ASSIGNMENT

POWER PLANT ENGINEERING (ME-312)

FEED WATER HEATER

TARIQ JAMIL SIDDIQUI ME-16215

SYED ALI HASAN ME-16216
MUHAMMAD ANAS FEROZE ME-16228
MUHAMMAD SAAD SIDDIQUI ME-16242
UMER ABDULLAH ME-16246
 Department of Mechanical Engineering
NED University of Engineering & Technology

INDEX

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………3

Classification……………………………………………………………………………………..…4

Construction………………………………………………………………………………………..9

Working………………………………………………………………………………..……………14

Advantages and Disadvantages………………………………………………………….21

References……………………………………………………………………………..………….22

2
Definition
A feed water heater is an equipment which is being used to preheat water being injected to a
steam generating unit (boiler).

History
A feed water heater was invented in 1804 by Trevithick and Vivian. Other people also followed
them but Hackworth Royal George was the first one in 1827 to built locomotive with feed water
heater. It was a box shaped heater installed below boiler receiving exhaust steam from
cylinders. After this feed water heaters received attention and so much research as being
focused on it.I[1]

3
 CLASSIFICATION
I. IN TERMS OF OPERATION:
A. OPEN FEED WATER HEATERII[2]
In the open also called direct contact feed water heater the bleed steam from the turbine is
mixed directly with the incoming sub cooled water, leaving the pump, to produce saturated
steam at the extraction steam pressure. In open type feed water heater two fluids i.e. bleed
steam and feed water is at same pressure and adiabatic mixing is assumed to take place. The
mixture leaves the feed water heater as saturated liquid. In open feed water heater a pump per
feed water heater is required to handle the feed water. Open feed water heaters are also called
deaerator as the breakup of water in the mixing process results in formation of non-
condensable gases such as air, Oxygen, Carbondioxode and Hydrogen gas.

A schematic diagram of OFWH is shown below which would further elaborate the OFWH.

OFWH 1

OFWH 2

Initially 1kg of steam is coming from boiler and entering turbine from which ‘m2’ is extracted for
1st open feed water heater and ‘m3’ is extracted for second feed water heater and the rest (1-
m2-m3) enters the condenser. For physical mixing the pressure of bleeded steam and feed
water coming from pump should be same. After heater 1 the mass would become (1-m2-
m3+m3 = 1-m2). After second heater the mass of fluid would become (1-m2+m2 = 1) and that
would enter the pump between point 9 and 10.

4
 A T-s diagram for OFWH is shown below:

Physical mixing at this

point.

B. CLOSED FEED WATER HEATERIII[3]

Closed feed water heaters are shell and tube type heat exchangers with no moving parts. In
closed feed water heater the feed water is passed through the tubes and is heated by turbine
extraction steam. In CFWH the fluids are not allowed to mix with each other that is why a
separate pump for each CFWH is not required.

There are two further types of CFWH

 Drain Pumped Forward

 Drain cascaded Backward

Drain Pumped Forward:

In drain pumped forward the condensate is pumped forward with the help of a pump due to
which throttling losses are eliminated as well as energy increases as now the drain goes from
lower potential to high potential.

5
A schematic and T-s diagram is shown below:

Drain cascaded Backward

In Drain cascaded backward the drain is fed back to the next lower pressure and then finally led
back to the condenser via a throttling valve, which is call cascade from high pressure to low

6
pressure. The throttling process to lower potential decreases the energy due to which drain
pumped forward is preferred more.

The schematic diagram and T-s diagram for cascaded backward are shown below:

Unlike open feed water heater, these do not require separate pumps before and after the
heater to boost the feed-water to the pressure of the extracted steam as now no mixing of
fluids take place. The bleed steam is then feed back to the next lower pressure feed water
heater and then taken back to condenser via a throttling valve. This is called cascade from high
pressure to low pressure.

II. IN TERMS OF ORIENTATION

There are two types of orientation:

A. Vertical :

Channel Up: Disassembly is by means of bundle removal. If a sub cooling zone is present, it must
extend the full length of the bundle, since the water must enter the bottom and exit at the top
end of the heater.

Channel Down: Although these conserve floor space, the amount of control area available for
liquid level fluctuation is less. Shell is to be removed for disassembly and its installation and
removal may be more difficult as compared to horizontal one.

7
 B. HORIZONTAL:

This is the most used configuration. Although they occupy more floor space, they are the most
stable in regard to level control. Most are floor mounted, although some are mounted in the
condenser exhaust neck and their disassembly is by means of either shell or bundle removal.

III. IN TERMS OF CHARACTERISTICS

There are three ways in which a feed water heater can be characterized:

A. Low Pressure Feed water heater

Low pressure feed water heaters are located between the condensate pump and either the
boiler feed pump or the intermediate pressure pump. The role of a low pressure feed water
heater is to extract the steam from low pressure turbine.

B. High Pressure Feed water heater

High pressure feed water heaters are located downstream of the boiler feed pump. Their designed tube
side pressure is at least about 1500 psig (relative to atm pressure). The source from where they get
steam is high pressure turbine. Out of the three feed water heaters, the h.p heater is usually a closed
FWH with drain cascaded backward.

C. Intermediate Pressure Feed water heater

It is a heater that is located between the booster pump and boiler feed pump. Usually its
tubeside pressure is about 1000-1500 psi and the source of steam of this type of heater is from
intermediate pressure turbine.

NOTE:

If you need to put a CFWH heater with drain pumped forward, CFWH heater with drain
cascaded backward and an Open feed water heater simultaneously in a cycle then at lowest
pressure you would keep the CFWH heater with drain pumped forward, followed by open feed
water and the intermediate pressure and then at highest pressure you need to keep CFWH
heater with drain cascaded backward.

8
 Construction of feed water heater
The main goal of using a feed water heater is to bleed steam from certain stage of turbine and
use it to increase the temperature of feed water inflow to boiler as per required levels.

The heater types used in feed systems are:IV[4]

When designing a feed water heater certain specifications have to be kept in mind to name a
few:

 Mass flow rate of feed water

 Feed water temperature at inlet and outlet
 Bled steam temperature at inlet and outlet
 Pressure of feed water at inlet and outlet
 Pressure of bled steam at entrance and exit
 Flash steam mass flow
 Tube dimensions
 Space limitations
 Material limitations

Now let’s discuss individually the constructions of feed water heaters

1. Deaerator

9
It is supplied with condenser feed water that has been preheated in Low pressure feed heaters
and is used to not only raise the temperature of the feed water via direct contact of the bled
steam and feed water but is also used to remove any dissolved gases in the feed system.

There are three types of deaerator: V[3]

1. Spray Nozzle Type:

Feed water is added through a nozzle steam is supplied from bottom and then they are
mixed before passing to boiler pump

2. Tray Type:

Feed water in dropped through several levels of trays and as it falls it is mixed with steam
supplied from bottom. The mixture is heated and sent to boiler pump

3. Combined Spray and Tray:

As shown in diagram below it is combination of trays as well and nozzle sprinklers. This is
most common type of Deaerator employed in power plants.

VI
[6]

The spray system and tray supports are made from mild steel with tray itself made from
perforated stainless steel to cater expansion. The head and the tank are linked with bellow
joints that allow relative movement between them. The entire construction of the Deaerator
was previously based on BS1500 and now on BS5500.
2. Tube plate type high pressure feed water heaters

VII
[7]

It is supplied with feed water from the Boiler Feed Pump and is used to send raise temperature
before sending it to the economizer. The bled steam entering the feed water heater is
superheated. The heater construction constitutes of three zones: VIII[3],[8]

 De-superheating zone:

The steam enters in this zone and transfers most of its superheat to the feed
water exiting the heater thus it is cooled to its saturation temperature in this
section.

 Condensing Zone:

The steam is completely condensed in this area as it is most integral part of feed
water heater and most of the energy transfer takes place here as steam rejects
latent heat of condensation.
  Sub cooling Zone :

The steam now condensed enters this section at its saturation temperature and
is cooled by convective heat transfer transferring heat to the feed water flowing
in opposing direction.

An image has been provided for reference of construction.

[9]

Pressure vessels of both horizontal and vertical High Pressure heaters have similar construction
however they may differ in internal parts. The BS5500 is used to determine thickness of plates,
vessel or shell while BS1113 is used in determining the U-tube wall thickness. Tube plates are
made from cast steel while header is made from low carbon steel and is connected to tube
plates by fusion welding.X[10]

3. Low Pressure Tube Heater

Also known as pre heaters, these are located between the condensate pump and Deaerator
which is followed by the boiler pump.

Since the extraction point is from low pressure turbines the mere presence of de superheating
zone becomes unjustifiable. Furthermore the drain cooling zones are also subject to removal in
some cases due to complications of operation and cost. Hence it is preferred to be placed
externally and is separately placed to extract heat from lowest pressure drain. What remains is
condenser type heater only where steam in condensed to extract its latent heat and drain is
cascaded to the condenser

To decrease steam pressure the inlet size of steam is made enlarged when compared to low
pressure heater to rapidly increase the specific volume. XI[11]

The tubes are made from 70/30 brass and cast iron in the shell construction where the design is
in compliance with BS5500
4. Low Pressure Direct Contact heaters

These are conventional systems used to preheat water for the Deaerator. Due to lower cost and
complication it has always been preferred over vertical faced tube heater where there is no
drain or any temperature difference. These are very similar to Deaerator.

For maximum coefficient of heat transfer spray type or tray type of feed water flows are used.
The cylindrical shell also helps for greater contact space. The feed water runs around vessel in
channels bringing it to contact with bled steam. The channels consist of perforated bottoms
which allow for better mixture of steam at subsequent channels. The shell pressure is designed
to get saturated mixture supported by double drains for proper drainage of mixture. XII[12]
 WORKING PRINCIPLES OF FEEDWATER HEATER
Background Concepts
To understand the basic working concept of Feed water heater, we engineers must recall the
operating conditions that were implemented to increase the Rankine cycle efficiency (

) and reduce the irreversibility:

 Superheating the steam at constant pressure during heat addition process (process 2-3),
 Increasing boiler pressure,
 Reducing condenser pressure
 Reheating the working fluid in between its expansion in the turbine (HP-LP Turbine).
These above-mentioned conditions were used to increase the mean temperature of heat
addition (Tml) but only at high temperatures.

XIII
[13]

Figure 1: The first part of heat addition process in the economizer section of boiler takes place at relatively low temperatures.
Though after a systematic examination of the Rankine cycle, it was observed that heat is
transferred to the working fluid at low temperatures during process 2-2’. This reduces the T ml
and cycle efficiency. Therefore, to rectify this shortcoming we must increase the temperature of
the feed water (liquid leaving the pump) before it enters the economizer section of the boiler.
Hence a practical process called Regeneration is used.

Regeneration is a process in which the feed water is heated by exchanging heat energy with the
expanding steam bled or extracted from various points in the turbine. Regeneration has many
advantages:

1. It increases the temperature of the feed water entering the boiler thereby also
increasing the cycle efficiency,
2. It reduces the heat rate due to which there is less consumption of fuel in the boiler to
give more heat input,
3. It also helps in controlling the large volume flow rate of steam flowing in the latter
stages of the turbine mostly due to the large specific volume at low pressures,
4. Also, regeneration deaerates the feed water (removing the air that leaks into the
condenser) thereby preventing corrosion.
So as discussed before the feed water heater (FWH) is a basic heat exchanger, where the
process of regeneration takes place either by physical mixing of the two fluids (direct-contact
or open type FWH) or without physically mixing the two fluids (indirect or closed type FWH).

Open Feed water Heaters (OFWH) or Deaerator

 Working principle: The OFWH basically works on the principle of uniform physical
mixing of two fluids in a mixing chamber held at a constant pressure. The two fluids
which are the feed water and the bled steam exchange heat through direct contact.
Though adiabatic mixing at a constant pressure causes the final fluid to become
stagnate, due to which a pump is required to extract the feed water at saturated liquid
temperature.
 OFWH in a Regenerative Rankine cycle (figure 2): The superheated steam enters the
turbine (state 7), and after isentropic expansion of a certain mass fraction of a steam
(m1) is extracted at an intermediate pressure (P8) and routed towards the feed water
heater, while the remaining fraction of the steam is fully expanded through the turbine
(state 9) and then condensed to a sub-cooled liquid via the condenser (state 1). After
which a pump is required to send the sub-cooled liquid at the same intermediate
pressure (P2, where P2=P8) for uniform physical mixing in the FWH. After which the
saturated liquid formed from the OFWH (state 3) is pumped towards the boiler (state 4),
at boiler pressure (P4).
 o

[14]

 Figure 2: (a) Schematic diagram of a single stage regenerative cycle consisting of OFWH, (b) T-s diagram of the cycle.

1. m1 = mass flow rate at state 7/mass flow rate at state 8,

2. qin = h7 – h4,
3. qout = (1- m1) (h7 – h4),
4. wturbine,out = h7 – h8 + (1- m1) (h8– h9),
5. wpump,in = (1- m1) wpump 1 + wpump 2 , where wpump 1 = v(P2 – P1) and wpump 2 = v(P4 – P3),
6. v = specific volume of water.
 Advantages:
a) Simplicity in design, understanding and cheap,
b) High heat transfer capacity,
c) And reduces corrosion through deaeration process.
 Disadvantages:
a) Two pumps are required for a single OFWH,
b) Hence additional energy and maintenance cost,
c) Amount of steam bled should be equal to the requirement of producing
saturated liquid because if bled steam is less then there is no use of FWH. But if
more steam is bled, the quality of the steam is reduced at the end of turbine.
Also, it can cause the boiler feed pump to encounter steam which is hazardous.
 Usage as a deaerator: The mechanical process of removing dissolved gases like oxygen
and carbon dioxide from the feed water flowing towards the boiler, thereby preventing
corrosion is called as deaeration process.
The deaerator works on the laws of gas solubility where, the solubility of gases
decreases with a corresponding increase in the temperature of the working
environment. Due to which the feed water (emerging from the vent condenser) is
preferentially sprayed from the top, while the bled steam extracted from the turbine is
fed from the bottom. In this way a large surface area of liquid comes in contact with the
superheated steam causing rapid reduction in the solubility of the dissolved gases (like
oxygen and carbon dioxide), consequently causing their removal from the liquid and
thus venting them out from the FWH.
 To neutralize the effect of these dissolved gases a dosing pump is used for
injecting suitable chemicals like sodium sulphate (Na 2SO3) or hydrazine (N2H4) in
the feed water before entering the boiler.
 The deaerator is positioned a good 20-25 m above the boiler feed pump (BFP,
pumps the feed water to the economizer section of the boiler). Hence providing
a net positive suction head (NPSH), so the suction pressure does not fall below
the saturation pressure causing the formation of vapor which can result in
cavitations and vapor locking, that is hazardous for the pump.
 Positioning of OFWH: Since the OFWH works at intermediate pressure (IP), it is
therefore positioned in between the condensate pump and the boiler feed pump. So, for
a power plant containing 7-8 Feed water heaters there will be one OFWH located at the
center with 3 or more high pressure FWH (usually drain cascaded backwards closed
FWH) positioned before it, and 3 or more low pressure FWH (usually drain pump
forward closed FWH) positioned after it.

Figure 3: Deaerator.
Closed Feedwater Heaters (CFWH)

 Basic working principle: Closed feed water heaters or in-direct contact type heaters are
basically shell and tube heat exchangers with no moving parts. They consist of complex
internal tubing which carries the feed water while the bled steam is passed over these
tubing. Hence, CFWH works by transferring heat to these tube walls, which in turn heats
the feed water. But due to the in-direct, non-physical mixing the heat transfer is less,
although there is no requirement of same pressure existing inside the heater. Since the
bled steam is not physically mixed, it is condensed after transferring the energy to feed
water. The condensate (saturated liquid at steam extraction pressure, also called heater
drip) though, still having enough energy is either pumped forward or routed backwards
through a trap or throttling valve to a lower pressure FWH, hence cascading backwards.
It is preferential to pump forward the condensate from the lowest pressure heater on
the basis of exergy principle, rather than throttling back to the condenser, as it would
lose significant energy which can be useful in increasing efficiency.
 Advantages:
1. They do not require separate pumps for each heater,
2. The drip pump if used is small and therefore consumes less work.
 Disadvantages:
1. Require more insulation,
2. Reduced effective heat transfer,
3. Expensive, due to complex tubing network.
 Types of CFWH:
a) Drain pump forward: A drain water pump is used for injecting the
condensate as a saturated liquid into the feed water line, thus reducing
throttling losses and yielding a better efficiency than cascaded backwards
type.

Figure 4: Drain pumped forwarded CFWH.

 b) Drain cascaded backwards: The condensate formed from the superheated
steam has enough energy left to be used by a lower pressure heater.
Hence, the heater drip is sent back through a trap using the throttling
process.

XV
Figure 5: Drain cascaded backwards CFWH. [15]

 Positioning of CFWH on the basis of pressure:

a) Low pressure heaters: Located between the condenser pump and
deaerator. Normally extracts steam from low pressure turbine. Usually
drain pump forward type are positioned in this location, so that we don’t
send the drip heater back to the condenser, thereby reducing losses.
b) High pressure heaters: Located between the boiler feed pump and the
deaerator. Extracts steam from high pressure turbine. Usually drain
cascaded backward types are used for this location.
 Zones of heat transfer: Distinct areas are made within the shell of the feed water heater,
where different forms of heat transfer occur:
1. De-superheating zone: The incoming superheated steam enters this zone and
gives up most of its energy to the feed water. After which it is usually throttled
back to a low-pressure heater.
2. Condensing zone: All feed water heaters have this zone. In this region the steam
is condensed to a saturated liquid, thus rejecting latent heat of vaporization. The
condensate is called heater drain or heater drip.
3. Drain cooling zone: In low pressure heaters the saturated steam enters the FWH,
and exchanges heat with the feed water thereby cooling down below saturation
temperature. When a drain cooling zone is located outside the shell, it is called as
drain cooler.
XVI
[

16]

Figure 6: Steam power plant with FWH network.

Performance Parameters

1. Terminal temperature difference (TTD): The temperature difference between the

extracted steam from the turbine and the feed water exit temperature. It is calculated as
follows:
 TTD = Saturation temp. of bled steam corresponding to bleed pressure – feed
water exit temperature.
 TTD = 0, for open-type FWH due to them achieving an exit feed water
temperature equals to the saturation temperature.
 TTD varies from 0 to -2.78 for high pressure FWH, due to exit feedwater
temperature being greater than the saturation temperature of the bled steam.
 TTD varies from 0 to +2.78 for low pressure FWH, due to exit feed water
temperature being lesser than the saturation temperature of the bled steam.

ADVANTAGES OF FEED WATER HEATER

  Feed water heaters increases the temperature of water before going to the boiler so less
energy is required by the boiler.
 Feed water heater decreases the fuel costs by using recovered energy to heat water.
 It improves the heat rate and the cycle efficiency (overall efficiency of plant).
 They can behave as deaerator which removes the oxygen from the feed water going to
the boiler. So we have maximum amount of pure water going on.
 It reduces steam flow to condenser (requiring smaller condenser).
 Cold water can harm the boiler and can produce leakages and cracks. So feed water
heaters help in durability of boilers.
 C which is produced by the boiler is increased.
 Thermal stresses produced can be minimized by feed water heaters.

DISADVANTAGES OF FEED WATER HEATER

 With the presence of feed water heaters the plant becomes complicated and a bit costly
as well.
 Large boilers are required by feed water as a result they require more space.
 More power consumption is required by feed water heaters so they could be costly.

REFERENCES
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II
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XIII
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