RAMAKRISHNA

ECONOMIZERS & WHR

Waste Heat Recovery
Benefits of Economizers
Applications of Economizers
Types of Economizers
Performance Evaluation
Case Study
AFTER WE COMPLETE THIS – WE
WOULD BE ABLE TO ANSWER…
• What is an economizer?
• How does an economizer save fuel?
• How does an economizer reduce emissions?
• What other effects does an economizer
have?
• Why Should I Use Finned Tubes?
• Why Should I Use Welded Finned Tubes?
• What is a Boiler Economizer?
 …WE WOULD BE ABLE TO
ANSWER…
• What is Waste Heat Recovery ?
• What are Waste Heat Boilers ?
• What are Various Methods for Recovery of
Waste Heat ?
• Why Waste Heat is recovered in
Cogeneration and Trigeneration Power
Plants ?
 Waste Heat Recovery
• Waste heat is the un-utilized heat that is rejected by the
system in to environment
• It often causes thermal pollution to the environment
• Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) systems are used to employ
some of waste heat in to useful purposes
• With greater awareness, technological development and
escalating fuel price, it has become possible and
economically viable to make greater use of WHR systems
• Examples: WHR Boilers, Economizers, Air Pre-heaters,
etc.
 PART NO. DESCRIPTION
1 BOILER FEED PUMP
FUEL
2 FEED WATER PIPE
5 3 COAL MILL / PULVERISER
STEAM
4 4 COAL DUST DUCT
6
5 STEAM PIPE
FEEDWATER

6 BOILER PLANT
7 ASH EXTRACTION UNIT
3
8 FORCED DRAUGHT FAN
2 9 DUST COLLECTOR / ESP / CYCLONE
10 INDUCED DRAUGHT FAN
1 11 STACK / CHIMNEY

8 9
7 10 11

LAYOUT OF A BOILER PLANT

BOILER
MOUNTINGS
AND
ACCESSORIES:

ECONOMIZER
AIR-PREHEATER
SUPER-HEATER
FEED-WATER
PUMP
VALVES
BENEFITS OF ECONOMIZERS -1
• It improves fuel economy
• It reduces pollution due to savings of fuel
• It improves operational flexibility while
maintaining the overall efficiency of the
systems
• An economizer allows a boiler to respond
more quickly to rapid load demands, due to
higher initial feedwater temperature
BENEFITS OF ECONOMIZERS -2
• Reduction in equipment sizes: Waste heat
recovery reduces the fuel consumption, which leads
to reduction in the flue gas produced. This results in
reduction in equipment sizes of all flue gas handling
equipments such as fans, stacks, ducts, burners, etc.
• Reduction in auxiliary energy consumption:
Reduction in equipment sizes gives additional
benefits in the form of reduction in auxiliary energy
consumption like electricity for fans, pumps etc..
BENEFITS OF ECONOMIZERS -3
• Thumps Rule: For every 220 C reduction in flue gas
temperature by passing through an economiser or a pre-heater,
there is 1% saving of fuel in the boiler. In other words, for
every 60 C rise in feed water temperature through an
economiser, or 200C rise in combustion air temperature
through an air pre-heater, there is 1% saving of fuel in the
boiler.
• The outside surface area of a bare tube can be increased up to
30 times by finning, giving the designer a wide range over
which to optimize a design.
• In many common applications, one finned tube can replace six
or more bare tubes at less than 1/3 the cost and 1/4 the volume.
 APPLICATIONS OF
ECONOMIZERS - 1
• Process exhaust to space heating
• Process exhaust to same or another process heating
• Heating, Ventilation & Air-Conditioning
• Preheating of boiler combustion air
• Recovery of Waste heat from furnaces
• Reheating of fresh air for hot air driers
• Recovery of waste heat from catalytic deodorizing
equipment
• Reuse of Furnace waste heat as heat source for other
oven
 APPLICATIONS OF
ECONOMIZERS - 2
• Cooling of closed rooms with outside air
• Preheating of boiler feed water with waste
heat recovery from flue gases in the heat
pipe economizers.
• Drying, curing and baking ovens
• Waste steam reclamation
• Brick kilns (secondary recovery)
• Reverberatory furnaces (secondary
recovery)
 TYPES OF ECONOMIZERS AND WASTE
HEAT RECOVERY SYSTEMS
• Economizers are heat exchangers used to transfer heat of
the combustion product, which was otherwise rejected out
of the system, to water in order to pre-heat it and thus
economize the consumption of fuel.
• Economizers, therefore, are a kind of waste heat recovery
system that economize the consumption of fuel. Since,
economizers were the first of all waste heat recovery
systems to be used extensively, hence the name.
• Economizers can be of various types based on different
applications : Boiler, Air Conditioner, Diesel Engine, Air
Compressors, Furnaces, Domestic Water Heater, etc.
 BOILER ECONOMIZERS
• These may be placed
– At the exhaust flue gas path, before it is
rejected in to the stack
– At the bed of the boiler to recover heat from the
ash and some heat that would have otherwise
lost through the bottom surface of the boiler by
conduction, convection and radiation
• These are most widely used economizers
 INPUTS FOR DESIGN &
PERFORMANCE
EVALUATION
Following are the major performance indicators of
the economizers:
Steam Flow Rate   Pph

Boiler Operating Pressure   Psig

Flue Gas Flow Rate   Pph

Flue Gas Entering

Temperature   °F

Flue Gas Leaving Temperature * °F

Feedwater Flow Rate   pph

Feedwater Supply
Temperature   °F

“W.C.
Gas Side Pressure Drop   (maximum)

Water Side Pressure Drop   psig (maximum)

  
Water Side Pressure Drop   psig (maximum)

 
Direction Gas Travel **  

Primary Fuel   ; Sulfur ; %

Standby Fuel   ; Sulfur   %

 * NOTE TO ENGINEER: Insert, above, for “Flue Gas Leaving Temperature”,
one of the following depending on fuel:

Stack Temperature Fuel Type

300°F Natural Gas

325°F Natural Gas with #2 Oil Standby; #2 Oil

350°F
Natural Gas with #5 or #6 Oil Standby; #5 or #6 Oil

** NOTE TO ENGINEER: Insert, above, for “Direction Gas Travel”, one of the
following: Vertically Up, Vertically Down, or
Horizontal
SOME USEFUL FORMULA
AND CORRELATION

FOLLOWOING ARE SOME RELEVANT

PAGES FROM BOOK ON HEAT
TRANSFER BY HOLMAN
 FEED WATER
• Water fed to the Economizers is often a mixture of return
water and make up water
• Therefore its property is neither that of return water nor
make up water and hence require separate monitoring
• The minimum temperature of feed water should be well
above the water dew point and close to acid due point
• Feed water pump can be placed either before or after
Economizer – governing factors include the cost of
normal or hot water pump and cost of high or normal
pressure piping in Economizers.
 NUMERICAL EXAMPLE
Heat recovery from heat treatment furnace In a heat
treatment furnace, the exhaust gases are leaving the
furnace at 900oC at the rate of 2100 m3/hour. The total
heat recoverable at 180oC final exhaust can be
calculated as
• Q = V x ρ x Cp x ΔT
• Q is the heat content in kCal
• V is the flowrate of the substance in m3/hr
• ρ is density of the flue gas in kg/m3
• Cp is the specific heat of the substance in kCal/kg oC
• ΔT is the temperature difference in oC
• Cp (Specific heat of flue gas) = 0.24 kCal/kg/oC
 NUMERICAL EXAMPLE

• Heat available (Q) = 2100 x 1.19 x 0.24 x (900-

180) = 4,31,827 kCal/hr

• By installing a recuperator, this heat can be

recovered to pre-heat the combustion air. The fuel
savings would be 33% (@ 1% fuel reduction for
every 22oC reduction in temperature of flue gas.
 CASE STUDY
TAKEN FROM RECENT STUDY CONDUCTED
AT ISPAT DOLVI
PROPOSED FINNED TUBE RECUPERATOR
 PROPOSAL
RETROFIT WELDED FINNEDTUBE
RECUPERATOR

FINNED TUBE RECUPERATOR

INCREASES PRE HEATED AIR
TEMPERATURE BY 100 DEG C MORE
RESULTING ANNUAL FUEL SAVING OF
AROUND 2% OF PRESENT COST.
 PROPOSAL
• SAVINGS PER ANNUM INR. 1,71,46,224

• ESTIMATED INVESTMENTS INR. 1,00,00,000

• SIMPLE PAY BACK 7 MONTHS

• ROI – 151.46%
 At the Vancouver Aquatic Centre in
British Columbia
• Cannon FS-5-DS5 stack economizer has been installed to preheat cold
make-up water for the pool. The unit was designed to recover a constant
66 kW (225 000 Btu/h) from the flue gases of either of the two 980-kW
(3.35 MMBtu/hr1) Cleaver Brooks CB fire-tube boilers.
• As shown in Table, this system saves approximately 900 gigajoules per
year, which is currently worth $8,100 per year at local commercial rates.
• A system installed today would have a good simple payback period of
3.45 years. This system has been operating successfully for five years
with no problems. The finned tubes in the economizer have not yet
needed cleaning.

• 1 MMBtu/hr = millions of Btu per hour; MBtu/hr = thousands of Btu per hour.
 REFERENCES
• BEE Study Materials : Book 2 and Book 4
• http://www.cogeneration.net/Boiler_Economizers.htm
• http://www.kentube.com/benefits.shtml
• http://www.cheresources.com/econzz.shtml
• www.Boiler Economizers.com; www.WasteHeatRecovery.com
• http://www.cainind.com/cat2
• http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/infosource/pub/ici/eii/m92-242-2002-8e.cfm?
attr=20
• http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/corporate/awards/energy-efficiency/2005/industry/heat-
recovery.cfm?attr=0
• http://www.economizersforboilers.com/
• http://www.energysolutionscenter.org/boilerburner/Eff_ImproveEfficiency/
Economizers.asp
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
REFERRED BOOKS,
WEBSITES & IISWBM

Questions?

THANK YOU