The Babcock & Wilcox Company

John H Klatt

Thomas J Scheib

Theodore N Matsko

A method of identifying a parameter of a model for a rate of loss of boiler efficiency due to a sootblowing operation, in a boiler having a plurality of heat traps, comprises measuring a time since a last sootblowing operation in the heat trap in question, measuring an overall boiler efficiency at the beginning of sootblowing for the heat trap in question, measuring a change in efficiency due to the sootblowing operation and calculating the parameter using an equation. According to the equation, the ratio of efficiency change over overall boiler efficiency equals the time factor since the last sootblowing operation times the parameter minus a summation of factors for each of the other heat traps and their associated sootblowing operations. The technique is extendable to individual sootblowers within a heat trap by using fouling rate index rather than overall boiler efficiency.

Sootblowing system with identification of model parameters

A method of optimizing the scheduling time between sootblowing operations in a boiler having a plurality of heat traps, comprises measuring the instantaneous efficiency for each heat trap of the boiler, using a filter constant and the amount of load under which the heat trap is placed to calculate an average slope for the loss of efficiency between sootblowing operations and calculating an optimum scheduling period between sootblowing operations as a function of a cost factor reflecting the cost of a sootblowing operation, the duration of the sootblowing operation and the slope.

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Laurel, MD, United States of America

John H Klatt