RECOVERY BOILER EQUIPMENT AND

OPERATION

superheater section and helps turn the furnace gases so

they pass through the superheater in a more or less cross
flow pattern.

Thomas M. Grace
T. M. Grace Company, Inc.
Appleton, Wisconsin 54915

The furnace can be divided into the lower furnace and the
upper furnace based on the functions that occur. The lower
furnace is where liquor is sprayed in, combustion air is
introduced, the char bed accumulates, and smelt is formed
to drain out of the unit. The upper furnace provides
residence time to complete combustion and surface area to
cool combustion gases. Traditionally, the tertiary air level
was considered the boundary between the lower furnace
and the upper furnace. This distinction has blurred in
recent years with the trend toward greater vertical air
distribution.

The recovery boiler is the most essential and most

expensive part of the kraft recovery process. This is where
the organic matter dissolved during pulping is destroyed
and its energy value recovered. This is where sulfide is
formed and the inorganic chemicals are recovered for
reuse. The recovery boiler is an integral part of the steam
and power balance at the mill. The economic viability of
the mill depends critically on efficient and reliable
recovery boiler operation.

Slide 5 shows a cross-section of the lower furnace with

three levels of air and the liquor gun ports visible. Black
liquor combustion requires intermixing the black liquor
with combustion air which enter the furnace separately
from openings in the waterwalls Slide 6 is an illustration
of a liquor spray gun showing its location in the furnace.

OVERVIEW
A recovery boiler accomplishes three major tasks; burning
the black liquor, recovering the inorganic chemicals for
reuse, and generating superheated steam. Recovery boilers
consist of a water-walled furnace, where combustion of
black liquor is completed followed by a series of heat
traps where the hot combustion gases are cooled and
superheated steam is generated. Slide 2

Figure 7 shows the components of the combustion air and

flue gas removal systems. Air is supplied with a forced
draft (FD) fan and flue gases removed with an induced
draft (ID) fan. These are regulated to maintain a balanced
draft (slight negative pressure) within the furnace. If there
is too much draft, infiltration air is pulled in and efficiency
is lost. If draft is inadequate, fire shoots out of the furnace
openings.

There are three key parameters that are considered in

designing a recovery boiler:
heat input per plan area
furnace volume per heat input
flue gas temperature leaving the furnace.
These are involved in determining the dimensions of the
furnace cavity. As the size of boilers has increased, the
height has increasingly been determined by the need to
have enough waterwall surface area to cool the gas to the
desired furnace exit temperature. Alternatively, screens
can be used to provide some gas cooling and shorten the
furnace. The furnace volume and residence time is usually
more than ample for combustion and this in turn has
allowed moving combustion air higher in the furnace.
Conversely, some old boilers were designed with short
height and large screens were used to cool furnace gases
to the desired superheater inlet temperature. These short,
low residence time boilers have been notorious for
plugging because of the difficulty in achieving complete
burnout of the black liquor particles.

Combustion air also enters the furnace through ports

located on the walls making up the furnace cavity. There
is considerable variability in how air is introduced. The
lowest air level is called primary air. Primary air enters
close to the hearth from all four walls. Secondary air is
located above the primary and below the liquor guns. It
may be on two walls or all four walls and there may be
more than one level (e.g. high primary). Tertiary air is
introduced above the liquor guns normally on either a twowall interlace pattern or concentrically. There are now
units operating with quaternary air or even more air levels.
INORGANIC CHEMICAL RECOVERY
The inorganic chemicals in the black liquor (sodium,
potassium, sulfur, and chlorine) are recovered as a molten
salt mixture, called smelt. It consists primarily of Na2S
and Na2CO3 with small amounts of Na2SO4 and other
materials. The Na2S, which is necessary for kraft pulping,
requires a local reducing (oxygen deficient) environment.
The effectiveness of the recovery boiler in producing this
desired chemical (as opposed to Na2SO4 ) is measured by
the reduction efficiency. The inorganic chemicals are
much heavier than the combustion gases and tend to fall

BLACK LIQUOR BURNING

Burning of black liquor takes place in the furnace section.
The furnace cavity can be considered to be that part of the
waterwall enclosure extending from the hearth to the tip of
the nose arch. The nose arch acts as a shield for the

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lower furnace headers and then flows through the floor

tubes, up through the furnace waterwalls and through the
roof tubes to the steam drum A separate downcomer feeds
the screen tubes, which form their own steam-generating
loop.

toward the hearth. At normal furnace temperatures they

are in a molten (liquid) state and can be drained from the
boiler through smelt spouts.
One feature of recovery boilers is the presence of a char
bed on the hearth. char bed. The char bed consists of a pile
of partially pyrolyzed black liquor solids, carbonaceous
material and inorganics that accumulate on the hearth. It
acts as a fuel reservoir and provides residence time for
slower chemical reactions to occur. The shape of the char
bed affects gas flow patterns in the furnace and helps
shield molten smelt from exposure to combustion air.

Clean saturated steam from the steam drum then goes to

the superheater where it is raised to the final steam
temperature.
An alternative approach is a single-drum recovery boiler.
Slide 17 In a single-drum unit, there is no mud drum and
the drum is located outside of the furnace envelope. All
streams come to or leave from the one drum, which is
functionally a steam drum. External downcomers take
water to floor and lower waterwall headers. External
downcomers feed the screen, if used and the bottom
generating bank header. Crossover tubes bring water from
the economizer outlet header to the drum and supply tubes
take saturated steam to the superheater inlet header.

Figure 9 shows a representation of a char bed in a

recovery boiler. It also provides a representation of smelt
flowing out of the boiler through spouts. Figure 10 shows
two different pictures of actual char beds taken with bed
cameras.
Not all of the inorganic chemicals proceed directly to the
hearth. Some of it forms a fine dust, consisting primarily
of Na2SO4 with some Na2CO3 which flows with the flue
gases. This is collected in an electrostatic precipitator and
returned to the black liquor being fired. In addition, some
inorganic collects on heat transfer surfaces and is removed
by sootblowers. This material either falls directly to the
hearth or is collected in ash hoppers and returned to the
black liquor.

Gas flows out of the furnace through the screen section, if

used, and then through the superheater, generating bank,
and economizer.
The primary purpose of the furnace screen is to protect the
front of the superheater from overheat. It also functions to
control gas temperature entering the superheater.. On
some units a larger screen is used to provide some of the
gas cooling otherwise provided by the waterwalls. Some
units have been built without a furnace screen.

STEAM GENERATION
Superheated steam generation has three basic heat
requirements: heating the feedwater to the boiling point,
supplying the latent heat of vaporization, and heating the
steam form saturation to final temperature. Feedwater
heating takes place in the economizer, steam temperature
raising in the superheater, and evaporation (steam
formation) in the generating bank, waterwalls, and screen
section. Slide 12 As boiler pressure is increased the
relative heat transfer loads for steam generation are
decreased and those for raising feedwater and steam
temperature are increased.

Superheaters usually consists of several banks of tubes

with various arrangements of steam flow vs. gas flow.
Low temperature superheaters may use a counterflow
between steam and flue gas. Higher temperature
superheaters often introduce colder steam into the front
superheater bank in order to protect the tubes from
overheat. Many superheaters have an interstage
attemporator in which water is injected into the steam in
order to reduce (and control) its temperature. Typically,
the attemporator flow drops off as the superheater fouls.
Superheater banks are often made up of platens which
may be made up of tangent tubes or tubes with some
backspacing. Various means of supporting superheaters at
the roof or from headers are used. Slide 21 shows a
representation of flue gas passing through a superheater.

Slides 13, 15 and 16 illustrate the water/steam circuits in

a two-drum boiler. The economizer is a feedwater heater.
Feedwater enters the boiler through th economizer lower
headers and flows up through the economizer. The heated
feedwater then flows to the steam drum which is primarily
a steam-water separator and distribution device. The
generating bank is a natural circulation steam generator
with water flowing down the back part of the generating
bank and a steam-water mixture flowing upward in the
front of the bank.

The generating bank follows the superheater and is part of

the steam generating circuits. Hot gases enter the
generating bank trough a generating bank screen located
above the furnace arch. The rear wall tubes are bent out of
plane to form an opening for the hot gas to flow through.
The generating bank is made up of closely spaced tubes
and in order to avoid plugging, the entering gas
temperature must be safely below the sticky temperature

The lower drum is referred to as a mud drum. Waater

flows out of the mud drum through downcomers to the

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of the entrained ash. Traditionally, 1200F has been used

as a target gas temperature entering the generating bank.
Even lower values are used if the ash is known to contain
elements that aggravate plugging.

One or more induced draft (ID) fans are used to remove

the flue gas from the unit by pulling it out. In a clean fan
arrangement, the ID fan is located after the precipitator.
The disadvantage of this arrangement is the increased
likelihood of air infiltration into the precipitator. In a dirty
fan arrangement, the ID fan is located after the
economizer or direct contact evaporator. The disadvantage
of this arrangement is that the fan can get out of balance
and vibrate as it gets dirty.

Details of generating bank construction depend on

whether the boiler is of one or two drum design. In a one
drum boiler, the generating bank tubes are connected to
headers and the gas flows parallel to the tube. In a twodrum boiler the tubes are connected to the steam drum and
the mud drum and the gas passes through in cross-flow.

Recovery boilers operate as balanced draft units. This

means that the pressure within the furnace should be very
close to the local atmospheric pressure. If the interior
pressure is greater, (not enough draft) fire will blow out
the furnace openings. If there is too much draft excessive
amounts of cold infiltration air will be drawn into the
furnace and other parts of the boiler. The ID fan speed is
normally modulated to control the draft.

Older economizer designs used baffles to obtain a crossflow of hot gas over the economizer tubes. More modern
designs use a parallel flow design. Slide 23 shows both
gas flow arrangements. Earlier economizers used a design
in which the economizer tubes entered radially into a large
diameter header. Over the last 15-20 years the mini-header
design has evolved in which the elements consist of a
small number of tubes connected to a small (4diameter).
In both cases finned tubes are commonly used to increase
the heat transfer surface.

Black Liquor System

The black liquor system includes the equipment for
preparing the liquor for firing and introducing it into the
furnace. This includes the following;
liquor guns with spray nozzles
pumps and piping
mix tank for saltcake and recycled dust addition
liquor heaters
solids monitoring and automatic diversion
system.
In a typical system, the liquor guns are attached manually
to a furnace header (ring header) through which liquor
ready for firing is supplied. The solids monitoor (normally
two refractometers) is located after the mix tank and final
liquor heater. There is a motorized divert valve which
automatically takes liquor out of the furnace if the monitor
indicates solids are below 58%.

A common feature of both superheaters and economizers

is that the working fluid within (steam and water
respectively) experiences a large increase in temperature
as it flows through. This concurrently increases the
temperature of the tube metal along the flow path. In this
situation, any difference in flow rate or heat pickup
between parallel tubes can cause different amounts of
thermal expansion and hence generate stresses. Thermally
induced stresses are a common problem in superheaters
and economizers.
PERIPHERAL EQUIPMENT
In addition to the boiler itself, there is a lot of peripheral
equipment that is essential to the operation of the recovery
boiler. This includes:
fans
black liquor system
auxiliary fuel system
spouts and dissolving tank
sootblowers
precipitator
direct contact evaporator (if used).

Auxiliary Fuel System

The auxiliary fuel system consists of the burners and
ignitors, the fuel piping and controls, and the flame safety
system. Both oil and natural gas are used as auxiliary
fuels. Auxiliary fuel burners are generally located at either
of two locations Hearth burners are located near the hearth
just above the primary air level. They are used during
startup and shutdown and to assist with unstable firing
conditions or when there is low heat input to the furnace.
Load burners are located above the liquor guns (typically
at the tertiary air level). They are used primarily for extra
steam generation when there is insufficient liquor
available to meet the desired steam load. Black liquor
combustion is normally self-sustaining and auxiliary
burners are not required during normal recovery boiler
operation.

Fans
Combustion air is supplied through one or more forced
draft (FD) fans. Older units often had a single fan with
dampers used to control the air distribution and pressure at
different air levels. The most modern units have a separate
FD fan for each air level.

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The precipitator efficiency determines the dust load and

stack opacity. Thus effective precipitator operation is
critical to meeting the environmental restraints on the
recovery boiler.

Spouts and Dissolving Tank

The molten smelt that is produced within the recovery
boiler is removed from the furnace through the smelt
spouts into a dissolving tank where it is dissolved to form
green liquor. The spouts are water-cooled troughs
mounted in or onto the furnace at spout openings located
near the hearth. The spout openings can be subjected to
varying smelt levels and flows and require some form of
corrosion protection. They have also been subject to
cracking problems.

Direct Contact Evaporator

On many older recovery boilers, a direct contact
evaporator is used as the final black liquor concentration
step before firing. In a direct contact evaporator the black
liquor at about 50% solids is brought into direct contact
with hot flue gas. The evaporative cooling drops the flue
gas temperature about 250-300F while raising the liquor
solids content to 63-65%. The direct contact evaporator is
a potential source of TRS and black liquor oxidation is
required before the black liquor can be introduced into the
direct contact evaporator.

Spout cooling water systems are designed to minimize the

pressure inside the spout while providing an adequate flow
of cooling water. Some systems are designed to have a
small vacuum inside the spout itself. Most use an elevated
head tank system and gravity flow through the spout. The
collected cooling water is then cooled and pumped back to
the head tank.

There are two types of direct contact evaporators in use,

cascade evaporators and cyclone evaporators. Slide 34
shows an illustration of both types of direct contact
evaporator.

An agitated tank is used to dissolve the smelt and form

green liquor. Shatter jets are used to break up the smelt
stream as it flows out the furnace to prevent the
accumulation of molten smelt within the tank. Control of
the density of the green liquor within the dissolving tank is
a key to stabilizing the entire recovery cycle.
Sootblowers
Sootblowers are used to remove deposits from the heat
transfer surface (superheater, generating bank, and
economizer) within the boiler. The sootblower lances are
mounted on carriages outside the boiler. When a
sootblower is activated, the lance moves into the boiler
and rotates. Steam jets located near the front of the lance
strike the deposits and blow them off the tube surfaces.
Most sootblowers blow continuously as they move into
the boiler and then retract. Some are set up to blow while
traveling in but to retract quickly with a reduced steam
flow on the second part of the cycle. Slide 31 shows a
representation of deposit removal with a sootblower.
Electrostatic Precipitator
The electrostatic precipitator is used to remove dust from
the flue gas leaving the recovery boiler. It is located at the
end of the train just ahead of the stack. The dust that is
removed at the precipitator is primarily sodium sulfate
(saltcake) and it is recycled to the black liquor and refired
into the recovery furnace. Precipitator dust also tends to be
enriched in chloride and potassium. If the mill has
plugging problems due to chloride accumulation in the
recovery cycle, some of the precipitator dust may be
dumped in order to purge chloride. Some chloride removal
processes also start with precipitator dust.

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