Industrial boiler with forced draft fan in industrial power plant

Industrial boilers are responsible for most of the sector’s energy demand, accounting for approximately 70% of the process industry energy use. These boilers, in a wide range of design and construction types, are responsible for supplying saturated and superheated steam as well as hot water to their adjacent process plants and enable the plants to process the gases and liquids involved in the production process. The most important factors with these units are the steam and hot water conditions, the fuel type used and the environmental constraints. The separate processes determine the amount of steam and hot water required and its pressures and temperatures. Of equal importance is the type and chemical composition of the fuel to be used and the mandated emissions requirements for the site. When these boilers are designed for cogeneration applications it is important also to process the waste production gases or liquids from the adjacent production plant. The combustion systems of these boilers require sophisticated combustion technology and are often able to burn a wide range of fuel combinations.

Depending on its source, any fuel gas needs to be pressure regulated and dried before use, and the total flow and the composition or calorific value needs to be measured. Fuel gas systems also have an important safety and security function. KROHNE not only supplies single instruments like the OPTISONIC 7300 ultrasonic gas flowmeter for measurement of operational flow or the OPTIMASS 6400 or the ALTOSONIC V12 for flow measurement according to custody transfer requirements but also supplies complete fuel monitoring and control skids. The three beam OPTISONIC 3400 ultrasonic heat and flowmeter measures any energy supplied in the form of hot water: this system is available with a class 1 MI-004 certificate. This highly accurate full bore UFM has an excellent turndown, no moving parts and is also suitable for demi water heating loops. The OPTISWIRL 4200 is an economic Vortex flowmeter, designed for steam energy monitoring in utility applications. With its integrated pressure and temperature sensor it can measure the steam enthalpy and even detect wet steam. The OPTISONIC 8300 ultrasonic steam flowmeter is best suited for applications that require a big flow turndown or even bi-directional flow: this would be used for metering the steam supply to industrial parks or other plants, with superheated steam. The water levels in boilers and drums can be measured with the OPTIFLEX 7200/ 8200 guided radar level meters directly integrated into the boiler/drum, or via externally mounted BM26 bypass level gauges. These can incorporate a variety of different technologies, also operating in any required redundant configurations.