Sustainable Technologies for Efficient Energy Utilization in Process Industries

Conversion of Furnace Oil Fired Boiler to Briquette Fired External Furnace Boiler: The
Optimization of Energy Consumption in Process Industry

*Manojkumar U. Borekar- University Department of Chemical Technology (Heat and Mass Transfer
Laboratory), Paper & Pulp Technology, Sant Gadgebaba Amravati University, Amravati-444602, India,
manojenergy@yahoo.co.in,
V.S. Sapkal & R.S. Sapkal -University Department of Chemical Technology,
Sant Gadgebaba Amravati University, Amravati-444602, India, hodchemtech@indiatimes.com

Abstract
In the present era of neck-to-neck competition, the cost of production plays vital role. As the price of
liquid fuels, especially furnace oil are growing at steeper rate than solid fuel price, substitution of furnace
oil to solid briquette is one of the alternative available. In the war of globalization only fittest can survive.

Furnace oil used in Boiler or Thermic oil heater can be totally substituted by Briquette with an equivalent
ratio of 2.2:1 Kg/lit on the basis of calorific value. This usually results in saving of more than 60% in
operating cost and will have attractive payback period of 2-3 months

India has a large agriculture base but still there has been very little work done in the field of agro residue
usage as fuel. Most of the industrialization has been considering liquid fuel as primary source of thermal
energy. Coal, another fossil fuel, is primarily used in the power generation sector. There has been gross
negligence by industry and public, at large, towards an un-harnessed potential of agro waste that has a
large value as fuel. The agro waste can be converted by an easy mechanical process to briquettes that
can be used as fuel in the industry. This conversion is not only beneficial as fuel substitution but is a
potential link between urban and rural economy. The Objective of the article is to undertake a conversion
of FO fired boiler to briquette fired external furnace boiler, techno economical study of project &
commissioning. Following article gives details of technical and commercial aspects of this unique
opportunity, Wealth from Waste.

Keywords: External Furnace, Briquette, Waste heat recovery, Internal grate, external grate, Waste to
energy
*Corresponding author: Tel: +910204031135/+917212571711,
Email address: conserveenregy@gmail.com

1.0 Introduction
Oil price have been increased by 60% over Feb. 19-99. In fact price were as high as Rs.20/lit. ,
Aug. 2005. Every time oil price goes up alternate fuel are through off. By the time cost of boiler, project
layout space, chimney etc and financial resources are lined up. Cost of fuel shows a downward trend &
enthusiasm wanes. Essential requirement of the project for the economic benefits are: Short project time,
lesser auxiliaries, reversibility, and lesser cost of the project

Very rarely boilers are fired at full load. Simple conversion via internal grate or external grate,
which requires only removal of its existing burner-blower assembly, adding a grate to burn the briquette
in same combustion chamber and installation if ID fan. Adiabatic flame temperature with solid fuel is
lesser by 200 to 3000C. Thus in spite of on addition of extra furnace usually up to 70% capacity can be
achieved.

2.0 Fuel
Agricultural out put from India has seen phenomenal growth. Factors, which contributed to the
development, were research in seeds, access to water and power, effective pesticides, communication
and improvement in storage facility. With the growth in production of agricultural output agro-waste
production is also increased. However local thermal energy needs of rural sector were mainly managed
through cow dung, wood, kerosene and lately LPG. Agro mass had few takers. In fact storage of agro-
mass posed problems such as security risk due to fire hazard, growth of pests, blockage of covered
space etc. Simplest solution, which is even practiced today, is spread the waste and burn it. On the other
hand in urban sector industrial growth is pushing the energy needs to hilt. Queues at petrol pump and
chimneys spewing, fossil fuel burnt CO2 are the concerns. Indian government had recognized and efforts
to use biomass were started in 1980’s. Some of the difficulties, which were noted in use of biomass,
were: Low bulk density and tendency to scatter around, Moisture content, Transportation costs. Drying
and briquetting was therefore the right answer. Fiscal and economical incentives were announced and
that led to installation of various briquetting plants. Early birds however, did not have the beginner’s
advantage. On the contrary arm-twisting techniques of urban buyers, poor credit facility, enforced most of
the entrepreneurs to shut the shop. Today however, due to movement called clean development
mechanism, renewed vigour is felt in this area.
Coal and its nuisances are known to industry. New fuels like briquette having calorific value
equivalent to coal in GCV are available in the market. These are made from dry bagasse, groundnut
shale, sawdust etc. Usually no binding material is added. Landed rates in western Maharashtra are same
as coal, it is renewable fuel.

2.1 Briquetting Process

The briquetting process is pretty simple. The machinery involved is a simple reciprocating
machine that compresses the biomass to one-fifth volume. The mechanical pressure exerted on the
biomass is equivalent to 1350 kg/cm2. Due to this high-pressure mechanical operation, there is heat
generation, which evaporates the entrapped moisture and gives a polished finishing. The compacted
biomass is extruded through a die, which also decides the diameter of briquette.
Some raw materials are wet and do not form good solid compact briquette. There is a separate
dryer provided in the system for making the material suitable for briquetting. Lubricating oil cooling
system and electrical system are additionally required for briquetting plant. Power requirement for
briquetting plant is proportional to tonnage. A broad requirement of 60 Units per ton of briquette can be
considered as benchmark.
2.1.1 Raw Material
Though bio mass is a very popularly talked about term, the real meaning of it is not clearly understood.
Particularly, in the context of briquette manufacturing, all biodegradable agro wastes can be easily
briquetted. The briquettable bio mass need not be always raw material in the same form. High moisture
content bio mass needs be solar dried or dried by fuel firing before briquetting. Some of the raw
materials are not easily briquetted. It is necessary to add agro or synthetic binders. Briquettes made out
of such binders are not of desired quality, as the binders do not mix thoroughly and uniformly.

3.0 Various Issues of Boiler Conversion are as

3.1 About Briquette And Its Availability

Briquettes are the manufacture from Bagasse, which is a residue of sugar cane after sugar
extraction. The bagasse is dried in the Sun and extruded. The compaction gives bulk density up to 1100
Kg/m3, due to which 10 tons of briquettes can be loaded in single truck.
Being cellulosic in nature briquettes can be easily burnt in boiler without clinker formation.
Table-1 (Characteristic features of briquette )
Carbon (%) 47
Ash (%) Up to 2.6
Hydrogen (%) : 6.4
Moisture (%) Less than 5
Other (%)(O2+ N2) 45
Sulphur (%) 0
GCV (Kcal/kg) 4200

3.1.1 Availability
Briquettes are mostly available near sugar factory area or in oil producing area with at low price,
while at other places transportation cost will be added .In well designed furnace other residues (if any) or
coal can also be fired if it found economically viable.
3.2 Fuel Feeding And Handling
Briquette is available as 60, 90, 110 mm diameter and 150mm length. It has to be loaded
manually in boiler with shovel. This will add negligible extra cost to boiler operation up to a rate of 200-
250 Rs. per ton of fuel fired. The storage of 4-5 days fuel consumption is recommended to cope up with
fluctuation and/or transportation problem. The space required for storage is almost one meter square for
2 ton of briquette. The storage on open concrete base and covering with plastic tarpaulin sheet is
recommended.
3.3 Types of Conversion
Various ways by which existing oil fired boiler can be converted depends on steam load
pattern, relative cost, manpower cost, labor laws etc.
a) Internal Grate With ID Fan
Lightly loaded boilers say up to 40% & with uniform load pattern can be converted to internal firing.
Modification of boiler involves removal of burner, blower & providing supports for cast iron grate bars
on the inside of combustion chamber (first pass). At the firing end ash door & one feeding door is
provided.
Advantages
• Cheapest and quickest retrofit.
• Reversal can be carried out in about 4-6 hours.
• No extra space or ducting required.
Shortcoming
• Capacity reduction.
b) External Grate Firing
In this type of modification external furnace is erected with sufficient grate area. Hot combustion
chamber of external furnace, multiwindow for air supply enables a firing and cleaning to be carried out
simultaneously. Therefore steam generation capacity is constant. Two third of oil fired boiler capacity is
achievable easily and up to 80% with disciplines on operating side.
Advantages
• Clean combustion.
• Reversal to oil firing possible in 6-8 hrs.
Shortcoming
• Extra space is required.

3.4 IBR Act and Pollution

As there are no changes made in pressure parts, usually IBR has no relevance in operating F.O.
boiler on briquette. Exhaust gases coming out of chimney are made free from dust and impurities as a
result of clean combustion technology. Sufficient bends and turns provided in the path of flue gas help
elimination of particles in exhaust.
3.5 Modification In Existing Boiler and Attachment Needed
The boiler operating at 30% of its capacity requires removal of F.O. burner-blower setup, and
addition of internal grate in present combustion chamber. However, for operating boiler at higher
capacity external fired furnace is recommended .To get the sufficient draft induced draft (ID) fan is
required instead of FD fan. The above addition are fully reversible and boiler can be run on furnace oil
back again if price of latter drops in future.
3.6 Capacity Control
To retain the capacity to 30 -75 % following modification/ attachment were suggested.
Table: 2
Sr.No. Capacity Modifications
1 Up to Internal Grate in same combustion chamber with removal of burner assembly
30%
2 Up to 66 External fuel fired furnace and coupling its exhaust to existing boiler at burner
% assembly location.
3 Beyond Raising the height of boiler with water tubing arrangement and addition of External
75% fuel fired furnace
4 Beyond New set up Non IBR boilers in large numbers to be installed at separate location
75% with large thermal mass furnace. Steam piping to be connected to the main header
after moisture removal.
4.0 Environmental Benefits
As from the ash analysis it is cleared that ash contain 0% Sulphur, so briquette ash can be used as
fertilizer.
4.1 Carbon Credit Facility
Bagasse is considered as an ecofriendly renewable fuel. Its use in India can fetch carbon credits if
the unit has such requirement abroad or in developed countries.
4.2 Ash Analysis
By: ITA LABS. (Industrial and analytical laborites)
Address: Maher house-18, cawer ji Patel Street, Mumbai-400001
Table-3 (Results of analysis)
Sr. No. Particular Percentage
1 Potassium (as K2O) 0.73
2 Phosphorus (as P) (P2O3) 0.18
3 Calcium (as Ca) 1.93
4 Magnesium (as Mg) Nil
5 Sulphur (as S) Nil
6 Iron (as Fe) 0.90
7 Zinc (as Zn) 0.16
8 Electrical conductivity 1611
4.3 Stack Analysis
As from the stack analysis it is cleared that all air pollution emission parameters are under
permissible limit as per pollution control board.
By: enviro labs
Attached to: boiler (Nestler, MR-9965)
Shape: round, Diameter of chimney: 0.90 m, Height of chimney: 23.60 m, Temperature of stack: 115
0
C,Material of construction: mild steel, Velocity of flue gases: 5.38 m/sec, Volume flow rate of flue gases:
9465.30 Nm3/hr., Type of fuel: bagasse bricks
Table-4 (Result of analysis)
Sr. No. Parameter Result Unit
1 TPM 86.13 Mg/Nm3
2 SO2 0.12 Kg/hr
3 NOX 0.52 Mg/Nm3
4 CO NIL PPM
5 CO2 8.5 PPM
5.0 Economics of Fuel Conversion
Briquette has GCV up to 4200Kcal/kg. Our experience has shown that about 2.2 kgs of briquette
are equivalent to 1 liter of furnace oil. Market price of furnace oil fluctuates so also, the savings .At 20 Rs/
lit F.O. price and briquette at 2.5 Rs. /kg the substitution will result in saving of 14.5Rs. /lit. of F.O. fired.
The following table gives the saving potential at various consumption levels.
Table-5
Sr.No. Daily furnace oil Equivalent Briquette Saving
consumption (Kg/day) Consumption (Kg/day) (RS/day)
1 1000 2200 14500
2 2000 4400 29000
3 3000 6600 43500
4 4000 8800 58000
5 5000 11000 72500
6 10000 22000 87000
7 15000 33000 101500
Case Study

The capacity of Nestler boiler at M/s XYZ Ltd. is 4TPH, but from the past data, the average
furnace oil consumption by Nestler boiler is 4298 lit/day showing a average steam demand of 2327
kg/day (evaporation rate = 13 kg of water/kg of fuel). Thus from above observation, Nestler boiler was
operated at 58 % capacity which is their process requirement. As mentioned earlier that in table no-2 that
to achieve a boiler capacity Up to 66 % External fuel fired furnace and coupling its exhaust to existing
boiler at burner assembly location is necessary to convert the FO fired boiler to briquette fired boiler.
Generally grate area permitted for briquette is about 150 kg/m2 for proper combustion. The hourly FO
consumption of Nestler boiler at M/s XYZ Ltd. before conversion was about 187.5 lit/hr., which is
equivalent to 525 kg/hr, which gives grate area of 3.5 m2.

Briquette fuel is being cellulosic in nature briquettes can be easily burnt in boiler without clinker
formation. Experimentally it was found that the stack temperature is about 2100C & due to the absence of
Sulphur in fuel as from table no-1. Waste heat can be recovered from the stack without Sulphur
deposition problem. From the above advantage waste heat potential is recovered by passing stack gas at
2100C through economizer for generating a hot water. Also waste heat recovery reduces the specific
energy consumption & improves the overall system performance. Waste heat potential in the stack is
about 108345.6 kcal/hr But only 75% can be recovered practically then Q = 81259.2 kcal/hr the designing

Indirect efficiency test was taken on Nestler boiler at M/s XYZ Ltd.. Annexure no-I gives the
observation for indirect efficiency test & calculation of indirect efficiency test after conversion of boiler
from FO fired boiler to briquette-fired boiler respectively. Experimentally Indirect efficiency of Nestler
boiler at M/s XYZ Ltd. was found to be 81.51% after conversion.

Yearly furnace oil consumption in Nestler boiler is about 1340971lit/yr. (Rs.17432623/yr) which is
equivalent to 3754718 kgs/yr (Rs.9386795/yr) briquette giving an attractive pay pack period of 57 days or
1365 working hrs on Rs. 1270000.investment on conversion of boiler. Details of saving calculation are
giving in annexure no II.
Energy Consumption Scenario
• Daily average FO consumption: 4298 lit/day
• Hourly average consumption: 179 lit/hr
• The evaporation rate: 13 kg of water/kg of fuel
• Average steam consumption: 179 * 13 = 2327 kg/hr

Annexure-I
Indirect Boiler Efficiency Test
Calculation For Indirect Efficiency Test After Conversion
Purpose of Test: Performance Evaluation

[1] Observations: -

Water: -
a) Avg. feed water temp = 600C
Steam: -
b) Avg. steam pressure (Kg/cm2g) = 6.60
Air: -
c) Avg. ambient air temperature (0C) T2 = 320C
Gas: -
d) Average % CO2 (v/v) = 11.00
e) Average % O2 (v/v) = 6.00
f) Average flue gas temperature (0C) T1 = 210
Before economizer
Briquette analysis (Assumed):
a) % Moisture = less than 5
b) % Carbon = 46
c) % Hydrogen = 6.4
d) % Nitrogen + Oxygen = 45
f) % Sulphur = 0.0
h) Gross calorific valve (Kcals/Kg) = 4200
i) Ash % = up to 2.6
[2] Calculations:

Dry gas loss (D.G.L.)

W x 0.24 x (T2 - T1)

D.G.L. = -------------------------------- x 100
GCV

[(11 CO2) + (7 N2) + 8 O2)]

Where, W = --------------------------------------- x (% C)
(3 CO2)
W = 10.45 Kg/Kg

DGL= 10.63 %

Wet Gas Loss (W.G.L.)

(9H + M) [(100-t) + 540 + 0.5 (T2 - 100)]

W.G.L. = --------------------------------------------------- x 100
GCV

= 4.89 %

Radiation Loss = 2 % (Maximum as per ABMA chart)

Blow down loss = 0 (No blow down was given during test)

Losses due to Unburnt in ash

%Unburnt Losses = (% ash* %C*8100) / GCV

%Unburnt Losses = 0.96 %

Total losses = (10.63 + 4.89+ 2 + 0.96) = 18.48 %

Boiler efficiency = 100 – 18.48 = 81.51 %

Annexure-II

Saving Calculation Due To Boiler Conversion

a) Yearly furnace oil consumption in Nestler boiler = 1340971 lit
b) Briquette fuel required to replace the oil @ 2.8 kg/lit of fuel
= 1340971 lit * 2.8 kg/lit of fuel
=3754718 kgs/yr
c) Saving per year @ RS 20/ lit of FO and RS. 2.5/kg of briquette inclusive if additional labor
charges
= (1340971 *20) – (3754718 * 2.5)
= Rs. 17432625/yr
d) Investment = Rs.1270000
e) Payback period = 27 days
= 630 working hrs.

Conclusion
Business of briquette manufacturing is seeing good growth in recent past. However, in this enthusiasm
past mistakes should not be repeated. For enthusiastic entrepreneur business offers exciting
opportunities

Thus from whole analysis it is proved that the conversion of FO fired boiler to briquette fired boiler is
environmentally as well as economically beneficial project.
References

[1] www.nrel.gov/research/industrial_tech/biomass.html
[2] http://www.nrel.gov/biomass/
[3] http://www.eere.energy.gov/biomass/
[4] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science

[5] Energy Econ. Technol. Ecol. 5, (1984). S.I. Ivanov and A.A. Akhtirsky, Ekonomiya Energiyi i Topliua I,
Bifu [Saving Energy and Fuel in Homes], p. 13. Znaniye, Moscow (1983).N.N. Ershov, Moscow’s (Irhan
Economy Magazine, 1, 6-9 (1982). Yu. V. Sinyak.