cost of producing 600 psi steam vs 200 psi steam in boiler
A boiler operating 24 Hr now produces 600 psi steam. If I need to use
the same boiler for 200 psi steam only, how much minimum cost ( a factor
like percent)in fuel cost, I can save?
Layman's Term please.
No thumb rule for it and it all depends upon the boiler capacity, drum
and pipe volume and load. In other words, if you have a boiler with a
capacity of 1 ton/hr and you are constantly using 1 ton/hr, right from
the start up, then your boiler can't develop any pressure and thus it is
a wrong selection.
Secondly, you are not supposed to run your
boiler at a reduced pressure than it is designed for. There will be
steam quality problems and also energy inefficiency(I am not speaking
about energy consumption).
The cost difference in producing 600 psi steam vs. 200 psi steam is all in the up front capital. Your fuel usage is a function of the demand, not the supply pressure. If the load requires about 200 psi dP, then there is a roughly fixed energy requirement to recover that dP, whether you are going from 0 to 200 or 400 to 600 psig.
You might get some marginal saving because you might be able to run lower flue gas temps, depending upon
whether you've got an economizer and/or air heater. My experience with
this kind of exercise is that it often looks FAR better than it really
is, because of steam metering that is not pressure compensated. If it
doesn't get recalibrated to the new, lower pressure, the meter reads
high. There will also likely be steam quality issues at the lower
pressure. Spirax Sarco has (or had) a video shot from inside the steam
space of an operating boiler. You can actually watch the "fog" form
inside the boiler when the pressure gets reduced from it's design
operating pressure. You can also run into problems with system
components (piping, control valves, traps, etc.) being sized for the
current pressure, and not being big enough for the same #/hr at the
lower pressure.
I can't think of too many plants
that have tried this, that have actually had the headaches outweight
the benefits. The ones that were convinced that they had acheived the
greatest efficiency increases were typically being fooled by their steam
meters.
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