Assessment of the potential for conversion of TP-108 boilers to firing natural gas and fuel oil

Abstract

TP-108 boilers were initially designed to burn milled peat. In the 1980s, they were reconstructed for conversion to burning natural gas as well. However, operation of these boilers revealed problems due to low reheat temperature and great air inleakage in the furnace. The initial design of the boiler and its subsequent reconstruction are described in the paper. Measures are presented for further modernization of TP-108 boilers to eliminate the above-mentioned problems and enable natural gas or fuel oil only to be burned in them. Thermal design calculations made using a specially developed adapted model (AM) suggest that replacement of the existing burners with new oil/gas burners, installation of steam-to-steam heat exchangers (SSHE), and sealing of the boiler gas path to make it gas tight will allow the parameters typical of gas-and-oil fired boilers to be attained. It is demonstrated that SSHEs can yield the design secondary steam reheat temperature, although this solution is not typical for natural circulation boilers with steam reheat. The boiler equipped with SSHEs can operate on fuel oil or natural gas with flue gas recirculation or without it. Moreover, operation of the boiler with flue gas recirculation to the air duct in combination with staged combustion enables the required environmental indicators to be attained.