Abstract
Blowdown is responsible for heat losses in boiler systems. The main objective of this paper is to propose a system to recover blowdown heat using steam dryer. The system consists of a flash tank, a steam dryer, and an air preheater. The flash tank is used to produce flash steam that is supplied to the steam dryer. Fuel moisture is removed in the steam dryer, resulting in fuel with lower moisture content and exhaust vapor. Exhaust vapor is supplied to the air preheater to increase air temperature before combustion. Due to lower fuel moisture content and higher air temperature, exhaust flue gas temperature can be decreased by adding air heater area. An analysis was performed to determine the payback period for the investment cost of the proposed heat recovery system. It was demonstrated that retrofitting a power plant with this system led to increased energy efficiency of the power plant. A case study of 250-MW existing power plant operating at the boiler pressure of 12.34 MPa was considered. Simulation results indicate that the power plant retrofitted with this blowdown heat recovery system consumes 0.87% less fuel than the power plant without this system. The payback period or the investment in this system is 7 years.
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