How to recover heat from Boiler blow-down?
Tip summary
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- The boiler blow-down process involves the periodic or continuous removal of water from a boiler to remove accumulated dissolved solids and/or sludge.
- During the process, water is discharged from the boiler to avoid the negative impacts of dissolved solids or impurities on boiler efficiency and maintenance. However, boiler blow-down wastes energy because the blow-down liquid is at about the same temperature as the steam produced.
- Much of this heat can be recovered by routing the blow down liquid through a heat exchanger that preheats the boiler’s make-up water.
- The recovered heat can be used to preheat boiler make-up water before it enters the de-aerator, and for low-pressure steam to heat water inside the de-aerator, which reduces the cost to run the de-aerator and improves overall boiler efficiency.
Proposed actions
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- Evaluate the amount of heat in your bow-down stream.
- Evaluate the amount of heat recovered in case of Preheating BFW before de-aerator.
- Evaluate the economics of the required changes.
Economics
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- Medium cost opportunity with a good ROI.
Savings
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- Estimated energy savings range: 2-3% of boiler energy use.
- Decrease equivalent amount of boiler load and decrease CO2 emissions accordingly to save the environment.
Conclusion
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- Blow-down heat recovery: savings of 2% of boiler energy use.
- Please share this tip with others to share knowledge and increase energy efficiency awareness.
- Please contact me for any advice or support about this issue or other energy management issues.
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