In fossil-fueled power plants, steam generator refers to a furnace that burns the fossil fuel to boil water to generate steam. In the nuclear power plant field, steam generator refers to a specific type of large heat exchanger used in a pressurized water reactor (PWR) to thermally connect the primary (reactor plant) and secondary (steam plant) systems, which of course is used to generate steam. In a nuclear reactor called a boiling water reactor (BWR), water is boiled to generate steam directly in the reactor itself and there are no units called steam generators. In some industrial settings, there can also be steam-producing heat exchangers called heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) which utilize heat from some industrial process. The steam generating boiler has to produce steam at the high purity, pressure and temperature required for the steam turbine that drives the electrical generator. A fossil fuel steam generator includes an economizer, a steam drum, and the furnace with its steam generating tubes and superheater coils. Necessary safety valves are located at suitable points to avoid excessive boiler pressure. The air and flue gas path equipment include: forced draft (FD) fan, air preheater (APH), boiler furnace, induced draft (ID) fan, fly ash collectors (electrostatic precipitator or baghouse) and the flue gas stack.
Geothermal power plants need no boiler since they use naturally occurring steam
sources. Heat exchangers may be used where the geothermal steam is very
corrosive or contains excessive suspended solids. Nuclear plants also boil
water to raise steam, either directly generating steam from the reactor (BWR)
or else using an intermediate heat exchanger (PWR).
For units over about 200 MW capacity, redundancy of key components is provided
by installing duplicates of the FD fan, APH, fly ash collectors and ID fan with
isolating dampers. On some units of about 60 MW, two boilers per unit may
instead be provided.
Boiler furnace and steam drum
Once water inside the boiler or steam generator, the process of adding the latent heat of vaporization or enthalpy is underway. The boiler transfers energy to the water by the chemical reaction of burning some type of fuel.
The water
enters the boiler through a section in the convection pass called the
economizer. From the economizer it passes to the steam drum. Once the water
enters the steam drum it goes down the downcomers to the lower inlet waterwall
headers. From the inlet headers the water rises through the waterwalls and is
eventually turned into steam due to the heat being generated by the burners
located on the front and rear waterwalls (typically). As the water is turned
into steam/vapor in the waterwalls, the steam/vapor once again enters the steam
drum. The steam/vapor is passed through a series of steam and water separators
and then dryers inside the steam drum. The steam separators and dryers remove
water droplets from the steam and the cycle through the waterwalls is repeated.
This process is known as natural circulation.
The boiler furnace auxiliary equipment includes coal feed nozzles and igniter
guns, soot blowers, water lancing and observation ports (in the furnace walls)
for observation of the furnace interior. Furnace explosions due to any
accumulation of combustible gases after a trip-out are avoided by flushing out
such gases from the combustion zone before igniting the coal.
The steam drum (as well as the superheater coils and headers) have air vents
and drains needed for initial startup. The steam drum has internal devices that
removes moisture from the wet steam entering the drum from the steam generating
tubes. The dry steam then flows into the superheater coils.
Superheater
Fossil fuel power plants can have a superheater and/or reheater
section in the steam generating furnace. Nuclear-powered steam plants do
not have such sections but produce steam at essentially saturated conditions.
In a fossil fuel plant, after the steam is conditioned by the drying equipment
inside the steam drum, it is piped from the upper drum area into tubes inside
an area of the furnace known as the superheater, which has an elaborate set up
of tubing where the steam vapor picks up more energy from hot flue gases
outside the tubing and its temperature is now superheated above the saturation
temperature. The superheated steam is then piped through the main steam lines
to the valves before the high pressure turbine.
Reheater
Power plant furnaces may have a reheater section containing tubes
heated by hot flue gases outside the tubes. Exhaust steam from the high
pressure turbine is rerouted to go inside the reheater tubes to pickup more
energy to go drive intermediate or lower pressure turbines. This is what is
called as thermal power.
Fuel preparation system
In coal-fired power plants, the raw feed coal from the coal storage area is first crushed into small pieces and then conveyed to the coal feed hoppers at the boilers. The coal is next pulverized into a very fine powder. The pulverizers may be ball mills, rotating drum grinders, or other types of grinders.
Some power plant burn fuel oil rather than coal. The oil must kept warm (above its pour point) in the fuel oil storage tanks to prevent the oil from congealing and becoming unpumpable. The oil is usually heated to about 100 °C before being pumped through the furnace fuel oil spray nozzles.
Boilers in some power stations use processed natural gas as their main fuel. Other power stations may use processed natural gas as auxiliary fuel in the event that their main fuel supply (coal or oil) is interrupted. In such cases, separate gas burners are provided on the boiler furnaces.
Air path
External fans are provided to give sufficient air for combustion. The forced draft
fan takes air from the atmosphere and, first warming it in the air preheater
for better combustion, injects it via the air nozzles on the furnace wall.
The induced draft fan assists the FD fan by drawing out combustible gases from
the furnace, maintaining a slightly negative pressure in the furnace to avoid
backfiring through any opening.
Auxiliary systems
Fly ash collection
Fly ash is
captured and removed from the flue gas by electrostatic precipitators or fabric
bag filters (or sometimes both) located at the outlet of the furnace and before
the induced draft fan. The fly ash is periodically removed from the collection
hoppers below the precipitators or bag filters. Generally, the fly ash is
pneumatically transported to storage silos for subsequent transport by trucks
or railroad cars.
Bottom ash collection and disposal
At the
bottom of the furnace, there is a hopper for collection of bottom ash. This
hopper is always filled with water to quench the ash and clinkers falling down
from the furnace. Some arrangement is included to crush the clinkers and for
conveying the crushed clinkers and bottom ash to a storage site.
Boiler make-up water treatment plant and storage
Since there
is continuous withdrawal of steam and continuous return of condensate to the
boiler, losses due to blowdown and leakages have to be made up to maintain a
desired water level in the boiler steam drum. For this, continuous make-up
water is added to the boiler water system. Impurities in the raw water input to
the plant generally consist of calcium and magnesium salts which impart
hardness to the water. Hardness in the make-up water to the boiler will form
deposits on the tube water surfaces which will lead to overheating and failure
of the tubes. Thus, the salts have to be removed from the water, and that is
done by a water demineralising treatment plant (DM). A DM plant generally
consists of cation, anion, and mixed bed exchangers. Any ions in the final
water from this process consist essentially of hydrogen ions and hydroxide
ions, which recombine to form pure water. Very pure DM water becomes highly
corrosive once it absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere because of its very high
affinity for oxygen.
The capacity of the DM plant is dictated by the type and quantity of salts in
the raw water input. However, some storage is essential as the DM plant may be
down for maintenance. For this purpose, a storage tank is installed from which
DM water is continuously withdrawn for boiler make-up. The storage tank for DM
water is made from materials not affected by corrosive water, such as PVC. The
piping and valves are generally of stainless steel. Sometimes, a steam
blanketing arrangement or stainless steel doughnut float is provided on top of
the water in the tank to avoid contact with air. DM water make-up is generally
added at the steam space of the surface condenser (i.e., the vacuum side). This
arrangement not only sprays the water but also DM water gets deaerated, with
the dissolved gases being removed by an air ejector attached to the condenser.