Question About Water Tube Boilers
Question About Water Tube Boilers
(OP)
Hello,
I am a recent graduate and I just started my first job at a specialty chemical plant. One of my 1st assignments is to monitor our natural gas consumption.
In order to calculate the efficiency of a boiler it is simply the Steam Energy Produced/Natural Gas Energy Consumed correct?
Well I was able to collect the data that I need from our natural gas supplier for the energy consumption. However, this plant is only 1 year old and there is not enough instrumentation to collect the data that I need for the amount of steam produced.
My questions are the following:
1.) What steps should I take in order to get an accurate estimate of the amount of steam produced?
2.) Once I calculate the correct boiler efficiency, what calculations do I need to make as far as air flow rate?
Thank you
I am a recent graduate and I just started my first job at a specialty chemical plant. One of my 1st assignments is to monitor our natural gas consumption.
In order to calculate the efficiency of a boiler it is simply the Steam Energy Produced/Natural Gas Energy Consumed correct?
Well I was able to collect the data that I need from our natural gas supplier for the energy consumption. However, this plant is only 1 year old and there is not enough instrumentation to collect the data that I need for the amount of steam produced.
My questions are the following:
1.) What steps should I take in order to get an accurate estimate of the amount of steam produced?
2.) Once I calculate the correct boiler efficiency, what calculations do I need to make as far as air flow rate?
Thank you





RE: Question About Water Tube Boilers
1. If you do not have a steam flow meter on the boiler output I would install one with a totalizer. I do not know of a way to accurately estimate steam production. Steam demand can very significantly in the course of a day. Vortex or orifice meters are fairly inexpensive.
There are other factors that can effect efficiency like boiler feedwater temperature, percent of condensate recovered, economizer performance, etc.
I recommend checking the DOE Industrial Technologies Program for steam best practices.
h
The attached .pdf has a way to benchmark the cost of steam production.
Good luck.
RE: Question About Water Tube Boilers
rmw
RE: Question About Water Tube Boilers
Other data that would be needed is feedwater inlet temperature , drum pressure, blowdown flowrate ( or isolate it for the test), steam outlet pressure and temperature, and stack O2 and/or CO2 level, inlet air temp ,and stack exhaust temp.
refer to the asme power test code PTC 4 or summary description in the B&W Steam book.
RE: Question About Water Tube Boilers
i also have the same problem. I have the data for boiler feedwater. How should i proceed?
THanks!
RE: Question About Water Tube Boilers
rmw
RE: Question About Water Tube Boilers
For a full calculation using different methods, see EN 12952-15 Water-tube boilers and auxiliary installations. Acceptance tests
br
Drex