Effective operation of Atomizers

S. Sundar M.E,

B.K Satis Kumar Ph.D

Madras Fertilizers Ltd, Chennai

&
S. Keerthana

Student

St Joseph’s college of Engineering

 Atomization
Oil is vaporized in the combustion chamber
in the instant of time available.
Oil must be broken into small particles to
expose as much surface as possible for
faster combustion and to meet air registered
demand.
It is taking place in the burners.
Tip of the gun is called atomizer.
 Turn down ratio
Is the ratio of the burner’s capacity at full firing to
lowest firing before shut down.

Wider turndown ratio are typically more efficient

for meeting variable loads.

Ex: The burner of Process condensate boiler in

MFL has minimum flow of 351 kg/hr & maximum
1560 kg/hr so the turn down ratio is 4.44 : 1
 Factors Determining
Atomization

Quality of fuel oil

Correct preheating temperature

Correct selection & condition of burner tips

Viscosity versus Temperature
Viscosity versus Temperature

• TF = TC 9 / 5 + 32
• SSU (Saybolt Universal Seconds)
= Centistokes (cSt) x 4.55
• 4-5000 SSU is the maximum practical
limit for pumping
• 150-300 SSU is the atomization range fuel
oil no. 5 and 6
 Viscosity at operating temperature

• Viscosity at 50 O C = 125 to 330 Centistokes

• Viscosity at 100 O C = 20 to 32 Centistokes

• Viscosity of oil falls as temperature raises and nearly

constant above 120 O c.

• Lesser viscosity facilitates better pumping but delivers

less weight of oil to burners.

• Optimum temperature is essential for effective

atomization
 HEATING LOOP

• At ambient temperature, oil is too viscous.

• It is difficult to pump & atomize high viscosity

furnace oil.

• Oil is heated prior to burners in heating loop.

• Heating Loop consists of a set of strainer,

pump & heater
 Strainers
• It filters Sediments in furnace oil.

• Sediments in oil reduce oil flow & plugs burner tips, there by

affects atomization resulting in poor combustion.

• Sometimes leads to emergency shut-down of boilers duo to

low flow of oil.

• Pressure gauge at downstream is mandatory to monitor

strainer performance.

• Strainers recommended microns 50/ 60 micron tylermesh.

 Pumps

• Gear type pumps are normally in use.

• Higher oil viscosity will reduce the pump efficiency
and consumes more power.
• To overcome this problem two stage systems is
used and lower viscosity will enhance better
atomization and also lowers the oil pressure at
heater.
• Oil tank > I stage pump > Heater > II stage pump
>Burners.
 Thumb Rule
P.Chattopadhyay. Boiler operation engineering question and answer
• In case of electric heater, wattage required can be
calculated easily.
• Wattage =1.25 *gal/h* (T2-T1), Where 1.25 is conversion
factor.
• Example: Madavaram Aavin sterilization plant.
For 2 TPH capacity boiler, the oil flow rate is 42 gal/h
(160 Lts/h ). The required wattage is calculated to heat
oil from 50 OC to 120OC.
W=1.25*42*70
W=3675 W
In plant, 3000 W Heater is installed.
 steam heaters
• There are chances of steam entering and
mixing with furnace oil in oil storage tanks
due to tube leak .
• which will affect the property of furnace oil
in turn causing poor flame pattern.
• Leading waste of fuel and corrosion in
storage tanks/lines.
• It is important to monitor steam consumption
and storage tank oil temperature.
 Types atomizers

• Mechanical atomizer.

Steam or compressed air atomizer.

Rotary cup atomizer

 Steam atomizing burners
• Steam atomizing burners are simple,
less expensive than air atomizing
burners

• suitable for varying load.

• They handle commercial grade oil.

• Types inner mixing and outer mixing.

 Atomizing steam
• If the atomizing steam is super heated it is more
likely to cause the fuel oil carbonizing.
• saturated steam is used.
• Saturated steam has a greater cooling capacity
than super heated steam and controlling the firing
rate in the burner.
• Saturated steam has a greater amount of
expansion when heated compared to dry super
heated steam. This expansion aides further
atomization.
 Case study - 1
• Furnace oil heating loop in a fertilizer process plant.

• saturated steam at 3.5 and 10.5 bar are used for thermal

heating.

• Average furnace oil consumption per day is 350 KL.

• One HHP boiler and two HP boilers are continuously in service.

• Average day steam production is 4848 tons.

• Average Furnace oil temperature at burner inlet is 127 O C.

• Theoretical Energy required to maintained oil temperature from

50 O C to 127 O C.

• Q=mC p (t 2-t 1) Kcal

• m = 325500 kg/Day, C p= 0.26 Kcal/kg , t 2-t 1 = 77 O C

• Q = 6516510 Kcal/Day (or) 27369342 KJ/Day.

• Average Enthalpy of heating steam = 2760 KJ/Kg.

• Required saturated heating steam = 9916 Kg/Day.

• Required HP steam = 9401*0.859 =8518 Kg/Day.

• Require furnace oil =608 Kg/Day

• Actual Steam consumption = 816 Kg/Day.

• Equivalent energy per ton of steam production

Theoretical = 0.608*9.55/4848 = 0.0012 Gcal.

Actual = (0.816*9.55)/4848 = 0.0017 Gcal

. Recommendations:

a) Proper insulation of storage tanks, Day tanks, furnace oil lines.

b) Periodically renew/clean pump suction strainers.
c) Periodically check /calibrate temperature controllers.
d) Periodically check steam traps performance.
 Case study - 2
• A performance study carried out by varying oil inlet

temperature in a single drum 110 bar boiler,having four

numbers of Steam atomizing burners.

Load Oil Oil Air Flow Feed water Atomizing Steam Evaporation ratio
Tph flow Temperature Kg/h temperature steam to oil flow Kg steam/Kg oil
Kg/h O C O C pressure ratio Kg/h
Ksc
96.3 6295 126 140000 255 2.0 96300 15.30

95.6 6263 128 141000 255 2.0 95600 15.26

94.5 6159 124 142000 255 2.0 94500 15.34

14500
94.4 6884 117 240 2.0 94400 14.74
0
14300
94.4 6842 133 240 2.0 94400 14.83
0
14300
94.4 6846 131 240 2.0 94400 14.80
0
89.2 6654 117 143000 231 2.0 89200 14.4

85.9 6308 115 142800 242 2.0 85900 14.6

75.0 5854 120 131700 238 2.0 75000 13.8

 Observations
• Based on boiler load:

a) Below 90 tph the evaporation ratios are below 15.

b) Below 75 tph it falls below 14.

c) Between 94 to 98 tph optimum evaporation ratio is obtained

• Based on oil temperature:

a) Between 124 &130 OC the optimum evaporation ratio is obtained .

b) Above 133 O C the atomization is not favoring to improve efficiency

but it declines efficiency.

 Case study - 3
• Vital role of feed water temperature.

• Reducing the oil consumption and there by enhances better

atomization.

• A study test was conducted in a single drum 110 bar boiler.

Feed water temperature Oil flow Steam flow Steam generation
O C Kg/h Kg/h Kg steam/Kg oil

230 6532 94700 14.49

240 6458 95900 14.85

246 6474 96900 14.97

251 6337 96100 15.66

255 6295 96300 15.29

Inference

A rise of 6 O C of feed water temperature the

evaporation ratio is increased by 0.8%. This confirms the

theory, for every 6 O C rise in feed water temperature, 1%

thermal efficiency will be increased.

 Case study - 4
• 54 TPH high pressure boiler has four steam

atomizing burners.

• The performance of steam atomizing burner was

studied by varying atomizing steam flow and are

tabulated.

• The feed water temperature 135 O C and air flow

59 TPH were kept constant.

Atm steam Oil flow Atm steam Oil Steam Atm steam Steam
flow Kg/h pressure pressure generation Consumption generation
Kg/h Ksc Ksc Kg/h Kg steam/Kg Kg steam/Kg
oil oil

525 3600 7.8 7 50800 0.146 14.11

550 3600 8 7 52000 0.153 14.4

575 3600 8.2 7 51500 0.159 14.3

Observation:

Optimum atomization steam flow of 550 Kg/h enhances the

atomization and there by improves evaporation ratio.

 Case study - 5
• The design capacity is 70 tph with 42 Ksc super

heated steam having four numbers pressure

atomizing burners.

• The performance study done on of high pressure

oil jet burner with steam as secondary source

with different oil temperature.

 Steam
Oil Atm Steam to oil Steam
Oil flow generation
Temperature differential Pressure flow
O C
Kg/h Kg steam/Kg
Ksc Kg/h
oil

129 1.10 4749 53700 11.18

129 1..03 4690 52800 11.25
129 0.9 4650 52100 11.21
128 1.27 4863 55800 11.47
128 1.11 4818 55100 11.43
128 1.08 4754 53800 11.31
128 1.05 4695 53000 11.29
127 1.56 4800 54400 11.33
127 1.2 4694 53000 11.29
126 1.46 4868 55100 11.32
126 1.29 4800 54300 11.31
126 2.09 4782 54400 11.37
125 2.11 4827 54800 11.35
125 2.42 4845 54900 11.33
 Observations:

a) At and above 129 O C oil temperature, the evaporation rate

declines below 11.3.

b) When oil temperature is between 125 O C and 128 OC, the

evaporation rate is obtained optimum and is above 11.3.

a) At higher load, oil temperature at 128 O C favors higher

evaporation rate and is above 11.

 Comparison
Steam flow Oil flow
Burner type Evaporation ratio
Kg/h Kg/h

Pressure
54800 4827 11.35
atomizing burner

Steam atomizing
54800 3914 14
burner

A. It shows that steam atomizers are better performers.

B. Savings calculated if pressure atomizing burners are
replaced by steam atomizing burners.
 Savings
• oil conservation is calculated below.

• Oil consumption per hour is 913 Kg.

• Oil consumption per day is 21912 Kg.(or) 23.561 KL. (Sp.gr

of oil is taken as 0.93)

• Approximate savings of furnace oil (cost of furnace oil per

KL is Rs 48,000).

• Per day is Rs 11 Lakhs

• Per month is 3.4 Crores

 Observation

• The above study reveals that the performance of

boiler declines due to poor atomization.

• The following are reasons for poor atomization.

a. Improper atomization of oil .

b. Incorrect oil viscosity.

c. water in fuel oil.

d. Burner tip partially plugged/poor flame pattern.

e. Above 133OC oil temperature leads to carbonization.

f. Improper atomizing steam temperature.

 Conclusion

• Proper atomization is imperative for effective & efficient

operation of boilers.

• It can be achieved by gaining knowledge on types of burners

and familiarizing with their characters.