Heat Recorery Systems Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 209-225, 1982.

Printed in Great Britain

0198-7593/82/020209-17103.00/0
Pergamon Press Ltd

MODERN BOILER ECONOMISERS--DEVELOPMENT A N D APPLICATIONS*

C. R. WILSON E. Green & Son Ltd, Wakefield,WFI 5PF, U.K. Abstract--This paper describesthe developmentof modern boiler economisers,and gives information on manycurrent applications.Detailsare givenof the typesof extendedsurfaceused, and the reasonsfor their selection.

I. DEFINITION AND ORIGINS OF THE ECONOMISER

THE PURPOSE of an economiser (sometimes called a fuel economiser) is, as its name implies, to reduce the fuel consumption of fired steam boilers. It is a gas-to-water tubular heat exchanger, located in the exhaust gas stream of a boiler which preheats the incoming feedwater by utilising the residual heat in the gases after the primary heat transfer has taken place in the steam generator itself. The economiser can be an integral part of the boiler, included in the initial design of the total plant; or it can be a separate unit, added retrospectively to an existing boiler. The original economiser is widely attributed to Edward Green, an engineer from Wakefield, Yorkshire, who realised the fuel-saving potential of recovering the waste heat from boiler exhaust gases in the early 1840's. By 1845 the idea had been sufficiently advanced for Green to patent the invention and with this step, the concept of waste heat recovery was born. The development of the economiser, outlined in the first part of this paper, has continued up to the present day, but the basic principle of a gas-swept tubular economiser has remained fundamentally the same. An extract from the original patent is shown in Fig. 1. 2. DEVELOPMENT The boilers of the 1840's and 1850's to which Green's ideas were originally applied were, by modern standards, very inefficient and the techniques of combustion employed were by no means as exact as we have today come to expect. The principal fuel employed was coal and this remained so for the best part of a century. By virtue of the varying nature of coal, the ease with which economisers could be applied to boiler plant varied from location to location and it soon became apparent that the major problem associated with flue-gas heat recovery was particulate deposition on tube surfaces coupled with corrosion and/or erosion of the economiser tubes. This remains true to this day and the nature of the products of combustion still forms a major consideration in the design of modern economisers. Despite these difficulties, the enormous scope for savings occasioned by the inefficiency of both combustion techniques and boiler designs, made the economies of economisers irresistible. Savings of 25~o on fuel input compared with boilers without an economiser were commonplace and figures far in excess of this were often claimed. The solution adopted by Green, which formed the basis for the almost universal adoption of the economiser to industrial and commercial boiler plant, took the form of a series of plain cast-iron tubes arranged in banks and kept clean on a continuous basis by means of mechanical scrapers. Each of these consisted of a sleeve with sharpened upper and lower edges, which was traversed up and down the tube to remove soot deposits. The soot fell into a pit below the economiser and had to be removed periodically in the same way as the coal ash from the boiler--an extremely dirty business.
* This paper was presented at the OYEZ Seminar: Heat Recovery in Process Applications, London, October 1981.

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A . D . 1845 . . . . . . .

N o 10,986.

A p R a r a t u s for G e n e r a t i n g S t e a m , &c.

GREEN'S SPECIFICATION. TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1 EDWARD GR~ I N. of Wakefield, in the County of York, Engineer. send greeting. WHEREAS Her most Excellent MajeslyQueen Victoria, by Her Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Tenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five, in the ninth year of Her reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Edward Green, my exors, admors, and assigns. Her special license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that l. the said Edward Green, my e$ors, adl~ors, and assigns, and every of thcm, by myself and themselves, or by my or their deputy or deputies, servants or agents,,or such others as I, the said Edward Green,'my e~ors, ;idtT~.~rs. or assigns, should at any time agree with. and no others, from tilne to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make. use. exercise, and vend my Invention, lacing " A NEW ME'O4OD OF ECONOMISINGFUEL, AND CERIAIN
IMPROVEMENTS iN RETAINING AND APpl YING HEAT FOR GENERATING STEAM AND

Ih:.~l.N~. WATER." within thai part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called F,pland. the I')omilllnn of Wnlen. and Town of Berwiek upon Tweed. a , d i, Ihe Islauds o1' Jermey. Guernsey. Alder,ey. Sark. and Man. and also in all the Colonies and Plantations abroad, in such manner as to me. the said Edward Green. my e~'ors. adi~ors, and assigns, or any of them. should in my or their discretions ~ecm meet; and that I, the said Edward Green, my e~ors, ndfl~ors, and aasilm.~, should and lawfidl~v might have and en.loy the whole profit. benefit. omnt~3ily. a.d advanlaBe from lime In lime coming, prowlng. accruing, and arising hy reason ol'the said Invention. for and

Fig. 1. Green's 1845 economiser patent.

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With the gradual advance of boiler technology and the increasing pressures called for as electricity generation became more widespread, the need for greater efficiency became ever more pressing. Whilst this to some extent re-emphasised the need for economisers, the available scope for heat recovery tended to be reduced by the more effective primary utilisation of the fuel in the steam generation phase. The need to maximise the economic heat recovery became paramount but the simple addition of more and more banks of tubes to give more convective surface became both physically and economically untenable. This syndrome of decreasing marginal benefit demanded--and got--a radical solution. By the introduction of extended-surface tubes, the economiser could be made many times smaller for a given duty. This meant that extra surface could be added more economically and that the space required to accommodate the often hugely cumbersome economiser units could be utilised for other purposes in the factory, hospital, hotel or whatever the site happened to be. The principle of extended-surface heat transfer is briefly explained later in the paper. By looking at the type of tube which came to be employed it is immediately evident that the proven method of cleaning by scrapers was now impossible. A new method had to be found and the practise of cleaning by jets quickly became established. Steam, water, shot and later compressed air were all applied and the principle is still used today, with steam blowers being the most commonly adopted method, worked periodically on-load. The continued advances in boiler duties, particularly allied to power generation, resulted in pressures which exceeded the physical capabilities of cast-iron to provide the means of containment in steam production. Steel tubes became first essential and then the more economical option in the production of boiler plant. Cast-iron had always afforded a greater degree of resistance to acidic corrosion caused by the condensation of acid on the economiser surfaces as the sulphur-bearing exhaust gases were cooled to provide heat to the feedwater. The operational cycle of steam turbines resulted in higher feedwater temperatures with the result that all-steel economisers could safely be incorporated in modern boilers, a satisfactory measure of feedwater heating being provided without the need to approach the critical acid dewpoint temperature. Today in the larger power station boilers where conditions of operation are largely stable and continuous, the employment of cast-iron is rare and unnecessary. In general industrial-scale high-pressure water-tube boilers, the operating cycles are not always as predictable. This fact and the necessity to achieve as low an outlet gas temperature as possible means that there is a requirement to protect the highly vulnerable steel tubes against the occasional formation of acidic deposits. In such cases, a composite type of extended-surface tube is employed consisting of a high-quality high-pressure steel boiler tube clad with a close-fitting, finned cast-iron sleeve which gives a thick section of metal with a lower corrosion rate. Whilst not totally resistant to acid attack, such economisers operate for many years before replacement of tubes is necessary. It is difficult to stipulate a minimum period, as so much depends on the operation of the boiler, the regularity with which the surfaces are cleaned and the degree of control over the quality of the fuel being burnt. A recent survey of units in operation suggests that 10 years operation is not unreasonable and 15 years is by no means uncommon. Nothing can protect boiler equipment for long from violently varying use outside the original design parameters and it is essential that this is borne in mind if boiler plant is being turned down or off intermittently in an attempt to minimise fuel consumption during periods of irregular demand. In this rather sketchy account of the development of the fuel economiser, I have dwelt latterly on the larger water-tube boiler types as employed in power generation, both centrally and in local industrial sites. But what of the average, low-pressure shell-type boiler, the 'work-horse' of industrial steam generation for process and heating purposes ? Here, too, the economiser has a continuing significant role to play. It must, of course, be said that the high degree of refinement attained in more recent years with modern packaged shell boilers, offering efficiencies of 85~ and more, has

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reduced the scope for flue-gas waste heat recovery. Indeed, in the period after about 1950 when firstly high-quality oil and then natural gas became freely available at prices which these days seem unimaginably low, the viability of the economiser on a packaged boiler appeared increasingly questionable. The return on the investment available through fuel savings, which is necessary to provide an adequately designed and engineered economiser simply was not attractive for any other than the really large installations working on a continuous basis. The fuel savings available nowadays to operators of modern package boilers amount to approximately 6%. This figure is clearly only a guide and depends on individual conditions. When heavy fuel oil is being burnt, the percentage fuel saving is likely to be below this figure because of the limiting factor on gas cooling imposed by the sulphur content. Single-figure percentage savings tended to be regarded as something of a luxury before the fuel-price 'explosion' of the late 1970's. Increasingly, the pressure on steam generation costs exerted by the successive price rises of gas and oil have compelled boiler operators to examine every method of minimising consumption and the economiser provides a ready and proven means to achieve this. Payback periods of 1~-2 years are regularly being achieved in cases where economisers have been retrospectively fitted (retro-fitting) to existing shell boilers. Retro-fitting of this type of boiler can impose physical constraints on the arrangement, which make the thermal side of the design more complex than is often imagined. The correct specification should seek to achieve the maximum economic benefit from the installation by taking proper account not only of the available gas temperature fall but also the allowable pressure drop, the effect of different fuels, feedwater quality, the operational load pattern of the boiler and the limitations of the available space on site. Many boilerhouses were laid out during the era of cheap energy with no regard being paid to the fitment of economisers. The convenience of oil and then gas has tended to reduce the overall size of boilerhouses and this poses a test for the designers of retrofitted economisers if they are to aim at the optimum economic solution. It can perhaps be seen from this that the installation of an economiser is rather more than simply the insertion of a box of tubes in the flue, which is how it is unfortunately quite often perceived. The foregoing highlights two important factors which should be included in any consideration of economiser installation. First, it is essential to adopt a total approach to the project taking into account all the parameters--physical, thermal and financial. Second, when new boiler plant is being considered the economiser should be treated as a fundamental component of the plant. The relationship between the size of the boiler and that of the economiser is a crucial consideration in this respect.

3. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BOILER SIZE AND ECONOMISER SIZE

The question is sometimes asked: "If there is sufficient heat left in the exhaust for an econom]ser, why not make the boiler bigger and do away with the need for an economiserT' In other words, as efficiency is increased by reducing the exit temperature, why not
232 C

Temp difference 46C

//
186 C Woter ~steom

Heat 1"ransfer Ternp dif'ference

186 C

Fig. 2. Heat transfer in boiler.

Modern boiler economisers 232 *C

213

Temp dif157 ference *C

75 *C

LMTD-~- 150"C~'~ 204"CT Heot transfer Temp

-66 *c
Fig. 3. Heat transfer in economiser.

install more boiler surface to extract more heat? Once again the question is one of practical economics. A typical industrial boiler producing saturated steam operates at 10 bar. At this pressure the steam temperature leaving the boiler is 186C. (See Fig. 2.) For heat to flow from the products of combustion to the water/steam there must be a finite temperature difference between the two fluid streams. The limiting case is therefore when exhaust gas temperature and steam temperature are equal. The overall heat transfer is in proportion to the temperature difference between the two streams. It can be seen from Fig. 2 that the effective temperature difference (LMTD) in the case where all the heat is transferred in the boiler is approximately 30C. This effective temperature difference may be seen as the 'driving force' behind the transfer of the heat. The smaller is this driving force, the greater will be the area of surface required for the transfer of a given quantity of heat. In Fig. 3 the same cooling effect is being achieved in the exhaust gas by an economiser rather than in the boiler. In this case, the effective temperature difference is approximately 150C so the driving force available to transfer the same amount of heat from the gases is five times greater than in the previous case. The surface area required to effect this transfer is therefore reduced by a similar factor. Additional surface means additional cost, as well as greater space requirements and floor loading. It is clearly far more economical to install an economiser than to increase the size of the boiler by putting in five times the extra surface. When specifying a boiler, therefore, the relationship in economic terms between a smaller boiler with an economiser and a large boiler without one should be very closely examined. As mentioned earlier, the standard designs of boilers available and currently in use were sized in the days of cheap fuel and inadequate account may have been taken of these relative economics. The economic case is clearly a function of the price of fuel and conclusions arrived at several years ago might now appear very different.
4. EXTENDED SURFACES--THE TYPES AND REASONS WHY

In addition to the reduction in the amount of surface required by the correct specification of an economiser in relation to its boiler, the physical size of the unit can be made much smaller by the introduction of an extended surface for heat transfer. Figure 4 shows a section across an economiser tube. The flow of heat from gas to liquid has to overcome a series of resistances as follows: boundary between gas and tube; tube wall; boundary between tube and water. In addition, there are resistances due to fouling both at the gas and water interfaces which vary with conditions.

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Gos

side

I
4,
= ~

Gos/'ruDe

Gos side

fouling

Tube woll Wol"er side fouling T u b e / woter

I
Wol"er side

Fig. 4. Resistances to heat flow across tube wall.

Fig. 5. Section of extended surface tube.

The water-side heat transfer coefficient is always far in excess of that for the gas side and the resistance through the metal itself is relatively insignificant. The area which controls the rate of heat transfer is, therefore, the gas side and anything that can be done to improve the flow of heat in this region will improve the performance of a given length of tube. The addition of fins or gills to the gas-swept side of the tube (see Fig. 5) increases the area available to transfer the heat, thereby reducing the total length of tubing required and hence the size of the unit. Table 1 shows a comparison between plain-tube and extended-surface designs for the same duty in a power station boiler. It is evident that consideration of first cost, pressure drops both on the gas and water side and hence operating costs (fan and pumping loads) as well as the clear advantage of size reduction show a convincing case for the use of extended surfaces. The same is true for smaller general-industrial type economisers.

Table 1. The effect of extended surface in economisers Number of tubes Plain Tube economiser Extended-surface economiser
11424 1968

Rows wide
272 164

Rows high
42 12

Centre distance
[mm] 76 127

Height
[mm] 3192 1524

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The methods of achieving the extended surface can be broadly classified into three

types:
(a) integral---cast, rolled or extruded; (b) metallurgical bond--welded or brazed fins; (c) mechanical bond---crimped or wrapped on fins. Owing to the relatively high temperatures involved, it is generally considered inadvisable to employ mechanically attached fins, as differential expansion between fin and tube can cause separation of the base of the fin from the tube. This greatly impairs the heat transfer and introduces the risk of particle accumulation under the fin in the form of grit or soot. The principal forms of fin in use are: (a) a helically wound version with the base of the fin continuously welded to the base tube--steel fin on steel tube (Fig. 6); (b) a parallel fin arrangement attached by high-frequency welding--steel fin on steel tube (Fig. 7); (c) a parallel-fin cast-iron sleeve on a steel tube (Fig. 8); (d) an all-cast-iron parallel-finned tube (Fig. 9).
b

The choice of surface is determined largely by the type of fuel and the quality of the feedwater. For very clean gas such as natural gas, the helical form of fin is increasingly being employed and is a compact surface. For gas-fired boilers and where adequate draught is available this is therefore the preferred form. The other three types of fin all have in common the parallel-fin configuration which, whilst providing a smaller heat transfer for a given length of tube, has advantages over the helical type in terms of draught loss across the tube and, more significantly, the tendency to fouling is much reduced. The straight gas passages afforded by the parallel fins, allow solids in the gas stream to be carried through the economiser tube banks thus

Fig. 6. Green's ECONOFIN welded helical fin tubes for use in economisers working in clean gas conditions. The size and spacing of the fins can be varied greatly.

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C.R. WILSON

minimising the deposits on the heat transfer surfaces. Such deposition as does occur can effectively be dealt with by steam or compressed air blowing. Here again, the penetration of the blowers is enhanced by the straight passage offered by the parallel fins. Apart from solid deposition, there is the important question of sulphatic compounds in the gases and the consequent danger of acid formation on the finned tube surfaces. Where either the fuel is sulphur-free or the metal temperature is sufficiently above the acid dewpoint to rule out any possibility of acid formation, the all-steel welded fin type is preferred. If there is the possibility that, under conditions of part load or intermittent use, acid formation may occur, the adoption of a cast iron finned surface is recommended. As mentioned earlier, the lower corrosion rate and the ease with which a substantial section can be economically produced make cast-iron a suitable material for this purpose. The increasing use of poorer-quality fuel oils and the variations which are being experienced in their composition militate for the use of a cast-iron finned economiser. In addition, the return to coal-firing is opening up renewed outlets for this type of surface. The cast-iron protected steel tube type is used wherever possible on heavy oil and coal-fired boilers where the water quality is sufficiently high to rule out oxidisation attack inside the tube. Where this is not the case, as sometimes occurs on medium pressure shell boilers, the solid cast-iron finned tube is employed. This provides an effective long-life solution to attack from both without and within.

Fig. 7. Green's WELDED STEEL GILL economiser tube. Parallel fins combine efficient heat transfer with high resistance to fouling, low gas pressure losses and ease of effective cleaning. Used in coal-, oil- and gas-fired installations.

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Fig. 8. Green's parallel-fin TYPE 55 cast-iron protected steel economiser tube for use with sulphur-bearing fuels where acid dewpoint conditions are encountered.

Fig. 9. Green's TYPE 25 all cast-iron economiser tube for use with coal-, oil- or gas-fired installations where feedwater quality might vary.

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Nowadays, the all-steel forms of finned tube tend to be cheaper to produce and an economical form of economiser employed with sulphur-bearing fuels combines the castiron protected type at the cold end with an all-steel main section in the area where metal temperatures are safely above the dewpoint level. This particular principal is widely employed in marine steam boilers as well as on land; amongst the many vessels incorporating such a combined economiser is the QE2. As a footnote to this section I would like to refer briefly to the question of how the deposition of acids on economiser tubes is caused. The precise mechanism of its formation has been the subject of several studies over the years and despite this work the prediction of the manner and intensity of acid formation is still a somewhat imprecise discipline when related to the varying conditions which apply in practice. Acid is formed when the SOa present in the products of combustion of heavy oils and certain coals combines with water and condenses on the cooled metal surfaces of the economiser tubes. This condensation is a local phenomenon related to the temperature of the metal. As the metal is generally at a similar temperature to that of the water inside the tubes, it is the water temperature which exerts the major influence on the condensation and not, as is often thought, the temperature of the exhaust gases. The phenomenon can completely be avoided by the maintenance of the feedwater temperature at a sufficiently high level to keep the whole of the economiser well out of the dewpoint range. This can be done by several methods including electrical preheating of the feedwater to the economiser, steam injection into the feedwater and recirculation of part of the water in the economiser round the cold end. In this way, the need for cast iron as described above can be eliminated. It must be appreciated, however, that this may be done at the expense of efficiency gain. Clearly, the lower the water temperature at the inlet to the economiser, the greater is the potential for extraction of heat from the exhaust gases and the consequent efficiency gain and fuel saving. The skill of the economiser designer is to balance the economics of the installation and achieve a situation where the maximum heat is recovered consistent with an acceptable rate of corrosion of the economiser. At the same time regard must be paid to the downstream back-end equipment (ductwork, chimney, etc.) where the cooling effect of the ambient air is more noticeable and the gas temperature might reach dangerously low levels without proper precautions. The balance of such considerations becomes more delicate with every increase in the price of the fuel being burnt. In short, the aim is not necessarily to eliminate corrosion completely, but to hold it at a level where the rate of deterioration of the surfaces is consistent with a sound return on investment. As previously mentioned, a life-time of ten years for the critical parts of an economiser is not an unreasonable expectation. Within this time the savings effected are sufficient to justify the expenditure on the 'extra' heat recovery. Ideally, the suppression of SO3 formation in the first place would greatly simplify the matter and trials with various fuel treatments have been carried out on several occasions. At this moment a scheme to demonstrate the potential of SO3 control and acid dewpoint suppression by fuel treatment is the subject of an ETSU-supported demonstration project on a heavy-fuel-oil-fired boiler and economiser installation. The overall aim of this project is to make available to to the operators of oil-fired boilers the same degree of savings as are afforded to those with natural gas installations and if it is successful, there may be quite considerable savings to be had.
5. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ECONOMISER INSTALLATIONS AND COMPONENT MANUFACTURE

This section of the paper shows with a series of illustrations a range of applications of the various types of economiser for power stations, industrial shell boilers, waste-heat boilers on land and at sea and in a new range of packaged coal-fired boilers incorporating both conventional and fluidised bed firing techniques. The manufacture of extendedsurface elements is depicted together with other components.

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Fig. 10. Fabrication into coils of Green's WELDED STEEL GILL economiser tubes.

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C . R . WILSON

Fig. 11. Green's W E L D E D STEEL G I L L economiser section during erection in a 660-MW coal-fired power station boiler.

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Fig. 12. Three Green's WELDED STEEL GILL economisers retro-fitted to gas-fired boilers.

H.R.S. 2/2--H

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C.R. WILSON

Fig. 13. A Green's TYPE 55 cast-iron protected steel-tube economiser retro-fitted to a heavy-fuel oil-fired shell boiler.

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223

Fig. 14. Green's TYPE 25 all cast-iron tube economisers working with coal-fired shell boilers.

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C.R. WILSON

Fig. 15. A Green's waste heat boiler for diesel heat recovery showing extended surface superheater, steam generator and economiser sections.

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Fig. 16. Convection section of a Green's 'A" frame coal-fired water-tube boiler. The application of extended surfaces helps to keep the overall unit size down. This is vital for oil-to=coal conversion schemes. A cast-iron protected steel tube extended surface economiser forms part of this boiler package, the size relationship between boiler and economiser surfaces being optimised in the overall design.

Fig. 17. Installation of a Green's 'A' frame coal-fired water tube boiler. Extended surfaces help to minimise overall unit size.