Steam Temperature Control

Steam Power Plant

Boiler - Superheaters & Reheaters
Need for Superheated steam
Super heated steam - contains more heat than the
saturated steam at the same pressure - helps in
reduction in requirement of steam quantity. The
additional heat provide more energy to the turbine
hence power output is more.

The function of the super heater is to remove the last

trace of moisture from the saturated steam.
Superheated steam causes lesser erosion of the
turbine blades and can be transmitted for longer
distance with little heat loss.
 Steam Power Plant
Boiler - Superheaters & Reheaters
Need for Superheated steam

A superheater may be convention type, radiant type or

combination.
 Steam Power Plant
Modes of heat transfer
Conduction heat - the transfer of heat through physical
contact. In conduction, the molecules of the solid pass
the heat from one to another without themselves
moving from their positions. The amount of absorption
depends on the conductivity of the material through
which the heat must pass.

Convection heat - heat transmitted from a hot to a cold

body by movement of the conveying substance. In this
case, the hot body is the boiler flue gas; the cold body
is the boiler tube containing water or the superheater
tube containing steam.
 Steam Power Plant

Modes of heat transfer

Radiant heat - heat radiated from a hot to a cold body

and depends on the temp. difference and the color of the
body that receives the heat. Absorption of radiant heat
increases with the furnace temp. and depends on many
factors but primarily on the area of the tubes exposed to
the heat.
Boiler - Superheaters

Superheater coil Superheater coil

 Steam Power Plant
Main steam Temp. vs. Boiler Load

In the characteristics of steam temp. vs. boiler load, the

design of superheater is particularly significant.

Sat. steam leaves boiler drum and enters the superheater.

If SH is located so that it can directly “see” the flame in

the furnace zone, it receives radiant heat from the flame
and called as radiant SH.

If the location is such that SH cannot “see” the flame &

receives all its heat by convection, it is called as
convection SH.
 Convection
SH

Radiant
Convection
SH
SH

Furnace

Boiler Sec. elevation

 Steam Power Plant
Main steam Temp. vs. Boiler Load
In a Radiant SH, temp. drops as steam output is
increased. This results from a relatively constant radiant
input with an increase of the “cooling” effect of the
steam as load is increased.

With a Convection SH the opposite is true. The heat

transferred rises as steam flow increased, but the rate of
Temp. increase becomes less as steam flow continues
to increase.
 Steam Power Plant
Main steam Temp. vs. Boiler Load
With either the radiant or the convection-type
superheater, it is difficult to maintain a uniform steam-
outlet temperature, so a combination superheater is
often installed.

By combining radiant & convection SH elements in

series, steam temp. changes a smaller amount as
boiler load changes.

Steam leaving the boiler drum first passes through

the convection section, then to the radiant section,
and finally to the outlet header.
 Steam Power Plant
Main steam Temp. vs. Boiler Load
Opposite characteristics of steam temp. vs. steam output
(boiler load) for two different types of SH is shown in Fig.

Superheater
Characteristics
 Steam Power Plant
Main steam Temp. vs. Boiler Load

When steam temp. is not controlled, the normal practice

is to design for maximum temp. at full load, as shown in
Fig. with temp. reducing as load is reduced.

Uncontrolled Superheat (Typical)

 Steam Power Plant
Main steam Temp. vs. Boiler Load

Unless a boiler making SH steam is equipped with a

control mechanism, temp. of main steam will vary,
depending on various operating factors.

Adding to the challenge indicated above, steam temp. is

affected by
- boiler load,
- rate of change of boiler load,
- steam pressure,
- air flow rate,
- specific fuel burned,
- cleanliness of heat transfer surface etc.,
 Steam Power Plant
Main steam Temp. vs. Boiler Load
Since no control is involved, steam temp. is
affected by the operational factors mentioned
above.

The cleanliness of heat transfer surfaces

changes their heat transfer coefficient, resulting
in a change in heat absorption.

A change in amount of excess combustion air

changes flue gas mass flow, resulting in a
change in heat transfer coefficient. Overall
result - change in furnace outlet flue gas temp.
 Steam Power Plant
Main steam Temp. vs. Boiler Load
Boilers designed for control of main steam temp.
may be capable of achieving full design steam
temp. at 40% of full load steam output.

Above this load point, a control mechanism is

used to reduce the main steam temp. as load is
increased.

The result is that there is a possible family of

curves for main steam temp. vs. boiler load for a
, as shown in Figure 3.
 Steam Power Plant
Main steam Temp. vs. Boiler Load

Figure 3 Controlled Superheat (Typical)

 Steam Power Plant
Main steam Temp. vs. Boiler Load
The basic theory of control is that if a superheater is
made large enough to give the desired steam
temperature at low loads, it will give a steam
temperature at high loads that is higher than that
desired if there is no method of control.

However, if some means of reducing this

temperature at high loads is used, a constant steam
temperature over the range from low to full load may
be obtained.
 Steam Temperature Control
Steam temp. control - one of the most challenging
control loops in a power plant boiler because it is highly
nonlinear and has a long dead time and time lag.

After separation from boiler water in drum, the steam is

superheated to improve the thermal efficiency of the
boiler-turbine unit. Modern boilers raise the main steam
temp. to around 540º C, which approaches the creep
(slow deformation) point of the steel making up the SH
tubing.
 Steam Temperature Control
The need for control system:
High turbine efficiency over a wide load range depends
a great deal on having a constant steam temperature
over that load range.

Therefore, it is necessary to design a boiler that can

provide this constant steam temperature over the load
range, which can be 40 % of full load or more. For
plants that use a reheat cycle, it is also necessary that
the boiler provides reheat steam temperatures that are
also constant over the control range.

Since temp. changes affect the rate of thermal

expansion of the close tolerance turbine, it is required
to maintain a nearly constant steam temp. despite
large load swings.
 Temperature vs. Boiler Load

The primary purpose of the control mechanism

is to adjust superheating capacity as steam
output changes.

The boiler steam temp. is also affected, however,

by the cleanliness factor, the fuel being fired,
and excess combustion air.

The control mechanism must also have the

capability of adjusting for these secondary
influences in order that the boiler may be
controlled at a constant, or other desired steam
temp.
 Steam Temperature Control
Purpose of steam temp. control - to obtain as nearly as
possible a constant superheat / reheat temp. at all boiler
loads.

Primary benefit in constant steam temp. – improvement

in economy of conversion of heat to mechanical power.

Control mechanisms operated by the steam Temp.

control equipment may involve

1. fire side or
2. water side of boiler.
 Steam Temperature Control

Fire side mechanisms change either

i). the temp. of flue gases entering the SH region or

ii). the mass of flue gases entering the SH

(iii). or both.

Different boiler manufacturers use different methods.

 STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL – Fire side method
Tangentially fired boilers develop large swirling
fireballs by using pulverized coal and air from the
corners of the burner zone. A fireball in a boiler is a ball
of fire that forms when pulverized coal and air are
ignited in the boiler furnace.
 STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL – Fire side method
Figures demonstrates a method of changing the Temp.
of flue gases entering SH region.

In this method, used by Alstom / BHEL, each burner

assembly mounted in corner of a furnace are arranged
so that the flame can be tilted up or down from
horizontal. The result is that the “fireball” formed
inside the boiler furnace can be raised or lowered by
changing the tilt of each burner assembly.

Lowering the fireball increases furnace heat

absorption, which lowers flue gas temp. as it enters the
SH.

Raising the fireball decreases furnace heat absorption

& thus raises temp. of the flue gases entering the SH.
 OFA

OFA

FF EA

F FA
(3)
(2) Air Damper
EF AA

E OFA Over Fire Air

EA End Air
DE FA Fuel Air

D AA Aux. Air
Front Wall
Coal Burner
CD (4)
(1)
Fire Ball Scanner
C Plan
(Corner Designation) LFO+HFO Burner
BC
HFO Burner
B
Oil Flame Scanner
AB

A HEA Igniter

AA
Typical Corner Arrangement
for a Tangentially Fired System
 STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL – Fire side method
Tilting in a Tangential Corner Firing Furnace

Burners
in Hoz.
position

Burners Burners
tilted up tilted down
STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL – Water side method

Figure 5(A) Pure water sprayed into the superheated

steam vaporizes; degree of superheat is
reduced by heat of vaporization.
 Temperature Control Strategies
Most utility boilers - include a reheater in addition to
superheaters.

They have separate & Independent temp. set points. This

adds additional complexity to systems.

In almost all cases - there is a single firing system that

affects both the SH & RH. This requires control
mechanisms be independent of each other.

If one of the Temp. is controlled by tilting burners, the other

Temp. will be affected and will need spray water or some
other control mechanism to control it.

Spraying water into RH system to reduce steam temp.

causes additional amount of RH steam - this quantum
bypassed the HP turbine. All hot RH steam goes directly
to IP turbine.
 Reheat Temperature Control - tilting burners

• Combustion Engineering / BHEL boilers - used the

burner tilting device to control RH steam temp. Large
number of boilers controlled in this manner.

• Powerful pneumatic drives used to tilt the burner

assemblies at angles between approx. ± 30 degrees.
This is potentially a total angle of 60 degrees.

• It is quite important to have the tilt angle the same at

all four corners to avoid distorting the “fireball” and
compromising the controllability.

• If this can be done successfully, in normal operation

there is no water spray to RH section, and the unit
thermal performance would not be affected.
 Temperature Control Strategies

• This means that water spray would be needed for

SH temp. control and a water spray system
(emergency) would also be needed as a reheat
temp. override.
 Temperature Control Strategies
Desuperheating (Attemperation)

Desuperheating - a method of reducing temp. by

introducing hot water into the steam flow just prior to the
steam entering the secondary SH or RH. Water injection -
done in a device called an attemperator or
desuperheater.

By adding water to the steam, the steam temp. is

reduced and water is turned into steam by absorbing
heat from the steam.

The spray water comes from either feedwater pump

discharge (for SH spray) or an intermediate stage of the
boiler feedwater pump (for reheater spray).
 SH STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL
Control With Desuperheater Only
Two alternative systems are used:
- Single element control - suitable for low capacity
boilers where the mass of the SH and hence thermal
inertia time is small.

- Two element system (cascade control) - suitable for

high capacity boilers where the design involves heavy
mass of SHs with associated high thermal inertia time.

Here single element control can not restore temp. to the

desired value quickly. Instead there will be hunting and
instability for some time.
 SH STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL
Single Element Control

The simplest method for controlling SH steam temp. is

by measuring the steam temp. at the point it exits the
boiler, and changing the spray water control valve
position to correct deviations from the steam temp. set
point.

This control loop should be tuned for the fastest

possible response without overshoot, but even then
the loop will respond relatively slowly due to the long
dead time and time lag of the SH.
 SH STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL
(control with desuperheater only)
Single Element Control

Single Element Control Comprises:

* Thermocouple to measure main steam temp.

* Temp. controller with proportional and integral
control action
* Temp. set point station.
* Auto-manual station to permit remote manual
control of spray control valve.
 SH STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL

Single Element Control

 SH STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL
Two Element (Cascade) Control

Because of the slow response of the main steam

temp. control loop, improved disturbance rejection
can be achieved by implementing a secondary (inner)
control loop at the desuperheater.

This loop measures the desuperheater outlet temp.

and manipulates the control valve position to match
the desuperheater outlet temp. to its set point coming
from the main steam temp. controller. This
arrangement is called as cascade control.

.
 SH STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL
Two Element (Cascade) Control
 SH STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL
Two Element (Cascade) Control
❖In the cascade control, the outer loop PI controller
receives an error signal equal to the difference bet.
steam Temp. set point (e.g. 540°C) and main steam
temp.

❖Output of the controller establishes set point for SH

DESH output temp. (ie., inner loop) to control main
steam temp.

❖This set point is compared with the measured SH

DESH outlet Temp. & the resulting error applied to the
inner loop controller. The output of this controller
positions the spray water control valve.

❖An A/M station provided permit remote manual control

of spray water control valve.
 SH STEAM TEMPERATURE CONTROL
Two Element (Cascade) Control
End of this part