Boiler Facts - Question & Answers: Natural Circulation Boilers Employ The

Boiler Facts - Question & Answers
K. KANNAN, B.E., B.O.E., M.B.A., (D.W.E&T),

M.I.E., Assistant Executive Engineer/Mechanical Boiler Maintenance/Mettur TPS, Mettur dam 636 406
1. What is high pressure Boiler? Boilers, which operate at, pressure higher than 15 psi is called high-pressure boiler. 2. Why steam is chooses for power generation? The simplest explanation is that it is a convenient way of transporting heat from the fuel being burned in the boiler to where in the process it is required. 3. TNEB boilers are sub critical or super critical? Sub-critical 4. What is a super critical boiler? Boiler producing steam above pressure i.e., 218 ata critical
At varying operating load conditions in which the unit is shut down and start up too frequently, non-uniform temperature appear in the wall cross section of steam drum due to thicker wall, producing high thermal stresses that brings about cracks of corrosion fatigue in the boiler drum. 9. What fuels are used for packaged boilers? Liquid and gases fuel 10. What are the design parameters of the boiler (MTPS)? 700 T/hr Super heated steam at 137 kg/cm2 pressure and 540C 11. Why the steam temperature is limited to 540C? For utility boilers, which are meant for power generation, the super heater outlet temperature is limited to 540 + 5C due to metallurgical considerations. 12. What do you mean by the heating surface area of a boiler? It is the surface area of boiler tubes exposed to the hot gases of combustion in the furnace. 13. What is the heating surface area of the boiler at MTPS? 19,394 m2. 14. How many type of heating surface area may boiler have? Radiant, convective and radiantconvective type. 15. What is circulation ratio? The ratio of actual mass flow of water through circuit to the steam generated is called circulation ratio. 16. What are the types of circulation followed in boilers? Natural, forced and once through circulation 17. How the natural circulation boiler is working? Natural circulation boilers employ the effect of density differences between water and steam to produce circulation. This density differences together with the
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5. How the steam is produced in sub critical pressure and super critical pressure boilers? In sub-critical pressure boilers, the furnace enclosure is cooled by constant temperature boiling water and the flow circuit is designed to accommodate the two-phase steamwater flow. The super heated steam is produced after separating the dry steam at boiler drum. But, in super critical pressure, the water acts as a single-phase fluid with a continuous increase in temperature to super heated steam as it passes through the boiler. 6. What are the advantages of supercritical boilers? Super critical boilers operate above 225 kg/cm2 pressure (critical pressure of steam) at which the water becomes steam instantaneously without latent heat. Normal power plant operates with cycle efficiency of 36% where as power plant with super critical boilers operates with cycle efficiency of 42 %. This will reduce fuel cost and reduce emission of green house gases. 7. What do you mean by utility boiler? Boilers that burn coal, oil or gas to provide steam to generate electricity are called utility boilers. 8. Why once-through technology is adopted in 500 MW and above capacity units?
Kannan.k aee/bm/mtps
height of the boiler constitutes a head, which overcomes the losses occurring in the circuit, and makes circulation possible. 18. How the forced circulation boiler is working? In forced circulation boilers a mechanical pump is added to the simple flow loop and the pressure difference created by the pump controls the water flow rate. 19. What will happen if the circulation ratio is less than that required minimum? Flow of water through a circuit should be more the steam generated in order to prevent the tube from over heating. If it is not so, tube deformation or leakages or tube to fin welding failures can take place. 20. What is the circulation ratio and pressure of natural circulation boilers? C.R is 4 to 30 and pressure up to 175 kg/cm2 21. What is the circulation ratio of the once through boilers? Unity (1) 22. What is the circulation ratio of the utility boilers? Between 6 to 9 23. What is the Circulation ratio of highpressure natural circulation boilers? 6-10 24. Factor that affects the circulation ratio are? Number of down comers, diameter and layout of the down comer pipes decides the effective circulation. 25. Why natural circulation is limited to subcritical boilers? Because, it works on the basis of density difference between steam and water. 26. What is the critical pressure and temperature at which the density difference of the steam and water is zero? 218 ata, 374C 27. How the steam is generated in the 210 MW boilers? The water from drum flows down through down comer pipes. There are six down comers connecting steam drum with furnace water wall inlet (ring) headers. The water travels around the furnace water wall circuit to generate steam. The water rises through the furnace wall to outlet headers (7 Nos.),
absorbing heat to become a steamwater mixture based on the natural circulation principle. The saturated steam produced in water wall zone is further super heated to a specified temperature in steam super heaters. 28. How the boiler operating pressure is determined? The boiler operating pressure is determined by adding Turbine throttle pressure and the pressure drop through the steam piping, valves, super heater and drum internals at maximum unit steam flow. 29. What is nucleate boiling? Nucleate boiling is formation and release the steam bubbles at the tube surfaces, with water still wetting the surface immediately. Since the tube surface temperature is closer to saturation temperature tube is always safe against the failure. 30. What is film boiling? Film boiling is the formation of steam film at the tube surfaces, in which the metal temperature rises sharply. This leads to a instantaneous or long term over heating of tubes or failure. Film boiling begins due to high heat flux or low velocity or inclined tubes. 31. How inadequate water / steam flow circulation affect a boiler? It will reduce the heat removal rate, causing higher metal temperature of boiler tubes 32. What is the function of super heater in a boiler? The function of super heater is to increase the temperature of the steam above its saturation temperature. 33. What is Raiser tube? Riser is a tube through which water & steam mixture pass from an upper water headers to drum 34. What are the types of super heaters? Pendent type, Horizontal type and radiant type 35. What is pendent type SH? Pendent type SH is hanging & supported from header. It is simpler in design, can be fastened more reliably but non-drainable. This may cause some internal corrosion & involve certain difficulties in boiler firing. 36. What is a horizontal SH? It is arranged across the boiler and has a more intricate design as regards their
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fastening but self-drainable. Horizontal SH are supported by strips with other steam / water path tubes. 37. What is radiant SH? It will absorb heat by direct radiation from the furnace and located at the top of the furnace. Spacing between the coils is 6001000 mm. Also it will absorb both radiant and convective heat. 38. What is the important difference between the working characteristics of a radiant type and a radiant-convective type Super heater? The former superheat the steam to higherthan design temperature at low loads and the later maintains a relatively steady super heat temp over the entire load range. 39. Why Platen SH coils outer most circuit is provided with stainless steel material? Front tubes are heated much more strongly than the other tubes in a platen. As a result external tube operate under critical temperature. To avoid this the outer most tube may be with higher-grade material/making outer most tube with shorter length/shadowing the tubes by another heating surface area, which is operating under lower temperature. 40. Why two steam lines are provided from boiler to turbine end instead of one line? The effect of pressure losses anywhere in the steam path causes a loss in the cycle efficiency by reducing the energy available for conversion into work. Simply reducing the pipe losses by increasing the pipe size or by adding number of pipes may increase the cycle efficiency. 41. What is Desuperheater? The steam outlet pressure and temperature are maintained constant by firing rate. The operating variables, such as slag or ash accumulation, load, excess air, feed water temperature, burner operation, fuel quality etc. are causing temperature fluctuation in SH/RH system. Hence, control is necessary to regulate the steam temperature within the required limits in order to correct fluctuations caused by operating variables and to avert increase in boiler tube metal temperature. To maintain the outlet steam temperature within the limit, a feature called Desuperheater is introduced in between LTSH and vertical platen super heater at penthouse.
42. Name the locations where the Desuperheaters are used in the boiler? Main steam lines between LTSH and Platen Super heater, cold re-heater headers before entering into boiler and PRDS system. 43. From where the water is supplied for Desuper heating? Feed water after the HP heater is taken for desuper heating of Main steam and reheater steam through SH/RH spray station. For PRDS system water is taken from both BFP and CEP. 44. Though the steam temperature is key for the heat rate and cycle efficiency, why it is adjusted or controlled within the limit? It is important to adjusted or control the steam temperature to prevent the failure due to excessive metal temperature in the super heater, re-heater and to prevent thermal expansion from dangerously reducing turbine clearances. 45. What is the basic design factor governs the super heat and re-heat temperature? Total heating surface area available and ratio of convection & radiant heat absorbing surfaces. 46. What are the operating variables affects the super heat and re-heat temperature? Operating variables such as load, excess air, feed water temperature, changes in the fuel quality & ash deposits on the heating surfaces and specific burner combination in service, use of steam foe soot blowing, blow down are affecting the steam temperature. 47. How the boiler load affects the steam temperature? As load increases, the quantity and temperature of the combustion gases increases. In a convection super heater, steam temperature increases with load, the rate of increase being less the closer the super heater surface is to the furnace. In a radiant super heater, steam temperature decreases as load increases. Normally a proportioned combination of radiant and convection super heater surface is installed in series in a steam generating unit to maintain substantially constant steam temperature over the control range of the unit. 48. How does the excess air affect the steam temperature? For a change in the amount of excess air entering the burner zone, there is a corresponding change in the quantity of gas flowing over the convection super heater. So as a result of more intensive heat transfer in
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this zone the temperature of the super heater steam increases. 49. How does the feed water temperature affect the steam temperature? The decrease of feed water temperature results in a higher super heater steam temperature. Because, the heating surface of the super heater is fixed and as the feed water temperature decreases the steam generating capacity of water wall decreases with the effect that for the constant fuel consumption the quantity of heat absorbed by the super heater from the flue gases increases per unit flow rate of steam. 50. How does the boiler cleanliness affect the steam temperature? Slag or ash deposits on the heat absorbing surfaces of furnace zone tubes increases the temperature of the flue gas entering the super heater section and subsequently, the steam temperature increase. Ash deposit is the most frequent cause of steam temperature fluctuations. This condition can usually be corrected by changes in the sequence or frequency of the soot blower operation. 51. Mostly saturated steam is used for our auxiliaries, then why steam is not directly taken from the drum instead super heated steam is used after desuperheating? If the steam is directly taken from the drum, the super heater may not receive as much steam as is required for the cooling of coils. This may lead to starvation of SH coils. To avoid this problem, the entire quantity of steam separated from the drum is charged to the super heater and part of the steam is de-superheated according to the requirements, for running of the auxiliaries.
When heated the boiler expand and contract while cooling. When heating and cooling is not uniform and may give rise to hot spot within the boiler. The magnitude of expansion depends on the heating effect. 55. What precautions should be taken for non-drainable super heaters during steam raising/ The metal temperature of the SH tubes should not be allowed more than the limit and the firing rate should be controlled to avoid accumulation of condensate in the super heater coils. 56. When it is more economic to adopt a reheat cycle? To generate high-pressure super heated steam for its expansion in the turbine for the generation of Electricity. 57. Why constant pressure is maintained in Re-heater? Or why pressure drop in reheater is so important? The pressure drop in re-heater is critical because the gain in heat rate with the reheat cycle can be nullified by too much pressure loss through the re-heat system. Therefore, steam mass fluxes are generally somewhat lower in the re-heater. 58. What is the maximum amount of steam that can be by-passed through re-heat system? 30% 59. What will happen to the super heater coils in case of starvation? Coils will get overheated and causing warping or tube failure. 60. What are the prerequisites for steam flow through every tube? Removal of all water from the each tube The total steam flow equal to or greater than approximately 10% of rated steam flow. Water is removed from drainable super heaters by simply opening the header drains and vents. Non-drainable super heaters are not so simple, because the water must be boiled away. There will be no steam flow through a tube partially filled with water and those portions of tube not in contact with water will be subjected to excessive temperatures unless the gas temperature is limited.
In a radiant 52. How are load changes controlled in boiler? By varying number of burners in operation and varying the rate of fuel burning the load changes can be controlled. 53.What are the consequences of over loading of boiler? It will affect the design circulation velocity, higher the flue gas temperature and bring about higher superheated steam temperature that may lead to super heater coil failure by overheating. 54. What is the effect of expansion or contraction?
61. What precautions should be taken to protect the super heater and re-heater coils during the startup of boiler? During normal operation every super heater tube must have sufficient steam flow to prevent over heating. During startup, before there is steam flow through every tube, the combustion gas temperature entering the super heater section must be controlled to limit the super heater metal temperature to 450C for carbon steel tubes and 538C to 580C for various alloy steels. 62. Why hot drain is recommended in the boiler? Draining all circuit while in hot may temporarily dry the surfaces to avoid atmospheric corrosion (Corrosion may taken place inside the tube material in the presence of atmospheric oxygen if moisture present inside the tube). Also, hot draining of boiler are carried out at suitable opportunity to flush out settlement and deposits. 63. What is header? It is a larger pipe, which supplies to or collects the steam or water from a series of smaller pipes or tubes. Also called a manifold. 64. How the boiler is supported? Mostly it is top supported and allowed to expand downwards (Approximately to 250 mm). 65. Why the water tubes arranged in small parallel tubes instead of larger pipe? It is arranged to reduce the pressure drop due to the friction and to get better control over the quality of the steam. If the water flows through one continuous larger diameter pipe the pressure loss will be more. 66. Why the feed water should not enter the economiser below a certain temperature? This may cause a sharp drop in the temperature of the flue gas. Due to this cold end corrosion may takes place due to the condensation of sulphuric acid from flue gas. 67. Why economizer is used in a boiler plant? To pre heat the feed water before it enters the boiler. It is located in the boiler second pass after the low temperature super-heater and before air-heater.
68. Where the actual steam generation takes place in Drum type boiler? Steam generation takes place in furnace water walls 69. Why re-circulation is provided in economizer? Re-circulation arrangement is provided to prevent the eco coils from overheating i.e. particularly while starting of unit there will not be any feed flow to the boiler. 70. What will be effect of admitting the feed water below certain temperature to economiser? This may cause a sharp drop in the temperature of the flue gas. If the flue gas temperature drops to its dew point, it will cause severe corrosion of the metal and even lead to tube failure. 71. Why economizer inter-mediate headers are provided in high-pressure boilers? In high capacity boilers where the number of economizer coils is large, many tubes be passed through the roof for connection to an external header. This will increase the gas leakage. Hence, tubes are connected with inter-headers to reduce the number of connection in the outlet header. Inter headers and out let header are connected with minimum number of eco hanger tubes. 72. Why economizer coils and LTSH coils are sectionalized as lower bank and upper bank? To facilitate the operation and repairs, economizers/LTSH are usually sectionalized in the gas path, with banks of a height up to 1 m. 73. What should be the temperature difference between the gas side and steam side of the super heaters? 140C for the effective heat transfer which primarily depends on mass velocity and temperature difference. 74. What will be the effect of using low CV coal instead of designed coal? Low CV coal increases the flue gas flow; leads to more heat transfer and needs more spray to maintain the design SH/RH temperature. 75. Purpose of providing steam drum? For steam separation and steam purification 76. What are the drum internals?
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All apparatus within the drum is called internals viz., separators, CBD & EBD pipe lines, Phosphate dosing line, screen dryers etc 77. What is the function of Drum internals? - Separation of steam from steam water mixture. - Removal of water bubbles from water volume of boiler from entering down comer. - Mixing and distributing feed water. - Adding chemicals - Facilitating blow down. 78. How the steam is separated in the boiler drum? In high-pressure boilers, turbo separators are used for steam-water separation. It is consists of a primary axial flow turbo separator, a plate type corrugated sheet secondary separator at the outlet of the turbo separator and screen drier boxes prior to the entry to steam outlet nozzles. The spinner blades within the separators impart a spinning motion to the mixture, which causes the heavier water droplets to move radially through the lighter steam, to impinge on the separator wall and to discharge downward below the water surface through an outer concentric cylinder. The secondary separator is plate type corrugated sheet arranged so as to have a horizontal flow in a zigzag path. The drier boxes are wire mesh boxes with more wetting surface. The gravity separation takes place in the space between secondary separator and screen driers. 79. How the TDS is removed from the drum? During steam generation at a high pressure, the concentration of these salts rise to a value at which they can form scale / sludge. Calcium and magnesium can form nonsticking sludge, which remains in the boiler water in a suspended state and can mostly be removed by Continuous Blowing Down. 80. What is Intermittent Blow Down? Intermittent Blow Down (IBD) is a manual instantaneous system which is operated once in a shift or whenever found necessary to reduce the boiler TDS to reduce the boiler TDS well below the specified maximum limit and allow it over the period to build up to the maximum again. 81. Where the Tri Sodium Phosphate is dosed in the system of steam generation? At boiler drum
82. Why the Phosphate is dosed in the boiler drum? To create the conditions that favour the formation of sludge instead of scale, which are removed from the system by blow down. Moreover, the phosphate dosing is done to prevent the formation of calcium scales rather than scales in general. 83. What is pre-boiler corrosion? Dissolved oxygen attacks copper in the presence of ammonia more severely in the feed water system (pre-boiler section) before entering into boiler. T he resultant corrosion product is transported more easily in a soluble form into the boiler and the liberated free copper gets deposited on the heat transfer surfaces at elevated temperature. 84. Can the phosphate dosing prevent the deposition of pre-boiler corrosion products? No. It fails to prevent the formation of iron oxides and copper depositions. 85. What may happen due to low water in the boiler? It may be any thing from leakage to explosion. 86. What is foaming? Foaming is due to the chemical composition of the water. Pure water does not foam, and in a boiler the steam bubbles are large, rising quickly to the surface and burst. In the presence of certain dissolved or suspended substances, the surface tension is altered and the steam bubbles remains small. Therefore they do not rise quickly, and in effect the water into a foaming mass, which can then foam into the steam takeoff. 87. What are the common causes for foaming? -High suspended or dissolved solids in the boiler water -High alkalinity in the boiler water -Contamination of the boiler water with detergent or saponable oil 88. What is priming? Priming is the ejection of boiler water into the steam take-off and in general, results from factors associated with boiler operation. 89. What are the probable causes for priming?
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There are several possible causes like operating the boiler with too-high water level, operating below the design pressure, demanding more steam than the design value. 90. In case of high water level in the drum what will happen? It may lead to carryover of feed water and cause priming. 91. How does the water level in the drum influence the contamination of the steam? Higher the level of the water greater is the steam wetness. Moreover, for the same height of the water level, steam wetness increases with the increase of steam pressure. 92. What type of control is used to maintain the drum level? For higher capacity boilers and those operating at higher pressures, a pneumatic or electrically operated feed water control system is used. The most widely used feed water control system, especially at utility boilers, is the three-element feed water control. 93. Why the upper water level and lower water levels are prescribed in the boiler drum? The upper water level is taken so as to ensure high quality steam generation while the lower water level is prescribed for reliable circulation of water through the circulation system. 94. What are all the three elements in threeelement control system? Drum level, feed water flow and steam flow 95. How will you detect the tube failure in a boiler? Loss of fluid from the system, noise produced from the leak 96. What procedures will you adopt in case a leakage has been detected? Boiler is to be shutdown and cooled, Boiler is to be drained, inspection of leak and leaks are to be repaired. 97. During steam raising what precautions should be taken for non-drainable super heaters? Firing rate should be controlled to avoid accumulation of condensate in the super heater coils as well as the tube metal temperature should be kept below the maximum designed temperature.
98. What is a safety valve? It is a device that lets out the excess steam when the steam pressure in the boiler, steam header or pipe line exceeds the working pressure. 99. How does a safety valve works? When the steam pressure exceeds the working pressure, it automatically vents some steam from the system with the effect that the system pressure returns to the normal working limit. 100. What type of safety valve is used in the high-pressure boiler? Spring loaded safety valve. 101. Why is the safety valve of super heater set at a lower pressure than the SV of the boiler drum? To protect the super heater coils from starvation by ensuing adequate steam flow to the super heater. 102. What should be the total capacity of the safety valves? It should be equal to the design steam flow of the boiler. 103. What will be the relieving capacity of the super heater safety valves? Safety valves on the super heater will have approximately 25% of boiler MCR as relieving capacity. 104. Why steam blowing is necessary before testing the safety valve? Safety valve seats are susceptible to damage from wet steam. This is an essential reason for cleaning the boiler and blowing out the super heater and steam line before testing safety valves. 105. How the Spring Loaded safety valve works? Spring-loaded Safety Valves are the valves which operates automatically whenever on upstream of valves exceeds the preset pressure of valves. It should not have any isolation valve in between the pressure vessel and safety valve. This type of valve lifts at one pre-set pressure and re-set at a lower pressure 106. What is the set pressure of the safety valve? It is the pressure at which the valve lifts off its seat for a pre-determined pressure. The set pressure can be adjusted by the screw, which alters the spring force. The valve is
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also designed to give a positive lift when the set pressure is reached and so the valve does not simmer. Simmer means that the valve is just about opening or has indefinite contact. 107. What is the Re-set pressure of the safety valve? It is the pressure at which the valve closes or reseats. It is based on the blow down of the valve that is varying from 3 to 5%. Blow down is nothing but the difference between the set pressure and reset pressure of the valve. 108. What is the function of Lower Adjustment Ring? The lower ring is used to obtain a popping action and to cushion the closing action of the valve. If simmer is present or valve fails to lift, the lower ring should be moved upward slowly, one notch at a time to remove the simmer. 109. What is the function of Upper Adjustment Ring? The upper ring is used to obtain the required blow down. To reduce the blow down moves the upper ring upward anti clockwise. To increase the blow down move ring down-turn clockwise. 110. What is Electromatic Relief Valve? ERV is normally provided on one of the super heater outlet header in 210 MW units. This valve is provided to prevent frequent opening of spring loaded safety valve. The valve assembly consists of a main valve that is actuated by an adjoining pilot valve and the pilot valve in turn is actuated electrically. This is actuated automatically when pressure increases set pressure (or) also can be opened by pushing a button from UCB whenever necessary. 111. Why air heaters are used in a boiler plant? It increases the temperature of the air supplied to the furnace by utilizing the heat of the flue gas. The overall efficiency of the plant may be increased by 10% by pre heating the air in the boiler. 112. Where the Air heaters are placed in two pass boilers? At boiler second pass below the economiser
113. How many Air heaters are there in 210 MW boilers? Two Tri-sector Regenerative APH 114. How the air is heated in the Regenerative Air heaters? Regenerative air heaters are mostly used in utility steam generators. It consists of a cylindrical shell plus a rotor, which is packed with bundles of heating elements and is rotated through counter flowing air and gas streams. A stationary housing that has ducts at both ends encloses the rotor. Air flows through one half of the rotor and gas flows through the other half. Metallic seals minimize the air to gas leakage and flow bypass around the rotor. Bearings in upper and lower beam assemblies support and guide the rotor at the central shaft. A rotor speed of one to three rpm is provided by a motor driven pinion engaging a rotor encircling pin rack. 115. What is SCAPH? Steam Coil Air Pre-Heater 116. Why SCAPH is provided? The forced draft fans supply cooled ambient air. This air enters the air preheater through the steam coil air preheater. During start up and low load condition steam coil air pre-heater is utilised to raise the temperature of air entering the air heater to avoid cold end corrosion. 117. Why the size of the ID fan is always larger than FD fan? Because, ID is to handle flue gas with higher specific volume than the air handled by the FD fan. 118. How the ash is removed from the boiler? Ash and residue from the combustion of solid fuels are discharged at four different points in the boiler flue gas stream via Bottom as hopper, economizer hopper, air pre-heater hopper and ESP hoppers. Particle size, density, velocity and physical arrangement in the flue gas path dictate at which point in the flue gas path the ash particles are no longer carried along in the flue gas. 119. How the Bottom Ash is disposed from boiler? Each unit has two bottom ash hoppers. Each hopper consists of a set of scraper feeder and clinker Grinder at the furnace bottom. Each hopper consists of upper
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hopper, slag bath and scraper feeder trolley. Around the top periphery of the upper hopper, seal trough is provided to effectively seal the furnace draft. Quenching nozzles are provided in the upper halves to quench ash collected in the ash hopper and to help move large slag. The ash collected at bottom transfer to clinker grinder where it is crushed to size and then falls into trench below the scraper feeder. 120. How the Fly Ash is disposed from boiler? The fly ash collected in the Economiser, Air heater and ESP hoppers drops continuously through a vertical pipe connection to the mixing box provided below each hopper. The nozzles provided in the mixing box continuously mix the fly ash with water and discharged to the common trench for fly ash disposal. Nowadays, the ash collected at ESP hoppers is disposed in dry mode by Highpressure air system as fly ash utilization. The system consists of individual transmitter (Which is connected to ash hopper on the ESP) equipped with the necessary valves, pneumatic equipment and controls. The transmitters of hoppers are connected by a piping system to the silo. When the transmitter is filled to a certain level, a conveying cycle is initiated by a signal from the level indicator or by a timer if wanted. Ash in the transmitter is transported by pressurised air to silo where it is loaded to trucks. 121. How the ash is removed at ESP? An ESP electrically charges the ash particles in the flue gas to collect and remove them. The dust concentrated flue gas enters the ESP through an inlet channel and passes through a gas distributor that distribute the flue gas evenly over the parallel array of discharge electrodes spaced alternately with collecting electrodes. The discharge electrodes are in the form of wire, which is connected to a high voltage power source, 55 to 75 kV DC with a negative polarity. The collecting electrodes come in the shape of plates that are usually positively charged or grounded. The high intensity electric field created causes the particulates in the gas stream to acquire negative charges transferred from ionized gas molecules of the same polarity. These charged particles accelerate towards collection electrodes, where their charges
get neutralized, whereupon they fall into a collection hopper. 122. What is Soot blower? It is a device used to blow accumulated soot off tubes and heating surfaces in a boiler. Super heated steam is used from nozzle to dislodge the deposited soot as the soot blower traverses or rotated to clear the deposit from a section of the boiler. 123. The steam for soot blowing is supplied from which stage of super heating? The steam required for blowing is taken after super heater header No.10 and line pressure is reduced to 22 kg/cm2. 124. What is the frequency of the wall blower? The blowers can be operate and keep water wall tubes clean if super heater steam temperatures are more than desired. If it is lower than required, blowing frequency can be reduced. 125. Why the thermal drain is provided in the soot blowing steam supply line and what is the significant of it? Steam supplied for soot blowing should be in super heated form. If moisture is present in the steam, erosion rate will be more and leads to water wall tubes failure. In order to maintain the super heated steam in the line, a temperaturecontrolled valve is provided to drain the condensate automatically. 126. What will be the impact of the flue gas velocity in boiler pressure parts? Material wastage will be more over the convective pass tubes. Because, the erosion rate will be proposal to an exponential function of flue gas velocity. 127. Design flue gas velocity of the boiler? 15 m/s 128. What is the effect of expansion or contraction stress on boiler tubes? Leakage develops 129. What is the expansion of the boiler? Maximum 250 mm 130. What is the effect of soot deposition in the flue gas passage of a boiler? Impairs heat transfer 131. What is draft?
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It is the pressure difference between the combustion product in side the boiler and the cold air outside the boiler 132. What is balanced draft system? Coal fired boilers are designed with balanced draft firing system, meaning that the pressure in it is approximately atmospheric. Actually, it is kept at a slightly negative pressure to ensure that any leakage would be inward. This system is provided with Primary air fan, Forced and Induced draft fans. 133. How the air required for combustion can be controlled to meet the variable load demand? It can be controlled either through damper control or speed control 134. Which is more economical- Damper control or speed control? Speed control. Because the power requirement in the case of speed control is less than that required for damper control to bring about the desired change in airflow quantity. 135. What factor determines the quantity of primary air to be used for drying and transportation of pulverized coal? Fuel quantity. Particularly the moisture content. 136. Define Wind box? It is the box surrounding the burner damper on a boiler. The secondary air heated in the Air heater is directed to wind box and the damper regulate and directs in to the burners. 137. What is the function of coal burners in boiler? Burners undertake the task of delivering coal and air in a proper proportion, facilitate ignition energy to the coal air stream, sustain the ignition and provide a stable flame during the operation, complete the task of combustion and delivering heat to the intended purpose. 138. How the burners are arranged at burners corners? In 210 MW boilers, the wind box assembly is divided into 13 compartments (6 coal burners, 3 oil burners and 4 air compartments) from top to bottom. In a tangentially fired boiler, two wind boxes (combustion air boxes) are arranged one at right & one at left side of the furnace. The oil burners are located at different
levels or elevations of the wind boxes (AB, CD & EF). The coal and oil burners are sandwiched between air nozzles or air compartments. End air nozzles are arranged one at the bottom and one at the top of burner arrangement. 139. How the air required for combustion is distributed? The Combustion air, referred to as Secondary Air, is provided from FD Fans. A portion of secondary air called `Fuel Air is admitted immediately around the burners (annular space around the oil/gas burners) into the furnace. The rest of the secondary air, called 'Auxiliary Air, is admitted through the auxiliary air nozzles and end air nozzles. The quantity of secondary air (fuel air + auxiliary air) is dictated by boiler load and controlled by FD Fan inlet guide vane regulation. 140. How the coals are graded? Based on the moisture, ash, particle size, ash fusibility temperatures and sulfur content of the coal. 141. Which type of coal is contributing more for power generation in India? Sub-Bituminous coal. Mostly Grade F coal 142. Why oil is used as an auxiliary fuel in coal-fired boilers? Coal is the main fuel in utility steam generators as well as many industrial boilers, but a considerable quantity of fuel oil is also used as an auxiliary fuel for boiler warm up, ignition of coal and coal flame stabilization at low loads 143. What do you mean by atomisation of liquid fuel and why is it necessary? Atomisation is the process of spraying the fuel oil into fine mist, for better mixing of the fuel with the combustion air. While passing through the spray nozzles of the oil gun, the pressure energy of the steam converts into velocity energy, which breaks up the oil stream into fine particles. 144. What should be the viscosity of the HFO for better atomization? For satisfactory atomisation the viscosity shall be 15 to 20 centistokes. 145. Why oil re-circulation is necessary? Before putting in the first burner into service, it is necessary to warm up the long oil supply lines to the burners, so that
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the oil does not get cooled in the colder piping and that the oil at correct atomising temperature becomes available at the burners. To achieve this the heated oil is circulated up to the burners and back to the oil tank through oil return lines till adequate oil temperature is reached near the burners. 146. Why oil temperature is important for firing? The result of inadequate heating of oil is "higher oil viscosity" which impairs atomisation at the oil gun, leading to poor flames, sooting, increased carbon loss and finally flame failures. 147. What should be the effect of low and high temperature of fuel oil? Low heating of oil is "higher oil viscosity" which impairs atomisation at the oil gun, leading to poor flames, soot forming, increased carbon loss and finally flame failures. Over heating or high temperature of the oil is not desirable from the point of thermal cracking of oil. The formed solid carbon particles build up over the heater tubes, and plug up the strainer, intricate passages of control and shut off valves and atomisers. The carbon particles also cause faster atomiser wear out and sparkling in the flame. 148. How the firing rate is controlled during the oil firing? The firing rate is varied by controlling the oil pressure with a constant atomizing steam pressure. 149. What will happen if, during atomization, the oil pressure is decreased? As the oil pressure is gradually decreased, the droplets of atomized fuel oil will grow in size. Ultimately there will be a minimum oil pressure at which the droplet will grow too large to burn completely. 150. What type of oil gun is used for oil firing and how it works? Normally J type, which is an externally mixing type oil gun, is used for oil firing. Atomising steam is supplied through holes in the spray plate and oil at specified viscosity is also fed through the same hole and gets mixed just before getting discharged together in a spray plate. The firing rate is varied by controlling the oil pressure with a constant atomizing steam pressure.
151. What is tangential firing system? The fuel and combustion air streams from these burners or compartments are directed tangentially to an imaginary circle at the center of the furnace. Tangential firing arrangement creates a single flame envelope with a rotating fireball in the center of the furnace. 152. What is the Range of burner tilt? Plus 30 to minus 30 degree 153. What is the effect of burner tilt in Tangential firing system? The burners are tiltable Plus 30 to minus 30 degree about horizontal, in unison at all elevations and corners. This shifts the flame zone across the furnace height and enables control over steam temperature. 154. How wind box compartment dampers positioning affects the airflow distribution to the furnace? Opening up the fuel air dampers or closing down the auxiliary air dampers increases the airflow around the fuel nozzle. Closing down the fuel air dampers or opening up the auxiliary air dampers decreases the airflow around the fuel nozzle. Correct proportioning of secondary air distribution between fuel air compartment and auxiliary air compartment influences the degree mixing, combustion and the flame pattern within the furnace. 155. Which factor decides the opening of fuel air damper? All fuel air dampers are normally closed. They open at a definite time interval after the associated feeders are started. These dampers are to be modulated with reference to the amount of fuel fed to that elevation of fuel nozzle. 156. What is the minimum clearance allowed when the secondary air dampers are in closed condition? 6 mm clearance 157. What is the clearance between the nozzle tip to frame or compartment? 10 15 mm 158. What is the function of primary air system? First to dry the coal in the pulveriser and second to transport pulverised coal to the coal nozzles in the wind boxes at the four corners of the furnace.
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159. What is the fundamental indicator of good combustion? Minimum O2, Maximum CO2 and Nil unburnt in Flue Gas 160. What is the disadvantage of using excess air to reduce the combustibles in flue gas to Zero? Lower the furnace temperature and excess fan power 161. If a thermal power plant burns inferior quality of coal different from the designed coal, what harm it will cause? Excessive use of coal Operational problems Poor functioning of ESP 162. How to determine the correct draft for introducing minimum excess air required for operation? This is obtained by a trial and error method, as the precise relationship between damper position and the amount of draft is not known. 163. What is the advantage of excess air? It will increase the combustion intensity, reduced carbon loss and CO formation and reduced slagging conditions. 164. What is the disadvantage of excess air? Increased fan power consumption, increased heat loss in the stack, increased tube erosion and possibly increased NOx formation. 165. What should be the condition of the fuel to be used for combustion? Liquid fuel conditions are temperature, pressure and if solid, mean particle size and distribution. Low temperatures, lower pressure and larger particle size contribute to less complete combustion and increased unburnt carbon in the ash. If the fuel is hotter, finer and at higher pressure, combustion is improved. Unfortunately Nox emission and slagging can also increase with these conditions. 166. What is the cause of incomplete combustion? Lack of air in one part of the stream causes incomplete combustion even though high overall excess air is maintained at the furnace outlet. 167. What is the purpose of measuring CO2 and O2?
The carbon monoxide measurement is taken along with oxygen reading for checking that the combustion airflow is at optimum level. 168. What are the factors affecting the stack loss? The quantity and the temperature of the flue gas can control the total heat that exits the stack. The quantity of gas is dependent on the fuel being burnt, but is also influenced by the amount of excess air supplied to the burners. Hence, the air used more than the required for the complete combustion will take away more heat. The temperature of the flue gas is affected by the cleanliness of the heating surface area. This, in turn, is dependent on soot blower and air heater operation. 169. What are MCR and NCR? Maximum Continuous Rating and Normal Continuous rating. The NCR of the boiler is 75-80% of its MCR. 170. What is the lowest load for the stable operation of a boiler? It is usually 30-40% of the rated load. 171. What are the consequences of overloading a boiler? Affect the circulation velocity of the water, higher flue gas temperature and higher SH temperature that lead to SH coil failure. 172. What is the drawback of operating a boiler at part load? The running equipments consume almost the same amount of energy as in full load condition. 173. How the flue gas and steam temperature between left & right can be minimized? It can be minimized to the extend possible by adjusting the burner loading and loading of left & right side of draft fans. 174. How many kinds of boiler start-up are there? Hot start, worm-start and cold start. 175. What will temperature? 70 - 95C. be the mill outlet
176. If the bowl mill temperature is raised above the above said temperature limit what will happen? Volatile matter of coal will quickly evaporate and explosion can occur.
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177. What determines the temperature of the coal inside the bowl mill? Volatile matter of the coal decides the temperature. 178. What is the ill effect of more fineness of coal? It will lead to fly ash loss and ESP loading. 179. What is the desired fineness of the coal in pulverized coal firing? The fineness shall be 70% (of the pulverized coal) pass through 200-mesh screen. 180. What is the function of coal bunker? It provides intermediate or short-term storage ahead of feeder or coal mill. 181. Why a minimum down spout height is maintained between coalbunker and feeder? A minimum height should be maintained to minimize the air loss from the pressurised pulveriser. 182. What are 200 mesh screen? It is the U.S. standard sieve, in which the number of openings per linear inch designates the mesh. A 200-mesh screen has 200 openings to the inch, or 40,000 openings per square inch. Higher the mesh size, finer the screen. The diameter of the wire determines the opening size. The opening size for the 200-mesh will be around 0.0029 inch or 0.074 mm. 183. What will be the coal size in 200mesh screen? 74 microns 184. What is Grindability Index? Grindability Index of coal indicates the ease with which coal can be pulverised, softer the coal higher the index. Pulveriser capacity is expressed with reference to a particular grindability index. If the grindability is less than design value, the mill output reduces for the same fineness to be maintained. 185. What is Gravimetric feeder system? In gravimetric feeder system, coal is carried on a belt over a load cell, which monitor the coal weight on the belt. Gravimetric feeders are generally used in modern power station, which compensate for variations in bulk density due to moisture, coal size and other factors.
186. How the coal is pulverized in the bowl mill? Bowl mill consists of stationary rollers mounted on an electrically driven rotating bowl. Coal fed through the hopper gets pulverized by attrition as it passes between the sides of the rollers and bowl. Hot primary air introduced into the pulverized through the bottom of the bowl carries off coal-dust into the centrally located classifier fitted at the top. Coarse particles drop back into the bowl through the center cone of the classifier while the fine coal dust air mixture is lead away to the burner. 187. What is the function of classifier in the mill? Classifier is provided in the mill outlet to regulate the size of the coal particle by returning back the higher size coal particle to the mill. Adjusting the vane position of the classifier increases the fineness by recirculating the coal flow through the mill and hence the mill loading is increased. 188. How the coal flow through all pipes is made nearly constant? One bowl mill feeds four burners placed at different elevations in the boiler. By placing orifices in each pipe feeding pulverized coal to the burner, the flow through all pipes is made nearly constant. Flow is restricted most in the case of the shortest pipe. 189. What is the velocity of the pulverized coal primary airflow at the burner outlet? The coal air mixer velocity within the pipe is between 20and 28 m/s. The lower side is to take care of the velocity and the upper side is to limit the erosion of the coal pipe. 190. Why the primary and secondary airs are given into the furnace at different speeds? To ensure good intermixing of the ignited fuel with the secondary air to complete the combustion and consequently active burning takes place in the furnace space. 191. How the Mill outlet temperature is maintained? Two primary air fans discharges air into a common duct that required for combustion. Part of the air passes through a separate section of the air preheater where it picks up heat and pass on to the Mill, the rest of the primary air, by passes the air pre-heater and joins the hot
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air duct ahead of the pulveriser for proper temperature control of the coal-air mixture leaving the pulveriser. A control damper is installed in both hot and cold primary air ducts to each pulveriser to control the temperature & the quantity of air supplied to the pulveriser. 192. What is the function of the coal burner? Its primary function is to produce two individual flows: one is fuel-air mixture and the other of secondary air for ignition and active burning in the furnace. 193. Explain the design features of coal nozzle for effective burning of pulverized coal? Coal nozzle inlet is of same size as the coal pipe and has continuously decreasing cross-sectional area, which is greatest at the choke area. Due to this the velocity of coal stream increase from entry to exit that avoids the coal particle accumulation at throat area of nozzle. To improve the low load capability a divider plate is introduced in the coal nozzle to divide the coal nozzle into two halves, to create an independent fuel rich and fuel lean stream. 194. What material is used for the construction of coal nozzle & tip and why? Since the nozzle is exposed to the maximum temperature of secondary air from wind box, the carbon steel is enough for this condition. But it is made up of casting, as the shape of the coal nozzle is little complicated for fabrication. As per the nozzle tip is concerned it is subjected wear due to coal air mixer and as well exposed to furnace temperature. Hence, the material should capable of withstanding erosion, oxidation due to high temperature and creep strength. Normally Cr-Ni alloy stainless steel is used for nozzle tip. 195. Why hard facing is done in the nozzle tip? Normally Cr-Ni alloy stainless steel is used for nozzle tip. Chromium is the alloying element for oxidation and corrosion resistance. But, these alloying elements are not good for erosion resistance. To improve upon the erosion resistance, hard facing of the base material is necessary. 196. What is the function of seal air fan? Two seal air fans in parallel are draw the cold from the cold primary air duct and
supply the required quantity of air for sealing. These fans boost the pressure to a slightly higher value and discharge the air into a separate duct arrangement. The boosted seal air is then delivered through a filter, to those points in pulveriser components, control dampers and hot air shut-off gates in the individual hot air ducts. 197. What is boiler efficiency? It is the ratio of the heat utilized by feed water in converting it to steam, to the heat supplied by the fuel over the same time. 198. What is Excess air? Why is it required for combustion in a boiler? For all fuels it is possible to calculate the exact amount of air that is needed for combustion. In practice some extra amount of air is required to make sure that complete combustion takes place and this air varies dependent on the type of fuel being burned. So the quantity of air admitted in excess of the theoretical requirement is called Excess air. 199. How to control Excess air. Chemical analysis of the gases ia an objective method that helps in achieving finer air control. By measuring CO2 or O2 in the flue gas, the excess air level as well as stack losses can be estimated. For optimum combustion of fuel oil, the CO2 or O2 in flue gases should be maintained at 14-15% of CO2 and 2-3% in case of O2. 200. What is the difference between GCV and NCV? The difference between GCV and NCV is the latent heat of condensation of the water vapour generated by the combustion process. GCV assumes all vapour produced during the combustion process is fully condensed. NCV assumes the water leaves with the combustion products without fully being condensed. 201. What is the design efficiency of MTPS boiler? 86.14% 202. How can the supply of air be controlled to meet the variable load demand? Damper control and speed control 203. How can the flow quantity of air be adjusted by speed control?
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By changing the fan rpm to bring about the desired change in the fan characteristic. 204. How does the volatile matter content determine the rank of the coal? Higher the VM content of the coal, the lower is the rank of the coal and vice versa. 205. What is the sulphur content of the coal? It varies depending upon the nature of the coal. Usually it ranges from 0.5 to 3%. 206. The energy released by the igniters used in 210 MW boilers? 1.8 MW approx 207. Where the tube metal temperatures are measured? Metal temperature thermocouples are provided for monitoring super heaters, re heater tube metal temperatures. These thermocouples are located outside the flue gas path in the penthouse zone. The thermocouples signals are taken to control room for continuous monitoring. When the temperature exceeds permissible level alarm is given. 208. What will be the steam/water mixer temperature at water wall tube outlet? It varies from 300 350C at the boiler pressure 100 165 kg/cm2. 209. What will be the metal temperature at water wall tube? Metal temperature on the surface will be 375 - 400C 210. What is boiler control system? The control systems for boiler are divided into two major classifications i.e., interlocks & protection system and sequence controls & analog controls. The interlock & protection system takes care of sequence of starting protection and interlock of boiler auxiliaries like FD fans, ID fans, air heaters, dampers, valves etc. The FSSS takes care of interlocks required for starting, supervising the operating and safe shut down of the equipments connecting with firing system. 211. What is a flame scanner? It is a device used to observe the flame in a boiler. If the flame is extinguished for any reason, it sends a signal to close the fuel supply valve to prevent a possible
explosion. There are 32 scanners employed in 210 MW units out of which 12 Nos. of discriminating scanners are located at oil elevations and others 20 scanners called fireball scanners are used for coal burner flames. 212. What is Furnace safeguard system? Safeguard system is a set of controls used on a boiler to ensure safe burner operation. The primary functions are: A safe way of starting and shutting down the burner. This can be accomplished either automatically or manually. A flame safeguard system also starts the burner in the proper sequence. For example it will purge the combustion chamber of gas, light the pilot and then open the main gas valve. The flame safeguard system will also continually monitor burner operation when the boiler is on-line. The system will protect the boiler from excessive pressure or temperature conditions It will also regulate the firing rate according to the demand for heat or steam Finally, it will standby during down time, waiting for the signal to start the burner once again. 213. How the boiler drum level is measured? Electronic water level indicator is used for drum water level indication in control room as well as boiler floor. It works on the basic principle of differing conductivities of water and steam. Conductivity signal from the electrode is amplified and detected as water or steam. It consists of a pressure vessel attached to one end of the drum. An array of probes mounted on the pressure vessel is used to measure the resistance of water and steam. The probe outputs are significantly different for steam and water. The signal from the probe is precision rectified and compared with lower and upper threshold values. At any time if the signal is less than the lower threshold, then the output displays water. When the signal is greater than the upper threshold, the output displays steam. Drum level transmitters are also provided for remote indication in addition to hydra step. 214. What is boiler inspection? The inspection of boiler serves two purposes one is familiarization of operator with the equipment and another one it
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verifies the condition of equipments. One important item often overlooked during the inspection is the provision or lack of provision for expansion. The boiler expands as the temperature and pressure are increased and also in steam lines, ducts, soot blower piping and drain piping. Before pressure is raised in the boiler, temporary supports provided for various purposes must be removed. 215. What is the objective of forced outage inspection in boiler pressure parts? The main objective is to discover if any secondary damage is experienced at the adjacent areas and to determine any other tubes are close to failure due to same mechanism. Also, it can often locate damaged tubes immediate concern and can provide information for planning a subsequent outage. 216. What is the objective of planed / scheduled outage inspection in boiler pressure parts? The goal of the scheduled outage inspection is to eliminate boiler tube failure between the scheduled outage. A boiler inspection scope is developed in accordance with prior knowledge and experience. Certain areas may be experiencing degradation of specific nature, which would require detailed inspections. New phenomena can also be discovered. 217. What type of maintenance system is followed in boiler? Maintenance of boiler can be divided into: Annual maintenance, Periodical maintenance and Breakdown maintenance 218. How annual maintenance is carried out? Statutory regulations require a periodic inspection of the pressure vessel by an Authorized Inspector. Sufficient notice is generally given to permit removal of the boiler from service and preparation for inspection. This major inspection can often be used to accomplish maintenance, replacements, or repairs that cannot easily be done at other times. This also serves as a good basis for establishing a schedule for annual, monthly, or periodic maintenance programs. 219. What type of works is carried out in Periodical maintenance? To ensure the continuous operation of the boiler, the following maintenance are being carried out.
Soot blowing for water wall tubes & APH Furnace oil filter cleaning Scanner air filter cleaning Maintenance of soot blower equipments, valves & actuators Lubrication for fans & APH gear box Oil gun cleaning etc.,
220. Why is inspection of boilers and their auxiliaries to be carried out on a regular basis? To detect the defects, locate deterioration of material, abnormal wear etc. so that these can be rectified to avoid serious damage. 221. At what intervals, is internal inspection of a boiler normally carried out? Once in a year. 222. What is the validity of the boiler certificate? Twelve months 223. What is boiler preservation? Boilers, which are kept ready for stand-by service and may be required at short notice, are preserved by the chemical water. Chemicals used for preservation are ammonia and hydrazine 224. Why boiler is preserved? The internal surfaces of boilers prone to corrosion by leftover water after operation by atmospheric oxygen when they are out of service. Hence boiler preservation is required to protect the internal surfaces from corrosion. 225. How many methods are for Boiler preservation? Wet method and dry method. 226. For which type of boilers, is preservation by wet method recommended? Boilers, which are kept ready for stand-by service and may be required for sudden demands of operation, are preserved by the wet method. 227. For which type of boilers, is preservation by Dry method recommended? Boilers, which are scheduled to be kept out of service for a long period and which are not expected to be put into operation at short notice.
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228. What are the causes of momentary boiler pressurisation? How to get rid of this problem? what are the best practices to be followed in a boiler operation and maintenance? Improper combustion regime only can cause such momentary furnace pressurisation and puffing. Improper mixing of fuel with combustion air results with unburnt and this unburnt fuel subsequently get ignited above the furnace regime and cause sudden pressurisation. Best practices to be followed are: Proper wind box furnace differential is maintained. Required excess air is maintained (judged by oxygen level in FG) Burner tips are clean and no clinker / carbonisation is taking place and clogging. The burner tips are not own out or the coal burner edges are not eroded Burner diffuser might have wearer or dislodged from its position. 229. What is an operator requirement? Every operator must be trained to understand and fulfill the responsibility assumed for the successful performance of the equipment and the safety of all the personnel involved. The operator must have a complete knowledge of all components- their designs, purposes, limitations and relationships to other components. 230.What is the objective of the operating procedure? Protection of pressure parts from corrosion, over heating and thermal stress Prevention of furnace explosion and Production of steam at the desired temperature, pressure and purity 231. How a boiler can be prepared for the startup? A systematic approach is required in the preparation for service of a new boiler or any boiler that has undergone major repairs. The procedure varies with design, however certain steps are required for all boilers. The steps may be listed as follows: Inspections, cleaning, hydrostatic testing, recalibration of instruments, auxiliary equipment preparation, refractory
conditioning, chemical cleaning, steam blow out, safety valve testing and initial operations for adjustment and testing. 232. Why hydro test is conducted? After the pressure parts are assembled (incase of new boiler) or repaired but before the refractory and casting are installed, a hydrostatic test at 1.5 times the boiler design pressure is applied to all new boilers and maintained for a sufficient time to detect any leak. If the boiler is in good condition certificate has to be issued after conducting the hydro test for 1.25 times of working pressure. 233. Name the drains provided at waterside of the Boiler? CBD, EBD, down comer drain, Bottom ring header drain and economiser drain. 234. What is the quantity of the water drained through CBD system? It will be around 1% of the rated steam flow. 235. Explain the system provided for boiler draining? There are two-drain systems: one is at waterside and another is at steam side. Waterside system comprising water wall drains and economizer drain connected at a common header at O meter level called Low point drain. The system may be drained either through atmosphere or IBD expander according to the condition of the boiler. The steam side drains from various drainable super heaters are connected at a common header at boiler 16 m level then connected to IBD expander. Both the drains are used for boiler back filling purpose for lighting up or to conduct the hydro test in boiler. 236. Explain the venting system of the boiler? Proper air venting is a must for steam generating equipments. The provision of properly sized and installed air vents ensure that trapped air is quickly vented out. During the boiler filling, air vents should be kept open to displace all air inside the boiler with water. Any air trapped in the system will lead to corrosion. If the air is not removed, not only corrosion will take place but also it restricts flow in the system making it less effective in carrying heat around. In waterside 2 Nos. of drum air vents and 1 No. of Economiser air vent are provided
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at boiler left side 55 m level and there is no separate vent for water headers. The Super heater & re-heater vents are provided at boiler right side 54 m level. 237. Is it advisable to charge the preboiler circuit with balance water available after backfilling of boiler for hydro test or preservation? No, the balance water should be drained and chemical for normal filling of light up should be added & then the pre-boiler section should be filled. This will prevent corrosion of water wall tubes due to high concentration of ammonia present in the water. Hence, the pH of water should be as specified by the manufacturer. 238. What precautions should be taken to conduct the hydro test? High quality water should be used to prevent the internal fouling and corrosion. D.M water or condensate treated with 10-ppm ammonia for pH control and 500 ppm of hydrazine for control of oxygen should be used for non-drainable super heaters and re-heaters. Clear or filtered water can be used for components that will be drained immediately after the hydro test. The water temperature must be above the dew point temperature of the surrounding air to prevent the formation of condensate on the parts being tested. The metal temperature and therefore the water temperature must be at or above the code (ASME section I PG99) restriction of 21C The water temperature should be kept low so hat the pressure parts can be touched and close inspection can be made. Water temperature should not be more than 56C above the metal temperature to avoid excessive metal stress transients. No air should be trapped in the unit during the hydro test. As the unit is being filled, the vents should be open until water appears at vent points. 239. What precaution should be taken to fill the boiler before startup?
High quality water should be used to minimise waterside corrosion and deposits. Temperature of the water should be match with temperature of the metal to prevent the thermal stress. High temperature differential can cause thermal stress in the pressure parts and also it distorts the pressure parts attachments. During the filling air vents should be kept open to reduce the oxygen corrosion and assure that all boiler tubes are filled with water. Establish the correct water level before firing begins.
240. Why by-pass arrangement is provided in the high-pressure valves? By-pass arrangements serves two purposes: First, in steam services, to worm up the line before opening the main valve and secondly, to balance the pressure on both sides of the main valve wedge or disc to bring down the opening torque. 241. What is the function of Isolation valve? Isolation valve is normally fully open or fully close condition. This may be Globe or Gate or butterfly valves. 242. What is the function of Regulation valve? A regulating valve has to control the rate of flow, according to requirement and it may be operated in any position from fully open to fully shut. 243. What is the function of Pressure reducing valve? It will reduce the pressure of the fluid passing through the valve. The valve should do this automatically and it should give constant output irrespective of any fluctuations in the inlet pressure. 244. What is the function of NRV? This type of valve permits the flow of fluid in one direction only. 245. Where the seal trough is provided? At the bottom of every boiler a hopper has been provided with a sealing arrangement with water between boiler furnace and this hopper. This is to give a seal against negative pressure maintenance in the furnace and also for the expansion of the furnace walls downwards on furnace heat up. This hopper is always filled with water,
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overflowing continuously at the top seal to quench the ash and clinkers falling down from the furnace. 246. Why make up water is continuously added to the system? Since steam is taken out continuously and returned to the boiler, losses due to blowdowns and leakages have to be made up for maintaining designed boiler water quantity by means of the level gauges provided on the boiler drum. For this, continuous make up water is added to the boiler water system. Since this make up requires pure water this quality water is obtained by a Demineralised (DM) water treatment plant. However some storage is essential as DM plant may be down for maintenance. For this purpose a storage tank is installed from which continuously DM water is drawn for boiler make up. 247. Why cooling air is continuously supplied to oil guns, scanners and igniters? Oil gun tips, scanners and igniter tips are directly exposed to furnace flame and get heated. Though the tips are made up of special steels it is continuously cooled by respective cooling air system. Secondary air is used fore oil gun cooling and scanner air is used for scanners & igniters. Particularly cooling of oil gun tip ensures that there is no oil carbonization i.e. carbon cracking is eliminated at elevated temperature.. 248. Steam Power Plants are working based on A. Ranking Cycle, B. OTTO Cycle, C. Diesel Cycle 249. At sea level, water boils at A. 98C B. 99C C. 100C 250. When pressure on water is increased A. Its boiling temperature decreases B. Its boiling temperature increases C. Its boiling temperature has no effect. 251. During heating in a boiler, temperature A. Varies from point to point B. remains same at all point, C. none of these 252. Saturated steams have-------Kannan.k aee/bm/mtps
A. less steam & more moisture B. more steam & less moisture C. more steam & more moisture 253. Super heated steams have ------------A. less heat stored in it B. more heat stored in it C. no heat stored in it 255.During heating in a boiler the temperature of tube ad the temperature of water that is flowing inside the tube are A. temperature not connected to heat B. same C. different D. none of these 256.Water Wall tubes is --------A. Fin Welded B. Fusion welded C. Gas Weld 257. During heating in a boiler, the temperature of tube is A. less than the temperature of the water inside B. more than the temperature of the water inside C. equal to the temperature inside 258. In a boiler the temperature of drum at the outside surface and its inside surface are A. equal B. same C. different 259.By insulating the pipelines in a boiler the heat loss can be A. reduced B. stopped C. no change 260.In a boiler the pressure inside A. can exceed the allowable stress of boiler material B. should not exceed the allowable stress of boiler material C. pressure is not connected to stress 261.In boiling of water in a boiler there is A. ordinary boiling B. nucleate boiling C. film boiling 262. 3T`s in Boiler Combustion Represents A. Time- Temp- Turbulence B. Thermometer- Temp- Turbulence C. Time- Temp- Thermometer 263. Steam is better Thermal Conductor than water A. True B. False
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264.Total NO of ID Fans in Service at 210 MW Boiler at Full Load in Mettur TPS A. 4 B. 5 C. 2 265.Total NO of FD Fans in Service at Full Load is in Mettur TPS A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 266.Total NO of PA Fans in Service at Full Load in Mettur TPS A. 1 B. 2 C. 3 267. FD Fans Used in Mettur TPS is A. Axial Type B. Radial Type C. Axial- Profile Type 268.PA Fans Used in Mettur TPS is A. Axial Type B. Radial Type C. None of the above 269.When any one of the ID Fan Trips, The corresponding FD Fan will also Trip A. Yes, B. NO 270. PA Fan Bearing Temperature working Range from A. 70-80, B. 60-70 C. 90-100269. 271. PRDS Stands for A. Pressure Reducing De-Super Heater B. Pressure Reducer Degree Super Heater C. Pressure Recorder De-super Heater 272. High capacity Boiler is also called as A. Steam Producer B. Steam Generator C. Steam Condenser 273. No. Of Down Comer Pipes in Mettur TPS boilers A.10 B. 6 C. 8 274. Total No of Turbo Separators in Boiler at Mettur TPS A. 2 x 29 B. 2 x 50 C. 2 x 30 275. No. of Drum Safety Valves available at Mettur TPS A. 5 B. 3 C. 2 276.HFO Viscosity at Oil Gun will be around A. 15 to 30 CST B. 30 to 45 CST C. 45 to 60 CST 277.Boiler Wind Box Consist of ---------- at each corner A. 14 Elevations B. 15 Elevations C. 13 Elevations
278.No of Coal Mills Available Per Unit in Mettur TPS A. 7 B. 6 C. 5 279.What type of Burner Mechanism is employed at Mettur TPS? A. Tilting Tangential Type B. Fixed Type C. Radial Tilting Type 280.FSSS Stands for A. Furnace Safeguard System B. Furnace Safeguard Supervisory System C. Furnace Safeguard Savings System 281.Most of the Power Plant in India, Boiler Furnace of A. Wet Bottom Furnace Type B. Dry Bottom Furnace Type C. Mixed Bottom Furnace Type 282.When the Ash Fusion Temperature is above the Furnace Temperature, Such Type of Furnace is called A. Wet Bottom Furnace B. Dry Bottom Furnace C. None of the Above 283. In Thermal Power Plant ESP Stands for A. Extra Sensory Perception B. Electro Static Precipitator C. Electro Static Power 284. Type of APH used in Mettur TPS A. Tubular APH B. Rotary Regenerative APH C. Recuperative APH 285. For Conducting Tube Thickness Survey A. Micro Meter is used B. Ultra sonic thickness meter Gauge
C.
286.Total No of Coal compartments per Boiler in Mettur TPS A. 24 B. 34 C. 44 287. Type of Main Oil Gun Used in Mettur TPS A. Air Cooled Parallel Pipe, J-Type B. Oil Cooled Parallel Pipe, JX- Type C. Air Cooled Parallel Pipe, J & JX-Type 288. In 90 J 16 Oil Guns Spray Plate type 90 stands for A. Atomiser Diameter B. Atomiser Spray Angle C. Atomiser Length
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289. Kind of Fuel Firing System Available in Mettur TPS A. Direct Fuel Firing B. Indirect Fuel Firing C. Partly Direct Fuel Firing & Partly In-Direct Fuel Firing 290. Type of Boiler Furnace Used in Mettur TPS A. Solid Refractory Wall B. Hollow Refractory Wall with Air Cooling C. Water Cooled Metallic walls 291. Flame Scanner is working based on Detecting A. Ultra Violet from Fuel Burning B. --Rays from the Fuel Burning C. --- Rays from the Fuel Burning 292. Choose the Carbon Steel grade from the Following A. SA 210 Gr.C B. SA 213 T11 C. SA 213 T22 293. Platen SH Coils are made up of A. Carbon Steel B. Low Alloy Steel C. High Alloy Steel 294. Sub critical boilers Water Wall Tubes are generally made up of A. Carbon Steel B. Low Alloy Steel C. High Alloy Steel 295. In Water Chemistry, TDS Stands for A. Time Delay Systems B. Total Dissolved Solids C.Total Dissolved System 296. The Unit of the Conductivity is A. Micro mho per cm B. W/MK C. k cal/Kg 297. Boiler Cleaning is necessary to increase the A. Burner efficiency B. Furnace heat Transfer C. Thermal Diffusivity 298. LRSB Stands for A. Long Retractable Soot Blower Long Returnable Soot Blower Long Radial Soot Blower B. C.
A. Furnace Dilution B. Furnace Expansion C. Furnace Explosion 302. Drum Level Swelling can be controlled by Opening A. CBD B. EBD C. IBD 303. Economiser is a A. Feed Water Heater C. Re-heater B. Super heater
304. IBR Stands for A. Indian Boiler Regulation B. Indian Business regulation C. Indian Bank Regulation 305. Hydraulic Test Pressure for newly Erected Boiler will be A. 1.25 Times of Design Pressure B. 1.5 Times of Design Pressure C. 2 Times of Design Pressure 306. Indian Boiler Act formed in the Year A. 1920 B. 1923 C. 1965 307. Certificate for boiler is issued after conducting hydraulic test for A. 1.25 times of working pressure B. 1.5 times of working pressure C. There is no norm 308. The Competent Authority to Issue the B.O.E. Certificate in Tamil Nadu is A. Chairman/TNEB B. Chairman/Slum Board C. Chairman/TNBD 309. Coal Nozzle Tips used in the boiler are made up of A. Forged Steel B. Cast Steel C. Stainless Steel 310. Hard Facing of Coal Nozzles and Tips are done to reduce A. Coal Powder Erosion B. Fly Ash Erosion C. Air Ingression 311. Boiler Steam Lines can be insulated by A. Insulation Tape B. Glass Wool Mattress C. Clay Materials 312. Normal Curing time for Castable Refractory should be A. 24 hrs B. 48 hrs C. 36 hrs 313. A Good Refractory material should be A. High Degree of Heat Resistance
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299. Total No of Wall Degassers Available per Boiler in Mettur TPS A. 58 B. 56 C. 60 300. Silica in Steam Can be controlled by A. Continues Blow Down B. Emergency Blow Down C. Intermittent Blow Down 301. FSSS is Provide to Avoid
B. Low Thermal Material the Above
C. All
314. The most commonly used refractory cement consists of A. Alumna (Al2O3) B. Silicon Carbide (Sic) C. Both (A) & (B) 315. Boiler Duct Materials are A. Mild Steel B. Carbon Steel Stainless Steel C.
325. SADC Stands for A. Service Air Damper Control Secondary Air Damper Control C. Both (A) & (B)
B.
326. Type of Coal Mill used in Mettur TPS A. Ball & Roller Mill B. Bowl Mill C. Tube Mill 327. No of main Oil Guns used per Boiler in Mettur TPS A. 4 x 4 B. 3 x 4 C. 2 x 4 328. Types of Coal Mill used in ETPS A. Ball Mil B. Bowl Mill C. Both (A) & (B) 329. SCAPH Stands for A. Steam Coil Air Pre Heater Steam Cooled APH C. Both (A) & (B) 330. For Oil Firing in Boiler A. Primary Air Required Secondary Air Required None of the Above B. C. B.
316. The Purpose of Providing Expansion Bellows in Ducting Systems is A. To Absorb Flue Gases B. To Absorb the Thermal Expansion C. To Absorb the Moisture in Ducting System 317. Certificate for the Use of a Boiler can be Issued By A. A Component Authority from Boiler Inspectorate B. A Component Authority from the Secretariat C. Owner of the boiler 318. For Controlling the Soluble Solids the Boiler Water --------- Method is used A. CBD B. EBD C. IBD 319. Furnace Explosion can be avoided by maintaining A. PRDS System B. FSSS C. SADC System 320. The Recommended pH value of Feed Water for HP Boilers ranging from A. 6 to 7 B. 8.3 to 9.5 C. 11 to 14 321. Total No of SH Headers available in Mettur TPS A. 10 B. 11 C. 14 322. M.S.S.V. Stands for A. Main Steam Safety Valve B. Main Steam Stop Valve C. None of the Above 323. Generally 500 MW Boilers are A. Natural Circulation Type B. Forced circulation C. Once through circulation 324. FD Fans Supply the A. Primary Air for Combustion Secondary Air for Combustion Both (A) & (B)
331. ID Fans are used to A. Supply the Combustion air to Boiler B. Evacuate the Flue Gas from Furnace to Chimney C. Supply the Service Air to Boiler 332. Balance Draft can be maintained by A. PA & ID Fans B. FD & ID Fans C. FD & GR Fans 333. For 100% Oil Firing in 210 MW Boiler A. PA Fan is required B. Gas Re circulation Fans Required C. Both (A) & (B) 334. Scanner Air Fans have tap off from A. PA Fan Out-Let Inter-Connecting Duct B. FD Fan Out-Let Inter-Connection Duct C. None of the Above 335. In case of FD fan failure the air for scanner air fan is drawn from A. PA fan discharge header B. Seal air fan C. Emergency Air Damper D. Atmosphere 336. The Super Heated Steam Temperature used for Power Generation in 210 MW units is A.1 00C B. 500C C. 540C
22
B. C.
337. In Sea Shore Plant Condenser Tube Leakage leads to A. Decrease the PH value of Boiler Water B. Increase the Conductivity of Boiler C. All the above 338. Fuels used in Mettur TPS Boiler are A. Coal B. Heavy Furnace Oil & Light Diesel Oil C. All of the above 339. For Atomising Heavy Furnace Oil A. Air is used B. Steam is used C. Diesel is used 340. Boiler Mountings are A. Water level Indicators B. Pressure Gauges and Safety Valves C. All the above 341. Chimney draught is also called as A. Artificial Draught B. Natural draught C. Steam Jetty draught 342. Orsat Apparatus is used for A. Steam sample Analysis B. Flues gas Analysis C. DM water Analysis 343. For Complete Combustion of Fuel A. Theoretical Minimum Air only Required B. Excess Air is required C. None of the above 344. Removal of Ash particles takes place in A. Deaerator B. Boiler C. Electro Static Precipitator 345. How many Fields are there in 210 MW ESP A. 12 B. 24 C. 36 346. The Allowable limit of dust particles let out through Chimney is A. 150 gm/Kg, B. 150 mg/Nm3, C. 1,500 mg/Kg 347. Removal of Oxygen from Feed Water takes place in A. Deaerator B. Turbine C. ESP 348. Bin card terminology is used in A. Work Shop B. Stores C. Foundry Shop 349. Boiler Efficiency may be defined as, is the Ratio of A. Heat Absorbed by Water to Steam, B. Heat Liberated in the Furnace
C. Heat absorbed by the water & steam to the heat liberated by the fuel 350. Attemperation is used to reduce the Temperature and heat Content of A. Wet Steam B. Dry Steam C. Super Heated Steam 351. The main Purpose of providing Scanner in Boiler Furnace is to indicate the A. Water level B. Flame condition C. Flue Gas temperature 352. The Purpose of Providing Down Comer Blow off in the Boiler is A. To Blow out the Foreign Particles from the Ring Header B. To Blow out the Steam C. To Blow out the Water 353. Cold A. Excess B. Excess Oil C. Excess Oil end Corrosion in APH is due to Air present in the Furnace Oil Sulphur present in the Furnace Calcium present in the Furnace
354. Modes of Heat transfer take place in Boiler Power plant are A. Conduction alone B. Convection alone C. Conduction, Convection & Radiation 355. Economiser Re Circulation is necessary during light up to avoid A. Eco Coils Water Starvation B. Steaming in Economiser C. All the above 356. Water Wall tube Puncture may lead to A. Drum Level very Low Condition B. Very high furnace draft C. Starvation in SH tubes D. All the above 357. High Pressure Boiler Tube should be welded by A. Welder B. IBR Certified Welder C. Non-IBR Welder 358. Normally the High Pressure Boiler tube Root welding can be done by using A. Arc Welding B. TIG Welding C. MIG Welding 359.Drum slope in NCTPS Boilers are A. 2` Boiler Right side B. 4` Boiler Left side C. 2` Boiler Left side 360. Package Boiler is necessary during
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A. Boiler Operation Commissioning C. None of the above
B. New Boiler
361. Soot Blowing Steam is being taken from A. 5th SH Header B. 10th SH Header C. 14th SH Header 362. Nature of Boiler Tube Puncture is A. Burst opening (or) Fish mouth opening B. Pin Hole Puncture C. All the above 363. SH Spray can be used to control the A. SH Steam Temperature B. Reheater steam temperature C. PRDS steam temperature 364. R.O stands for A. Reverse Osmosis B. Restricted Osmosis C. Remove Osmosis 365. Cation Exchanger used in Water Treatment to Removes A. Chloride B. H+ ions C. Carbonates 366. Anion Exchanger used in Water Treatment to Removes A. Magnesium B. Sodium C. OH- Ions 367. Hydrazine dosing in Boiler Feed Water System to Remove A. H2 B. N2 C. O2 368. Material used in Hot End Basket Element of APH A. Al Steel B. Carbon Steel C. Carton Steel 369. Material used in Cold End Basket Element of APH A. Carton Steel B. Carbon Steel C. Al Steel 370. How many drives in each APH in Mettur TPS A. 4 B. 2 C. 1 371. Name the Cleaning Device used to clean the Basket while APH is in service A. Air Jet B. Water Jet C. Soot Blowing System 372. What is the allowable Temperature of an APH Bearings? A. 60C B. 70C C. 80C
373. The Impartment Protection device for an APH A. Rotor Stop Alarm B. Oil Temperature High Alarm C. LOP Stop Alarm 374. Allowable Flue Gas Out-Let Temperature of an APH A. 147C B. 155C C. 135C 375. Where the Soot blowers are positioned in APH at Mettur TPS A. Cold end only B. Hot End only C. at Both the ends 376. How many LRSB are there in 210 MW Boiler of Mettur TPS A. 18 B .10 C. 27 377. Wall Soot Blower blowing Pressure A. 17 Ksc B. 11Ksc C.10Ksc 378. Soot Blowers over run due to A. Dust Accumulation on the Guide rods B. Improper Gear Measuring C. Wrong inner Setting D. Both (B) & (C) 379. How many SCAPH are used in 210MW Boiler A. 2 B. 4 C .6 380. Flap Valve Suitable for A. One Direction Flow B. Both Directional Flow C. Irrespective of Flow 381. What is mean by Check Valve? A. Gate Valve B. Globe Valve C. NonReturn Valve 382. How many ERV is provided in 210 MW Boiler A. 1 B. 2, C. 3 383. What Type of Safety Valve used in Boiler drum and SH A. 1, 700 Series B. 1, 800 Series C. 1, 600 Series 384. Setting Pressure of a Safety Valve can be adjusted using A. Compression screw B. Spring C. UAR 385. If liquid fuel is highly viscose, the action required for proper burning in boiler is -----------24
a) Cooling b) heating d) vapourising
c) mixing
a. TIG welding welding c. Resistance welding
b. ARC d. a & b
386. Identify the fuel, which has the highest specific gravity. a) LSHS b) LDO c) HSD d) furnace oil 388. Name the Valve Seat material used in high Pressure Steam Line A. Al Steel B. Stainless Steel C. Stelliting 389. Shrouding used on Boiler to avert A. Fly Gas Erosion B. Steam erosion C. Over Heating 390. Main cause of the Tube Puncture on Boiler A. Fly ash Erosion B. Over Heating C. Welding Failure D. All the Above 391. Long term Over Heating of Tubes leads to A. Burst Opening with thick lip B. Pin hole Open C. Fish mouth open 392. Alloy steel Welding of Boiler Tubes required Pre Heating and Post Heating A. True B. False 393. Non-Destructive testing method of Welding Joints A. X-Rays B. Ultra Sonic Testing C. Die Penetrate Test D. All 394. Hydraulic Test is conducted in Boiler after Tube Puncture A. To Check the Welding Joints in Puncture are B. To Check the Tube Leakage in other area C. Both (A) & (B) 395. Purpose of Sky Climber in Boiler A. Used as Lift for Boiler Furnace Maintenance B. Used as a Welding Machine c. Used as a Checking Device 396. Which one of the following methods of welding is used at site for boiler tube welding?
397. Presence of sulphur in the boiler fuel oil leads to a) Erosion b) corrosion c) low heat transfer 398. At what pressure drum and super heater air vents has to be closed? A. 2 ksc B. 4 ksc C. 10 ksc 399. Viscosity of the liquid fuel is very much dependent on a) Pipe size b) colour c) temperature d) pressure 400. For complete combustion of every kg of fuel oil firing, approximate theoretical quantity of air required is. a) 18 kg b) 14 kg c) 21 kg 401. Oxygen percentage measurement by volume basis can be done by using: a) Copper tubes b) potassium oxide probe c) zirconium oxide probe 402. Turndown ratio for burners is the ratio of a) Max air input over min air input b) Max fuel input over min fuel input c) Max fuel input over actual fuel input 403. Large and irregular lumps of coal when fired in a boiler lead to. a) Poor combustion b) low excess air c) high thermal efficiency 404. High % of CO in the flue gas of boiler is an indicator of a) High excess air b) complete combustion c) low excess air 405. Which one of the following has a high specific gravity? a) Kerosene b) furnace oil c) water
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26

Boiler Facts - Question & Answers: Natural Circulation Boilers Employ The

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Boiler Facts - Question & Answers: Natural Circulation Boilers Employ The

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Boiler Facts - Question & Answers

K. KANNAN, B.E., B.O.E., M.B.A., (D.W.E&T),

B. Low Thermal Material the Above

A. Boiler Operation Commissioning C. None of the above

a) Cooling b) heating d) vapourising

a. TIG welding welding c. Resistance welding

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