Boiler Control

Chapter 33
33.1 Basis of Control
33.2 Signal Selection
33.3 Ratio Trimming
33.4 Comments

The objective of most boiler plant used in the pro- jection and air flow. Capacity ranges from a few
cess industries is to raise steam for heating pur- hundred kW up to a thousand MW. From a con-
poses, electricity production usually being of a trol point of view the issues are much the same
secondary consideration. It is normal practice to irrespective of feed type or capacity, although the
produce and distribute the steam throughout the complexity of the schemes used tends to increase
works at specific pressures, reducing it locally as with size. This is because with large boiler plant
required. Mains pressures are typically designated there is more scope for making significant savings
as being high (> 20 bar), intermediate (approxi- through marginal increases in efficiency.
mately 10 bar) and low pressure (< 5 bar gauge). Coping with variable steam demand and the
Most boilers used for raising steam are of consequences thereof is the dominant design con-
the water tube type. In essence, they consist of sideration. Demand can be subject to frequent,
many tubes, usually hundreds but maybe thou- sudden and large changes as major steam users
sands, through which boiling water is circulated, as come on and off stream, although the capacity
depicted in Figure 25.1. The boiler tubes, referred of the steam mains goes some way to averaging
to as risers, are exposed to high temperatures in out the fluctuations. The steam flow is neverthe-
the combustion chamber where heat transfer takes less wild. Boiler control essentially reduces to five
place by a combination of radiation in the flame main activities:
zone and convection in the exhaust gases. Most
boilers have a steam drum. This acts as a header • Controlling steam supply pressure by manipu-
for the water entering the risers and as a disengage- lating the fuel flow rate
ment space for the steam/water mixture leaving • Maintaining the correct fuel to air ratio
them. Fresh water is fed into the drum to compen- • Maintaining the water level in the boiler’s drum
sate for the steam being withdrawn. It is not un- • Satisfying various environmental and safety cri-
common for the boiler feed water to be preheated teria
in an economiser, by heat exchange with the flue • Maximising efficiency of combustion
gases, and for the steam produced to be further
Schemes for the control of a boiler taking these
heated in a superheater.
various factors into account are developed in this
There is much variety in both design and ca-
chapter. For a more comprehensive treatment the
pacity of boilers. The nature of the fuel, whether it
reader is referred to the text by Dukelow (1991).
be gas, oil or pulverised coal, is fundamental to
burner design and to the provision for fuel in-
 232 33 Boiler Control

33.1 Basis of Control in steam pressure, the water in the drum flashes
off and the bubbles formed temporarily increase
The most common strategy is to supply steam to its volume. This leads to an apparent increase in
the main at a constant pressure. A feedback loop drum level even though the mass of water in the
may be used to manipulate the gas/oil flow, as drum is decreasing. This is best countered by mea-
shown in Figure 33.1. Thus, if the steam pressure suring drum level by means of pressure difference,
drops the fuel flow is increased, and vice versa. as depicted in Figure 25.1, and by ensuring that the
Steam drum is large enough to accommodate any swell
Gas
effects.

PT PC Steam Gas

PT PC FC
Fig. 33.1 Simple feedback control of steam pressure

To reject disturbances in the gas /oil supply system FT

it is normal to use a slave loop in a cascade strategy,
as depicted in Figure 33.2.
Air
Steam Gas
FFC
PT PC FC

FT
Fig. 33.3 Cascade control with ratio control between gas and air
slave loops
Fig. 33.2 Cascade control with slave loop for gas flow

Clearly, for combustion purposes, it is necessary to Steam Gas

maintain the air flow in proportion to the fuel flow.
This may be done directly using a ratio controller
PT PC FC
as shown in Figure 33.3.
Alternatively, it may be done indirectly using a
ratio station and a flow controller, as depicted in FT
Figure 33.4.
Note that disturbances in the air supply system
are rejected in both direct and indirect approaches. FFY
It is essential that the water level be main-
tained in the drum to ensure circulation through Air
the boiler tubes and hence their physical protec- FC
tion. This is normally achieved by means of a cas-
cade strategy, with the slave loop manipulating the
boiler feed rate, and is discussed fully in Chap-
ter 25.
A further complication with drum level control Fig. 33.4 Cascade control with indirect ratio control between
is the “swell” effect. Following a sudden decrease slave loops
 33.2 Signal Selection 233

33.2 Signal Selection the set point of FC47A,the gas flow controller.Since
the output of ratio station FFY47A is unchanged,
There are important health and safety constraints it is this signal that would be routed through to
in the operation of boiler plant. Incomplete com- FC47A, the gas flow remaining constant.
bustion of fuel oil and pulverised coal leads to the However, the high signal select routes the in-
emission of smoke, which essentially consists of crease in desired gas flow through to ratio station
particulates, and deposition of soot. The particu- FFY47B which multiplies it by a scaling factor R,
lates are harmful to health and the soot deposits are the required air to gas ratio, to determine the cor-
a potential fire hazard. Also, incomplete combus- responding desired air flow. This would then be
tion of gas, oil or coal produces carbon monoxide applied to the set point of FC47B, the air flow con-
(CO) which is toxic, as opposed to carbon dioxide troller. As the air flow increases, the ratio station
(CO2 ). The CO can cause explosions when the hot FFY47A multiplies it by the reciprocal of R to de-
flue gases come into contact with fresh air in the termine the allowable gas flow. Since this signal
stack. would be lower than the output of PC47 it is routed
These effects are best countered by ensuring through to the set point of FC47A which increases
that there is always an excess of air present in re- the gas flow. A new equilibrium would be estab-
lation to the stoichiometric requirements for com- lished at which,provided the various elements have
bustion. This is particularly important when the been calibrated correctly, the outputs of PC47 and
fuel flow is being manipulated to meet changes in FFY47A would be equal.
steam demand. An elegant approach to this prob- This scheme guarantees that, following an in-
lem is depicted in Figure 33.5. crease in steam demand, the increase in air flow
Assume the system is at steady state and con- leads the increase in fuel.A similar analysis reveals
sider the effect of an increase in steam demand. that, following a decrease in steam demand, the de-
The resultant decrease in pressure in the steam crease in air flow lags behind the decrease in gas
main would cause the output of PC47, which is the flow.
desired value of the gas flow, to increase. The low
signal selector routes the lower of its two inputs to

Gas

FC
< 47A

Steam FFY
47A FT

PC
PT 47 1/R

FT

FC
> FFY
47B 47B

R Air

Fig. 33.5 Cascade and ratio control with signal selection

 234 33 Boiler Control

33.3 Ratio Trimming There is, therefore, a trade off between high effi-
ciency and low oxide emissions. In practice, boiler
The efficiency of boilers and their environmen- plant is normally operated with some 1.0–1.5% ex-
tal impact are closely related. High flame temper- cess air in relation to the stoichiometric require-
atures are essential for efficient combustion. As ments for complete combustion. The amount of
stated, it is also necessary to have an excess of oxy- excess air is normally monitored by measuring the
gen to prevent incomplete combustion. Given that
amount of oxygen in the flue gas using a zirconium
air is 79% nitrogen, which is inert, it can be seen oxide based sensor. The output from the analyser
that only small amounts of excess oxygen will lead is used to trim the air flow by adjusting the scal-
to significant dilution of the combustion process. ing factors R and 1/R applied by the ratio stations
This dilution reduces the flame temperature, lead- to the set points of the flow controllers. There are
ing to cooler combustion gases and less effective various ways of realising this.
heat transfer to the water in the tubes. The excess
must therefore be as small as is practicable. • R may be adjusted by a ratio station in direct
However, low flame temperatures are desirable proportion to the O2 concentration.
from an environmental perspective. The lower the • R is the output of a PID controller AC47 whose
temperature the less the scope for production of set point is the desired oxygen concentration in
the NOX gases (NO, N2 O2 and NO2 ). Also, most the flue gas, as depicted in Figure 33.6.
organic fuels contain sulphurous compounds, not • As above, except that the reference ratio Rr is ex-
necessarily in trace quantities. Again, low flame ternally preset and multiplied by a scaling factor
temperatures tend to mitigate against production which is the controller output as depicted in Fig-
of the SOX gases (SO2 and SO3 ). All three forms of ure 33.7. This output would normally be about
gaseous oxides, COX , NOX and SOX , contribute to unity and limited to a narrow band of, say, 0.98
global warming (greenhouse) effects and acid rain. to 1.02.

Gas

FC
< 47A
Steam

FFY FT
PC 47A
PT 47
1/R

FT

FC
Flue
> FFY
47B 47B

AC R Air
AT 47

Fig. 33.6 Cascade control with signal selection and ratio trimming
 33.4 Comments 235

Gas

FC
< 47A
Steam

FFY FT
PC 47A
PT 47
1/R

FT

FFY FC
Flue
> 47B 47B

AC R Air
AT 47 X

Rr

Fig. 33.7 Cascade control with alternative approach to ratio trimming

• As above, except that the reference ratio Rr is will shut down the boiler plant. CO monitoring
incremented by addition of the controller out- also provides a useful means of cross checking the
put. This output would normally be about zero effectiveness of the O2 based ratio trimming.
and limited to a narrow band according to the
calibration of the instrumentation.

An important bonus of the technique of using the

33.4 Comments
oxygen content of the flue gas to trim the ratio The boiler plant described is typical of that used
setting is that it will respond to changes in the in the process industries for steam raising and,
composition of the fuel. Suppose the composition as such, its control system is relatively simple. In
changes such that the stoichiometric requirement the power industry, where the objective is to pro-
increases, i.e. more oxygen is required per unit duce steam for driving turbines and generators,
amount of gas. This will manifest itself in a reduc- the boilers have very much greater capacity and
tion of the oxygen content of the flue gas resulting steam pressures of 50 bar are not uncommon.
in the ratio being trimmed upwards to increase the Boiler plant is more highly integrated, involving
air flow. economisers and superheaters, whilst ancillaries
Also note that,for environmental purposes,it is and back-up plant are more extensive. The control
common practice to monitor the carbon monoxide systems used on these boilers are more sophisti-
content of the flue gas and to use that as an input cated with feedforward control, load scheduling,
to a trip system which, in extreme circumstances, stand-by arrangements, etc.