Combustion efficiency is an indication of the burner’s ability to burn fuel. The amount of unburned fuel and excess air in the exhaust are used to assess a burner’s combustion efficiency. Burners resulting in low levels of unburned fuel while operating at low excess air levels are considered efficient. Well designed conventional burners firing gaseous and liquid fuels operate at excess air levels of 15% and result in negligible unburned fuel. Well designed ultra low emissions burners operate at a higher excess air level of 25% in order to reduce emissions to very low levels. By operating at the minimum excess air requirement, less heat from the combustion process is being used to heat excess combustion air, which increases the energy available for the load. Combustion efficiency is not the same for all fuels and, generally, gaseous and liquid fuels burn more efficiently than solid fuels.
Excess air provides safe operation above stoichiometric conditions. A burner is typically set up with 15% to 20% excess air in higher firing ranges. Higher excess air levels result in fuel being used to heat the air instead of transferring it to usable energy, increasing stack losses and significantly decreasing efficiency. Boilers with lower excess air throughout the operating range have higher efficiencies.
Stack temperature is the temperature of the combustion gases (dry and water vapor) leaving the boiler. A well-designed boiler removes as much heat as possible from the combustion gases. Thus, lower stack temperature represents more effective heat transfer and lower heat loss up the stack. The stack temperature reflects the energy that did not transfer from the fuel to steam or hot water. Stack temperature is a visible indicator of boiler efficiency. Any time efficiency is guaranteed, predicted stack temperatures should be verified.
Stack loss is a measure of the amount of heat carried away by dry flue gases (unused heat) and the moisture loss (product of combustion), based on the fuel analysis of the specific fuel being used, moisture in the combustion air, etc.
In theory, to have the most efficient combustion in any combustion process, the quantity of fuel and air would be in a perfect ratio to provide perfect combustion with no unused fuel or air. This type of theoretical perfect combustion is called stoichiometric combustion. In practice, however, for safety and maintenance needs, additional air beyond the theoretical "perfect ratio" needs to be added to the combustion process - this is referred to as "excess air".
Condensing boilers can achieve up to 98% thermal efficiency, compared to 70%-80% with conventional designs (based on the higher heating value of fuels). Typical models offer efficiencies over 90% when the return water temperature is at 110 ºF or less; the lower the return water temperature, the higher the efficiency gain.
Circulating fluidized bed boiler is a specific type of boilers, and compared with the other boilers, it has certain advantages, which are: it has great improvement in combustion technology, which can improve the boiler combustion quality and combustion effect, and in turn, to improve the boiler effect. This is achieved because two return feeders are used in this type of boiler to allow the fuel to form a circulation loop between the furnace and the return feeder.
In order to improve the combustion efficiency of the boiler, in a large boiler, the combustion air is not supplied all at once, but is supplied in two times, one is supplied with the fuel that controls the rate of combustion as well as the amount of fuel that can be burned,and the other is directly supplied to the combustion process that that improves combustion efficiency. The primary air rate of the boiler refers to the proportion of the primary air. If the total air volume is 100% and the primary air rate is 70%, the secondary air rate is 30%.
Package boiler is a boiler that had been fabricated and available as a complete package. The entire pressure parts have been assembled in the workshop and ready to be sent to the field or site where power plant is located. On the field/site requires only connection and integration of course work in electrical connections, water pipes, steam pipes and fuel piping system to operate. Package boiler is one of classification of boiler based on erection. Design package boilers in general are the type of Fire Tube Boiler and have made up shell and tubes. This type has high heat transfer both radiation and convection.
