of the cylinder
through separate airlines. In each airline, a solenoid valve operated by 48V
DC is provided for supply / cut off air so that the gun insertion / retraction will
be effected.

This retraction unit withdraws the ignition tip back by 300mm. By means of
this Unit, the exact positioning of the ignition tip to suit the ignition process
can be accomplished. The lance must be arranged such that when in
withdrawn position, the ambient temperature at the tip does not exceed 600
° C.
 39

14.0 OIL BURNERS

Number of burners Four per boiler
(Steam pressure atomizer
Type-2)
Make EVT, Germany
Maximum oil flow 4 t / h; Turn down ratio 4: 1
Minimum oil flow 1 t / h;
Max /Min oil temp. 130 / 90 0
C
Atomising steam Pr./ flow 10.5 bar, 240 kg / hr per burner
Atomising Air Pr./ flow 10.5 bar, 870 m 3/
hr for 4
burners
Purge steam Pr. / temp 14 bar, 230 0
C
Purge duration 3 minutes
Elevation 20 ML
Capacity of oil firing system 30%MCR-LSHS,7.5% with LDO
Travel of oil gun 500 mm
Length of oil gun 2020 mm
Position of oil gun in the firing 455 mm before water wall.

14.1 Ignitors
Number of ignitors 4
Type High Energy Ignition
Device
(D - HG 400 – 500)
Make DURAG, Germany

Mains voltage 220V +10%or –15%,

(48 to 60 Hz, 200VA)

Ignition 4.5W, 1500Volts

 40

Initial phase 60sec, 20

impulse/sec
(Continuous operation afterwards 5
impulse/sec)
Maximum continuous use 300 sec. IU 50%
Length of ignitor gun 2400 mm
Travel of ignitor gun 300 mm
Life of ignition tip 10 6 ignition impulses,
( 14 h at 20 sparks / sec, 56 h at 5
sparks sec)

14.2 UV flame scanner:

Number per boiler 4
Type D – UV 400 – 20
Make DURAG, Germany
UV spectral range 190 to 270 nm
Sensitivity adjustment 100:1
Break time (safety time) 1 sec for 1 sec.break time
1.5 sec. For break times.

14.3 cooling air fans:

Motor A.C LA 5131 – 2AA 90 – Z, BG
1325,
Siemens 3phase; 415 V
5.5KW;
2920rpm; 10 amps.

Motor D.C 1HC 5162 – OZM 20 – OEA –

Z,
Siemens, 220V D.C, 5.5KW,
2930 rpm, 30.5 amps
 41

15.0 LIGNITE FIRING SYSTEM

15.1 Introduction

Lignite has been burnt in the steam generators of Thermal station II/
Stage –II by adopting direct injection without separating water vapors . There
are six independent firing units in the boiler and each firing unit comprises of
a boiler bunker, three plate belt feeders, a conveyor belt feeder, a resuction
duct, a beater wheel, a pulverized fuel duct and two pulverized fuel burners.
The mills are located around the furnace and the pulverized fuel burners are
mounted on all the four sides of furnace wall at two elevations so that the p.f
burners axes form tangents to an imaginary circle of 1.5 m diameter in the
center of furnace like “ a vertical cylinder fire ball ‘. Two after burning grates
provided at the furnace bottom collect and burn unburnt lignite particles
escaping from combustion chamber.
15.2 Boiler bunkers
S ix boiler bunkers are arranged inline in front of the furnace and these
bunkers are getting lignite supply from conveyors namely 21A1, 21A2, 21B1,
21B2. The bunker top is at 32 ML and its bottom extends up to 19.5 ML.
There are three hoppers at its bottom. The walls of the bunker are provided
with steep slope so that the stored lignite will flow down smoothly by gravity.
The maximum height of bunker is 11.5 m. 31 needle gates in two layers 16
in the top and 15 in the bottom can be inserted at the bottom of either side
of hopper to isolate the hopper, and hence totally 186 needle gates are to be
inserted for complete isolation of the bunker before any maintenance work
is carried out at boiler bunker bottom.
One of the frequent problems encountered in the lignite fired boilers is
interruption of lignite supply to the mills to lignite choking in bunkers. This is
eliminated as the inner walls of the bunkers are lined with material KALEN
1006 (10 mm thick), which has anti -Sticking property.
 42

15.3 Lignite requirement and storage

To run a 210 MW unit at full load, 206.7 tones of lignite has to be burnt per
hour (Net calorific value of lignite is 2380 kcal/kg and boiler efficiency is
89.33%). Normally lignite is drawn from 5 bunkers out of six bunkers. Hence
lignite requirement from each bunker is about 42t/hr .A fully filled boiler
bunker is able to supply lignite at the rate of 42t/hr for a period of 7 ½ hours
only which requires at least two bunker filling ups in a shift of 8 hours. To
asses the bunker position (i.e. % of lignite availability in the bunker, adequate
level sensors have been provided).

15.4 Plate belt feeders (apron feeders)

15.4.1 Pre-start checks
In the Lignite Firing system mills and feeders can be taken into service only
when adequate ignition energy is available in the furnace. Ignition
temperature of lignite is only 185˚c but in practice before lignite is being
admitted into the furnace, adequate drying is required to bring down the
moisture so as to enable the lignite to get ignited quickly. In order to obtain, a
drying medium with sufficient heat, oil firing must be adopted to generate
heat more than that is required for ignition of lignite. In addition before
starting or during service of the boiler, safe environment for lignite firing
system is important. Hence before starting the mill, the following are to be
checked for smooth starting and operation.
1. It is to be ensured that no line clear or safety permit is pending on the
mill.
2. Local latch of the equipment is to be released
3. The interior space of the milling system is to be checked to ensure
that no scaffolds, tools etc have been left behind.
4. It is to be ensured that all mill doors, inspection opening etc are in
closed condition.
5. The flue gas re-suction duct-isolating gate should be opened by
means of hydraulic control unit.
6. The cylindrical seal of flue gas re-suction duct connecting to the mill
door (LD-2) must be lowered by means of hydraulic control unit
 43

7. Colour of the lubricating oil is to be checked to ensure that there is

no contamination
8. Oil level of bearing housing is to be checked.
9. Availablity of auxiliary cooling water to oil coolers is to be ensured.
15.5 Mill start up
As soon as boiler firing equipments are ready for operation i.e. flue gas
temperature before SH1 >500ºC preferably two diagonally opposite mills
are to be taken in service one by one.
Note:
The startup of second mill is to be delayed until the starting current of
the first mill has come to normal. Simultaneously or untimely starting of
second mill may cause a breakdown of plant auxiliary power supply.
The required performance of the mill is available to that milling circuit
only when sufficient quantum of flue gas is drawn from the furnace and
discharge through P.F burner. This is ascertained by monitoring raise in gas
temperature at outlet of mill i.e. raise in after mill temperature in a
noticeable time. When the after mill reaches >90ºC the feeder may be
taken in service. Otherwise mill overloading will take place due to
insufficient drying.
Close and regular supervision of operation of the milling system will help
in ensuring smooth and efficient operation, minimizing unscheduled of
stoppages. The following checks are to be carried out after starting the
mill and also at frequent intervals.
1. Check the no load mill ampere (Approx 45 Amps)
2. Check the mill motor for any noise, vibration, sparking etc.
3. Check the beater wheel for any rubbing noise , vibration etc.
4. Check the oil flow to the bearing in flow meter in wheel side and
coupling side i.e. 10-15 lpm.
5. Check the bearing temperature at coupling side, wheel side and
motor ends.

6. Check the auxiliary cooling water temperature after oil coolers.

 44

7. Check the beater wheel door, seal between resuction duct and mill
door for any lignite powder leakage i.e. Puffing.
8. Check the mill inspection door openings, access cover for leakage
of lignite powder.
9. Check the oil temperature in bearing housing.
10. Check the mill outlet temperature i.e. 120-180ºC.
15.6 Periodical inspection
The interior component of the mill, especially the beater plates are likely
to have wear during operation and hence need periodical inspection. It is
recommended to arrange for such mill inspection at a time when the
respective mill is out of service i.e. kept as standby.
15.7 Fire hazards in mill
If there is a sudden increase in mill exit temperature (>250ºC) when the
lignite flow to the mill remains unchanged a fire in the mill may be suspected.
This may be prevented by controlling AMT viz.
1. By increasing mill hot air flow .
2. By increasing lignite-feeding rate.
Caution is to be taken against admission of cold air into the system. No door
or covers of the mill should be opened. In case the fire could not be put off,
the mill is to be stopped. In case of fire in the classifier, the respective mill
should be stopped. The fire inside classifier is allowed to continue so that the
trapped dust is burnt out. In order to prevent overheating, exterior portion
the mill may be pinched with water.
15.8 Shutting down the mill
The mill may have to be stopped in case of any one of the following:
1. During planned shut down of the unit
2. For partial load reduction in the unit
3. For carrying out preventive maintenance of the milling system
4. During break down of the mill.

During normal planned shutdown of the mill, the feeders should be stopped
first and then the mill should be emptied. When the mill is to be released for
 45

maintenance works, it is recommended to reduce mill exit temperature to

about 100ºC one to two hours before the actual time of shutdown. This
accelerates the accessibility to the mill since cooling down of the mill from
the very high operating temperature is time consuming. In order to carry out
mill maintenance/ inspection works mill is cooled rapidly by admission of cold
air i.e. by AD-6.
Emptying of the mill is achieved by use of ventilating force the beater wheel
while it slows down before coming to rest. After beater wheel has come to
rest, opening the mill door a little will help in accelerating the cooling down of
the mill.
For isolating the mill from the boiler, the cylindrical seal in the flue gas
resuction duct should be lifted up, isolating gate should be closed and the
cylindrical seal should be lowered upon the isolating gate.
15.9 Facilities for inspection and maintenance
The mill door, the mill housing, intermediate piece and classifier is provided
with doors for inspection of the mill when out of service. The doors are
accessible by ladders and platform. The internal mill doors lining is designed
to the effect that the individual and easily accessible Armour plates can be
separately exchanged. Replacement of circumferential armoring is possible
through access opening provided for this purpose. The corner armoring
consists of Armour plates arranged in ‘T’ beam and is replaceable, through an
access door. The circumferential Armour following the corner armoring are
supported from access cover and are exchangeable by lifting the corner
Armour access cover.
The over hung arrangement of beater wheel allows for its ready
replacement after having shifted the mill door. The replacement of beater
wheel is made by means of EVT beater wheel removal device. The beater
plates which are supported by webs can be easily exchanged after removing
the lateral retaining wedges. An oil hydraulic device is used for mounting the
beater wheel in position and for its removal.
 46

16.0 General arrangement of beater wheel mill

The beater wheel mill adopted in stage-II steam generators are of EVT, type
110-60 self induced suction beater wheel mill ,N-Beater wheel mill suitable
for grinding the coals with moisture content up to 70%. 110- number
denoting twice the mill nominal through-put in metric ton/hour 55t/hr. 60-
number denoting one tenth of mill speed in revolution per minute.
The Beater wheel mill functions simultaneously as a pulveriser and as fan
wheel. They are designed for heaviest loads and roughest operation. An
electric motor of rating 3Ø, 6.6 KV, 600 KW, 600rpm drives the mill through a
fluid coupling. The beater wheel mill mainly consists of 1) flue gas resuction
duct 2) mill door section 3) beater wheel and its casing4) Bearing and its
lubrication 5) drive and its coupling 6) classifier 7) mill spring foundation

16.1Flue Gas resuction duct

The percentage of volatile matter in the fuel has a direct bearing on the
probability of premature ignition of the fuel and air mixture at the burners.
Moreover the drying is limited to maintain predetermined moisture. Incase of
insufficient drying fuel tend to stick to walls, overloading of mills and poor
combustion but in case of over drying, a tendency of ignition in the milling
circuit may happen.
For controlled drying of lignite, flue gas at 900°c being employed. Flue gas
required for drying is taken off from the furnace at an elevation of 37.76 m
through a duct called re-suction duct. It is of a circular duct having outer
diameter of 2.4m and inner diameter of 1.7m.this duct is connected to the
suction side of beater wheel. Just before the mill, it gets enclosed within
another cylindrical tube section known as cylindrical seal. This seal can be
raised or lowered by means of four hydraulic cylinders fixed to the top portion
of the resuction duct.A two piece horizontal isolating plate (hydraulically
operated) is provided to isolate the flow of gases during maintenance works.

16.2 Mill door section

 47

The mill door section is intended to receive the lignite preheated by hot gas
and distributes it around the inner edge of the beater wheel plates. This
section consists a mobile housing, seal collar, traveling gear and the beater
wheel protection device.
16.3 Beater wheel and its casing
The lignite size is reduced to predetermined value along with permissible
moisture. The hot gas drawn from the furnace mixes with lignite and heat it
till it reaches the beater wheel. This heating of lignite makes thermal
disintegration of lignite particles. When this mixture gets distributed around
inner edge of the beater wheel plates, impact and attrition action between
lignite and the beater plates effects the pulverization by which a large portion
of the internal moisture of the lignite being ground is simultaneously
released.
16.4 Bearing and lubrication system
The overhung beater wheel mill shaft is supported through two numbers of
self aligning roller bearings. The bearings are kept in a bearing housing which
acts as oil reservoir.A mill shaft driven lub oil pump is installed in the bearing
housing. In addition, a motor driven lub oil pump is provided. The discharge
of both pumps connected to form a single line. The flow of lub oil is directed
by using a flow diverting lever. In each line, a filter, and a lub oil cooler are
installed.Auxillary-cooling water is used in each oil cooler as a cooling
medium.
16.5 Drive and its coupling
Beater wheel mill is driven by a squirrel cage motor manufactured by M/S.
BHEL, India. Each motor has a rating of 3 phases, 6.6 KV, 600KW.It runs at
600rpm. The beater wheel mill is driven through a fluid coupling. This
coupling is mainly intended to reduce mill motor starting current as well as to
act as mechanical overloading protection for the motor. The torque from the
motor is transmitted by means of a closed circuit fluid stream from the
impeller to the turbine wheel. This fluid circuit is contained in a chamber,
which consists of the running wheels and the coupling casing. A flow is
necessary for a transmission of torque, and this is produced by a difference in
 48

rotational speed between the impeller and the wheel, which is known as slip.
As a result of this slip the coupling gets warm up in operation.

16.6 Mills spring foundation

The mill foundation pad is kept over prestressed springs. Actually the
prestressed springs are in between mill load bearing foundation and the mill
foundation pad. There are 6 pairs of main springs or visco dampers on either
side of the axis of the mill.

16.7 Mill technical data

No. Of mills/boiler :6
Type : EVT N 110.60
Output : 55 T/hr. Max
No. Of revolutions : 600 rpm
Beater wheel diameter : 2750 mm
No. Of beater plates : 10
P.F/gas mixture discharge : 150,000 m3/hr
Weight of a mill without drive and refractory lining : 83000 kg
Moment of inertia : 10750 kg- m2

BO-4 WATER AND STEAM CIRCUITS

 49

Basically the system functions is as follows,

Feed water is supplied to the steam drum from the economiser through the
economiser outlet links and drum feed pipe. The waterside of the steam
drum is connected with the furnace bottom water wall headers through down
comers and supply tubes.
The front and rear wall bottom headers feed the front and rear furnace wall
tubes; the furnace side walls are supplied by the sidewall bottom headers. All
bottom headers are connected with down comer pipes by means of supply
tubes
4.0 FEED SYSTEM

The major bulk of feed water is taken from condenser and pumped to the
deaerator by the condensate extraction pumps. The dearator where dissolved
oxygen in water is removed acts as the suction vessel for the boiler feed
pumps. Three numbers of feed pumps of 400m 3/hr capacity each are
provided in each unit. Two out of these three pumps will be in service taking
water from dearator at 161°c and supplying it to the boiler through 2
numbers of high-pressure heaters, where the water is heated to a
temperature of 245°c using steam. The feed water then goes to feed control
station where the quantity of water required to be supplied to the boiler is
regulated according to the drum level. The water then flows to the
economiser and gets heated further.
4.1 Economiser
The feed water from feed water control station is preheated further in the
non-steaming economiser located at the top of the furnace. It consists of two
stages viz. economiser1 and economiser 2 kept one below the other. In
economiser1, the feed water travels downwards as against the upwards flow
of flue gases thus adopting a counter flow pattern, where as in economiser 2,
feed water and flue gases travel in upwards direction (parallel)). There are
112 coils of tubes in each
 50

stage. The temperature of feed water is raised from 245°c to 330°c. The
drum water taken can be circulated to inlet header of Eco-2 by a line called
eco- recirculation line. The feed water comes from the outlet header of eco-2
through 2 pipes, forming a common header below the drum called feed
manifold. From the feed manifold feed water enters the drum through 22
pipes.
4.2 Circulation system
The preheated feed water after economiser enters the circulation system. It
consists of a drum, 84 down comers, 12 bottom headers, 688 water wall
tubes, 5 top headers, and 112 over flow pipes. The rate at which water is
supplied compared to the steam generated is represented by the term
“circulating ratio”. Its value is 7.
4.3 Boiler Drum
The boiler has a single drum mounted on top with its centerline at 79.9 meter
level. The drum is of about 1.8 m  and 15m length. The shell thickness is
135mm at top half and 150mm at its bottom half. It is designed to with stand
a maximum pressure of 180 ata. And its operating pressure is 167 ata. Two
numbers of steel rod of 125mm fixed to the column above support the drum.
This arrangement, which provides free expansion, is known as hanger
suspension. Water fed to the drum is taken out through 84 down comers. The
water and steam mixture raising up from the water wall tubes enter through
112 over flow pipes into the two wet steam chambers of the drum. Steam
and water are separated by 72 cyclone separators, of which 36 are connected
to the front and another 36 to rear wet steam chambers. The steam then
goes to the steam chamber at the top of the drum and water goes to the
bottom of the drum.
4.4 Down comers

84 down comers pipes from the drum are connected to four main down
comers through which drum water travels down. The four main down comers
located one in each corner of the furnace branches off into 22 smaller pipes
each at the bottom and join the bottom headers. 5 headers are arranged in
three elevations in left and right side and one header for front and rear side.
Water wall tubes emanate from these 12 bottom headers.
 51

4.5 Evaporator (water wall tubes)

Water walls are of membrane type construction, which facilitates easy
erection and better heat transfer with minimum heat loss by radiation. 172
water wall tubes on each side (total 688 tubes) constitute the evaporator. In
the front and rear water walls, 57 tubes out of 172 are taken out of the
furnace and they join an intermediate header at about 51 ml. the remaining
115 tubes in each side are extended upto top of furnace and join the header
at the top.
In left and right side of the furnace, every pair of tubes joined to form a single
tube of a higher diameter at about 53ml thus forming 86 tubes on either side.
The side water walls are extending up to furnace top where they are having a
90° bend to form the heat transfer area of the furnace roof. Ultimately these
tubes join a roof header which is placed at right angles to drum and at the
middle of the furnace.
4.6 Overflow pipes
Twelve over flow pipes from front intermediate header, twenty two over flow
pipes from the front top header and twenty two over flow pipes from roof
header join the wet chamber at front side of the drum. Similarly 12 from rear
intermediate header, 22 from rear top header and 22 over flow pipe from roof
header join the wet steam chamber at the rear side of the drum.

5.0 SUPER HEATERS

5.1 Super heater I

Super heating of saturated steam is carried in 3 stages of super heaters

arranged in the furnace in the order SH1, SH3 and SH2 along the direction of
flow of flue gas. From the drum saturated steam at a temperature of 353°c is
taken through 30 pipes to superheater-1 inlet header which is located above
the furnace at 81.4 ml. 224 tubes are taken in 4 sections of 56 tubes each
from the superheater-1 inlet header and are brought down the furnace. These
tubes ultimately form 14 horizontal SH1 coils of 16 tubes each. The SH1 is
the lower most heat transfer section taking heat from combustion zone. The
vertical portion of these SH1 tube also act as the supporting tubes for all
suoperheaters, reheaters and economisers.
 52

Steam at a temperature of 405°c leaving the SH1 outlet header in two pipes,
one on left and one on right side travels through desuperheaters on its way
to SH2 inlet header. Feed water taken just before feed water control station at
a temperature of 245°c is used as spray in the desuperheaters to control the
steam temperature and bring it down to 389°c
5.2 Superheater II

Super heater 2 is located between reheater 2 and reheater1 in the furnace. It

consists of 112 coils of 3 tubes each. The tubes arranged in 3 loops and flow
pattern is counter flow, rising steam temperature upto 468°c. After SH2, the
steam flows through another pair 0f desuperheaters to effect precise
temperature control in this desuperheater the steam temperature is brought
down to 452°c and passes subsequently to superheater-3. The transfer pipes
between SH2 and SH3 are so arranged that steam from SH2 left side outlet
go to SH3 right side inlet and vice versa thus equalizing the steam
temperatures.
5.3 Super heater III

Finally the steam travels through SH3 coils comprising of 2 coils of 16 tubes
each. It forms single loop, increasing steam temperature to 540°c. parallel
flow pattern is adopted in this super heater section.

6.0 REHEATERS
Since the maximum temperature of super heated steam admitted to the
turbine gets restricted to 535-540°c range because of metallurgical
constraints, in high pressure units, it is customary to have reheating
arrangement to improve cycle efficiency as well as to ensure that the steam
expansion will not be too wet steam after expansion in the high pressure
turbine is taken off to the reheater sections arranged in the boiler furnace
and heated to the initial temperature itself before admission to the
intermediate pressure turbine. In these steam generators, single reheating is
done before I.P turbine only. Two reheaters is

arranged in 2 stages with desuperheaters (Spray source from BFP 3 rd stage)

between them. After expansion in the high pressure turbine the steam passes
 53

through two cold reheat pipes and enters the inlet of reheater 1 at a pressure
of 37.1 kg/cm2 and temperature of 342.7°c .The steam flow will be about
596.7 t/hr.
In reheater1, there are 56 coils of 10 tubes each. Counter flow takes place in
double loop. Reheater 2 consists of 56 coils of 5 tubes each. Parallel flow
pattern is adopted here and the steam temperature is raised in this stage to
540°c from here, steam at a pressure of 36.01kg/cm2 and at temperature
540°c flows through two hot reheat pipes to the I.P turbine.
7.0 SAFETY VALVES
To safeguard the pressure parts against hazardous pressure increase, 9 safety
valves are provided out of which 3 safety valves are at top of the drum, 2
safety valves on main steam lines, one safety valve on cold reheat lines and
3 safety valves on hot reheat lines.
All the safety valves are of direct spring loaded type and one of the safety
valves on the main steam lines is of electromatic safety valve. It could be
opened/closed through solenoid operated valves. The set pressure of all the
safety valves for opening are as under

Relieving
Equipment Opening pressure
capacity
Safety valve 1 181.0 Kg/cm2 183.5 T/hr
Safety valve 2 183.0 Kg/cm2 187.0 T/hr
Safety valve 3 185.4 Kg/cm2 189.0 T/hr
Safety valve 4 168.4 Kg/cm2 166.5 T/hr
Safety valve 5 165.9 Kg/cm2 104.0 T/hr
Safety valve 6 50.0 Kg/cm2 200.0 T/hr
Safety valve 7 47.25 Kg/cm2 157.0 T/hr
Safety valve 8 47.72 Kg/cm2 158.7 T/hr
Safety valve 9 48.67 Kg/cm2 161.9 T/hr

BO5-AIR AND FLUE GAS CIRCUIT

AIR CIRCUIT
General arrangement of AP fan (Axial profile)
The stage two boilers, AP type fans are chosen for FD fans balanced draught
system. The AP fan consists of
1. Suction chamber
 54

2. Impeller housing
3. Main bearings
4. Rotor with adjustable blades
5. Pitch control unit
6. Guide wheel housing with guide vanes and
7. Diffuser

Suction chamber

The fan suction is of double inlets with wire mesh coverings. The suction
chamber is made of fabricated walls with rectangular as well as circular in
cross sections. The rectangular one connects fan suction point and the
circular one connects the impeller housing by flexible expansion joint.

Impeller housing
It is a casing having accurate inner dimensions so as to have close
tolererance. The casing is horizontally split to provide easy inspection and
maintenance. Profiled hollow stiffeners are provided for routing oil pipes,
cables. The hub of the inlet housing, core of the fan housing and of the guide
wheel housing, the pitch control mechanism in the diffuser core and the shaft
protection tubes in the inlet bend are mounted within to protect the main
bearings, pitch control mechanism

Main Bearings
The fan rotor is supported on cylindrical roller bearings assembled in bearing
housing. An angular contact ball bearing is assembled along with cylindrical
roller bearing on drive side to absorb axial thrust. The monoblock bearing
housing is bolted to the bearing supports in the fan housing assembly. These
bearings are lubricated and cooled by a lub and control oil system. The shaft
passages in the bearing housing are sealed off radial sealing rings with a
labyrinth seal.

Rotor with Adjustable blades

 55

The main shaft is a forged piece with a tapered end for accommodating hub
disc, one end of the fan shaft is connected to the intermediate shaft and on
free end impeller is mounted. In the free end of fan shaft, impeller hub is
mounted. The hub has 23 blades assembly, which are fixed, on its periphery.
Each blade assembly consists of a blade, a blade shaft and a blade shaft
bearing. At the end of the blade shaft, a cranking lever is fitted. Each blade
assembly is rotated freely on its shaft bearings. All the blade assemblies are
connected to a slide pad. It is a disc with a groove in its periphery. Suitable
rotating units are fixed to these grooves on the periphery where cranking
levers of all blade assemblies get connected. When slide pad moves
horizontally, then this horizontal movement is converted into rotary
movement of blades simultaneously through equal rotation.
Pitch Control Mechanism.
The pitch control mechanism comprises of a hydraulic servomotor and an
external actuator connected to hydraulic servomotor. Hydraulic servomotor
consists of a cylinder assembly and piston assembly. The cylinder assembly is
mounted on the fan impeller hub. It houses piston assembly. Whenever fan
rotates, the cylinder assembly together also rotates. The piston assembly
comprises of a control rod, a control slide and a piston integrated with the
slide pad. The control rod is of stepped shaft with three drilled holes in its
axis. Out of three holes, one is to supply oil, the other is to return the oil and
the third is to drain leak off the oil. This control rod is kept on bearings, which
are housed inside the control slide, so that the control rod can slide inside the
control slide freely with a help of an external actuator. This actuator consists
of mechanical linkages, and the links are actuated by pneumatic drive, and
provision is also available at local to operate manually. The supply, return and
drain oils to the control rod are made through flexible hoses in this system.
Outlet guide vane unit
It is a fabricated and machined casing with guide vanes. This unit is also
divided along the axis and connected to the impeller casing as well as
diffuser assembly through flexible joints.
 56

Diffuser
Diffuser is also a fabricated assembly stiffened with ribs and flanges. It is
supported on the foundation plates through welded feet. It consists of
a casing and a core. This assembly is isolated from the ducting by means of
flexible joints.
Rigiflex coupling
The fan shaft is coupled to motor shaft with rigiflex coupling. This coupling is
all steel coupling designed to compensate mounting and operating
inaccuracies.

Lub and oil control oil system

The hydraulic servomotor and main bearings are supplied with the same oil
under different pressures from a common oil reservoir. There are two screw
pumps each of having capacity 100 lpm at 20kg/cm2 located outside the oil
reservoir with suction line immersed in tank. Out of 2 pumps, one will be in
service, the other is standby. In the discharge line of each pump a pressure
relief line is taken and connected to the oil reservoir. After this, these delivery
lines join together carrying oil to the cooler unit. Before the cooler unit a
pressure reservoir is mounted in order to absorb the pressure peaks during
initial start up of the pump.
The oil-cooling unit consists of two oil coolers, which are kept one below the
other. Each cooler cools the incoming lub and control oil with the help of
auxiliary cooling water. The cooled oil from the cooler is taken to a filtering
unit. There are two filter unit, and one will be in service and the other
standby. The oil after the filtering unit divides into two, one line feeding oil to
the pitch control unit and the other line feeding oil to main bearings after a
pressure reduction done at pressure control unit
Silencers
Fans are major noise producing equipments silencers provided in the suction
and discharge ducts of the forced draught fans. The silencers employed at
the suction of FD fan are of absorptive silencer, consisting of perforated
rectangular plates packed with mineral wool.
 57

FLUE GAS CIRCUIT

GAS PATH

The process of combustion in addition to the enormous quantum of

heat,liberates abundant oxides. Evacuation of hot gases from the combustion
chamber is to be done for continuous burning of fresh fuel and air mixture
and subsequent mobility of hot gases transfer required heat to the
superheaters, reheaters, economisers which are laid in its way to furnace
exit. At the outlet of furnace, gas duct conducts the hot gases to
airpreheaters so as to recover waste heat in it. Then, dust in the gases are
separated in electrostatic precipitators and finally gases are discharged to
atmosphere through a chimney. A pressure difference required for movement
of hot gases is made by two numbers induced draught fans kept in gas path
in between the electrostatic precipitors.
FURNACE

Furnace in the boiler is of single pass design with more or less square in cross
section. All heat transfer elements are located one above the other and the
air heaters in the flue gas path before ESP . The furnace is made to form tight
enclosure using membrane type water walls. The left and right side walls of
the furnace are vertically straight and at top of the furnace, the left and right
side walls make”L” bend thus forming the roof of the furnace. At the bottom,
front and rear water walls form a hopper portion from 16.5 m elevation to 7.9
m elevation to facilitate collection of slag and unburnt lignite over the beds of
after burning grates.
The gas travels upwards in the furnace and reaches 8 metre diameter gas
duct through a rectangular opening of 11500x6000mm at 74.4m level in the
rear top of the furnace. In this zone,rear evaporator wall tubes overlap with
each other to give way for flue gases to travel to second pass.
SH1, SH3, RH2, SH2, RH1, ECO2 and ECO1 are engaged one after another in
gas flow path in the furnace. Evaporator tubes are bent to form wall box to
accommodate the following essentials in the related areas of the furnace.
1. After burning grate’s opening bottom 1 nos
2. Oil burners 4 nos
 58

3. Pulverized fuel burners 12 nos

4. Water soot blowers 38 nos
5 .Steam soot blowers 48 nos
6 . Lignite flame monitors 4 nos
7. Resuction duct openings 6 nos
8. Rear top opening for flue gas exit 1 nos
9. Man holes 32 nos
10.Peep holes 38 nos
11. Furnace temperature probe 2 nos
Flue gas duct to RAPH
The flow path of flue gas from the furnace to RAPH is as under
1. A rectangular opening of dimensions 11500x6000 mm is provided at the
furnace rear top, through which the flue gases leave, then
flows through a circular duct of dia 8.0 meter from 66.0 m level to 34.7
m level
2. At 38.15m level, it takes an ‘L’ bend, changes to a rectangular cross
section 8000x6300 mm and travels to rear. At the rear, the above duct
diverges into two ducts of cross section 8840x3300mm as a ‘T’ joint. These
ducts travel downwards, joining their respective RAPH at 23m level. An
isolating damper of 18 flaps each is provided in these ducts at 32.6m level
for the isolation of air
heater gas side. The above damper has 9 shafts with 2 flaps in each. This
damper is designated as gas damper1 (GD1)at the bottom of the circular
flue gas duct, a big conical hopper is placed and connected to it through an
expansion joint. The hopper bottom is at 27.36m level and is connected
through a pipe to an ash mixing vessel at ‘o’ m level for disposal of any ash
that may be collected in the hopper.
The flue gas duct is supported by two cantilever hanging supports with
rectangular frame in the rear one on either side at the top. These are
actually the extension of horizontal roof girders. Multiple expansion joints
are provided in this duct with collapsible frames which aid in uniform
expansion and contraction and also prevent axial misalignment. Flue gas
velocity in the duct is about 14.0m/sec
 59

Flue gas in RAPH

In the RAPH, the flue gas gives out its heat to the combustion air and the
temperature of the flue gas drops from 312°c to 146°c. Gas velocity is
4.86m/sec. And there is a gas pressure drop of 110 mm of water column
across the air-heater . The gas volume is increased from 1126.4t/hr to
1193.6t/hr. because of air leakage into gas stream. The air ducts are in the
front side and gas ducts are in the rear. The centerlines of the air and gas
ducts are 6220mm apart. The two flue gas ducts after RAPH travel
downwards and then take a 90° bend towards the rear at 17.0m level. Each
duct divides into two and forms two inlets to each of the two streams of
Electrostatic precipitator(ESP). Two hoppers are provided at 15.0m level in
the air heater gas outlet ducts. The fly ash particles collecting here go to
the two ash mixing vessels at’0’ m level.

INDUCED DRAUGHT FANS

Two numbers induced draught fans are provided as apart of balanced
draught system to evacuate flue gases from the combustion chamber to the
atmosphere. AP type fans are chosen for the same. The induced fan
consists of
1. Suction chamber
2. Impeller housing
3. Main bearing
4. Rotor with adjustable blades
5. Pitch control unit
6. Guide wheel housing with guide vanes
7. Diffuser

Suction chamber

The fan suction is of double inlets with wire mesh coverings. The suction
chamber is made of fabricated walls with rectangular as well as circular in
cross sections. The rectangular one connects fan suction point and the
circular one connects the impeller housing by flexible expansion joint.
 60

Impeller housing
It is a casing having accurate inner dimensions so as to have close
tolererance. The casing is horizontally split to provide easy inspection and
maintenance. Profiled hollow stiffeners are provided for routing oil pipes,
cables. The hub of the inlet housing, core of the fan housing and of the guide
wheel housing, the pitch control mechanism in the diffuser core and the shaft
protection tubes in the inlet bend are mounted within to protect the main
bearings, pitch control mechanism etc from high temperature gas.

Main Bearings
The fan rotor is supported on cylindrical roller bearings assembled in bearing
housing. An angular contact ball bearing is assembled along with cylindrical
roller bearing on drive side to absorb axial thrust. The monoblock bearing
housing is bolted to the bearing supports in the fan housing assembly. These
bearings are lubricated and cooled by a lub and control oil system. The shaft
passages in the bearing housing are sealed off by radial sealing rings with a
labyrinth seal.

Rotor with Adjustable blades

The main shaft is a forged piece with a tapered end for accommodating hub
disc, one end of the fan shaft is connected to the intermediate shaft and on
free end impeller is mounted. In the free end of fan shaft, impeller hub is
mounted. The hub has 23 blades assembly, which are fixed, on its periphery.
Each blade assembly consists of a blade, a blade shaft and a blade shaft
bearing. At the end of the blade shaft, a cranking lever is fitted. Each blade
assembly is rotated freely on its shaft bearings. All the blade assemblies are
connected to a slide pad. It is a disc with a groove in its periphery. Suitable
rotating units are fixed to these grooves on the periphery where cranking
levers of all blade assemblies get connected. When slide pad moves
horizontally, then this horizontal movement is converted into rotary
movement of blades simultaneously through equal rotation.
Pitch Control Mechanism
The pitch control mechanism comprises of a hydraulic servomotor and an
external actuator connected to hydraulic servomotor. Hydraulic servomotor
 61

consists of a cylinder assembly and piston assembly. The cylinder assembly is

mounted on the fan impeller hub. It houses piston assembly. Whenever fan
rotates, the cylinder assembly together also rotates. The piston assembly
comprises of a control rod, a control slide and a piston integrated with the
slide pad. The control rod is of stepped shaft with three drilled holes in its
axis. Out of three holes, one is to supply oil, the other is to return the oil and
the third is to drain leak off the oil. This control rod is kept on bearings, which
are housed inside the control slide, so that the control rod can slide inside the
control slide freely with a help of an external actuator. This actuator consists
of mechanical linkages, and the links are actuated by pneumatic drive, and
provision is also available at local to operate manually. The supply, return and
drain oils to the control rod are made through flexible hoses in this system.

Outlet guide vane unit

It is a fabricated and machined casing with guide vanes. This unit is also
divided along the axis and connected to the impeller casing as well as
diffuser assembly through flexible joints.
Diffuser
Diffuser is also a fabricated assembly stiffened with ribs and flanges. It is
supported on the foundation plates through welded feet. It consists of a
casing and a core. This assembly is isolated from the ducting by means of
flexible joints.

Rigiflex coupling
The fan shaft is coupled to motor shaft with rigiflex coupling. This coupling is
all steel coupling designed to compensate mounting and operating
inaccuracies.

Lub and oil control oil system

The hydraulic servomotor and main bearings are supplied with the same oil
under different pressures from a common oil reservoir. There are two screw
 62

pumps each of having capacity 200 lpm at 20kg/cm2 located outside the oil
reservoir with suction line immersed in tank. Out of 2 pumps, one will be in
service, the other is standby. In the discharge line of each pump a pressure
relief line is taken and connected to the oil reservoir. After this, these delivery
lines join together carrying oil to the cooler unit. Before the cooler unit a
pressure reservoir is mounted in order to absorb the pressure peaks during
initial start up of the pump.
The oil-cooling unit consists of two oil coolers, which are kept one below the
other. Each cooler cools the incoming lub and control oil with the help of
auxiliary cooling water. The cooled oil from the cooler is taken to a filtering
unit. There are two filters unit, and one will be in service and the other
standby. The oil after the filtering unit divides into two, one line feeding oil to
the pitch control unit and the other line feeding oil to main bearings after a
pressure reduction done at pressure control unit

Silencers
Fans are major noise producing equipments. Silencers provided in the suction
and discharge ducts of the forced draught fans. The silencers employed at
the discharge ducts of ID fan are of absorptive silencer, consisting of
perforated rectangular plates packed with mineral wool.
Cooling air fans
Induced draught fans handle high temperature gas. The hot gases may heat
fan shaft, bearing housing as well as pitch control unit. In order to avoid such
heat transfer to above components, supply of cooling air is resorted to. Each
induced draught fan is equipped with two cooling air fans, one will be in
service, the other reserve. The cooling air is blown over parts, so as to
prevent heat transfer from gas.
Guillotine damper
Guillotine type of discharge damper is provided at the discharge of ID fans.
This type of dampers are selected to have complete isolation of ID fans for
maintenance works, when the other fan is in service. This damper consists of
a frame work connected to discharge on one side and silencer on the other
side. The frame portion is supplied with atmospheric air by means of gate
 63

blower,so that the dust settlement on sealing blades is avoided a motor

actuator with a chain drive system moves the guillotine blade either up or
down. This damper at discharge end is designated as GD2A&2B respectively.

Steam coil air preheater (SCAPH)

During initial startup of a boiler, the hurdle in cutting in of oil burners and
deterioration of heat transfer surfaces by acid (cold end corrosion) can be
minimized by using preheated air. this preheating is done in a recuperative
type air heater, known as steam coil air preheater.
Description of SCAPH
2 nos of steam coil air preheaters designed and supplied by m/s. c.doctor&co.
are provided in a boiler. Each one is located at the discharge of a forced
draught fan. The SCAPH is of size 3889x4130x300 mm; installed at about
11ml. this air preheater is provided actually between forced draught fan and
regenerative air preheater in the air path.
Air heater comprises of 4 vertical heating sections. Each section of height
3700mm is provided with 3 rows of 25 vertical tubes one behind the other.the
tubes of 20mm dia with the washer type fins of 40mm dia are made from
aluminium which could exchange heat quickly. these heating tubes are kept
between end plates. Steam is made to flow inside the tubes, whereas air is
made to flow outside the tubes. Cross flow pattern is adopted such as steam
flows vertically downwards and air flows horizontally.after giving the heat to
the air, steam gets condensed and it is collected at their bottom.hence each
section has one steam inlet at its top and an outlet at the bottom. Individual
hand operated isolation valve is provided for each section at steam and
condensate side. The effective heat transfer area of a SCAPH is 823 m 2.
Auxiliary steam for SCAPH’s of a boiler can be obtained from auxiliary steam
header.

SCAPH specification
No. of SCAPH/boiler Two
Manufacturer M/S C.Doctor & Co
Type finned tube type2
Construction type horizontal
 64

Size 3889 X 4130 X 300 mm

Heating surface 823 m2
Steam pressure 17 kg/cm2
Design temperature 230 °c
Air side pressure drop at 100 % MCR 3.17 m bar
Air temperature inlet 38.5 °c
Air temperature outlet 120 °c
Weight /SCAPH 3450 kg
No. of sections/SCAPH 4
No.of rows/SCAPH 3
Tube size 20mm dia

Fin size 40mm dia

Tube height 3700mm
Materials aluminium

Regenerative air preheater (RAPH)

Regenerative air preheater is basically a low speed-revolving heater. Among
the two types,VIZ. Roth mule and ljungstrom,ljungstrom air preheater is one
,its function is to absorb waste heat from flue gas and transfer it to incoming
cold air by means of continuously rotating heat transfer elements specially
formed metal sheets. As the heat transfer elements slowly revolves through
the air and gas passages, heat is absorbed by the elements surfaces passing
through the hot gas stream, then, as the same surfaces are turned to the air
stream, they release the stored up heat thus increasing the temperature of
incoming cold combustion air.
Two numbers of ljungstrom type air preheaters are provided in steam
generators. They are bisector modular air preheater of type 27.5VI(M)1700.
27.5 size of heater
VI vertical shaft downward inverted gas flow
M. Modular
1700 Depth of heating elements in mm
 65

An air preheater is kept between furnace exit and an electrostatic

precipitator in gas path .the location of RAPH is about 24.2metre level
in the rear side of the furnace. The air heater comprises of
1) Rotor housing or casing
2) Connecting plates
3) Rotor and heating elements
4) Rotor drive
5) Sealings
6) Bearing and lub and cooling system
7) Cleaning device
8) Washing device and fire extinguishing system
Rotor housing

Air preheaters are provided with octagonal casing to enclose the rotor. The
housing panels of eight fabricated sections of height 2.41metres are bolted
and welded to the hot and cold end connecting plates to form an integral
structure. There are two main pedestals and two side pedestals each
consisting of two support feet for transmitting the entire air heater load to
the support steels.axial seal plates of the axial sealing system are also
secured to the main pedestals.the expansion arrangements help to support
the heater on a horizontal plane and to permit the housing to expand freely
during hot condition of heaters.
Connecting plate center sections

The upper connecting plate center section is located at hot end of the air
heater, mainly houses guide bearing and bifurcating sector plates which
carry the radial sealing system components. The lower connecting plate
center section is located at cold end which carries the support bearing
thereby the load of rotor and the radial sealing system called cold end sector
plates.
Rotor and heating elements

The hollow post of the rotor bolted to rotor form the rotor shaft. The
verticality of the shaft and also its centering between connecting plate splits
keep the rotor in level and at proper elevation. The rotor is radially divided
 66

open-ended cylinder, which houses the heating element modules. It is

divided into 12 sectors by means of radially placed diaphragm wall plates.
Each sector is again made as ten compartments into which modules are
packed.A pin rack is located in the circumference of the rotor to allow it to
rotate by the drive mechanism. The basket elements are installed in the rotor
assembly in three layers. The basket elements meeting the cold air
discharged by F.D fans are called’ cold end baskets’ the baskets facing the
hot gases are ‘hot end baskets’. In between these, intermediate hot end
baskets are kept.
Rotor drive unit

There are two-drive motors AC motor. The AC motor of rating 3 phase, 415V,
11.0KW, 1450rpm, and 20.5amps.a common reduction gearbox with speed
reduction ratio of 110.7:1 is kept for these motors. A bibby coupling couples
the A.C motor and gearbox where a fluid coupling is present to transmits the
drive
Sealings
In the air preheater air is under pressure in the airside and flue gas is under
vacuum. This static pressure differential makes the air to leak in the gas
stream. This leakage air decreases the gas temperature and increases the
FD/ID fan loading. Hence prevention of air leakage to be ensured at all points.
The sealing arrangement consists of radial seal, axial seal circumferential
seal rotor post seal axial seal plate to sector plate static seal. They have been
devised to minimize air leakage to gas stream in the air preheater.
Bearing-lubrication and cooling system
The vertical rotor shaft is kept installed over two bearings namely support
bearing and guide bearing. The support bearing is provided at the bottom of
the rotor shaft. The bearing is of the self-aligning type. The support bearing
gets its lubrication oil from the support bearing beneath it. It is capable of
holding 150 liters of oil.
The guide bearing is located at the top of the rotor shaft. This bearing
provides the radial location to the rotor and permits its thermal expansion in
the axial direction. Guide bearing is designed to take up a large expansion of
 67

the rotor post and also to carry the in board end of hot end sector plate for
tracking. This is spherical roller bearing capable to house 20 liters.
Cleaning device
Since the heating elements are compiled very lightly, the fly ash particles are
deposited over them. Such deposits not only increases the resistance for flow
of air and gas, but also corrode the heating elements. Inorder to remove
these soot and ash deposits, cleaning device is resort to.
In air preheater, a steam soot blower is installed at the bottom in the gas side
only. The cleaning device consists of a motor coupled to a gear driven crank
mechanism, which oscillate the swivel header carrying the nozzle pipe. There
are two nozzles at the end of nozzle pipe. The nozzles are facing upwards i.e.
the cold end of heating elements. A rotary point in the supply line permits
free motion of the swivel header while connected to the source of steam.
Steam for RAPH is obtained from auxiliary steam header or from internal
source(PRDS)at 70 metre level.RAPH soot blower is driven by a motor of
rating 3 phase,415V,0.18KW,1360rpm,0.65Amp.

Washing device

In cases when residual deposits accumulations cannot be removed by soot

blowing, it makes us to wash the heating surfaces with some medium in
order to maintain acceptable draft loss through the air preheater.in our air
preheater,service water is used as washing medium. A line is taken from
service waterbus to feed two water wash pumps. These pumps are common
for boiler 4 and 5.each pump has a capacity of 150m3/hr and develops 4
kg/m2.both delivery lines join together to form a common header and then
divides in two one branch going to boiler 4 and other to boiler 5.this tapping
gets divided into two, one for RAPH’A’ and other for RAPH’B’.The two water
washing pipes are located, at both the hot end and cold end of the air
preheaterbut only on gas side. Each pipe having 45 nozzles which are slightly
inclined distributes water evenly on the heating surfaces. This operation to be
followed only after isolating the air heater from the boiler.

Fire extinguishing system

 68

Air preheater fires start, initially with the ignition of combustible deposits
within, the heat transfer surface. This initial burning may occur within the
cold or hot end heating elements depending on where the deposit build up
occurs.
Two water lines from thermal power station’s fire water system are tapped in
each boiler area, one for RAPH’A’ and the other for RAPH’B’. Each tapping has
a common isolating valve near RAPH and then it gets divided into two. One
branch is entering into the hot end and the other two cold end of gas side of
RAPH .the hand operated valve and strainer are provided in each branch.

Rotor stop alarm

It is a device, which is used to give a signal when the rotor is slowed down or
stopped. It is not advisable to stop the rotor in hot condition since the heat
elements are subjected to hot gases on one side and cold air on the other
side. This may cause unequal expansion of the rotor and pose problem for
restarting of the rotor.
Principle of operation

This consists of control unit, vane operated limit switch and three vanes
mounted on the support trunnion. When the RAPH is at normal speed, the
vanes pass through the limit switch causing the control unit to deliver no
signal to alarm unit. if vanes fail to pass within the set time interval a relay in
the control unit will give signal to the control unit to alert the operating
person that the rotor is slowing down.
 69

BO6- CLEANING SYSTEMS

WATER SOOT BLOWERS

INTRODUCTION

Solid fuels generally contain a high percentage of non-combustible material.

Heating surface of the steam generators such as water walls, super heaters,
re-heaters & economizers are coated with soot, ash etc., during course of
operation which affects the heat transfer rate and hence the boiler efficiency.
A 1mm layer of slag on a boiler tube is as like 6mm layer of refractory. To
maintain higher efficiency in the boiler by periodical removal of the deposits,
soot blowers are employed.
SOOT BLOWING

Soot blowers have been widely used as efficient tools of cleaning exterior
portion of boiler tubes. The requirements of soot blowers are
1.effecting cleaning
2.reliability
3.easy maintenance
4.low cost in operation & maintenance.
The types, size, number of blowers required, their locations, nature of
blowing medium, pressure of blowing medium and the periodicity of the
operation are decided taking in to consideration the design factors of the
boiler, the fuel used and the nature and quantum of deposits etc.
Normally one of the following is used for soot blowing medium.
1. Compressed air
2. Saturated or super heated steam,
 70

3. Water.
SOOT BLOWER TYPES:
1.fixed position blowers,
2.short-retactable blowers and
3.long retractable blowers.

Fixed position blowers are those, which are fixed permanently inside the
boiler. There are two types namely fixed non-rotary and rotary. Fixed position
rotary blowers are installed only in low temp region. Non-rotating fixed
position blowers are specified for hard to reach areas of the boiler where fly
ash can accumulate and cannot be removed by normal gas flow.
In higher temp Zones, where temp is 960°c and above, the soot blower gun
cannot be allowed to remain inside the furnace and hence retractable type
blowers should be used. Wall blowers or small blowers or short retractable
are used to clean the furnace walls. Their nozzles penetrate for a small
distance beyond furnace wall and rotate 360° covering a circular area of tube
surface around it.
Long retractable blowers are installed for cleaning tube-banks in the high
temperature zone of the boiler. They have two opposing nozzles at the end of
the lance, which is designed to penetrate half the boiler width or full width in
case of smaller furnaces.
The Boilers of thermal power station-II/II stage employ three different types of
soot blowers and two different media. The evaporator tubes are provided with
water soot blowers utilizing the service water at a pressure of 12 to 14 bars
as the medium. They are short retractable blowers extending into the interior
furnace wall by about 350mm and are provided with two different speeds and
water lance system.
The super heater and reheater tubes are cleaned by super heater steam as
the medium. The blowers employed there are long retractable type blowers.
For cleaning the RAPH deposits, wall mounted lance type blowers are
provided at cold end baskets of RAPH.Though they can be classified as fixed
position lance type, since they are always kept inside, these blowers are
 71

provided with a swing action to ensure effective cleaning of the entire RAPH
elements.
With hard-bonded deposits expected on the water wall section, water jet de
slaggers (soot blowers) have been chosen for this section. In addition to high
impingement forces, water blowers provide the added feature of thermal
shock, which aids the removal of the deposit through shock cooling and
cracking. The
blower speed, insertion and retraction speed, water pressure and jet nozzle
diameter are to be selected so as to prevent any adverse effect of thermal
stress due to water impingement directly on bare tube or dust coated tubes.
WATER SOOT BLOWERS

The water blowers are of type SK58E. They are retractable wall mounted
type. For cleaning the evaporator tube surfaces, 42 numbers of water soot
blowers are provided. Out of which four blowers were removed and water
lance blowers were installed in their locations. The remaining blowers are
located at eight elevations, 12 blowers in each left and right side, and 7
blowers each in front and rear side of the boiler furnace.
The service water for blowing is supplied at a pressure of 12 bar with one of
the two pumps available at zero ML. the rate of consumption of water per
blower is 416 kg and the rate of consumption per hour is 4068 kg. Each
blower covers a radius of 2500 mm effectively cleaning the evaporator tube
surface around the particular blower. As and when the blower is operated the
nozzle tube of the equipment moves into the furnace by 700 mm and returns
back to its original position. The water jet coming out of the single nozzle
cleans the water wall tube surface.
OPERATING PRINCIPLE OF THE BLOWER
The soot blower nozzle is normally kept outside the membrane walls. When
the soot blower motor is started, the motor runs at high speed. The rotary
movement transmitted by the gears and screw socket causes the threaded
nozzle tube to move helically forward into the furnace chamber at a high
speed. As soon as the nozzle has passed the tube wall sufficiently, (i.e. about
350 mm travel on reaches `start’ blowing position), the blower valve opens.
At this position, the motor speed is changed over to low speed by a time
 72

relay. The nozzle tube advances slowly to its front-end position (i.e. another
350 mm travel). Water will be coming out throughout this phase of operation,
but at different velocities.
On reaching the front-end position, the motor direction is reversed. At the
same time the speed also gets changed over from low to high speed. The
entire return travel (i.e. 700mm) of the nozzle tube is at a higher speed.
During the return travel, the blower valve will be closed fully only when the
spray nozzles passes the position “ start of blowing”.
The water jet escaping the nozzles obliquely backwards impinges on the tube
wall in a small tapered angle. Due to this small angle and to the low pitch of
the screw tube (20 mm per rotation), it is ensured that the water jets are
overlapping each other several times.
The soot blowers should normally be operated in sequence in the direction of
the flue gas stream. The duration of operation of each blower is 12 minutes
which is distributed as follows:
Forward fast travel 120 seconds
Forward slow travel 360 seconds
Backward fast travel 120+120 seconds
Blowing time (360+120) seconds
= 480 seconds
The total operating time of all the 38 blowers in sequence will be 7 hours and
36 minutes.
The frequency of blowing depends on the rate at which deposits accumulate
on the heating surfaces. The correct frequency of blowing can only be
established from continuous observation of the deposits and checking of the
steam and flue gas temperatures.
If the water blowers are used rarely, they should still be put into operation
once a week without admitting water to keep the moving parts, especially the
electric drive, in good working condition.
Soot blower pumps

A multi stage centrifugal pump with horizontal shaft supplies the water
required by soot blowers and these pumps take their suction from the service
waterbus at 3.5 bar. The pumps are designed with a suction head of 1.6 m
 73

and capable of delivering 7 to 24 m 3 of water per hour at a delivery head of

213-152 meters of water column. Filters installed in the common suction and
delivery line to achieve trouble free operation of the soot blowing nozzles.
The suction and discharge lines of the pumps are inter connected by means
of two pipe lines
In the common discharge line, a motor operated main isolation valve is
provided. The discharge line joins the 4 vertical pipe lines provided in each
corner of the furnace. From this pipelines, branches with a hand-operated
valve are taken and connected to the blower. At the top level, all the four
pipes join and form a ring, an air vent is provided for releasing air during
charging/ draining.
OPERATION OF WATER SOOT BLOWERS
For the operation of water soot blowers it is enough to keep one pump in
service.
Preparatory arrangements
1. The soot blowers should be operated only when boiler is stable. It
is to be checked that the steam parameters should be steady and
the boiler load should be more than 60%(126MW).
2. Power supply availability to the pumps and valves and control
supply availability to the soot blower cubicle are to be checked.
3. The blowers are to be physically checked at local the hand-
operated valves in front of the various soot blowers are to be
opened.
4. The service water availability should be checked and the lines are
to be charged.
On receiving the forward command, the blower travels in the forward
direction at a fast speed, which is indicated by a fast flash of the FORWARD
lamp. After 120 seconds, the speed of the blower is reduced automatically,
which is indicated by slow flash of the FORWARD lamp and the blower starts
blowing water. After about360 seconds of slow forward motion, the FORWARD
limit switch gets pressed and the blower comes back automatically at fast
speed which is indicated by fast flash of BACKWARD lamp. On reaching the
 74

rear end, the BACKWARD limit switch gets pressed and the blower gets
switched off. On completion of operation of all blowers
1) The isolating valve is to be closed
2) The pump is to be stopped

NOTE:
1.In manual mode, only one blower can be operated at a time.
2.The running blower can be retracted for emergency by pressing
BACKWARD limit switch at local.
3.Another forward travel can be initiated only after the blower reaches
the rest position.
NOTE:
1.The blower which is already having a fault will be skipped during
automatic programme if not selected.
2.If a fault occurs on the operating blower during the automatic
programme run,
a) The running blower retracts immediately.
b) The nature of the blower is indicated (e.g. over current, limit switch
fault, running time fault etc.) in the panel with flashing light.
c) Accept the alarm.
d) When the blower reaches the rest position, on pressing the ‘reset’
push button it restarts the automatic sequence and the next blower will start
operation.
Water supply fault
1. Water supply fault appears if pressure does not develop within 85
seconds from starting the water-filling programme. On accepting the
fault, the annunciation gets cancelled.
Limit switch fault:
This fault occurs on any one of the following four conditions.
1.When ‘ forward’ command is given but the blower does not leave the
backward limit switch with in 10 seconds. This may happen due to one of the
following reasons.
a) MCC switch OFF or fuse failure at MCC.
 75

b) Power cables plug on the blower not tight or are removed.

c) The blower has actually moved, but the backward limit switch
contact is not released. This is a very serious condition, because,
after moving a small distance, if the ‘limit switch’ fault comes, the
motor will stop there. But because the backward limit switch contact
is not released, the control system sees as though the blower is in
the rest position and so backward command, is not given by the
system. On giving one more ‘forward’ command, if the limit switch
contact is still not released it will move forward for another 10
seconds and stop.
Steps to be taken:
If ‘limit switch’ fault appears in this condition, the operator has to make
sure that the blower is not inside the furnace. If the blower has moved inside
the furnace, the backward limit switch lever can be moved towards boiler.
The blower will retract if contact gets released. Otherwise it has to be brought
back manually with the lever.
2. On touching the forward limit switch, backward command will be
given. If the blower does leave the forward limit switch within 10 seconds,’
limit switch’ fault appears. This happens if the blower is stuck up or if the
limit switch contact is not released. But the blower will continue to retract.
3. If both the limit switches have acted, ‘limit switch’ fault appears. In
this case both backward &and forward lamp indication will be steady
ON. This can happen when,
a) Blower is in rest position, but forward limit switch contact is not
released.
b) The limit switch cable plug is not tight or is removed.
4. If neither forward nor backward command exists for a blower, but
both forward & backward limit switches have not acted,’ limit switch’ fault
appears.
Electric fault:
1. This fault occurs due to MCC module fault or due to over load fault.
Whenever this fault appears, the operator has to reset the fault by
pressing the reset push buttons provided on soot blower MCC module.
 76

2. If ‘ electric fault’ appears during forward motion of the blower, it

retracts immediately.
3. If the electric fault occurs due to over load during the backward motion,

a) The backward command will be going from the control system,

which is indicated by flashing of the ‘backward’ lamp.
b) But the power from MCC module to the blower motor will be cut
off and so the blower will get stuck up at the position at which
fault occurred.
c) If the blower is in intermediate position for a long time, RUNNING
TIME fault appears.
d) The lamp ‘backward electric fault’ flashes.
ACTION:
1.Reset the over load fault at the soot blower MCC by pressing the
reset push button.
2.If it is still not coming back, the electrical maintenance staff may
be informed.
3.Otherwise the blower may be brought back with the help of the
lever.
4. If ‘backward over load’ fault appears in any blower, it should be
reset at MCC immediately. Otherwise the fault will appear on all blowers
during backward motion.
RUNNING TIME FAULT:
1. On giving forward command if the limit switch is not touched
within the monitoring time (12+360 seconds), ‘RUNNING TIME’
fault appears. The blower will retract immediately.
2. If the backward limit switch is not touched within the monitoring
time (240 seconds from touching the forward limit switch),’RUNNING
TIME’ fault appears. If the alarm does not cancelled on accepting it the
operator has to check whether the blower is moving back. This
situation will happen when the blower gets stuck up due to over load
fault.
 77

Periodical inspections during the operation of water soot blowers

1.The water pressure before and after filter should be checked.
2.During the operation of the pumps
3.Temperature of the bearings of the pump and driving motor.
4.Vibration value of the pump and motor.

5.Pressure before and after the pumps.

6.Noises coming from the motor and the pump.
7.Earthing of the motor is to be checked periodically.
8.The pump must be stopped without delay, when
i. Sparking, smoke of the driving motor is observed.
ii . Abnormal noises from motor or pump.
iii. Temperature of the bearings is high( could not be
touched with hand)
iv. Vibration of the pump exceeding 100 microns.
Pump delivery pressure is pulsating.
9. Periodically the membrane walls in the surrounding of the soot
blowers should visually be checked. When bright spots or erosions can be
seen on the pipes, the number of cycles (periodicity) should be reduced, or
the water pressure should be reduced as much as possible.
10. If and when screw tube stops during operation, it must be brought
back to its original position as early as possible. This can be done
automatically by means of the emergency- return control installed beside the
soot blower. If emergency return system is unserviceable due to defects in
motor etc., then the soot blower should be retracted by means of a lever,
placing it on the shaft of the motor after removing supply to the motor. As
long as the blower screw tube does not supply to its rear end position, the
water must not be shut off. The pump should be running.

NOTE:
To protect the nozzle tube from softening or bending, it must be cooled
by water as it travels forwards and backwards within the boiler. It is to be
ensured that the blowers are operated only when the pipe system is on-
 78

pressure. Generally a pressure switch and the function of the blowing valves
monitor the water pressure by a water flow switch.
11. Periodical inspections are to be done to ensure that
i. There is no water leakage during operation from any
connection.

ii. There is no dirt or deposition.

iii. The lubricant level of the drives is sufficient
iv. Nothing obstructs the movement of the moving mechanism.
12. The functioning of the protection ‘water pressure in front of the soot
blower is lower than 12 bar’ should be checked once in a week or after any
pause exceeding 72 hours.
13. Whenever any repair work is done for the soot blowers, the internal
interlocking protective circuits of the particular soot blower must be checked.
(Functioning of the position switches, direction of rotation of the motor etc.)
Data sheet:
Water soot blowers:
Number of soot blowers : 38
Number of elevations at which WSBs are provided :8
(16.0,20.4,24.8,29.3,31.0,33.8,35.1,37.4 ML)
Type (Short retractable) : SK 58 E
Travel distance : 700 mm
Dead travel (without blowing medium) : 350 mm
Covering area : 2500 mm
Number of nozzles : one
Size of the nozzle : 6 mm
Drive motor : 3 ; 415 v;
0.55 kW
2800/950 rpm

Forward travel : 120+360 sec.

Backward travel : 120+120 sec.
Operating time per blower : 12 minutes
 79

Blowing medium : service water

Water consumption per blower : 416 kg
Blowing water pressure : 12 kg/cm2

Water soot blower pumps:

Number of pumps : two

Type : six stage centrifugal
pump

Capacity y : 24 m3 /hr
Pressure : 21.0 kg/cm2
Drive motor : 3, 415 v; 27kw ;2900
rpm.

Steam soot blower

The Soot blowers are RKS 81E of long retractable lance type blower employed
for cleaning the super heater, reheater and economizer tube banks. Though
provision is made for sixty blowers at present 42 blowers ,21 on the right and
21 on the left provided for cleaning in 7 elevations,6 blowers are thus in each
elevation 3 on each side .Blowers are located at the following places
Elevation location.
45.4 meter SH3 Middle
50.49 meter Between RH2 & SH2
53.38 meter SH2 Middle
58.95 meter RH1 Middle
64.35 meter Between Economiser bottom and RH1 bank
67.84 meter Between Economiser bottom and Middle bank
71.31 meter Between Economiser middle bank and top bank.
 80

In case of necessity provision is there to provide soot blowers in the

following three tiers in future.

47.51 meter - Between SH3 & RH2

56.25 meter - Between SH2 & RH1
61.65 meter - Between top half loop and first full loop of RH1

The medium used is superheated steam at 16 bar pressure .The steam can
be taken from the inlet header of reheater 1 after due pressure reduction or
from auxiliary steam header. The consumption of steam per blower is 809
Kg .The consumption rate per cycle is 11.16 Kg/Hr for 2 blowers. Duration of
operation of one blower is 9 minutes and 3 seconds. Total time for completion
of one cycle is 3 hours 10 minutes and 3 seconds.
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
Two blowers in each tier, one at right and one at left will be simultaneously
operated. Each blower will cover about half the furnace width as they travel
in. The blower has a lance tube with two ventury nozzles through which
steam is blown on the tube bundles around the particular blower .The lance
tube will be moving into the flue gas pass, with a rotating movement and
then returns back to its original position. During this the nozzles perform a
helical movement. The advancement of the lance tube per revolution can be
adjusted on the basic of the spacing of the heating surfaces. The two
opposed nozzles and the spreading blowing jets ensure complete cleaning
coverage during the whole movement of the lance tube.
STEAM SUPPY ARRANGEMENT
The blowing medium can be taken either from Reheater 1 inlet header or
from auxiliary steam header. From RH1 inlet header, steam at a pressure of
about 36-37-bar pressure is reduced to 16 bar and taken to the common
header. A safety valve is provided in this header to take care of system
pressure.
The steam line is then bifurcated and goes to right and left side of the
furnace for soot blowers.
Working cycle of the steam soot blower
 81

Before starting, the carriage is in rest at its rear end position .The lance tube
is completely drawn off from the boiler and the nozzles will be outside the
vertical tube walls of the boiler. When the motor is started the lance tube
starts rotating.

At the same time, the carriage releases the rear limit switch moves
forward on two track beam rails and projects the lance tube into the flue gas
pass. Just when the nozzles enter inside the furnace gas path, the trip pin on
the perforated bar will be hitting the cam and actuating the steam valve to
open. Steam gets admitted through the nozzles and cleans the tubes around.
During the forward travel of the carriage, the feed tube support is actuated
and that provides the intermediate support for the feed tube, while the lance
tube is moving far into the furnace .As the blower carriage moves forward,
the cable carriage follows and moves by half the distance.
The carriage continues to project until the nozzles reach the front end
position reaches the front end position and reverses the direction of rotation
of the motor Due to reverse rotation the blower lance now start retracting.
During the reverse travel the feed tube support gets disengaged. Shortly
before the nozzles reaches the boiler wall the blower valve closes and cut off
the blowing medium. The rear end limit switch cut off the supply to the motor
as soon as the lance tube comes to the original rest position. Simultaneously
the cable carriage also retraces and comes to the original position.
Operation of steam soot – blowers.
The operating time for each pair of blowers is 543 seconds.
The total duration of operation of all steam soot blowers will be 543 X 21 =
11,403 seconds or 3 hours 10 minutes and 3 seconds .On the basis of
experience gained during operation, selective operation of necessary to use
all the soot blowers for one cycle.
Periodical inspection of soot blowers operation.
During the operation of the soot blowers, the following should be checked
periodically.
 82

Oil level in the drives

Cleanliness of the equipment
Correct displacement of the soot blower units in various furnace temperature
conditions.
Tightness of piping, flanged junction, oil leakages at the drive.

Whenever the soot blowers are kept idle for longer period, the soot blowers
shall be started once in two weeks in order to check the operation of the
motor and the equipment.
Whenever the soot blowers are kept idle for longer periods or when any unit
is repaired, then the valves of the responses of pressure & temperature
protection as well as the interlocks are to checked.
Before planned shut down of a boiler, the soot blowing shall be performed.
During shut down of the boiler, the tubes in the surrounding of the soot
blowers should be checked for any wear. If any bright spots or erosions can
be seen on the tubes, the number of cycles of operation shall be decreased.
The steam –pressure in the lance tube of the soot blowers can also be
decreased as much as.
Problems in soot blowers and their elimination.
If and when the soot blowers, gets tripped at the middle of operation, due to
some mechanical defects, the soot blowers overload relays will respond and
move the carriage block back as long as it arrives into original end position.
If the steam pressure decreases during operation, then the soot blowers
should be brought back by means of the hand-wheel placed on the rear shaft
outlet of the driving motor after switching off supply to the motor.
Steam must not be shut off from the soot blowers as long as the carriage
does not come back to the rear end rest position.
If the soot blower drive, over runs the rear limits –switch, the motor will not
get tripped and hence the lance tube will be in rotation .The longitudinal
movement, however will get terminated since the pinion will come out of the
gear rack breaking contact. In such a situation.
The motor should be switched-off
 83

The carriage should be physically moved and the pinion of the carriage and
the gear rack should be engaged.
The carriage should be brought to original position by operating the hand
wheel.
The limit switch should be checked for operation. The failure of electric
system should be eliminated.
If the front limit switch did not work and the motor did not reverse, the
carriage will bring the soot blower to stop at the end of the rail. The
longitudinal movement will be now terminated but the blowers continues to
rotate. In this case the following operation will have to be carried out.
The cooling of the lance tube of the soot blower is to be done by ensuring
steam supply to the blower
The motor should be kept in continuous services, till the carriage is brought
to original position
The timing device in the local control box will commence the return
movement of the carriage by changing motor direction. If this does not take
place it can be initiated from local control Board.
After bringing back the carriage to its original position.
Steam soot blowers –operating instructions.
On receiving the FORWARD command, the blowers travel in the forward
direction, which is indicated by FORWARD lamp. After about 270 seconds, the
forward limits switch gets pressed and the blowers comes back automatically
at the same speed, which is indicated by “ BACKWARD “ lamp .On reaching
the back position the BACKWARD limit switches gets pressed, the blowers
stops and “ ALL BLOWERS IN INITIAL POSITION” appears in the control panel.
WATER LANCE SYSTEM
Introduction
Any solid fuel generally contains in –combustible mineral matter (ash). On
combustion of fuel, this ash is separated. It also results in formation of soot.
They adhere over the heat transfer surfaces of the boiler and reduce the heat
transfer and subsequently the boiler efficiency. One mm layer of slag on a
boiler tube acts like a 6 mm layer of refractory.
 84

The removal of such deposits from the heat transfer surfaces of a boiler is
imperative. The strength of the attachment of slag to the tubes is influenced
by temperature, physical contour of the surfaces, force of impact and melting
characteristics of the slag. The presence of ash with low melting points and
catalysts like sulphur, iron oxide and alkali metals, which lowers the ash
fusion temperature are the main factors quantifying slagging. Slagging is
usually associated with radiant heat transfer surfaces in and around the
furnace.
As per the design, the lignite ash of TPS –II has the following characteristics:
(i) Initial deformation temperature : 1050 to 1200 ºC
(ii) Hemispherical temperature : over 1200 ºC
(iii) Fluid state temperature : >1350 ºC

In the presence of marcasite (FeS 2) in the fuel, initial deformation

temperature of ash is reduced to as low as 840 ºC. When marcasite is heated
to 400 - 450 ºC, it decomposes and is partially oxidized to a mixture of FeO &
Fe2O3. The FeO part of the decomposition acts as a fluxing agent and reduces
the initial deformation temperature of the ash and promotes slag formation in
the furnace.
Soot blowing has been widely used as efficient method for cleaning the
external portions of boiler tubes. In the radiant zone of water walls, short
retractable water soot blowers are used. Each blower cleans an area in a
circular path having a radius of 2500 mm. Provision of 38 water soot blowers
achieve the cleaning of the entire radiant zone of the water wall. Since these
water soot blowers clean in circular paths, intermittent areas cannot be
cleaned. There are some portions of the furnace left unclean. Also the
operating time of entire water soot blower is nearly 4 hours. It means at
some places, water wall is subjected to thermal shock always. More number
of water soot blowers are to be maintained.
When the soot blowing with water soot blower system is insufficient to
remove tenacious combustion residues on water –cooled furnace walls, water
jet lance blowers is proved effective.
 85

The water lance cools the opposite face of the furnace wall by means of
directing water jet through a specially designed high capacity nozzle. The
water jet directed on to the furnace wall where upon it follows a prescribed
and controlled impact pattern across the relevant surfaces. The horizontal
and vertical swiveling action of the blowing lance guarantees that the water
jet is uniformly directed over large areas. This precludes the needing for
numerous soot blowers. The stored programme in the control system makes
it possible to bypass critical sections of the furnace walls with the blowing jet
and also gives continuous monitoring of this facility. In addition, the control
system monitors blowing pressure, closing of blowing valve and spindle
movement to warrant careful cleaning action. Here cleaning of slagging in
entire water wall surface is meticulously programmed and stored.
The lance system is supplied by CLYDE BERGE MANN , GERMANY.
Principle of operation
The water lance soot blowers serves for removal of slag incrustations on the
furnace walls of boiler units that are fired with brown coal. A concentrated
water jet crossing the furnace and hitting the slagged water wall area, during
the boiler units operation performs the cleaning. While the water jet impinges
the slagging area, due to high kinetic energy, it hits the fouling area. Also the
water jet penetrates the slag through pores in it and quenches the slag in the
process. It creates a difference in thermal expansion at contact area between
the water wall and slag material. Also due to evaporation effect, the slag
physically enlarges in volume, causing it to expand and lose its adherence to
the tube. It results in dislodging of slag from the furnace wall. Hence the
water jet should penetrate across the thickness of the slag, then only it can
create a difference in thermal expansion. If the depth of slagging is more, the
quenching effect of the slag will not reach the entire depth. In that case
dislodging is difficult.
Arrangement of lance
The combustion zone of the boiler furnace is divided in to two sections
vertically (from 17 to 31 meters elevation and 31 to 40 meters elevation)
and along the center of sidewalls so that the whole combustion zone is made
as four parts. A lance does the cleaning of each part. There are four water
 86

lances installed in each boiler (7x210MW) in TPS-II. The lances are mounted
in front and rear water walls only at 27 m and 33 m elevations at the centre
of the wall. Each lance will take care of cleaning of slag on the opposite wall
and opposite side of each water wall.

The water lance blower’s frame is firmly connected to the boiler wall. It is
composed of two parallely aligned and vertically standing box profiles, which
are firmly bolted to both the horizontal- interconnecting frames. The vertical
shaft slides over the two parallel horizontal shafts mounted at top and bottom
of it.
The top horizontal guidance shaft is driven by a worm gear motor flanged to
the frame at the right side. The movement of the bottom guidance shaft is
transmitted through a chain, which is enclosed in the right side vertical
frame. The vertical guidance shaft is driven by another worm gear motor
flanged to the vertical guidance mechanism provides the water lance soot
blowers stability, serves to precisely fix the horizontal guidance’s, to fasten
the water lance blower to the furnace wall and to receive all further sub-
assemblies.
The guidance mechanism consists of a guidance tube, a threaded spindle
with spindle nut and dog. The guidance tubes are protected against dirt by
expansion bellows.
The movement of the lance in the horizontal direction is monitored by the
pulse transmitter mounted at the end of horizontal guidance shaft. The
movement of the lance in the vertical direction is monitored by the pulse
transmitter mounted at the bottom end of vertical guidance shaft. These
speed sensors are inductive proximity switches (Non Contact type).
On the boiler side, the lance tube is firmly connected to the connection
boxes, by cordon joint via a blow through tube for protection of the nozzle. A
blowing tube guidance bush is connected to the vertical guidance shaft.
Lance blowing tubes movement is realized via the blowing tube guidance
bush. The lance tube just slides inside the guidance bush. At the other end of
 87

the lance blowing tube a swivel joint, which is provided with ball bearing so
that it adjusts itself with the connecting entry.
The entire cleaning path of water jet of the lance system is programmed in
software. The programmed control guarantees the adaption of the blow figure
to the geometrical shape of the furnace, the control of water supply and the
monitoring function.

Two inductive proximity switches are provided, one for horizontal reference at
the right bottom and the other at the right top for vertical reference.
Water supply system
Source of water for lance operation is service water at 3.0 to 4.0 Ksc
pressure. The pressure is raised using 6/5- stage water soot blower pump.
Any one of the two water soot blower pumps will be in service. The discharge
of the water soot blower pump is connected to the suction of lance booster
pump. It is a 4 stage centrifugal pump.
The pump is provided with three motorized shut off valves, one at suction of
the pump, another at discharge and the third at bypass or recirculation line of
the booster pump. This system is installed in boiler zero meter elevation.
Water supply is made to individual lances through a connecting pipe system.
At each lance a hand operated valve, a strainer and a solenoid operated
blowing valve are provided. T o monitor the water pressure in the main line, a
pressure transmitter is provided before the hand operated valve of lance at
top rear wall. Four separate pressure transmitters are provided after the
blowing valve one for each lance.
Normally, a 13.3 mm nozzle is provided in the lance tube. It can also be
replaced with a 14 mm nozzle. The Lances are numbered as follows.
Rear wall top 33 meters elevation- 1
Bottom 27 meters elevation- 3
Front wall top 33 meters elevation- 2
Bottom 27 meters elevation- 4
 88

Conditions for lance operation

The following are the conditions for lance operation.
1.Stable firing in the boiler is guaranteed, which means flue gas
temperature at Super heater 3 inlet is above 850º C, load more than 180 MW
and infra red scanners are healthy.
2.Both After burning grates are in service.
Conditions to be fulfilled to start lance operations.
1.Continuous supply of power supply.
2.Anyone of the water soot blower pump is in service.
3.All local latches of the lances are in released condition.
4.The lances with corresponding part figures are preselected in
desk operating console.
Water lance blowers control system
The 4 Nos. of Water Lance Blowers are controlled by Siemens make PLC
SIMATIC S5-115U. The control system consists of the following
1. The System Cabinet / Panel housing
a. Siemens PLC SIMATIC S5-115U
b. Two Nos. of Frequency Converters / Variable Frequency drives,
one for vertical motors and one for horizontal motors.
c. MCBs, Contactors, Fuses, Terminals etc.
2. Operating console (microprocessor- based) with LCD text display and
push buttons for selection
3. Local Control panel/box with emergency stop switch and push buttons
for Local operation of Left, Right, Top & bottom movements.
4. Sensors or instruments in local for each WLB
a. Reference Top proximity sensor
b. Reference Right proximity sensor
c. Horizontal motor speed sensor
d. Vertical motor speed sensor

e. Pressure transmitter for pressure after blowing valve

f. Blowing Valve (Pneumatic Solenoid valve-operated, with limit
switches)
 89

g. Pressure transmitter for water supply pressure (Common for all

4 WLB)

Water lance blower operation

There are 3 modes of operation of Water Lance Blowers
1) Automatic Program with selected blowers and selected part figures
2) Test operation without water when key switch in control cubicle is put in
‘Test position’
3) Local operation to test the movement, direction etc. when the key
switch in the local operating panel near each blower is put in ‘Local’
position
Automatic program sequence
1) Automatic Operation selected in the Operating panel
2) Water Lance Blowers required for operation are selected in the
Operating panel
3) Part-figures required for operation in each WLB are selected in the
Operating panel
4) “Automatic release” shall be available if the following conditions are
satisfied
a. Auto mode selected
b. Suction valve close torque switch acted (I 16.2 = 1)
c. Discharge valve close torque switch acted (I 17.0 = 1)
d. Bypass valve open limit switch acted ( I 18.1 = 0)
e. At least one WLB pre-selected
f. No WLB local PB pressed (I 0.3, I 10.0, I 10.5, I 11.1 = ‘1’)
2) “PROGRAM READY TO START” message is displayed
3) Start Water Soot blower pump. Then, Press keys F5 & F7 to start Auto.
4) “PROGRAM RUNNING” message is displayed. After 1 second, the
message “PUSH F5+F8 TO STOP” is displayed
5) If at least one WLB is selected, Suction valve Auto Open command is
given (Q 20.0)
 90

6) Booster Pump ON command is given, If

a. Suction valve open limit switch acts (I 16.5 = 0) &
b. Bypass valve opened limit switch is acting (I 18.1 = 0),

7) 25 seconds after Pump on command is given, discharge valve Auto

Open command is given (Q 20.2)
8) If discharge valve opened limit switch acts (I 17.3 = 0), Bypass valve
Auto Close command is given (Q20.5)
9) The flag ‘Operation release all WLB’ is set if the following conditions
are satisfied
a. Water pressure release exists &
b. Pump on command exists &
c. Discharge valve opened lt. sw. acted (I 17.3=0) &
d. Bypass valve closed torque switch acts (I 17.6=1)
10) WLB 1/2/3/4 part-figures 1/2/3/4/5/6 are started one by one in
sequence depending on the blowers & part-figures selected.
11) The following 5 steps are carried out for each part-figure for each
blower
a. STEP 1 – REFERENCE POINT
i. Motor moves towards right till reference point right sensor
acts / is reached (I 8.2 = 1)
ii. If right reference point is sensed (I 8.2 = 1), Motor moves
towards top till top reference point is sensed (I 8.3 = 1)
iii. If top reference point is sensed (I 8.3 = 1), sequence goes
to step 2
b. STEP 2 – START POSITION
i. Motor moves left till Horizontal impulse counts upto the
value stored in program for start position horizontal
ii. Simultaneously, Motor moves down till vertical impulse
counts upto the value stored in program for start position
vertical
 91

iii. Once both counters have reached the values in program,

sequence goes to step 3
c. STEP 3 – BLOWING FIGURE
i. Blowing valve open command is given for the selected WLB
/ WLB in operation
ii. Also, WLB operation lamp (in local) for that WLB will flash
iii. The following 4 operations are repeated till the counter for
partway (Horizontal ways) counts upto the number of
partway programmed.
1. The horizontal motor moves Left / Right (depending on the
WLB & part-figure in operation) till the counter for
horizontal impulses counts upto the value stored in the
program for each horizontal movement / partway)
2. The vertical motor moves down till the counter for vertical
impulses counts upto the value stored in the program for
vertical movement
3. The horizontal motor moves in the opposite direction
Right / Left (depending on the WLB & part-figure in
operation) till the counter for horizontal impulses counts
upto the value stored in the program for each horizontal
movement / partway.
4. The vertical motor moves down till the counter for vertical
impulses counts upto the value stored in the program for
vertical movement.
iv. After the last partway has been completed, sequence goes
to Step 4
d. STEP 4 – REFERENCE POINT
1.Motor moves towards right till reference point right sensor
acts / is reached (I 8.2 = 1)
2.If right reference point is sensed (I 8.2 = 1), Motor moves
towards top till top reference point is sensed (I 8.3 = 1)
3.If top reference point is sensed (I 8.3 = 1), sequence goes
to Step 5
 92

e. STEP 5 – HOME POSITION

i. Motor moves left till Horizontal impulse counter counts upto
the value stored in program for home position horizontal.

ii. Simultaneously, Motor moves down till vertical impulse

counter counts upto the value stored in program for home
position vertical.
iii. Once both counters have reached the values, WLB ‘n’ part
figure ‘n’ finished is set
12) After all the selected part-figures in all selected blowers have
completed operation,
1.The flag ‘All WLB finished’ is set
2.The flag ‘Last blower has finished’ is set
3.The flag ‘Automatic release’ is reset
13) The following 4 operations take place simultaneously
1.Pump on command is reset
2.Suction valve auto close command is given (Q 20.1)
3.Discharge valve auto close command is given (Q 20.3)
4.Bypass valve auto open command is given (Q 20.4)
14) ‘Program finished’ is set, if
1.Suction valve close torque sw. acts (I16.2 = 1) &
2.Discharge valve close torque sw. acts (I17.0 = 1) &
3.Bypass valve open lt. sw. acts (I 18.1 = 0)
15) ‘Program running’ is reset
16) After 10 seconds, ‘PROGRAM READY TO RESET’ message is
displayed
17) After 3 seconds, ‘Program reset’ is set
18) After 10 seconds, Water Soot blower pump Stops (Q 12.6= 1 &
relay 203 energizes)
 93

Faults in water lance

If Fault occurs in the WLB System, Fault Messages are displayed on the
Operating Console on the desk / Panel. The messages displayed, when they
appear, what happens when they occur and the probable causes of the faults
are given below.
a) Blowing valve not closed
This fault appears if, when there is no blowing valve open command (Q
12.0 = ‘0’), any one of the following is fulfilled.
1. Blowing valve not opened feedback does not exist / does not come
(¹ ’1’) within 5 seconds
2. Blowing valve closed feedback does not exist / does not come (¹ ’1’)
within 5 seconds
3. Pressure after blowing valve is > Min. (1 bar) after 5 seconds

Probable causes of the fault

1. Pressure transmitter defective / cable defective / no continuity
2. Pressure actually not <min due to blowing valve not closing /
passing
3. Blowing valve limit switch cable open or earth fault
4. Limit switch / micro switch defective
5. Air supply problem / vent problem
6. Solenoid valve / SOV cable / plug problem
If this fault appears in any blower, the pumps will trip
automatically immediately and the valves will close automatically
(suction and discharge valves close and bypass valve opens)
b) Blowing valve not opened
This fault appears if, when blowing valve open command is given / exists,
any one of the following is fulfilled.
1. Blowing valve not opened feedback exists / does not vanish within 8
seconds
2. Blowing valve closed feedback exists / does not vanish within 8
seconds
3. Pressure after blowing valve is not > Min. (1 bar) within 8 seconds
 94

4. Pressure after blowing valve is > Max. (12 bar) for more than 8 seconds
Probable causes of the fault
1. Pressure transmitter root valve closed
2. Pressure transmitter defective / cable defective / no continuity
3. Water line isolation valve closed
4. Pressure actually inadequate due to hose puncture etc.
5. Blowing valve limit switch cable shorted or earth fault
6. Limit switch / micro switch defective
7. Air supply problem
8. Solenoid valve / SOV cable / plug problem
c) Impulse trouble vertical
This fault appears if, the vertical impulse from speed (proximity) sensor
(Input I 0.0) is continuously logical ‘1’ or logical ‘0’ for more than 0.5
seconds after vertical (up / down) command (Q 13.0 or Q 13.2) is given.
i.e. if the interval between any two impulses of vertical motor proximity
sensor exceeds 0.5 seconds when vertical motor command exists, this
fault is set.
Probable causes of the fault
1. Speed (proximity) sensor is defective
2. Sensor gap more or not uniform
3. Sensor cutting plate damaged or bent or loose
4. Cable or termination defective
5. Vertical Motor not moving
6. Lance reached bottom end position due motor DOR reversal
7. Lance reached top end position but top reference point sensor has
not sensed
8. Vertical Motor gets overload due to mechanical or electrical problem
9. PLC output module channel defect
d) Impulse trouble horizontal
This fault appears if, the horizontal impulses from speed (proximity)
sensor (Input I 0.1) is continuously logical ‘1’ or logical ‘0’ for more than
0.5 seconds after horizontal (left / right) command (Q 13.5 or Q 13.7) is
given.
 95

i.e. if the interval between any two impulses of horizontal motor proximity
sensor exceeds 0.5 seconds when horizontal motor command exists, this
fault is set.
Probable causes of the fault
1. Speed (proximity) sensor is defective
2. Sensor gap more or not uniform
3. Sensor cutting plate damaged or bent or loose
4. Cable or termination defective
5. Horizontal Motor not moving
6. Lance reached left end position due motor DOR reversal
7. Lance reached right end position but right reference point sensor
has not sensed
8. Horizontal Motor gets overloaded due to mechanical or electrical
problem
9. PLC output module channel defect

e) Trouble main pressure

This fault comes if
1) 8 seconds after Pump ON command is given (Q20.7=’1’) & Bypass
valve is closed (Torque switch input I 17.6 =’1’), Main pressure is not
> Min. (14 bar) (OR)
2) 5 seconds after Blowing valve open command is given (Q 12.0 =
‘1’), Main pressure is < Min. / > Max. (<14 bar / > 24 bar).
Probable causes of the fault
1. Pump actually not ON
2. Main Pressure transmitter defective
3. Main Pressure transmitter isolation valve closed
4. Water hose puncture / leak
5. Blowing valve actually not opened
f) Pump on / blowing valve not open in time
This fault comes if,
Within 30 seconds after Pump ON command is given (Q20.7=’1’) &
Bypass valve is not open (Limit switch input I 18.1 = ‘1’),
Blowing valve open command is not present (Q12.0 =’0’)
 96

Probable causes of the fault

1. Bypass valve torque switch input not coming (I17.6=0)
2. Horizontal or Vertical movement of first selected WLB is sluggish or got
stuck up.
3. If this fault appears, Pumps ON command will be reset.
g) Circuit breaker tripped
This fault comes if Input I 9.1 = ‘0’. (i.e. if MCB F011 or F012 tripped)
(F011 is used for 24V supply to S5-115U I/O modules & Contactors
F012 is used for 24 V supply to Valves lt.& torque switches, proximity
switches, blowing valve limit switches & local panel Push Buttons)
Probable causes of the fault
1. MCB defective
2. MCB tripped due to any PLC module fault
h) Over current blowing valves
This fault comes if Input I 9.2 = ‘0’ (i.e. if MCB F02 tripped)
Probable causes of the fault
1. MCB F02 defective
2. Any Blowing valve SoV cable earth fault / short
3. Any Blowing valve / SoV internal problem
j) Trouble frequency converter horizontal
This fault comes if Input I 9.6 = ‘0’.
(This input is wired to the NC contact of fault monitoring relay in the
frequency converter. NC contact opens on fault)
Probable causes of the fault
1. Horizontal Frequency converter defective
2. Horizontal Motor cable earth fault
3. Horizontal Motor fault
k) Trouble frequency converter vertical
This fault comes if Input I 9.7 = ‘0’. (This input is wired to the NC contact
of fault monitoring relay in the frequency converter. NC contact opens on
fault)
 97

Probable causes of the fault

1. Vertical Frequency converter defective
2. Vertical Motor cable earth fault
3. Vertical Motor fault
l) Lance 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 local instantly off is actuated
This fault comes if Input I 10.4 or I 11.1 or I 11.6 or I 0.7 = ‘0’. (i.e. if NC
contact of any WLB local emergency off PB is open)
Probable causes of the fault
1. Any local emergency PB actually pressed
2. Local emergency PB defective (not releasing)
3. Cable fault / Loose connection

Effectiveness of lance operation

The cleaning effect of the lance system on the water wall surfaces has
to be monitored continuously. The frequency of soot blowing depends on the
type and extent of contamination of the heating surfaces. If the cleaning
effect is not sufficient, blowing frequency (number of cycles) and / or blowing
pressure or the amount of water (by changing the nozzle size) are to be
increased. Also frequency of electrical power supply to lance motor can be
reduced in frequency converter. If the blowing pressure drops below a
minimum limit value, the operation of the blower is not possible. It means the
water jet will not penetrate and quench the slagging across its depth.

SPECIFICATIONS:
Name : Water lance soot blower
Type : WATER LANCE BLOWER 90
(maximum swiveling angle)
Blowing medium : Service water
Blowing pressure : 16 bar
Operating range of pressure : 16 to 24 bar
Frequency of operation
of lance motor : 45/50/55 Hz
 98

Diameter of nozzle : 12 mm (14 mm)

No. Of nozzle/blower : 1
Blowing flow per blower: 6.11 kg/sec
Operating time/blower : 480 sec (without water)
Blowing time/blower : 450 sec
Lance drive motor (Horizontal / Vertical)
No. of motors/blower : 2 nos.(one each for horizontal and
vertical movement)
Make : ATB Ruhrgetriebe KG
Type : SN 8 FH
Power : 0.25kw
Speed : 1310 rpm
Frequency : 50 Hz
Voltage : 240/415 V
Power factor ,cosΦ : 0.75
Starting current : 4.0 A
Staring current : 2.0 A
Insulation class : F
Mode of ventilation : Self, Surface cooled
Type of heating : 6003-zz/6202-zz
Weight of motor : 5.1 kg
Weight of gear box : 3.6 kg
Lance Booster Pump
Type : L/40/4/145/U2D-W1
Output : 28.8 m³/hr
Power : 13.2 KW
Speed : 2900 rpm
Head : 110 meters

Lance Booster Pump Drive Motor

Type : Continuous
Frame : 160 L
 99

Mounting : B3
Power : 15 KW
Speed : 2935 rpm
Current : 28 amps
Voltage : 415 V
Ventilation :TEFC(Totally enclosed fan cooled)
Functions in Desk Operating Console
Name of the button : Function
F1 : Operation menu
F2 : Observe menu
F3 : Failure information
F4 : Spare
F5 : Release
F6 : Acknowledge Failure /Reset
F7 : ON/Open/Start
F8 : OFF/Close /Stop
When red LED lights up in desk operating console, it means communication
between control system &operating unit is failed. It can be restored by
switching the control system once from stop to run. (Module off/on once).
The operation status of valves (Suction ,Discharge and bypass valve , status
of booster pump) can be seen in desk operating console ( Opening, open,
closing, close, ON, Off)
The operation of the lance with running part figure is displayed when lance is
in operation.
At the starting of each lance operation main pressure is displayed in console,
afterwards blowing pressure of the blower in operation is displayed.

BO7-ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR (ESP)

 100

The boiler is provided with an electrostatic precipitator of two streams, each

stream having six fields in series along the gas flow direction. Each field has
69 rows of collecting electrode curtains forming 68 gas passages.
At inlet of each stream, the cross section of duct increases from 3mx3m to
5.2mx10.4m forming of funnel shape. This reduces the velocity of flue gas
from 14.4m/sec at the inlet to 0.94m/sec in the electrode zone. Two
perforated gas distribution screens which are located before the electrode
zone uniformly distribute the gas throughout the cross section of the
electrostatic precipitator.
The overall dimensions of the ESP are,
Length along the gas flow .. 32.65m
Width .. 20.80m
Height .. 22.0m
Ash loading in gas is 26.5 gms/Nm3. ash collection efficiency is 99.43%.
Pressure drop across ESP is 23mm of water column. In the outlet also a gas
distribution screen is provided. The funnel shaped outlet duct reduces in
size from 10.4mx5.2m to 3.4m x3.4. Two flue gas ducts from each stream
outlet join together and go the respective I.D fan suction. There are 48 ash
hoppers below the ESP, 24 in each stream. Each hopper has an ash-mixing
vessel below it.
Electro static precipitator
Data sheet
1) 6.6 KV /433V Transformer
Number of transformer :2
Make : Kirloskar; oil cooled
Rating : 1600KVA, 3 Phase
Input A.C Voltage / Current : 6.6 KV/140A
Winding input / Output : Delta / Star
Out put A.C Voltage /Current : 433V/ 2133.4A

2) 415v(ac) single phase /70 kv(dc) transformer rectifier unit :

Number of transformer : 24
 101

Rating : 75KVA,/59KW
Input A.C Voltage / Current : 415V/181A
Out put A.C Voltage /Current : 70KV/ 1A

3) Rapping motors

SL.N COLLECTING EMITTING GAS

DESCRIPTION
O ELECTRODE ELECTRODE DISTRIBUTIO
Numberof
1 SYSTEM
24 SYETEM
24 N
2 SCREEN
rapping motor
At20 Metre At 10 Metre
2 Location At 8 Metre level
level at level
Speed After Gear
3 1.1RPM 2.5RPM 1.1RPM
Box
4. Out put Torque 215Kg.m 97Kg.m 215Kg.m
4) Power input
a) Total power input to ESP for six fields : 1190 KW
b) Total power input to ESP for Five fields : 990 KW
c) Power density / Unit area of collecting electrode : 96 Watts/M³
d) Corona Power Available : 16.3 Watts /M²
e) Input rapping power to rapping system : 2 KW / Stream

5)weight of ESP structure

a) Total Weight of ESP : 2328 Tonnes
b) Weight of ESP Including Ash : 5124.48 Tonnes

Operation of electro static precipitator

Preparations
The following preparatory checks are to be carried out before starting the
ESP
1. The precipitator internals are to be checked and any tools or foreign
materials inside should be cleared off.
 102

2. Temporary ear thing connection, if any , on the emitting system should

be removed.
3. All the insulators are to be checked.
4. The oil level in the rapping system gear boxes should be checked and
oil is to be topped up if necessary
5. The rapping motors are to be inspected and run to ascertain their
normal functioning
6. The heating element are to be checked for proper functioning
7. The di-electric strength of the transformer oil is to be checked. The oil
may be centrifuged if necessary
8. To ensure the healthy condition of the transformers an open circuit test
may be conducted
9. All the inspection doors and covers are to be closed and interlocking
system to be checked
10. All the fields are to be meggared and tested on air load
Start up procedure
1. The heating elements are to be switched on at least 24 hours before
the start up of the boiler
2. The rapping mechanism are to be switched on as soon as the boiler
lighted up
3. The transformer should be energized only when gas temperature is
above 100ºC.Even though the precipitator design allows start up from a
clod condition, it is likely that considerable moisture from the gases
may condense on to the cold collector
System, when a precipitator is charged in cold condition . This will
result in dust adhering to the collecting electrodes forming a wet layer
on the
electrodes .As the precipitator dries out .this layer will get backed / on
to the collecting electrodes and it will be extremely difficult to remove it
by normal rapping .Wet dust falling on to the hopper may also stick on
the hopper walls and even the hopper opening. Hence the transformer
is to be energized only when the gas temperature reaches 100ºC and is
 103

increasing at a sustained rate rather then dwelling at a moderate

temperature slightly below 100ºC.
4) The optimum amperage setting depends upon various factors such
as flue gas condition, dust concentration etc. Excess amperage
setting may cause frequent snapping of emitting electrodes due to
spark erosion and bring down the useful corona power .the
optimum amperage for each fields will be just below the spark
overload.
Operation checks
The following equipments should be periodically checked to
ensure normal functioning of ESP
a) Transformers
b) Electronic controllers
c) Rapping Mechanisms
d) Heating Elements
e) Ash Handling System
f) Auxiliary Control Panels
The following observation should be recorded at least once in an hour in
the log book
a) Boiler Load
b) Flue gas temperature at the inlet of the precipitator
c) All the reading in the electronic controller and Auxiliary control
panel.
Any failure of components, the outage, the probalic cause and the
corrective action taken are all to be recorded
Operation of ESP under following condition may cause excessive dust
depositor on the internals

a) Prolonged operation of ESP without rapping mechanisms being

operated
b) Energisation operation of ESP with wet internals
c) Operation of ESP below Acid dew point
 104

d) The flue gas entering the ESP being misty due to incomplete flue
combustion particularly at the time of initial boiler operation
Accumulation of such dust deposited not only causes reduction of
precipitator efficiency, but also result in unstable operation rapid corrosion
of electrodes and failure of insulators
Shut down
1. When the gas temperature drops to the acid dew point of the gas ,the
transformer should be switched off
2. The rapping motor, should be run for at lest 30 minutes after switching
off the power to the transformers
3. The fly ash evacuation system (Ash mixing Vessels) should be in
service until all the hopper are completely emptied
4. Only when the precipitator internals have cooled down to a safe level,
the access doors should be opened duly following the interlock
sequence . Access door must be opened with caution as hot ash may
fall out
5. During shut down all the internals should be inspected for
a) Snapped or loose wires
b) Excessive ash accumulation
c) Displacement of shock bars guides and collecting. Electrodes
d) Any other abnormality
6. During short duration shutdown, when no work is expected. Inside ESP,
ESP inlet and outlet damper should be kept Closed .The casing doors should
not be opened .This helps in retaining as much heat as possible and thus
reduces the precipitator start up time .The heaters need not be switched off
during such conditions
7. If an inspection of ESP is required during short duration shutdown, the
door are to be closed as soon as the internals checks are completed. In this
case heaters may have to be switched off for carrying out inspection.

Warning
 105

On no account must access to ESP internals attempted until HV system are

switched off ,earthling rods are applied ,interlock sequence is adhere to and
inside temperature is dropped to a safe level
8.Normally the precipitator does not required any periodical manual
cleaning ,since the rapping system ensure adequate cleaning of the
internals, during the operation. However during mini shut down ,if excessive
ash deposit is noticed, the internals are to be cleaned. Removal of sticky dust
may be done with brushes,scrappers,compressed air or water. Use of water is
most effective method. The cause of such excessive deposits will have to be
identified and rectified.
Maintainence
General
To ensure required performance of ESP,periodical maintenance may have to
be carried out during shut down. Every available shut down may be utilized
to clear the excessive ash build up, if any. During routine checkup for
maintenance.
(a)All the internals ,casing , hoppers and roof shall be inspected for
corrosion,erosion,wear and tear and leakages .
(b) The asbestos ropes and gaskets shall be replaced whenever required.
(a) The position of guide vanes ,spillters,defelectors plates on the gas
distribution screen should not be disturbed during inspection or
maintenance.
Mechanical system
Collecting electrode system
a. The collecting electrodes, shock bars and guides are to be checked for
alignment
b. If the shock pad is worn out excessively , it is to be replaced
c. If dust building is excessive ,the rapping mechanism is to be checked

Emitting electrodes
 106

1.The emitting electrodes ,should be checked for excessive erosion due to

sparking and for snapping .Such electrodes are to be replaced care should
be taken to ensure that the healthy electrodes are not disturbed ,while
replacing the snapped or eroded electrodes
2.Whenever access is difficult, the intervening electrodes may be
unhooked for easy approach and rehooked while returning after
replacement
3.While stretching an electrode for hooking the stretching tool must be
used always .if an electrode is over stretched, the same should be
discarded.
4.The support insulator and screen tube are to be inspected for excessive
dust buildup .if dust build up on frame is excessive, the rapping
mechanism is to be checked.

Rapping system
1.The plain bearing in the rapping shaft is to be checked for wear. When
the wear is more then 8mm,it is to be replaced. During such replacement,
it is preferable to replace the complete set of plain bearing ,since retaining
some old bearing will result in excessive wear on the new ones. When
replacing the bearings, alignment should be maintained.
2.The worn out shaft could be replaced along with the bearing. After the
replacement, the rapping system should be test run to establish
satisfactory performance and the bolt as and nuts must be locked by tack
welding
3.The hammer and arm assembly shall be inspected for excessive wear on
hammer /pins worn-out assemblies are to be replaced .the inner arm of
the should be locked by tack welding the bolts and nuts .the hammer
should be so fixed that they hit at the center of the shock pad beam
4.The SKF bearing assembly in the rapping drive system normally requires
no maintenances. However if the bearing is disturbed for replacement of
any components, the following procedure should be adopted for assembly.
I. The Plummer block top and bottom housing and other internals are
to be cleaned
 107

II. The end seals, adopter sleeve and the bearing are to be inserted
into the shaft and should be placed on the bottom half of bearing
III. The seals are to be fixed in the corresponding grooves and the
bearing must be locked by guide rings
IV. The nut of the adopter sleeve is then tightened and locked by
bending one tooth of the washer to the slot of the nut
V. Grease is to be applied to one third volume of the housing and
then top housing should be closed .lithium based grease grade 3
of IS 1002 such as IOC MOBILUX –3 or SERVOGEM –3 or HP BEACON
–2 can be used
Electrical system
General
Before commencing work on any electrical equipment ear thing
devices must be connected to all high voltage parts. the end of the
cable on ear thing rod must always be connected to earth before the
rods are applied
Insulators
The following checks are to be carried out for upkeep of insulator
1.The insulators are to be inspected for cleanliness and rigidity of
metal parts
2.Dusty insulators should be cleaned with carbon tetrachloride and
dried
3.Cracked insulators ,if any should be replaced
4.Bushing insulator and pin insulator of the disconnecting switch can
be easily replaced after removing the fixed screws.
5.Support insulators can be removed and replaced with the help of
lifting tool and alignment jig.
Heating elements
Normally the heating elements required very little maintenance.
Failure of the heating elements can occur either due to ingress of
moisture or water into the terminal box or due to damage caused by
hammering
 108

of the hopper walls. Hence hammering of hopper wall should not be

restored to in any case and the thermal box covers should also be
kept water tight
Factors affecting ESP performance
The performance of the precipitator is influenced by a number of
factor ,may of which are controllable. some of the variable factors
which influence efficiency are narrated below .it should be the aim of
the operator to obtain optimum condition by adjusting the
controllable variable.
Resistivity
When the ESP is in service ,the negatively charged dust ions travels
to the collecting electrodes and gradual buildup of dust layer may
take place at certain point .the current due to corona discharge has
to pass though these layers and the resistively of ash at these point
result in a voltage drop across the dust layers. consequently an
electric field within the layer is setup ,the field strength of which
lends the dust layer a force for greater bonding at the collecting
electrodes .the process of removing the dust collection would get
impeded at such a situation.
Moreover, when such an ash built up cumulatively become large ,the
abnormally high strength of its field may cause a corona like
discharge (which is aptly known as back corona )producing both
positive and negative ions .the negative ions migrate quickly to the
collecting electrodes .in this condition where positive and negative
charges find position between electrodes ,resulting in either
neutralizing the other ,the ash freely escape to stack .the
precipitator performance will be affected in the situation.
At gas temperature above 250ºC,the resistively of the dust layer
falls and they become conducting .in practice it is considered that
the resistively value below 10 ohm’s are considered safe
The restively of ash dust will be low if the ESP is located before
air preheater i.e., immediately after the
economizers. Such an
 109

arrangement is called as hot ESP installation. But in this case ,the

materials used for the ESP should be designed to withstand high
temperatures.
Cleanliness of electrodes
The performance of the ESP depends on the amount of electrical power
absorbed by the system. The highest collection efficiency is achieved
when maximum possible electrical power for a given set of operating
condition is utilized in the precipitation process. During the operation of
a precipitator the applied voltage is reduced by the potential drop
across the deposited dust layer on the collecting electrodes will also
lead to unstable operating condition .the dust deposited on the
emitting wires results in non –uniform corona. In view of the above
facts, it become necessary to ensure proper working of rapping system
of both collecting and emitting electrodes to get sustained high
collection efficiency in ESP

Gas temperature
The gas temperature at the ESP should be maintained sufficiently high
since operation of the precipitator at gas temperature below the acid
dew point results in the following

1. Failure of emitting electrodes due to stress corrosion

cracking
2. Corrosion of the internals.
3. Collection of wet dust on the electrodes leading to
formation of “Hard –to-rap” layers and consequent
reduction in the performance of ESP
4. Difficulty in the removal of wet dust from the hoppers
Spark rate
Too high a flash over rate will not only result in reduction of useful
power and interruption of precipitation process ,but will also cause
snapping of emitting electrodes due to electrical erosion .it is
recommended that for the best performance the flash over rate shall
 110

not exceed 5 spark per minute .An automatic voltage controller

maintain constant flash over rate

Rapping frequency
If the rapping frequency is insufficient dust accumulation will be there on the
electrodes .Too high a rapping frequency will dislodge the dust layer before
formation of agglomerates resulting in re-entrainment and puffs through the
stack .Hence the time intervals between the raps for the various fields are to
be optimally chosen to permit building of a sufficiently thick layer ,so that
when rapped ,the dust is dislodged in the form of agglomerates
Oil combustion
During initial startup ,unburnt oil ,if any may get carried over and form a
coating on the electrodes in the ESP. This fouling of this electrodes reduce the
precipitator operating voltage due to high electrical resistivity.so the
precipitator performance gets affected and remain poor until the oil vaporizes
and the layer gets rapped off, which usually takes a few weeks time. Also the
unbrunt oil in the ESP poses the danger of fire hazard. Hence low current
setting (without any flashover) are recommended during oil firing
Dust concentration in flue gases
The dust concentration in the gases is much higher in the front part of the
precipitator then in the rear .the current distributions is influenced by the
dust concentration ,where it is high, the current is suppressed ,i.e. .inlet fields
will take less current then the outlet fields
Hopper evacuation
Incomplete hopper evacuation is a major causes for the precipitator mal-
function .if the hopper are not emptied regularly ,the dust will buildup to the
high tension emitting system causing shorts. also the dust can push the
internals up causing misalignment of the electrodes .though the hopper are
designed for a storage capacity of 8 hours under MCR conditions. the hopper
should not be regarded as a storage space for collected dust and ash
accumulation in the hopper should not be allowed
Air conditioning of control cabins
 111

In order to ensure that the sophisticated electronic controls will be in proper

working condition ,it is essential to maintain a dust free atmosphere with
controlled ambient condition. it is therefore necessary to keep the air
conditioners in proper working conditions
Conclusion
Electro static precipitator equipment have established its superiority over
other method of fly ash separation
1. It consumes only very little power say only about 0.5% of the power
generation
2. Pressure drop across ESP is only one third of the widely used
mechanical separation. Consequently draught loss on the gas side
reduced and power consumed by the ID fans is lesser
3. A guaranteed efficiency of 99% is achieved with very little fly ash in the
exit gas ,the plume gas coming out of the chimneys not ever visible.
4. Since the minute ash particle of size less then 5 microns ,coming out of
the chimney, is also spread over a larger area due to 170 m tall
chimney, air pollution is very much reduced ,in TS-II dust concentration
in the outgoing flue gas is 150mg/nm³ .98%of the particles are below 5
microns

Ash emission through chimney

50 % of particles –less then 2 microns
40 % of particles –2 microns to 3 microns
8 % of particles – 3 microns to 5 microns
23 % of particles –more then 5 microns
 112

BO8-HYDRO ASH DISPOSAL SYSTEM

Bottom ash &clinker ash disposal

The clinker ash deposited over the water wall tubes are dislodged by
operating water soot blowers periodically. In addition, some clinkers get
dislodged due to any variation in furnace condition. The furnace bottom is a
hopper like arrangement from 16.5 m level to 7.7 m level to discharge clinker
ash as well as bottom ash emanated from combustion chamber.
During operation of lignite firing system, a low percentage of pulverized fuel
[articles will escape from the combustion chamber before complete
combustion and fall into furnace bottom along with bottom ash. This loss of
fuel is known as mechanical under burning. In order to minimize mechanical
under burning, two numbers of After grate are installed below the furnace
hopper at 7.76m level. Grate air is admitted to these grates not only for
burning these unburnt fuel particles but also to protect the grates against
furnace radiation.
The burnt ash from the grates are discharged to the furnace bottom along
with bottom ash emanated from combustion chamber. They are made to fall
over a set of breaker bars. Then they fall into a slag bath kept at ‘o’ m level. a
hydraulic seal is provided at the furnace bottom with the help of immersion
dampers. The quenched slag is disposed of by a slag conveyor running in the
slag bath.
Sluiceways
Sluiceways are nothing but slopping channels which are located below the
after burning grates. Both channels are sloped such that their discharging
direction will be towards the center of the furnace. The sluice ways are
mainly intended to collect ash particles falling through ABG louvers and also
to trap any bottom ash and smaller clinker ash falling in the between water
wall tubes and the grates. The ash particles collected are disposed off with
the help of service water admitted through jets at the upstream of
sluiceways.
 113

The mixture of water and ash fall to the slag bath. There is a hand-operated
damper in each sluiceway, which can be adjusted accordingly.

Immersion dampers
The furnace bottom is having a set of dampers known as immersion dampers.
They are mainly provided to connect/disconnect furnace bottom to the slag
bath. It consists of six hydraulically operated flaps. When they are kept
vertically straight, these flaps immerse in the water in slag bath, which
prevents any air ingress into the furnace.
Slag bath
The slag bath is nothing but a tub of size 1880mmx10000mm filled with
water. All the sides of the bath is vertical except rear side, here in a slope is
given for easy discharge of slag. The slag bath bottom plate has fusion cast
basalt lining. The slag bath is filled with water upto a level1275mm from the
bottom. Service water is supplied to this bath apart from preventing air
ingress into the furnace, ensures effective quenching and also disintegration
of fused large size particles. the make up to the slag bath is done
continuously. A slag conveyor is provided to discharge quenching slag from
the bottom of the slag bath to the slag channel. A 3 phase, 415V, 7.5KW,
1445rpm, 14 amps motor installed in a separate platform drives ad rive
sprocket fixed at the end of inclined plater at the rear via a safety clutch and
a gear box
Fly ash collection hoppers
Taking ash content in the lignite as 12%, about 24 tonnes of fly ash particles
are generated per hour. Estimated bottom ash in the boiler is 3.6 t/hr, where
as fly ash is 20.4 t/hr.This fly ash will be collected in different parts of the gas
path viz below second pass duct, below RAPH, below ESP and below chimney.
Dry ash collection
In ESP, the hoppers of first two fields are connected to the rotary feeder
through the inclined adopter. It can be replaced by an inverted ‘Y’ piece with
one outlet pipe leading to the ash mixing vessel and other to the dry ash
collection for the purpose of dry ash collection
 114

Rotary feeder
The maximum quantity of fly ash particles are separated from the flue gas in
the first field of ESP and a moderate quantity are being collected in the
second field;
whereas in the other fields, the quantity will be less. In order to dispose
uniformly ash particles stored in the hoppers of first two fields of ESP a
special type of ash scooping device known as rotary feeder is provided.
Rotary feeder consists of an impeller having radial blades. This feeder is
located just below the ESP hopper after the plate isolation valve the ash
scooped by the rotary feeder is then discharged to Ash mixing vessel.
Ash mixing vessels
Ash mixing vessels are provided below ash hoppers to mix ash and water into
slurry. There are fifty-two ash-mixing vessels in each boiler.
Ash mixing vessel comprises of three chambers known as

1.Regulating chamber
2.Mixing chamber
3.Discharge chamber

Slag channel Ash slurry channel

The discharge from slag conveyor falls into the channel and this is the
starting point of slag channel. The channel is provided with a slope of 1:75. A
low-pressure water jet is provided at the starting point of the channel in order
to transport slag in the channel. The slurry from gas duct ash mixing vessel
and RAPH ash mixing vessels joins this slag channel. Numbers of high-
pressure water jets are provided in the channel to ensure free flow of slurry.
Number of HP water jets provided for each boiler is 40. The main channel is
located at a minimum depth of two meters and are covered with RCC slab.
The channel which is of 482mm wide is provided with walk ways of size
759mm on one side and 259mm on other side which facilitate cleaning. the
two main channels of boiler 4 and 5 join together and enters a slurry
chamber. from this chamber, slurry can be diverted to any of three slurry
 115

sumps. From each of these sumps, a set of slurry pumps pumps out the slurry
to the ash bund.

Ash disposal complex

It consists of an ash water pump house, and two independent ash slurry
pump house. The ash water pump house is common for all the four boilers,
were as one ash slurry pump house is meant for boilers 4and 5 known as
ADPH-1 and the other for boilers 6 and 7 known as ADPH-2
Ash water sump
The ash water sump, which is of size 36mx10x6m, is divided into two
identical chambers, which are interconnected by a manual isolation gate.
Each chamber at its northern end is further divided into three compartments.
Manual isolation gates are provided at the entry point of each of each of
these compartments for isolation purposes. From each compartment, suction
for a pair of HP/LP pump is provided.
The main chambers are fed with water from any of the following
 Make up from turbine condenser outlet or cooling tower blow down line
 Make up from lake (raw water)
 Make from ash water recovery
 Make up from pontoon pump from mine-ii
High-pressure water system
High-pressure water jets are required to carry out the following functions
 To maintain continuous movement of ash slurry in ash slurry channels
 To create turbulence in the ash slurry sump during slurry pit cleaning
 To flush ash slurry discharge lines after shut down of ash slurry pumps
 To maintain the channels and its surroundings neat and clean
There are six high-pressure water pumps. Out of which normally four of them
will be in service and the remaining two will be kept as standby. Each pump is
of four stage vertical pump of capacity 300m3/hr, and delivery pressure 9
kg/cm2
Low pressure water system
 116

Low-pressure water is required in the ash disposal system to execute the

following
 To mix with ash to form ash slurry in the ash mixing vessel
 To maintain ash slurry sump level if required and

 To clean slag conveyor chain

There are six low pressure water pumps out of which four low pressure(L.P)
water pumps will be kept in service and the other two as reserve. Each low-
pressure water pump is of two stage vertical pump, with 550m3/hr at 7.0
kg/cm2

Seal water system

Seal water system provides seal water to protect the pump’s gland seals
against erosion and also top increase the life of gland seal. there are two seal
water pumps, which are installed in the ash slurry pump house1 . Each pump
delivers at the rate of 180m3/hr at pressure of 19.5 kg/cm2.the pump is of
horizontal centrifugal multistage pump.

Ash slurry house

A separate ash slurry pump house is provided for unit 4 and 5 and similarly
another pump house for unit 6 and 7.

Drain pumps

Two number of vertical drain pumps are provided in each ash slurry pump
house to pump out accumulated water and ash mixture in the ash drain sump
to the plant sewage drain each pump is capable of delivering at the rate of
80 m3/hr at a pressure of 1.5 kg/cm2.
 117

BO9-INTERNAL TREATMENT OF BOILER WATER

INTRODUCTION
The steam generators operating at elevated pressures require a very high
standard of purity. The water for make up is treated in water treatment
plant by an ion exchange process.(External treatment of water) Raw water
taken from three bore wells is allowed to pass through the following
equipments sequentially to remove impurities present. 1. Pressure sand
filter 2. Activated coal filter. 3. Cationic exchanger. 4. Degasifier. 5. Anionic
exchanger. (Primary) 6, Anionic exchanger (secondary) 7. Mixed bed ionic
exchanger. About 2700 T/day of deminerlised water is prepared and
supplied to the boilers. The make up water is added at condenser hot well.
However, in the process of continuous formation of steam in the process
cycle, the impurities build up over a period as concentrations which when
exceed solubility limits, precipitation occurs in the circulation system of the
steam generators.
The main objective of the internal treatment of water is to maintain the
level of technical purity of water at prescribed levels at all times thereby
ensuring economy and efficiency in operation &reliability of equipment by
preventing deterioration and damage to internals of steam generators due
to water chemical regime imbalances.
Problems in boiler due to improper water treatment:
If water treatment is not done satisfactorically to bring down the impurities
level in water to the desired value, it may lead to many problems in
operation of a boiler such as scale formation, corrosion, sludge formation,
steam contamination due to carry over, caustic embrittlement and Silica
entrainment.
Scale formation
 118

The solubility of a substance in water is the weight dissolved when the

substance is in equilibrium with its saturated solution. As evaporation takes
place in a boiler the steam evaporates leaving back the salts in boiler water
itself. The boiler water thus becomes s supersaturated with salts, which
separates out and forms adherent layer of `scale’ on the metal surfaces.
Solubility is also affected by the presence of other compounds dissolved in
the solvent, and temperature.
Solubility increases with rise in temperature but hard salts like CaCo3,
CaSo4 have reverse solubility. As water temperature in boiler increases to a
maximum value (saturation temperature corresponding to the boiler
pressure) these salts separate out and form hard scales in boiler tube
metal surfaces. Such scales formed on the metal surface normally possess
low heat conductivity. Each millimeter layer of such a scale will be
equivalent to 12 mm layer of insulating material. This heat resisting scale is
doing enormous harms to the boiler.
1.Heat transfer gets impeded which leads over heating of metals and
there are chances of metal failure.
2.More fuel is to be supplied to maintain desired evaporation rate.
3.Over heating of other heat recovery areas like super heaters,
reheaters as more fuel is supplied to the furnace and also results in
increase in super heated steam temperature and difficulty in controlling
it.
4.In view of higher fuel consumption, more heat is carried from the
furnace resulting in higher heat losses in boiler.
5.The increased scale thickness reduces the effective diameter of the
tube and induces more resistance to flow. This affects circulation in
boiler.
6.Apart from the above, corrosion takes place in places of scale
formation. The scales are normally porous which get hardened through
the small pores; water may be drawn to the underlying metal surface by
capillary forces. Water evaporates there and leaves back the salts. This
is called `wick boiling’. This evaporation process can concentrate
aggressive salts sufficient to induce corrosion on the metal surface.
 119

Corrosion:
Corrosion can be defined as the destruction of metal by chemical or electro
chemical action. Corrosion process can be broadly classified as
1. Chemical corrosion
2. Electro chemical corrosion.

Chemical corrosion:
It arises due to purely chemical processes and occurs subsequent to direct
interaction between metal and surroundings without generation of electric
current.
Electro chemical corrosion:
This originates when metal is attacked by electrolytic solutions and is
characterized by the flow of current from one part of metal to another.
Oxygen corrosion:
Presence of dissolved oxygen in boiler water is dangerous to the boiler
heating surfaces. Oxygen enters into the system through ingress in
condenser and as dissolved O2 in water, which is system, make up.
Processes of mutual oxide conversion accompanied by a change of valence
can under some conditions lead to honey comb corrosion. This is nothing
but sharply pronounced local destruction of metal (i.e.) pitting, where
volume of corrosion product is larger than iron. This out growth over the pits
appears like honeycomb.
Carbon dioxide corrosion:
The other corrosive agent that may find its way to boiler water is
carbondioxide. CO2 is generated itself by the decomposition of carbonates
and bicarbonates introduced in feed water.
Acid corrosion:
Some inorganic salts MgCL2 dissolve in water and produce acidity with
precipitation of Mg (OH) 2which reacts with iron and produce ferrous
chloride and hydrogen. Ferrous chloride gets reduced in water as ferrous
hydroxide and produce HCL. Thus a chain of reactions takes places
producing corrosive acids like HCL.
 120

Sludge formation:
In order to prevent scale formation, chemicals are dozed into boiler water,
which converts scale-forming salts into soft suspended solids.
This continuous sedimentation of suspended solids and sometimes
corrosion products, wear metals from bearings, impeller and pump shafts
or mill scales and dirt left in the vessel at start up forms loose, soft deposits
in water wall header called sludge.
This type of deposits often bakes on water wall tubes impeding the
circulation of water. This effect is aggravated by contaminants including oil,
ferric oxide, basic magnesium phosphate and various silicates that serve as
binders.
Steam contamination:
Carry over:
The phenomenon of transfer of substances (sodium, silica and carbon di-
oxide) present in water, which is called carry over of salts. The amount of
salt carry over in steam is influenced by pressure and temperature of
boiler. The solubility of some substances is considerably higher at higher
temperature and pressures.
Carry over is said to be of the droplet kind when impurities get into steam
mostly with boiler water droplets taken away from drum. Droplets of
moisture originate in the drum of a boiler unit as a result of two processes
namely breaking of water and destruction of steam bubbles.
Water usually breaks into particles as the jets of the steam –water mixture
entering the steam space of the drum strike all kinds of baffles and
partitions that are placed on the paths of jets so as to quench their kinetic
energy. Such impacts result in the formation of droplets of different size.
The higher the velocity of a steam water mixture jet entering the drum, the
finer the droplets that forms as the jet strikes a baffle. Fine droplets are
easily entrained by the steam leaving the drum. That is why in designing
and constructing drum internals, water-breaking processes must be
minimized or precluded together.
The second source of formation of droplets is the rupture of steam bubbles,
when the steam- water mixture is introduced into the drum below the level
 121

of boiler water, the rupture of steam bubbles is accompanied by the

formation of fine droplets that are thrown into the vapour space in all
directions. If the initial kinetic energy of a droplet is sufficiently large, the
droplet will be thrown to greater height. The droplet may reach the steam
separating devices and be entrained by steam flow into the steam super
heater. The greater the height of the steam space in a boiler drum the
smaller the possibility of the entrainment of such droplets since they
gradually lose energy and fall down.
Selective carry over becomes appreciable (due to the solubility of
substances in steam) at a pressure of 70 ata and higher. The origination of
selective carry over is traced to the fact that the individual substances
contained in boiler water are able to dissolve in higher pressure (and
temperature) of steam. A distinctive representative of such substances is
silicic acid H2SIO3, whose solubility in steam increases sharply beginning
with a pressure of 70 ata. In addition to silicic acid, other substances (Nacl,
Na2SO4) show a tendency towards selective carry over at high pressures.
The quality of saturated steam depends on many factors, including the
design features of a boiler, the height and volume of the steam space, the
method of steam separation and discharge from the drum, efficiency of
drum internals and other factors. Carry over may be due to foaming or
priming.
Foaming:
Foaming in boilers is caused by high concentrations of alkali and salts by
finely dispersed suspended solids, in particular, oxides of iron and copper
and by colloids such as silts or saponifiable oil. Also the evolution of
bubbles of co2 released by the decomposition of Carbonates produces a
layer of foam on the surface of the water in the steam drum similar to that
on a glass of beer. The persistence of foam becomes greater as the
concentrations of salts in the boiler water and surface tension increases.
Foam is composed of bubbles of steam separated from each other by thin
films of boiler water. These are stabilized by repelling forces, principally
electric charges that arise at the steam -liquid interface. Thinning of liquid
film is opposed by the electrical repulsion of similar charges on both
 122

surfaces, which prevents rupturing and coalescence. Hydrophilic colloids

such as magnesium hydroxide, micelles of silica and organic salts can all
induce foaming upon being absorbed at these interfaces. When stable
bubbles pile up on the surface of the water in the drum, solids dissolved or
absorbed in the water films pass into steam system and form scales in
super heater and fouling in turbines.
If the water level is below the opening in blow down line, the concentration
of TDS increases, initiating foaming in the boilers.
Priming
Priming is a term that describes violent surging of water into steam outlet
as a result of improper design, too high firing rate or fluctuation of
steaming rate. Improper distribution of fires results in uneven heating that
can cause priming, in which boiler water is thrown into the steam outlet.
Load swings the rule rather than the exception in many plants generating
process steam have a similar effect, as do high or low water levels in drum.
If the water level is too low, the steam separation surface is diminished and
the water may be thrown into steam system by intensive turbulence.
Actuating soot blowers or intermittent blow down valves also produce
turbulence in boiler.
Volatilization of silica:
Silica is objectionable in boiler water in two aspects. It forms calcium and
magnesium silicates, which forms very hard scale on the heating surfaces.
Even if hardness is kept extremely low, it combines with other elements to
form complex sodium – aluminum silicates. The second serious objection is
its tendency to be carried along with steam and get deposited in super
heater tubes or turbine blades, which cause increased resistance to flow of
steam, rise in stage pressure and reduction in efficiency.
In a closed system consisting of water containing dissolved matter, in
equilibrium with vapour, the dissolved matter distributes itself
quantitatively between the vapour and the water, in a ratio which depends
on the nature of the dissolved matter and the temperature and the
pressure of the system. This ratio of concentration in vapour/ concentration
in water is called as distribution ratio and increases as the temperature is
 123

raised. In the case of volatile substances such as ammonia, the distribution

ratio is high. But in mineral substances such as silica, the distribution ratio
at low pressure and temperature are small. But at pressures of 63.3 ksc or
above the effect becomes significant with regard to silica.
In high-pressure boilers, silica becomes appreciably volatile in steam or
may be regarded as being soluble in it.
The volatility of silica is thus proportional to its concentration in the boiler
water and the operating pressure and inversely proportional to the P H of
water. The effect of alkalinity on the volatility of silicic acid in a boiler
operated at 108.6 ksc is given below in the table.

SILICA IN STEAM/
PH SILICA IN WATER
(%)
12 0.55
11 0.77
10 1.02
9 1.25
8 1.48
7 1.73

If the concentration of silica in steam exceeds 0.03 ppm, troublesome

deposits are sure to form in turbines. Because turbine scales are too
troublesome it is preferable to be conservative with respect to silica
concentrations. It has been generally accepted that no significant
deposition of silica will occur in turbine, if the concentration of silica in
steam does not exceed 0.02 ppm. The following table lists operating
pressures and the corresponding maximum allowable concentrations of
silica in the boiler water.
 124

MAXIMUM SILICA IN BOILER WATER

PRESSURE IN PPM SIO2
Ksc (MAXIMUM)
7.03 250.0
14.06 200.0
21.09 175.0
35.15 40.0
43.18 35.0
52.73 30.0
63.27 20.0
70.30 10.0
105.45 3.0
140.06 1.0
175.75 0.50
224.96 0.02

Addition of certain salts like sodium chloride, sodium sulphate and tri
sodium phosphate to boiler water causes the concentration of silica in
steam to decrease. The amount of silica introduced into the system by
mechanical carry over however is negligible at pressures above 35 ksc
compared to that volatilized.
The concentration of silica in boiler water may be controlled in three
ways.
1. Limiting the ingress of silica to feed water by careful control of
D.M plant.
2. Controlling the silica level of the boiler water by blow down.
3. By limiting the ingress of silica bearing materials into the feed
and boiler system.

Caustic embitterment:
Hydroxyl ion in contact with metal under stress causes the deterioration
and eventual failure of the metal by a process of embrittlement. This was
common in riveted boilers but with advent of welded, stress-relieved boiler,
this phenomenon has become rare.
 125

The principal factors in caustic embitterment are 1) localized strains2)

impurities in grain boundaries 3) stress caused by improper welding and 4)
seepage or leaking of boiler water through rivet holes or seams leading to
localized concentrations of free alkali. Stress corrosion cracking is
predominately inter granular and occurs only when steel is stressed beyond
its elastic limit while in contact with a solution containing not less than the
equivalent of 7.5 % Noah. The intergranular corrosion is selective that the
concentration of hydroxyl ions is critical and tat silica accelerate stress
corrosion cracking. Hydroxyl ion peptizes the protective film of magnetite
and silicate acts as an inhibitor of general corrosion. Thus the grains are
protected at the expense of grain boundaries and cracking along the
boundaries ensures.
Internal treatment:
The water treated in the water treatment plant /T.S II will be of the
following quality.
Total solids at the outlet : Not greater than 0.5 ppm
Silica : Not to exceed 0.02 ppm
Conductivity at the outlet : Not greater than 0.5 micro mho/cm
at 20 º c
A proper external treatment ensures that the incoming water will have very
less solid concentration. If and when the salt concentration exceeds the
solubility limits precipitation results during the process steam formation
These hard salts tend to form scale deposits in boiler which can be
countered by dozing a softening chemical- Tri- sodium phosphate.
The other major problem of corrosion is resisted by isolating oxygen and
ensuring that boiler water is kept at slight alkaline range (PH of 9 to 10 .5).
The oxygen removal is by dozing hydrazine hydrate. These two treatments
are internal treatments done in boiler to ensure against scale formation and

corrosion in boiler and to maintain the quality of water to the desired

standards.
 126

Phosphate dozing
To prevent the formation of hard scale and form in its place a soft sludge
type precipitate, a softening chemical is added to the boiler water. This is
accomplished by the addition sodium phosphate which precipitates calcium
and magnesium salts and maintains them in soft non-adherent sludge
condition, which can be removed through blow down.
Among the phosphate salts, Tri-sodium phosphate is chosen for a specific
reason i.e. if we select any other phosphate salt another alkali should be
dozed to maintain the alkalinity of the water, whereas the excess Tri-
sodium phosphate hydrolysis to give sodium hydroxide.
Inter crystalline corrosion and caustic embitterment in the boiler is due to
excess alkalinity of boiler water. This danger is avoided with the use of Tri-
sodium phosphate. We know that excess phosphate by hydrolysis, become
sodium hydroxide resulting in increasing alkalinity.
Before the sodium hydroxide exceeds the danger limit (i.e. 3-6%), the
process of hydrolysis of Na3 PO4 slows down with increase in the
concentration of Noah and the reverse reaction will ensue. So it is seen that
po4 dozing prevents scale formation and also maintains the necessary
alkalinity in boiler water.
Certain recent studies have indicated that excess dozing of Tri-sodium
phosphate forms phosphate ions which have harmful effect on the
protective magnetite (Fe3o4) layer that is formed on the metal surfaces by
the action of hydrazine and the metal is no longer protected but is exposed
to corrosion.
In highly concentrated alkali protective film of magnetite dissolves forming
a mixture of ferrite and hypo ferrite, the following Table lists suitable
phosphate residuals in boiler at various pressures up to 140.6 ksc together
maximum permissible hardness in the corresponding feed water.

Suggested ranges for phosphate

Max pressure Phosphate in boiler Max. Hardness in
Ksc water ppm feed water caco3
 127

7.o3 Not recommended 79

14.06 40-50 20
21.09 30-40 2
35.15 25-30 2
42.18 20-25 0.2
52.23 15-20 0.1
63.27 10-15 0.05
70.30 5-10 0.05
105.45 3-6 0.00
140.6 1-3 0.00

Phosphate dozing system

PO4&N2H4 storage tanks &dozing pumps are provided for all the four
boilers.
The phosphate dozing rate is to be adjusted such a slight excess
phosphate value is maintained in the boiler to avoid scale formation and
also to ensure magnetite is not removed. The dozing is done by one of the
two reciprocating pumps provided for each boiler.

Phosphate dilution tanks

There is a vertical tank, flat in the top and hemispherical in the bottom and
is supported on legs. There is a hinged cover on top of the basket. The tank
has an over flow and a drain arrangement. An air vent and demineralised
water supply line are also provided.
In case of maintenance of the main phosphate solution preparation tank,
PO4 solution can be prepared here itself or if required PO 4 solution can be
diluted further. A level indicator is fitted on the side of the tank.
Suction for the Po4 pump is taken from the bottom of the tank. From each
tank suction goes to two Po4 pumps for one unit. Once filled the solution is
sufficient for 8 hours shift.
Phosphate dozing pump
Model UMPN2
 128

Supplier MAT2
Capacity 80L/hr, 200kg/cm2
Motor 2.2 KW, 1430rpm, reciprocating type

Normally one pump will be in service for each unit and the other is kept as
stand by. The suction line from the tank has an isolating valve, after which
it branches off into two; one going to each pump; there is a valve and a Y
type strainer in the suction side of the pump. The two discharge lines are
joined together and are taken to the boiler drum. The stroke of the pump
can be adjusted so as to vary the discharge quantity of Po 4 solution
depending on the Po4 values in the boiler water. The stroke adjustments
can be effected by means of the hand wheel provided in the pump.
It is to be noted that feeding of phosphate solution is done by adding it to
the drum water and not to the feed water. There are two reasons. The scale
forming matter may prematurely precipitate and deposit in the feed lines
heaters and economizers if Po 4 is added to the feed water. Also the
solubility of certain salts decrease at high temperature. As water
temperature tends to be near the maximum value in the drum solubility of
salts is minimum and hence are likely to precipitate.

Hydrazine dozing:
Another important internal treatment is dosing of hydrazine into
feed water for preventing corrosion. Corrosion can be prevented by the
isolation of metal fro the environment. Removing O 2 and Co2 by mechanical
deaeration and dosing N2H4 to feed water, which removes even traces of O 2
from the

feed water and also form a thin protective coating on the metal
surfaces is the practice adopted in our boilers.
Deaeration
 129

Deaeration is the process of removal of dissolved gases by raising the

water to its saturation temperature for the particular pressure under which
the process is conducted.
For oxygen removal, steam is used as the scrubbing gas. Mechanical
separation of gas bubbles results when separation conditions are achieved
and when the vapour pressure of the liquid solvent and the solution
pressure of the dissolved gases appreciably exceed the pressure imposed
on the system. Under these conditions, all the gases become insoluble.
About 90-to95 % of O2 is removed in this manner.
Hydrazine treatment:
For further removal of oxygen either sodium sulphite or hydrazine can be
used. Hydrazine is found to possess distinct advantages over sodium
sulphite as de- oxygenating chemical.
1. Hydrazine is a powerful reducing agent and is effective in removing
even the last traces of oxygen in water.
2. It is a volatile liquid and as such does increase the solid contents in
the water either by itself or by its reaction with O2
3. The decomposition products of excess hydrazine are not acidic but
base.
4. Hydrazine reacts also with oxides of iron and copper and removes
them from system.
The magnetite oxide of iron (Fe3O4) obtained as the product of interaction
between rust (Fe2O3) and hydrazine forms a thin coating on the metal
surface and provides a protective layer preventing any further attack on the
metal.
Hydrazine is dozed slightly in excess such that all the oxygen is positively
removed from the system. The excess dozed hydrazine dissolves Ammonia,
Nitrogen and Hydrogen. Ammonia is alkaline in nature and it increases the Ph
of water. In addition it minimizes corrosion by Carbonic acid in condensate
the product

Ammonium. Hence protection against CO2 can also be achieved. A serious

disadvantage of Ammonia is that in the presence of O 2 at Ph above 8.3, it
 130

attacks non-ferrous metals like copper and alloys of copper. This reaction can
cause severe corrosion in condenser and water heaters constructed of copper
alloys. Further damage is done to boiler tubes by the soluble copper
ammonia ion, which adheres on steel and becomes a cathode and causes the
surrounding and underlying iron to dissolve.
The ammonia returns to the steam system to function again as a transfer
agent for copper. The following table lists the residual s of hydrazine that can
be maintained at various pressures. Concentrations in excess of the upper
values in the table decompose to ammonia. Increasing the feed rate of
hydrazine, thus increase the amount decomposed and the concentration of
ammonia in the steam.
Equilibrium concentration of hydrazine
Drum
63.27 Residual
0.1-0,15
70.3 0.1-0.15
105.45 0.05-0.1
140.6 0.05-0.1
175.75 0.02-0.03
210.90 0.01-0.02

Hence hydrazine dozing should be added at the earliest possible point in

boiler circulation system in a controlled manner. It should also be added
continuously since it is volatile and cannot build up a large residual in the
boiler water.
Hydrazine dozing system
For hydrazine dozing also we have a common hydrazine solution preparation
tank. The pumps arrangement and scheme are all similar to the PO4 scheme.
Hydrazine tank
There is a vertical tank. The tank has a hinged cover at the top. For stirring
the solution in the tank to ensure thorough mixing an agitator is provided.
A gauge glass is provided for the tank.
The tank has a water supply line connected to it from demineralised water
system. N2H4 is usually supplied at 22% concentration. The tank has an air
vent and a drain provision.
Hydrazine dozing pumps
 131

Out of the two pumps of each unit, one will be in service and the other is
kept as stand by. The N2 H4 line joins the feed pump suction line from
Deaerator. The line has an isolating valve and a non- return valve.
Model PR15
Manufacturer VK Pumps
Capacity 100L/hr
Pressure 36kg/cm2
Motor 0.5 kW, 1400rpm

Chemical analysis and control:

The greater the capacity of the unit, the higher the steam pressure and
temperature and this calls for stringent standards of purity of boiler water
depending on the design of the equipment and the operating conditions the
standards of chemical regime to be maintained are fixed. The allowable
variations are limited, it is very much necessary to have a continuous
monitoring and control over the quality of working fluid over the entire cycle
of operation. Hence routine analysis of boiler water and steam is to be done
1. To ensure proper operation of water treatment process
2. To detect contamination of boiler feed water
3. To ensure adequate protection of the boiler.
To accomplish these goals it is advisable to establish a testing schedule to
make sure that sufficient information is obtained at the right time with
optimum number of tests. As a first step in maintaining proper chemical
regime of boiler water, periodical true saplings must be obtained at crucial
points in the flow circuit.

Sampling system
The function of the sampling system is to provide samples characterizing
the water and steam at various locations for the quality control. Unless the
sample is true and reliable, the results of analysis would be incorrect. So, a
minimum continuous sample flow is effected for periodical collection for
 132

analysis. There are totally eight sampling points for the boiler as described
below.
1. Condensate:
Sample is collected from the common delivery line of condensate extraction
pumps at about ‘O’ meter level
2. Boiler feed pump (suction) water:
Sample is collected before the N2H2 dozing point in the boiler feed pump
suction line at about 13.5 meter level.
3. Feed water (to economiser):
Sample is taken in feed water inlet line to economizer at about 44metre
level.
4. Drum water:
Samples are taken from CBD at 23 ml.
5. Saturated steam:
Sample is taken from 2nd saturated steam pipe to super heater 1 inlet
header at about 85 meter level.
6. Superheated steam:
Samples are taken from main steam line sample interconnection pipe at
about 44 meter level.
8. DM water: Sampling is taken at CST.
All the sampling lines are bought to the sampling station located at 6-meter
level of boiler main building. The sampling lines are usually made of stainless
steel so that the line will not have any corrosion etc.
Each sampling line is provided with 2 hand-operated valves, one at tapping
point and another at the sampling station called the primary and secondary
valves respectively. Periodically samples are collected and tested at Express
lab.

In the sampling station, sample cooler has been provided for each sampling
line. The samplings temperature should be reduced and the steam samples
are to be condensed so as to facilitate easy handling.
 133

This is achieved in sample coolers where the samples flowing through coils, is
cooled by Auxiliary cooling water stream surrounding the coils.
The auxiliary cooling water for sample coolers is taken from ACW booster
pump.

Chemical regimes of boiler

The following are the valves to be monitored

Conductivit Feed Boiler Sat.Stea Sup.

y water water m Steam
Alkalinity 6.0 6.0 13 6.0 6
Ph 9.1 9.1 9.8 9.1 9.1

Conductivity 0.4 0.4 50 0.4 0.4

NH3 1.0

SIO2 0.02 0.02 0.3 0.02 0.02

Fe 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02

Dis.O2 <0.00
5
PO4 6

B010 - Protection& interlock (P&I) checks

 134

Introduction
In a modern power plant continuous and reliable operation of various
auxiliaries of a unit becomes necessary and this calls for an elaborate system
of protections and interlocks to ensure that either a defect in an equipment
or an operation error do not cause damage to the equipment. Protections are
provided to trip the boiler in case of faults so that the faulty equipment is
isolated without causing further damage. Interlocking is provided to switch in
the reserve equipment in case of a tripping of the running equipment to
enable continuity of supply.
Protections for steam generator
Drum level high
If the boiler drum level is more than +330mm for 5 seconds or more, the
boiler will trip. Three protection contacts are provided out of which 2 contacts
should be made for the protection to act.
The contacts are
 Level transmitter
 Level switch
 Hydrastep
Very high tripping signal will be given only when both channels gets
energized.

Drum level low

If the boiler drum level is very low, less than –310mm for more than 5
seconds, then the boiler will trip if two out of the following three contacts are
made

 Drum level transmitter

 Drum level switch
 Hydrastep
 135

Furnace pressure very low

When the furnace pressure drops to –25milli bar or more and persists for 2
seconds or more, the boiler will trip. Also it will cause tripping of both ID fans
Furnace pressure very high
If the furnace pressure is very high, more than +15millibar for more than 2
seconds, boiler will trip. Also it will cause tripping of both FD fans
Both airways not free
The boiler will trip when ‘Both airways are not free’ condition exists. ‘Air way
free’ condition will be satisfied only if,
 FD fan A/B is running
 Air damper at FD fan discharge is open and,
 Air damper after RAPH is open
Both Gas ways not free
The boiler will trip when ‘Both gas ways are not free ’condition exists. ‘Gas
way free’ will be satisfied only if
 ID fans A/B is running
 Gas damper before RAPH is open
 Gas damper after ID fan is open
 Any one of the RAPH motors is running

H.P Bypass and turbine conditions not fulfilled

The boiler trips on ‘H.P Bypass and turbine conditions not fulfilled condition’
which arises on any one of the following causes.
 CRH temperature downstream of H.P bypass
valve on any one side exceeds 370ºc for more
than 5 sec, and its corresponding H.P bypass
valve open more than 2%.
 When turbine has tripped but fuel flow in the
boiler is more than 60% for more than 40 sec.
 When turbine has tripped and even if one of the
two H.P bypass valve remains closed.
 136

Boiler criteria fulfilled

‘Boiler criteria not fulfilled’ annunciation vanishes in the control desk
indicating that none of the above protections has acted and the boilers can
operate/continue to operate. The boiler will also trip when the boiler
emergency key switch on the control desk is pressed.
Effects of Boiler tripping.
Whenever any one of the above causes actuates a boiler tripping the
following effects take place.
 Boiler criteria not fulfilled lamp vanishes
 Ignition release for oil firing not existing lamp
vanishes—No oil burner can be started.
 All the running pulversing mills will trip.
 All the running end conveyers will trip.
 Ignition release for lignite firing not exist —No
feeders can be started
 Turbine tripping is also actuated.
Protection and interlocks of boiler auxiliary equipment
Induced draught fan
Cooling air fan
Two cooling air fans are provided for each I.D for cooling purposes of I.D fan-
bearing etc.one of the two fans will be in normal service and the other will be
a standby.
Auto starting
The reserve cooling air fan will start
1) The running cooling air fan trips
2) IDfanA/B is in stopped condition and its bearing
temperature is greater than 800c

Auto stopping
Cooling air fan will stop automatically when
1) I.D fan is switched off and the condition exists for 5
minutes and
2) All the bearing temperatures are less than 500c
 137

Induced fan –Lubricating oil pumps

There are two lubricating oil pumps for each I.D fan, one will be in service and
the other is kept as ‘reserve’.
Auto starting
The lubricating oil pump will start automatically when,
1) When running lub.oil pump trips and tripped condition exists for 5
seconds
2) If the other lubricating oil pump is running for more than 5 seconds, but
the control oil pressure is less than 8 bar
3) When bearing temperature of ID fan is more than 80.c even when ID
fan is in stopped condition
Auto stopping
The lub.oil pump will trip
1) If the oil level in the lubricating oil tank is less than the preset mini
mum level
2) After 5 minutes after stopping of the corresponding ID fan provided all
the three bearing temperatures are less than 500c
I.D draught fan-start up logics
I.D fan A/B, will start only if the following conditions are fulfilled
1) Any one of the corresponding RAPH motors should be in service
2) Any one of the two cooling air fans of the respective ID fan should be
in-service
3) Any one of the two lubricating oil pumps should be in service
4) Control oil pressure should be more than 6 bar
5) Impeller blades should be in closed position
6) Local latch to be in released condition

I.D draught fan-tripping logics

I.D fan A/B will trip due to,
1) When both motors of the corresponding RAPH trips and tripped
condition exists for more than 5 seconds
1) Motor bearing temperature is more than 90ºc
2) Fan bearing temperature is more than 110ºc
 138

3) Furnace pressure is less than –25millibar

4) When ID fan is running for more than 120 seconds with any one of the
corresponding damper RAPH (GD1) or after ID fan (GD2) is in closed
desk
Forced draught fan
Lubricating oil pumps
Auto starting
1) When running lub.oil pump trips and tripped condition exists for 5
seconds
2) If the other lubricating oil pump is running for more than 5 seconds, but
the control oil pressure is less than 8 bars
3) When bearing temperature of FD fan is more than 80ºc even when FD
fan is in stopped condition

Auto stopping
The lub.oil pump will trip
1) If the oil level in the lubricating oil tank is less than the preset mini
mum level
4) After 5 minutes after stopping of the corresponding ID fan provided all
the three bearing temperatures are less than 50ºc

FD fan starting logics

FD fan A/B will get started when the following conditions are fulfilled,
1) Any one lubricating oil pump in service
2) The control oil pressure is more than 6 bar
3) Local push button in released condition
4) Impeller blade in closed condition

FD fan stopping logics

The FD fan A/B will trip if,
1) Flue gas way is not free
2) FD fan is running for more than 120 sec with its discharge damper
(AD1A/1B) in ‘closed’ condition.
 139

3) When damper after RAPH (AD2A/2B) in closed condition and FD fan A/B
is running for more than 120 sec.
4) Furnace pressure is more than +15millibar
5) FD fan motor bearing temperature exceeds 90ºc
6) FD fan bearing temperature exceeds 110ºc
7) Oil level in the tank is less than preset minimum level
Interlocking of Air/Gas dampers
Gas side dampers
1) When ID A/B, is started the corresponding gas damper 1A/1B opens
automatically
2) When one of the two ID fans trips or its is stopped and the other is
running, the corresponding gas damper (1A/1B) will close
automatically
3) When both ID fans trips, both gas dampers 1A,1B remain open
4) The gas damper 2A/2B will open automatically-when ID fan A/B is
started
5) When both ID fans are stopped, then both the dampers GD2A/2B will
open automatically
6) Whenever ID fan A/B trips, the corresponding discharge damper
2A/2B will close automatically, if the other fan is running
Air side dampers
1) When FD fan A/B is started, the discharge damper 1A/1B will open
automatically
2) When both FD fan trips both the damper will open automatically
3) When FD fan A/B fans trips or is stopped and the other fan is
running, the respective discharge damper (AD1A/1B) will close
Air way free logic
Air way free condition is satisfied only if,
1) FD fan A/B is running
2) Damper after FD fan A/B (AD1A/1B) is opened
3) Damper after RAPHA/B (AD2A/2B) is opened
Flue gas way free logic
Flue way free condition is satisfied only if,
 140

1) Any one of the RAPH motors is in running conditions

2) ID fan A/B is in service
3) Damper before RAPHA/B (GD1A/1B) is in open condition
4) Damper after ID fan A/B (GD2A/2B) is in open condition
Note: Boiler will trip when 1) ‘ Both air ways are not free’ and 2). ‘Both gas
ways are not free’

Special activities of P&I checking after Major overhaul

I.RAPH:
1) After completion of mechanical, Electrical and Instrumentation works in
RAPH, Air dampers, Gas dampers and confirming that concerned LCs
are in deposited /returned condition, RAPH to be started.
2) By making RAPH support bearing/Guide bearing temperature High
contact for annunciation and V.High for RAPH trip will be checked.
3) Closing of respective dampers AD-2 and GD-1 will be checked when
stopping RAPH A/B.
4) Ensure stand-by motor starting when the running motor trips.
II.ID FANS:
1) P&I check is to be conducted after completion of Mechanical, Electrical
and Instrumentation work in the RAPH, dampers, Fans and respective
LCs are to be in deposited condition corresponding RAPH should be in
service.
2) Simulator is to be provided in 6.6 KV breaker of corresponding fan for P
& I checking without actual starting.
3) By keeping ID Fan ‘ON’ (status only),

The following interlocks will be checked.

1) Fan not starting if control oil pressure < 8 Ksc by reducing control oil
pressure with re circulation lever.
2) Fan not starting if Lub oil pressure < 0.8 Ksc by reducing control oil
pressure with re circulation lever.
3) Fan not starting without PCD minimum.
4) Fan not starting without discharge damper close.
 141

5) Fan not starting without GD-1 open.

6) Reserve Lub oil pump starts at control oil pr. < 8 Ksc for both Lub oil
pumps
7) Closing of discharge damper, if the other ID Fan alone in ‘ON’ condition.
8) Opening of other fans discharge damper, if the only running ID Fan
trips.
The following protections will be checked by confirming the fan trip.

1) Fan bearing temperature high Annunciation, very high trip will be

checked for DE, thrust and NDE bearing by making the high, very high
contacts respectively.

2) Fan motor bearing temperature DE and NDE high annunciation, very

high trip will be checked by making respective contacts.
3) Lub oil tank level very low trip for ID Fan and LOPs will be checked by
making its contact.
4) Lub oil pressure very low trip will be checked by opening lub. Oil pump
discharge re circulation valve.
5) Control oil pressure very low trip will be checked by opening lub. Oil
pump discharge re circulation valve.
6) All two combinations of furnace pressure switch (v.low) contact 2/3 will
be made and fan trip will be confirmed for furnace pressure very low.
7) By applying local latch, fan stop will be confirmed for latch trip.
8) By keeping the discharge damper close with fan in ‘ON’ condition, time
delay fan trip will be confirmed.
9) ID trip will be checked for RAPH trip.

III. FD FANS
1) Corresponding ID Fan to be kept ‘ON’ status with simulator, Gas
dampers to be kept open.
2) Simulator to be provided for the FD fan 6.6 KV breakers for P&I checking
without actual starting.
 142

By keeping FD Fan ‘ON’ (status only), The following interlocks will be

checked
Fan not starting if control oil pressure < 8 Ksc by reducing control oil
pressure with re circulation lever.
1) Fan not starting if Lub oil pressure < 0.8 Ksc by reducing control oil
pressure with re circulation lever.
2) Fan not starting without PCD minimum.
3) Fan not starting without discharge damper close.
4) Fan not starting without AD-2 open.
5) Reserve lub oil pump starts at control oil pr. <8 Ksc for both
lub oil pumps
6) f) Closing of discharge damper, if the other FD Fan alone in ‘ON’
condition.
7) Opening of other fans discharge damper, if the only
8) Running FD Fan trips.

By keeping FD Fan ‘ON’ (status only) the following protections will be

checked.
1) Fan bearing temperature high Annunciation, very high trip will be
checked for DE, thrust and NDE bearing by making the high, very high
contacts respectively.
2) Fan motor bearing temperature DE and NDE high annunciation, very
high trip will be checked by making respective contacts.
3) Lub oil tank level very low trip for FD Fan and LOPs will be checked by
making its contact.
4) Lub oil pressure very low trip will be checked by opening lub. Oil pump
discharge re circulation valve.
5) Control oil pressure very low trip will be checked by opening lub. Oil
pump discharge re circulation valve.
6) All the two combinations of 2/3 furnace pressure very high contact will
be made and fan trip will be confirmed for furnace pressure very high
contact.
7) By applying local latch fan stop will be confirmed.
 143

8) Stop corresponding ID fan, FD fan trip will be confirmed.

9) By keeping the discharge damper close with fan in ‘ON’ condition, time
delay fan trip will be confirmed

IV. MILLS
After completion of Mechanical, Electrical and Instruments and Refractory
works in Mill and confirming concerned LCs in deposited /returned condition.
Simulator to be provided in 6.6 KV breaker of that mill to check P&I without
actual starting. Necessary simulations to be done for mill test ‘ON’
1) With simulator ‘ON’ condition by making Mill bearing temperature
motor/coupling side high for Annunciation and Very high for trip will be
checked.
2) With simulator ‘ON’ mill motor bearing temperature DE/NDE high
annunciation and very high trip will be checked by making respective
contacts.
3) Mill trip by applying local latch and not starting in latched condition.
4) Mill O/L temperature V.high time delay trip will be confirmed by making
respective contact.

V.Boiler main protections and interlocks

1) By making 2/3 contacts with all combinations of very low and very high
furnace pressure switches trip, signal to boiler will be confirmed.
2) Furnace pressure low and high annunciation will be checked by making
respective switch contact.
3) Drum level very low/very high trip, EBD valves auto opening/closing,
Drum level high/low annunciation will be checked during boiler filling
before lighting up or during hydro test.
4) Boiler trip for CRH temp L/R>370 ºC will be checked by making
respective switch contact.

BO11.OPERATING GUIDELINES
 144

Preparation of Boiler for

cold light up.
Thorough inspection of
furnace for complete
closing of peep holes and
manholes. After filling the
slag bath, ensure running
of slag conveyor and ABG's
Start preheating of feed
water in Deaerator and
raise the water
temperature to 70o C to 80o Start warm-up of BFPs,
C. keeping casing drains,
Close waterside drain vent crack open
valves. condition.
Open SH1 I/L Air vent, other
air vents, startup vents and
drains of SH & RH.
Pegging steam to
Deaerator can be made
through and pre-heating
steam may be isolated.
Keep the oil in
Start one BFP. circulation. Charge
Start boiler feeding. trace-heating system in
Boiler. Check the
possible leaks in each oil
burners. Ensure the
healthiness of oil burner
system.
After Boiler contour filling,
check whether all air vents,
startup vents and SH, RH
drains are in open
condition.
Ensure that LSHS Oil
temperature is more than
90oC.'General Start ID & FD fans.
interlocking for oil fire Charge SCAPH.
existing' is available now. Start purging.
Boiler is ready for light
up.
Light up Boiler by cutting in 2 Keep drum level at 300 While cutting in OB raise
OBs with LDO. Change over mm. Note down the Drum oil pressure to 12 Ksc.
to HFO after 10 minutes one Metal Temperature (DMT), Then reduce pressure to
by one. Oil pressure is 6 Ksc. oil flow and oil pressure. 6 Ksc.
 145

Condenser vacuum rising

can be started.
Watch the DMT. When it
reaches 90o C, surging of
drum level may start. When Dozing pumps are to be
surging of drum level is started.
observed, open EBD. Cut Oil pressure to be raised
out one burner and if to 12 Ksc.
necessary open CBD also to
contain drum level.
After normalizing drum
level close CBD & EBD, cut
in 3rd OB.
When SH1 -I/l temperature
is more than 110oC, close
SH1 inlet vent & all vents at
44 ML. Reduce oil pressure to
Close the SH drains in 10 Ksc.
order, when steam Before opening HP
temperature in SH shows Bypass valves check for
Cut in 3 OB with HFO 4 OB rising trend and steam
rd th
1) Safe drum level.
afterwards. temperature at O/L header 2) Full open condition of
is greater than I/L header. MS-001 & 002.
When SH3 O/L pressure is 3) Closing of startup
1Ksc start closing start up vent valves.
vent gradually within 10 4) Vacuum is stable.
minutes.
When SH3 O/L pressure is
5Ksc open HP bypass and
charge re heaters.
Open MS25&26,MAL-
11&12&HR-47&48.
Open HP Bypass according
to the SH3 O/L pressure
rise. Rate of pressure is
When the RH pressure is MST: 1Ksc / 2 minutes
Raise oil pressure to 8 Ksc. 2Ksc open LP Bypass HRH: 1Ksc / 4 minutes
without affecting vacuum. Rate of temp rise is
(At this stage HP Bypass 2.5o /min upto 350o C
opening shall be around
30%.)
Raise oil pressure to 10 Ksc. Prepare injection scheme Check injection station
for temperature control. HP drains and vents for
Bypass shall be operated closed condition.
manually so as to maintain Hand operated isolation
MS pressure at 23 Ksc. valves in open condition.
Select LP Bypass in auto at For 23 Ksc Sat. temp. is
HRH pressure of 7 Ksc. 225oC in TSE recorder
S-92 bypass valve is to be and confirm rise in
 146

used for injection to have

fine control.
At MS Pressure 23 Ksc & MS
Temperature 300oC start
warming up of stop & temperature.
control valves.
Maintain MS temperature
not more than 350oC.
Raise MS Pressure at a rate
of 1Ksc/min upto 40Ksc and During warming up MS &
Raise oil pressure to 12 Ksc. when the pressure is steady HRH temperature should
at 40 ksc select HP Bypass not drop below 320oC.
in auto.
START ROLLING
MS Pressure: 40 Ksc Rolling can be started after
MS Temp. : 350o C confirming 5th & 6th points
HRH Pressure: 7 Ksc to reach its saturation
HRH Temperature :350o C value. Reach 600 RPM
HP B/P open>50%
After watching HP shaft &
HP casing (pts.7th & 9th
and 8th & 10th) for its
warming up and cross
checking with HP shaft &
HP casing stress margin
(not less than 30o K) further
speed raising to 3000 RPM
can be started
Synchronise the unit with
Watch Drum level. Wait
the grid and keep the temp.
till HP casing & IP shaft
steady at 350o C for 20
margin (7th & 9th point)
SYNCHRONISATION minutes and observe for
saturates.
the stress margins.
Prepare the mill &
Accordingly loading can be
feeder system.
done and HP B/P closed.
LP heaters may be taken
Raise the load to 50 MW into service.
Raise oil pressure slowly such MS Pressure: 60 Ksc For further load raising
that flow rises to 16 T/Hr. MS Temperature: 400 C o HP casing margin must
be more than 10o K
Raise the load to 70 MW Open S-92 valve & close
(Rate 2 MW/minute) its bypass valve for
MS Pressure: 80 Ksc more injection flow.
Start 1st Mill
MS Temperature: 440o C Commission ESP. SH1
(Rate 4o C/minute) inlet temp. shall be >
450o C
 147

Reduce oil Pr. 10 to 12

Start 2nd Mill
Start 3rd Mill. Reduce oil flow MS Pressure: 120 Ksc
to 7 T/Hr.
Start 4th Mill & cut out oil
burners one by one.
Ksc. Start warm-up of HP
Raise the load to 90 MW
heaters on steam side at
MS Pressure: 100 Ksc
70 MW warm-up of HP
MS Temperature: 440o C
heaters at least for 20
minutes.
Raise the load to 110 MW
MS Temperature: 490o C
Before taking out oil
burners, stable condition
Raise the load to 125 MW of firing should be
MS Pressure: 130 Ksc ensured with IR
MS Temperature: 490o C scanners. Take EHC into
IP mode

Raise the load to 150 MW

Start 5th Mill MS Pressure: 140 Ksc Take CMC in Auto.
MS Temperature: 500o C

Raise the load to 210 MW

Raise firing to full load. MS Pressure: 150 Ksc
MS Temperature: 540o C

CHECK LIST FOR BOILER FILLING

1. All LCs related to furnace and pressure parts to be returned.

2. Confirm no other agencies are inside the furnace.
3. Check all the manhole and peepholes are in closed condition including
RAPH manhole doors.
4. Inform Turbine board to made available of boiler feed pump for filling.
5. All water side drain header drain valves to be kept closed
 148

6. Keep waterside drain header to IBD isolation valve in closed condition.

7. SH and RH drain header to IBD isolation valve to be kept open.
8. MST Stop valve and its charging valves to be in closed condition with
hand tightness.
9. CBD and its by-pass to be closed.
10. EBD valves to be in closed condition with power supply switch off.
11. Keep open MST stop valves after drains.
12. Keep close MST stop valves before drains.
13. Keep all the Feed Manifold isolation, control valves in closed
condition with its drains.
14. Keep close SH and RH Injection station drains and vents.
15. Keep SH 1 inlet header air vent at 80ML,SH start up vents, ECO
and SH Air vents at 44 ML in open condition.
16. Drum and SH Safety valves have to be gagged.
17. Keep open all drum level, drum pressure, SH pressure impulse
line root valves. Close all transmitter drains, Hydrastep drains and
drum vent.
BOILER HYDROTEST
Water side/super heaters
Pre-Requisites:

1. Unit to be under shutdown.

2. All LCs related to furnace and pressure parts to be returned.
3. Drum metal temperature should be <80 ºC
4. No other agencies are permitted inside the furnace during Hydro test.
5. Adequate Condensate Storage Tank (CST) level to be maintained.
6. Inform Turbine board to keep higher capacity CT pump for filling and to
ready BFP
7. At least any one of SH Stage II spray control valve remote operation to
be made ready.
8. All water side and SH drain header drain valves to be kept open.
9. Keep waterside drain header and SH drain header to IBD isolation valve
in closed condition.
10. RH drain header to IBD isolation valve to be kept open,
 149

11. Boiler Fill Line to RH drain header isolation valve to be kept

closed.
12. MS Stop valve and its charging valves to be in closed condition
with hand tightness.
13. Power supply to above four MOVs to be kept isolated.
14. CBD and its by-pass to be closed.
15. EBD valves to be in closed condition with power supply switch off.
16. Keep open MST stop valves after drains.
17. Keep close MST stop valves before drains.
18. Keep all the Feed Manifold isolation, control valves in closed
condition with its drains.
19. Keep close SH Injection station drains and vents.
20. Keep SH 1 inlet header air vent at 80ML,SH start up vents, ECO
and SH Air vents at 44 ML in open condition.
21. Drum and SH Safety valves have to be gagged.
22. Calibrated pressure gauges have to be provided in MSL left and
right at 44ML, in drum level for drum pressure.
23. Keep open all drum level, drum pressure, SH pressure impulse
line root valves. Close all transmitter drains, Hydrostep drains and
drum vent.
24. Drum level very high-Scoop Min interlock is to be kept by-passed.

TEST PROCEDURE:
1. Open common isolation valve in Boiler filling line in Boiler House. Open
Boiler Fill line to water side drain header and SH drain header isolation
valves.
2. After informing Turbine Board gradually open CT Pump discharge header to
boiler filling line isolation valve in CT Pump discharge header (while
opening, pump current to be monitored with walkie-talkie in order to avoid
pump overloading. Close CT Pump recirculation valve.)
3. Close SH Start up vents, SH and ECO Air vents one by one after air
releasing.
4. Finally close SH 1 inlet header air vent after air releasing.
 150

5. Open CT pump recirculation valve.

6. Close CT pump discharge header to Boiler Fill Line isolation valve in CT
pump discharge header. Inform Turbine board.
7. Close all waterside, SH drain valves.
8. Close Boiler Fill line common valve, Branch valves to SH and water side
drain header.
9. Start Boiler Feed Pump.
10. Open SH Stage II spray common isolation valve (S92).
11. Start pressurising the contour by regulating the SH spray water flow
through any one of SH Stage II temperature control valves at the rate of 2
ksc/min.
12. Boiler Feed pump scoop position is so adjusted simultaneously to meet
the pressure requirements.
13. After 100 Ksc raise the pressure at the rate of 1 Ksc/min upto the
required pressure.
14. Hold the pressure for about 15 min. Then reduce the pressure at the
rate of 1 Ksc/min upto 100 Ksc and thereafter at the rate of 2 Ksc/min upto
50 Ksc.
15. At the pressure of 50 Ksc Boiler contour to be inspected thoroughly for
any leak.
16. After locating the puncture if any, reduce the pressure to 3 Ksc. Stop
Boiler Feed pump.
17. Boiler contour is to be drained by opening vents and drains.
18. Normalise drum and SH safety valves gagging.
19. Close SH Stage II spray common isolation valve.
20. Normalise power supply for EBD valves.
21. Open MST Stop valves before drains and close after complete draining.
22. Keep MST Stop valves open after ensuring power supply and that
contour is in fully drained condition in order to avoid water entering into
turbine side.
23. Normalise drum level very high to scoop minimum interlock.
Reheater hydro test:
Required conditions:
 151

1. Unit to be under shutdown with contour drained condition. Drum metal

temp<80ºC.
2. All LCs related to furnace pressure parts to be returned.
3. No other agency is allowed to work inside furnace.
4. Keep ready anyone of RH spray control TCV or its bypass.
5. Pressure Test Device (PTD) to be provided in HRH/CRH.
6. Close RH drain header to IBD isolation valve.
7. Keep open RH drains (15ML). CRH (Left & Right) and HRH (L&R) before
PTD drains to be kept closed.
8. Open 44ML RH air vents.
9. Keep close boiler fill line to Water Side drain header and SH drain
header isolation valves.
10. Keep close feed manifold control, isolation valves and its drains.
11. RH Injection Station drain and vents have to be kept closed.
12. RH Injection Station R-64 before hand operated valve to be
opened.
13. RH safety valves are to be gagged.
14. Calibrated pressure gauges to be fitted in CRH and HRH line at
44 ML.
15. Inform turbine board to change higher capacity CT pump and
adequate CST level. Inform to keep ready BFP.
16. RH1 I/L to SSB pressure control station isolation valve (SB-53) and
its hand operated isolation valve are to be kept closed.
TEST PROCEDURE:
1. Open common isolation valve in Boiler filling line in Boiler House. Open
Boiler Fill line to RH drain header isolation valve.
2. After informing Turbine Board gradually open CT Pump discharge
header to boiler filling line isolation valve in CT Pump discharge header
(while opening, pump current to be monitored with walkie-talkie in
order to avoid pump overloading. Close CT Pump recirculation valve.)
3. Close RH Air vents one by one after air releasing.
 152

4. Close CT pump discharge header to Boiler Fill Line valve, Boiler Fill Line
common isolation valve and Boiler Fill Line to RH drain header isolation
valves
5. Close all RH drain valves.
6. Start Boiler Feed Pump. Open BFP interstage valve.
7. Open RH spray common isolation valve (R64) and pressurise the
contour by opening any one of RH spray control valves at the rate of 1
ksc/min.
8. Hold the pressure at the required level for about 15 min and observe
any puncture in RH contour.
9. After locating the puncture if any, reduce the pressure at the rate of 1
Ksc/min and kill the pressure. Stop Boiler Feed pump.
10. Open RH air vents and drain the contour.
11. Normalise RH safety valve gagging.
12. Close valve R-64 and HOV situated before it.
13. Open CRH, HRH before PTD drains and close after complete
draining. Remove PTD after ensuring complete draining.
14. Open V-SB 53 isolation valve.
PASSIVATION PROCEDURE
1. Reduction of load according to the schedule along with
pressure reduction (120 ksc/520 deg.,).
2. De-synchronise the unit after reducing load with HP/LP bypass
system.
3. Start Forced cooling of the boiler. Keep one series of fans, one
BFP and one Circulating water pump. Inform generator board engineer
to switch off all ESP fields.
4. PRDS system to isolated. All injection valves of SH/RH system
to be kept closed.(hand tightened).
5. Chemical staff shall be informed for dozing and analysis after
tripping the turbine.
6. Light up the boiler at drum pressure 40 Ksc. Start dozing
hydrazine in drum and in feed pump suction at drum pressure 30 Ksc.
 153

Adjust the firing with two oil burners (oil pressure ≈10 Ksc at burner
header) and maintain 30 Ksc drum pressure by tuning HP/LP bypass.
7. Passivation commences when the concentration of N 2 H4 in
drum reaches 200 ppm. This will continue for 24 hrs. During
passivation.N2 H4 concentration in condensate may be carefully
maintained.
8. Hydrazine dozing will be stopped after 22 hrs. Of passivation.
The boiler is to be boxed up after two hours.
9. During the period of passivation, oil burners shall be changed
over once in 4 hrs. Firing should be controlled to maintain the steam
flow at the rate of 50 to 70 T/hr.
10. RAPH soot blowing to be carried out twice in a shift.
11. Hourly readings, chemical values and other parameters to be
recorded during passivation.
12. After completion of passivation, boiler should be boxed up and
naturally cooled up to 3 Ksc pressure in drum or 140 ºC metal
temperature. Then boiler has to be hot drained. Service water,
Firewater have to be added to the outlet of IBD tank to reduce N 2 H4
concentration to the required level.
After draining the boiler fully, one series of fans may be started for cooling
the furnace.

Safety valve floating

Required conditions:
1. Boiler should be in service.
2. Turbine not to be in service.
3. Keep four oil burners and one mill in service with Main Steam pressure
100 Ksc and HP Bypass opening ≈ 50%.
4. Keep the firing constant
5. Just before safety valve floating, the following protections to be
bypassed.
1. Drum level very high.
2. SH/RH conditions not fulfilled status to be bypassed in desk.
 154

3. HP Bypass trip open to be bypassed.

4. Drum level very high to scoop minimum to be bypassed.

Reheater safety valve floating:

1. CRH Safety valve SV6, HRH Safety Valves SV8 & SV9 are to be in
gagged condition, to float HRH Safety Valve SV7.
2. Gradually raise the RH pressure by closing LP B/P. At 47.25Ksc HRH
pressure, check SV7 opening/closing, if necessary adjust the
opening/closing with the help of Boiler pressure parts maintenance.
Record Open/Close pressures and reduce the HRH pressure to 35Ksc
gradually by opening LPBP.
3. SV7 floating completed.
4. Remove the gagging in HRH safety valve SV8 and SV7 to be gagged.
5. Gradually raise the RH pressure by closing LPBP. At 47.72 Ksc HRH
pressure, check SV8 opening/closing. If necessary adjust the
opening/closing with the help of Boiler pressure maintenance. Record
Open/Close pressure and reduce the HRH pressure to 35 Ksc by
opening LPBP SV8 floating completed.
6. Remove the gagging in SV9 and SV8 to be gagged.
7. Gradually raise the RH pressure by closing LPBP. At 48.67Ksc HRH
pressure, check SV9 opening/closing. If necessary adjust the
opening/closing with the help of Boiler pressure maintenance. Record
Open/Close pressure and reduce the HRH pressure to 35 Ksc by
opening LPBP.
8. SV9 floating completed.
9. Remove the gagging in SV6 and SV9 to gagged.
10. Gradually raise the RH pressure by closing LPBP. At 50 Ksc CRH
pressure, check SV6 opening/closing. If necessary adjust the
opening/closing with the help of Boiler pressure maintenance. Record
Open/Close pressure and reduce the HRH pressure to 10-15 Ksc.
11. SV6 floating completed.
12. Remove the gagging in SV6, SV7, SV8 and SV9.
13. Reheater safety valve floating completed.
 155

Drum and SH safety valves floating:

1. SH3 O/L safety valve SV4 to be gagged, SH3 O/L safety valve SV5
(ERV) isolation valve to be kept closed. Drum Safety valves SV2 and
SV3 are to be gagged to float SV1.
2. Raise the drum pressure gradually by closing HP Bypass. At the drum
pressure 180 Ksc check SV1 opening/closing. If necessary adjust
open/close pressure with the help of pressure parts maintenance.
Record the Open/Close pressure and reduce the pressure to 140 Ksc.
3. SV1 floating completed.
4. Remove SV2 gagging and SV1 to be gagged.
5. Raise the drum pressure gradually by closing HP Bypass. At the drum
pressure 183 Ksc check SV2 opening/closing. If necessary adjust
open/close pressure with the help of pressure parts maintenance.
Record the Open/Close pressure and reduce the pressure to 140 Ksc.
6. SV2 floating completed.
7. Remove SV3 gagging and SV2 to be gagged.
8. Raise the drum pressure gradually by closing HP Bypass. At the drum
pressure 185.4 Ksc check SV3 opening/closing. If necessary adjust
open/close pressure with the help of pressure parts maintenance.
Record the Open/Close pressure and reduce the pressure to 120 Ksc.
9. SV3 floating completed. Remove the gagging from SV1, SV2 and SV3.
10. Remove SV4 gagging.
11. Raise the SH3 O/L pressure gradually by closing HP Bypass. At
the SH3 O/L pressure 168.4 Ksc check SV4 opening/closing. If
necessary adjust open/close pressure with the help of pressure parts
maintenance. Record the Open/Close pressure and reduce the pressure
to 150 Ksc.
12. SV4 floating completed.
13. Open isolation valve of ERV and SV4 to be gagged.
14. SV5 (ERV) operation may be checked from board by operating
solenoid valve, after confirming solenoid supply with instruments
division.
 156

15. Then gradually raise the SH3 O/L pressure upto 165.7 Ksc and
check the ERV automatic opening. If necessary adjust the open/close.
Record the Open/Close pressure and reduce the pressure to 100 Ksc.
16. SV5 floating completed.
17. Remove SV4 gagging.
18. All safety valves floating completed.
19. Protections already bypassed are to be normalized immediately.
a. Drum level very high –boiler trip to be normalized.
b. SH/RH conditions not fulfilled status to be normalized.
c. HP Bypass trip open to be normalized.
d. Drum level very high to scoop minimum to be bypassed.
Guidelines:
 During safety valve floating, drum level to be carefully maintained and
monitored.
 Hand popping to be carried out for all safety valves before floating.
 While closing HP/BP close LP B/P also to maintain the RH pressure.
 While opening HP B/P open LP B/P also to avoid LPBP overload/RH SV
opening.
 Any other persons other than safety valve floating crew, not to be
allowed near safety valve floor while floating.
 While closing HPBP close LPBP also to maintain RH pressure.
 While opening HPBP open LPBP also to avoid LPBP overload/ RHSV
open.
 Probable ranges of HPBP opening & pressure: -
40% -- 150 Ksc
30% -- 160 Ksc
20% -- 170 Ksc
10% -- 180 Ksc
Refractory drying (after Major overhaul)
Required conditions:
1. Boiler is to be made ready for light up after shutdown.
2. No L.C is pending for light up.
3. All manholes, peepholes are to be kept closed.
 157

4. Confirm supply to ID/FD fans and Mills.

5. AST Header is to be in charged condition.
6. Availability of RSBs is to be ensured.
7. Healthiness of Mill O/L temperature readings are to be checked.

PROCEDURE:
1. Boiler interlocking (General) to be simulated for starting mills.
2. Simulate sec. Air temp > min contact.
3. Start one series of Fans.
4. Charge corresponding SCAPH.
5. Start the mills, which are to be dried in presence of maintenance
staff and local staff. Check lub oil system and mill healthiness.
6. Keep airflow at 30% MCR (about 250 T/hr) and air temperature at
SCAPH O/L to the max possible extent.
7. Keep mill O/L temperature at 60 ºC for 8 hrs.
8. After 4 hrs since the starting of available mills for refractory
drying, Boiler contour filling may be started through Boiler Feed
pump with deaerated water at 70 ºC.
9. After 8 hrs of drying with SCAPH and ensuring normal working
drum level, Boiler may be lighted up with one OB with minimum
oil flow. Cut in another OB preferably in combination of A and C or
B and D.
10. Raise the Mill O/L temperature from 60 ºC to 120 ºC at the
rate of 15 ºC /hr by raising the firing rate gradually and with the
help of hot air.
11. Change the combination of OB’s once in 4 hrs.
12. Frequently check for any oil leak or fire at local.
13. RSB is to be operated with AST source once in 4 hrs.
14. Raise the mill O/L temp from 120 to 200ºC at the rate of
20ºC/hr and maintain at 200 ºC for 8 hrs with the use of hot
air/cold air dampers if necessary.
 158

15. During refractory drying operation, close the air

vents/drains on steam side as per the standard norms.
16. Stop mills one by one.
17. Normalise the simulations done.
18. Raise the oil flow for steam parameter raising as per the normal
procedure for further activities.

RAPH washing
RAPH washing can be done either during shut down period or during normal
operation of a steam generator as the situation warrants. In both the cases
RAPH should be kept in continuous service but isolated from the system
(i.e.) without load.

Preparatory works
1. Avail RAPH water washing pump supply.(If the unit is not in service,
check the water washing line inside RAPH and nozzles for its
healthiness).
2. Reduce load to 50% if the unit is in full load.
3. Stop ID/FD fans of the particular RAPH to be washed.
4. Close AD2/GD1.
5. Ensure the isolation valves in water washing lines of all other three
RAPHs are in closed condition.
6. Keep open ESP first row AMV plate dampers.
7. Remove gas side ash mixing vessel from its position in order to avoid
choke. Ensure gas side plate damper in open condition.
8. Keep open-air side, drain line plate valve or ‘Y’ piece dummy flange.
9. Keep the FD fan drain flange open.
10. RAPH washing line, strainer and line drain after valve in 15ML to
be closed.
Water washing sequence
1. Open the suction valve of RAPH water washing pump. Keep close
discharge valve.
2. RAPH water washing pump to be started, gradually open discharge
valve.
 159

3. Open common isolation valve in RAPH washing line of that RAPH at 28

ML located in rear side.
4. Open RAPH bottom water washing line isolation valve at 28 ML. Wait
for clean water in drain(≈ 4 to 8 hrs).
5. Close bottom side isolation valve and open topside washing isolation
valve.
6. Wait for clean water in drain (≈ 4 to 8 hrs). Close topside isolation
valve and common isolation valve. Ensure proper closing of the
above valves by opening line drains after isolation valves.
7. Stop RAPH washing pump. Close suction and discharge valve. Isolate
power supply for the pump.
8. Put back the ash mixing vessel in gas side, close the plate damper and
‘Y’ piece dummy in airside drain. Close the FD fan bottom drain.
9. Open Gas side top inspection door of that RAPH.
10. Simulate ‘AD 2 open’ and ‘ID fan ‘ON’.
11. Isolate supply for AD 2 and GD 1 in close condition.
12. Start corresponding FD fan alone for RAPH drying.
13. Charge the SCAPH and dry the RAPH till the air temperature at the
RAPH I/L and O/L are equal.
14. Isolate SCAPH.
15. Stop FD Fan
16. Normalise the simulations and avail supply for GD 1 and AD 2.
17. Close Gas side top inspection door.
SCAPH washing
Required conditions:
1. Unit to be under shutdown.
2. Corresponding FD Fan supply to be isolated.
3. Water hose and showel are to be kept ready.

Test procedure
1. Keep open FD Fan bottom drain flange.
2. Keep open RAPH airside hopper ‘Y’ piece dummy.
3. Open inspection doors before and after SCAPH.
 160

4. Necessary LC to be availed. Supply to FD Fan to be switched off.

5. Adequate lighting to be arranged in I/L and O/L side.
6. Inspect SCAPH and physically remove the material choked outside
the SCAPH with showel.
7. With the water jet clean the SCAPH from O/L side first and then from
I/L side, washing to be carried out until clear water comes out in
drain and surface choke found completely removed.
8. Ensure no men and material inside the SCAPH.
9. Close SCAPH inspection doors.
10. Close FD Fan bottom drain flange and airside hopper drain line ‘Y’
piece dummy.
11. Return the LC. Avail power supply for FD Fan.

CO-ORDINATED MODE CONTROL

The aim of the control loop is to ensure proper Unit level coordination
between the two main plant auxiliaries, the Boiler and the Turbine, to attain
economical and safe running of the plant.
We decide the control loop into 5 sub-loops.
1. Load set point guidance including Unit Master
2. Run-back Load limit and Rate generation
3. Boiler Load control (pressure control)
4. Mode of operation
5. Fuel flow control

Load set-point guidance including unit master:

The Unit Master receives the Load demand from Automatic Load despatch
center (ALC) together with no contact indicating healthiness of the demand
signal. A 3 push button module has been provided to manually change the
Load demand signal via the controller logic RL-01 module for the Unit Master.
A single indicator is provided to display this parameter known as the TARGET
LOAD.
 161

In addition the output of the Unit Master is given back to the ALC through a
galvanic isolating module TET-30. The target load is subjected to a MAX and
MIN selection. For this purpose, MAX and MIN Load preselectors along with
their digital indicators have been provided on the control desk.
The frequency deviation corrects the Unit demand (target load) by providing
a bias to the target Load signal. The bias is equivalent to change in MW
output, which is necessary to bring back the frequency to the rate value. A
5% droop in the frequency is equivalent to 0 to 100% change in Load.
Therefore a proposed range of frequency deviation measurement is –5 to 5%,
which implies –2.5 Hz to 2.5 HZ for a 50 Hz system.

The purpose of Frequency Correction circuit introduces the following

corrections:

a) For a frequency deviation greater than +/- 15% (of the frequency
range) an additive bias equivalent to the change in Load corresponding
to 15% frequency deviation is directly given to the output of GNI
(SPCM). Thus on immediate change in Unit Load set point to the Boiler
is achieved. This output after a MAX/MIN cut off is the Unit Load set
point for a Boiler and Turbine controls.

s bias
eviation

b) For frequency deviation within the band of +/- 15% bias is only given to
the output of SPCM (GNI) and no influence is execute on the target value
Z0 of the GNI. The frequency corrections bypassed when the turbine follow
mode or run back mode is in operation. This can be done manually.

The target value Z0 for the SPCM (set point computation module, GNI) is
switched to either frequency corrected Unit demand signal from the Unit
Master or EHC Load set point or the MW generated or Boiler demand (Boiler
 162

Master output) depending upon the mode of operation locally i.e.,co-

ordinated mode, turbine follow-mode or boiler follow-mode.

This is done to ensure that the Unit load set point balance to the MW
generated in Turbine follow mode and the Boiler Master output in the case of
Boiler follow mode.

In the turbine follow mode the turbine load controller is inactive and
switching from this mode to co-ordinated mode (LC to auto/active) it must be
ensured that the LC has correct set point to avoid Jump (i.e., X wflc= 0).
Therefore the Unit Load set point must be balanced to MW generated. The
boiler master is also in manual in turbine follow mode and switching to the
co-ordinated mode the Boiler Master goes to auto and it must have Unit set
point corresponding to the actual MW.

In the Boiler follow mode the turbine Load controller (Zc) is in manual/auto
changing the mode to co-ordinated results in switching the LC to auto. The
boiler demand while in the Boiler follow mode is the true representation of
the Load generated must be made available to the Load controller at set
point to avoid bumps at the LC output. The boiler master is in auto both in
Co-ordinated and boiler follow mode. In case turbine is in Local operation the
EHC Load set point is switches as the target value of GNI (SPCM) to ensure
that in this mode of operation the same set point is there for Boiler and
Turbine.

A digital indicator has been provided to display MW generation. Before the

target value is given to the SPCM, a MIN selection is done with the ‘Unit
capability signal’

The RUN UP (GU) and RUN DOWN (GD) gradient for the SPCM are computed
based on the upper and lower temperature margins of the turbine stress
evaluator and a manually preset Unit load rate. In addition the RUN BACK
RATE is also taken into consideration while deciding the GU and GD of the
SPCM (after MAX selection with Down Grad). A digital indicator has been
provided to display the manually preselected unit load rate. The MAX and MIN
 163

unit load limits adjustable from the desk provide the MAX and MIN cut off’s
for the SPCM also.

NOTE: The frequency influence, the directional blocking signal and the ALDC
(Automatic Load Despatch Centre) signals are bypassed from the main
control loop.

The SPCM module has two directional release inputs +/-F 24. The absence of
any one of them inhibits the SPCM to integrate in that particular direction
(Run Up or Run Down) the computation of these two binary signals is based
on the control deviation of the sub-ordinate control loops being greater than
or lesser than preselected limits.
The output of the GNI (SPCM) is subjected to further MAX/MIN cut off by the
desk preset MAX/MIN unit load limits and Unit capability signal. The signal
thus generated forms the Unit Load Set point, which is made available to the
Boiler and Turbine controls. A double indicator is provided to display the Unit
capability signal and the Unit load setpoint for the Boiler. In addition a digital
indicator display the Unit load set point for the turbine is compared with the
EHC setpoint and in case of deviation (each unit load setpoint) load reduction
by Turbine is initiated. This Unit Load setpoint signal after correcting with the
DP correction (a small bias of 7.5 MW will be given to the Load setpoint
depending upon the pressure deviation) is made available to the Turbine
controls.

Runback load limit and rate generation:

The Unit capabilities in terms of Load generation are calculated by this run
loop based on the availability/healthiness of various plant auxiliaries. The
Load rating of each plant auxiliary is preselected using software
potentiometers. By load rating we mean the % by which the Load set point
has to be reduced due to the low availability of particular auxiliary.

The unit capability/run back limit in terms of load generation is computed as

the MIN selection of all plant capability signals calculated based on the
availability of each kind of auxiliaries like FD, ID fans, Pulveriser etc. The
 164

signal Load reduction by Turbine and Turbine Trip are also used in this sub-
loop to bring the Unit capability down to a preselected MIN value.

Each Unit capability signal calculated on the availability of that kind of

auxiliary is compared with the Load set point and when the output becomes
+ve, it will generate that particular run back in action signal which has a
preselected run-back rate, set by using the software potentiometers.

The binary output of this Limit Value Detector indicate that the Unit capability
based on e.g., ID fan availability is less than the Unit load set point. Each
type of auxiliary (ID, FD, BFP) has a preselected run back rate set using
software potentiometer. The Binary signals from the Limit value detector
mentioned above, switches through this preselected run back rate to MAX
selector. The output of this MAX selector is the run back rate and is made
available to the Load set point guidance sub loop for down gradient (GD)
calculated.

Boiler load control

The Load set point obtained from the Load set point guidance sub loop is
processed further here as the feed forward signal of the Master Pressure
(LOAD) controller. In order to enhance the response of the Boiler and to
shorter the Mill/firing system response times, the largest value Z 0 of the GNI
in the Load set point guidance sub loop is routed through a derivative unit,
then multiplied by the preset Unit load rate and added to the Unit Load
setpoint using Pamplifier. A sector switches through either the output of the
Pamplifier described above or below Boiler Load index as feed forward signal
to the Pchannel of the boiler master depending upon the mode of operation
ie, Boiler follow mode (or Co-ordinated mode)

The Boiler Master is basically a Pressure controller, which regulates the

throttle pressure to a fixed set point. When Runback in action signal is active
the controller is bypassed and the sub-ordinate control loop (Fuel Flow
control) receive the output of the GNI as the command variable. The interface
of various signals to the control system has been listed up.
 165

The set point for the HP bypass control is generated by adding a fixed preset
value to the throttle setpoint in case of either two condition “Load rejection or
Turbine Trip” under normal operating condition the HP bypass control
pressure set point is same as throttle pressure setpoint. A digital indicator
has been provided to display the throttle set point.
The Unit can be operated in the following 4 different modes:

Coordinated mode

In which Boiler controls the pressure and the turbine controls the Load. Boiler
master will be in auto (by receiving the MW/Load set point as the Pchannel
signal) and provides the Boiler demand signal to the fuel master and load
controller on Turbine will be in auto and controls the MW for which the load
set point will be issued from the Boiler

Boiler follow mode

In which Boiler master will be in auto, controlling the pressure (by receiving
the Boiler load index/steam flow as the Pchannel signal) and provides the
boiler demand signal to the Fuel Master and Load Controller on Turbine will be
in manual (LP mode and Load control active) i.e., turbine on local and
controls the MW for which a load set point will be issued from the turbine
desk (EHC Load set point delayed Load reference).

Turbine follow mode

In which Boiler Master will be in manual in the Boiler and the pressure control
will be active in the turbine (IP mode)

Run back mode

In this mode, the Unit Load set point is Run down to Unit Capability signal and
switches the controls to Turbine Follow mode. The Boiler Master is bypassed
and output of the SPCM (which is nothing but the Unit Capability signal) is
directly provided as the demand signal to the Fuel Master. The run back IN
ACTION lamp will disappear when the Unit Capability signal matches to the Y n
 166

i.e., output of the SPCM (when the MW generated signal becomes lesser than
the Unit Capability signal which has to come down from the previous normal
Load set point to this MW generated signal at a run back rate). The turbine
controls must also be switched to pressure control. The various run back used
in this control loops are BFP, FD, ID, CEP, Mills, Gen CB trip and Load rejection
trip.
Runback mode will come only when the loop is in Co-ordinated mode.

Mode of Turbine
Boiler Master
operation Controls

Turbine Follow Pressure control

In Manual
mode active (IP mode)

In automatic, controlling the In Manual

Boiler Follow
throttle pr., with Boiler Load (Turbine on
mode
Index as P/channel signal Local) LP mode

In automatic, controlling the

Co-ordinated In automatic
throttle pr., with MW/Load set
mode controlling Load
point as P/channel signal

In manual, with the sub-

ordinate Fuel & Air flow Pressure control
Run back mode
controls. Receiving the Unit active
capability as set point

Mode of operation logic

The mode of operation logic sub loop has the responsibility deciding the
mode of operation
 167

The sub loop process manual commands together with other binary
information obtained from other sub loops to drive the desk mounted
annunciating modules & to effect auto/manual switching of the turbine/boiler
controls. Manual setting of various modes is done through single push button
modules mounted on the desk. The logic is so arranged that with the setting
of one mode of operation from a particulars push button reset all the
operation modes.

Fuel control & fuel master

The feeder speed signals of Mill A to F are subjected to first order delay
circuit and a P amplifier scamps up all the signals to form the total coal flow
signals. A limit value detector is provided to monitor the total coal flow signal
for the BMS. The total fuel signal is computed by adding the oil flow signal.
The fuel master receives its setpoint from MIN computation of the boiler
demand signal (boiler master output) and the total airflow signal. The total
level flow signal computed as mentioned above is the controlled variable.

The output of the fuel master is given to the feeder speed control loops for all
the mills.

The fuel master receives its setpoint from the MIN computation of the Boiler
Demand Signal (Boiler Master Output) and the total fuel flow (The sum of the
feeder speed signals of mills A to F and the oil flow) signal is the controlled
variable. When the fuel master is in AUTO, its output is limited to a maximum
of 72%.
Boiler master

The Boiler Master is basically a pressure controller, which regulates the

Throttle Pressure to a fixed setpoint and the Boiler Demand Signal to the fuel
master. A selector switch switches through either the MW/load setpoint or the
Boiler Load Index Signal as the feed forward signal to the P Channel of Boiler
Master depending upon the mode of operation i.e. co-ordinated mode of
Boiler follow mode. When the Runback is in action signal is active, this
 168

controller is bypassed and the output of GNI (which is essentially the unit
capability Signal) will go as the Demand Signal to the fuel master.
Air master

The setpoint is computed as a function of the steam flow. The controlled

variable is the total airflow signal (The sum of Secondary Air, Hot Air, Oil Air
flow signals and the Hopper Air flow Signal). To account for the deviation in
the feed water temperature at the inlet to the Economiser, the total airflow
signal is biased by an amount equivalent to the deviation of the actual feed
water temperature from the normal temperature. This controller will issue
only a correction signal depending upon the steam flow to the individual air
flow/combustion controller excess air correction circuit is provided on the
control desk to vary the Total Air flow signal by an amount of +/-5%, if
required.

Feeder speed control

The speeder speed control loop receives the set point from the fuel master
controller.

The demand signal is biased and subjected to a max selection to ensure that
the demand signal doesn’t go below 40%. This signal now is the set point for
P11 controllers of each plate belt feeder and belt conveyor.

A double measurement circuit has been foreseen for speed measurement of

each plate belt and belt conveyor feeder to ensure a highly reliable measured
value to be made available for control. In addition the sum of the feeder
speeder signal of the three plate belt feeder (representing the total coal
transferred by these feeders) is compared with the speed feeder
measurement of the belt conveyors (representing the coal transported by the
feeder) is compared with a feeder speed measurement of the belt conveyors.
(Representing the coal transported by the conveyor) to detect and alarm any
deviation.
 169

Binary interventions from the BMS has been in the control loop and
commands like lower /raise, out of main are transmitted from BMS to the
controller logic of the feeder speed controller.All the plate belt feeder and belt
conveyor of all the mills has separate controller.
Calorific correction

A three push button module is provided on the control desk, which can be
kept in either Manual or Auto. When in manual, with the operation of Push
buttons, a small amount of bias will be added directly to Fuel Master (action
will be very fast). When in auto, depending on the Lignite Flow/MW generated
ratio, correction signal will be automatically added to the Fuel Master. If the
RED-LED on the control tile flashes (in the absence of the release signal) by
varying the push button (lignite flow), we can match the lignite flow/MW
generated signal such that the RED-LED lignite flow will flash to change the
Calorific correction control to Auto.
Procedure to be followed for changing the modes

Manual Setting of Various modes is done through single push button modules
mounted on the desk, with the setting of one mode of operation from a
particular push button module, resets all the other operation modes. If a
particular mode is selected, the lamp for that mode blinks at a 2Hz.until the
control has reached the selected mode. This is however not applicable to
Runback mode.

Initially the Unit has to be kept in the Turbine follow mode by pressing the
Turbine follow mode push button, in which Boiler Master will be in manual and
puts the Turbine IP mode (Pressure Control active). For this we have to ensure
that the pressure deviation becomes zero. (By varying the throttle pressure
set point for a while and normalizing afterwards.)

Then we have to press the Boiler follow mode push button, which changes
the Boiler Master to auto and puts the Turbine in LP mode and Load Control
Active. For this we have to ensure that the Load controller deviation in the
Turbine becomes zero.(By varying the EHC Load set point on the Turbine desk
 170

to match to the MW generated signal) to have a bumpless transfer of Load

Controller.

Immediately after the Boiler follow mode, we have to press the Coordinated
Mode Push Button which keeps the Boiler Master in Auto and issues the load
set point to the Turbine controls from the Boiler /CMC directly to the Turbine.
Pressure is controlled by the Boiler, and the Load is controlled by the Turbine.
(Before changing to Coordinated mode, the Unit Master signal has to be
matched to the EHC Load set point.

When the unit is in coordinated mode, if any of the auxiliaries trips, the run
back mode will come into service automatically which changes the unit to go
to the turbine follow mode.

Some important points

1) When the Unit is in the Coordinated mode, we have to necessarily
preselect a running mill on the BMS control desk (to be tripped in the
event if run back occurs)
2) Even when the Unit is in Turbine follow mode, it is better to have the
Fuel Master, Air Master and the Calorific correction in Auto to have a
better combustion (and to maintain the same Load even in the case of
tripping of a running mill).

3) Throttle pressure set point to the HP Bypass will be given a positive

bias of 8 Ksc under normal operating conditions which will be bypassed
in the case of Load rejection /Turbine Trip.

4) In the event of BFP runback only, an additional bias of 6 Ksc, will be

given to the pressure set point going to the Turbine immediately, which
will be normalized after 8 minutes.

5) The release signal for the Air Master is >/= 3 Seconds, Air Damper
Controllers should be in Auto.

6) The release signal for the fuel master is >/= 3 of the following signals:

1. 2 out of 3 plate belts of a mill should be in Auto.

 171

2. Its conveyor belts should be in Auto and

3. Its secondary air controller should be in Auto

7) In the Condition, usually it is not advisable to intervene manually since
Unit capability signal directly goes to the Fuel Master (bypassing the
Boiler Master which will have no influence at that moment) which will
be in Auto and the pressure control /IP mode will be active in Turbine
(turbine follow mode)

8) In the event of unforeseen circumstances /emergencies, it is advisable

to change the Fuel Master to manual immediately and adjust the Fuel
flow as required.

9) If Run back occurs, the FD PCD’s position will be limited by 85% (Auto
limitation)
 172

BO 12. DETAILS OF MODIFICATION

Sl. Modification Objective Effect

No
1 Reduction in Reduction in RH spray Feed water spray Qty.
reheater heating Qty . reduced to certain extent.
surface area
2 Installation of To remove the slag These blowers clean extra
additional 6 water from the furnace wall. surface, proportionate
soot blower Where existing water heat transfer increase in
soot blowers are not evaporator.
covering
3 Increase in nozzle To admit more Qty.of SH/RH O/L temp. could be
diameter of feed water to control controlled during worst
desuperheater SH/RH O/L temp., fouled condition. Load
injection reduction due to high
steam temp. eliminated.
4 Manual cleaning To bring back the After furnace cleaning.
of furnace furnace to normal Boiler could run better
conditions. Whenever until heavy slag
slag formation occur formation.
too much and can not
be removed by WSB
5 a. Checking & a. To avoid big a. No tangible
adjusting dust flow benefit
LD damper restriction
b. LD 4 & 5 b. To ensure b. Ensured
removed availability
insulation
introduced
6 Adjustment of To have proper Slight improvement in
air regime combustion in burning condition
furnace noticed.
7 Restricting To avoid high Slagging got reduced,
mixed firing temperature zone however it could not
due to burning of be quantified
oil & to avoid slag
formation
8 Increase WSB To remove slag Fairly successful.
operation formation
cycle
 173

9 Installation of To disintegrate big Breakdown of slag

breaker bar lumps falling from conveyor got reduced
Height to eliminate considerably.
impact in slag bath &
damage to slag
conveyor to minimize
explosion
10 Keeping slag To avoid damage Damage to slag bath is
conveyor of slag bath due to almost eliminated
spare one falling of heavy down time of units is
clinker & explosion considerably reduced.
& spare slag
conveyor is
recommended to
avoid boiler outage
on repairing the
defective one
11 Restriction of To contain slag Slag formation avoided to
FGT formation due to certain extent.
high furnace
temperature.
12 Closing the upper To increase the Partially achieved
limb of top velocity of flue gas because of lowering the
burner. mixture to keep the fired zone, feed water
flame away from spray reduced.
burner mouth of other
three limbs to
reduce the firing zone
height.
13 Reduction in Lignite particles were Slag formation reduced to
grinding fineness take longer time to certain extent.
by bypassing the burn completely
mill classifier. thereby reducing the
furnace temperature.
14 Introduction of 4 To dislodge the slag More coverage of furnace
Water lance formed When & cleaning of slag than
system compared to the WSB that of WSB.
 174

15 Modification in PF (a) To avoid heating up (a) Slag reduction

Burner of fuel mixture leaving achieved to some extent
configuration. the burner to increase however it could not be
a) Removal of evaporator heating quantified.
refractory from PF surface area. (b) Slag reduction
burner mouth (b) To bring down the achieved to some extent
water wall burning zone & to however it could not be
b) Diverting the reduce spray water quantified
flame down ward. qty. (C) Slag reduction
c) Shortening the (c) To have proper achieved to some extent
core air tubes. mixing of fuel and air however it could not be
d) Lengthening of and to increase the quantified
cooling air pipes velocity before leaving (d) Yet to get the result.
in PF burner PF
Burner
(d ) To reduce slag
16 Reposition of To study the furnace No variation noticed.
diversion plates conditions & slagging
in P.C Ducts. condition.
17 Removal of RSD To increase evaporator Choking is reduced to
mouth refractory heating surface area some extent.
and to reduce the
velocity of flue gas
drawn in
18 Introduction of Jet To remove slag Being tried.
nozzle at RSD formation at RSD
mouth mouth
19 Shifting of SH / To reduce line Greatly reduced.
RH drain valves puncture below 4 to
except CRH / HRH 15 ML
from o to 15 ML
20 Shifting of Mill o/l To avoid cable To some extent
temperature damage. considerably reduced.
element from 9
ml to 15 ml.
21 Shifting of IR To avoid mouth choke To some extent.
scanner from 32 & for easy
ml to 15 ml OB Cleaning
station.
22 Shifting of Fuel To minimize oil line Considerably reduced.
Oil line below 15 puncture.
ml to above 15 Ml
23 Installation of To reduce passing Considerably reduced.
Isolating valves during light up & low
for all inj. B/P load operation.
valves.
24 RH injection To reduce passing Ok
isolation valve for during light up & low
V-588 load operation.
 175

25 Introduction of To attend individual O.K

isolation plate for PBF on line
individual PBF’s
26 Removal of To ensure CBF O.K.
Scrapper availability
Conveyor Belt
feeders
27 Commissioning of Backup for scanner O.K.
back-up source cooling (when both
for scanner scanners not
cooling air from available)
FD discharge.
28 LD 1 chute To reduce LD / chute Successful.
(diameter choke due to wet
increased) lignite
29 Raising the gap To avoid tripping off O.K.
between PBF CBF’s due to
chute and CBF Choking of large
particles
30 Shifting of II PASS To facilitate for O.K.
Hopper pipeline cleaning hard
from slag accumulated slag
conveyor to discharge.
outside the
house.
31 Additional source To avoid choke in OB O.K
for trace heating. station during light up
From atomizing
line for OB’s
station.