SOLAR PREHEATING OF

BOILER
Project Report Heat Transfer and HVAC lab

Group members:
(ME-05-B)

Submitted
to:
Umair
Saleem

Farhan Ellahi
Gohar Shoukat
Usama Zaid Malik

Table of contents:
Aims
Objectives
Brief overview of the existing system
o
o

Site inspection
Diagram

Proposed solutions
o Solar preheating of water
o Storage tank and fluid heating cycle path
o High temperature water pump
o Instrumentation of the system for data acquisition

Validation of effectiveness of proposed solutions(past

research, theory, simulation & experimentation)

Literature review
Schematic and Results of simulations on Trnsys
Feasibility assessment of proposed solutions- economic analysis
Data acquisition ->
Instrumentation (code + hardware equipment)
validation (temperature and flowmeter)
o Analysis of data
o Market survey and procurement
o
o
o
o

Safety considerations
Results
Conclusion
Recommendations and future work

Aims:

Providing cost effective process heating system used for various industrial
processes in International Polymer Industries Pvt. Ltd.

Providing environment friendly solution for process heating.

Objectives:

Site inspection and identification of shortcomings of existing set-up.

Propose solutions to provide cost effective, ecofriendly solutions.
Gather data and perform analysis of the proposed alternatives.
Carry out an economic analysis for feasibility assessment.
Documentation and future recommendations for the project.

Brief overview of the existing system

Site inspection
To identify and understand the working of existing system, two visits were made to
factory site. The following observations were made and data was collected:

Working of existing system

Estimated temperatures, pressures and flowrates of entering and exiting fluid
Specifications of pumps
Location of solar collectors
Working condition of equipment

A major operation in the factory of International Polymer Industries Pvt. Ltd. is to

cure rubber which is being carried out by using autoclave and steam press
machines which use hot steam for process heating. Steam is generated via a fire
wood powered boiler and transported via MS pipes.

Diagram
A schematic diagram of existing system is presented below.

Schematic of existing system

Proposed solutions:

Schematic for proposed system

Solar preheating of water

Solar collector tubes would entrap the sunlight to preheat water that will be
fed to wood-fired boiler by the water pump. This preheated water would

decrease the amount of firewood used to attain the same required

temperature and thus reduce reliance on firewood.
After literature review, data acquisition and feasibility assessment, it was
brought to our knowledge that by using 2, 30-tube evacuated tube solar
collectors connected in series the simplified payback period for the
technology would be 1.33 years with cost savings of 2.37 %.

Storage tank and fluid heating cycle path

The existing system had two storage tanks:
1. Overhead primary tank
2. Underground secondary storage tank
In existing system, the return flow of fluid (water/steam) from factory was
dumped in the underground secondary storage tank where it was temporarily
stored. This water lost its useful heat energy due to additional stay in the
underground tank.
A new system was proposed with return flow of fluid being directed to
overhead tank with an addition of a water overflow prevention valve. Due to
unregulated use of fluid for process heating, the overflow prevention valve
will open and allow excess fluid to go into underground storage tank. This will
make use of heat energy from return flow of fluid with minimum intrusion to
existing system, most of which was being lost to environment in the existing
system.
During site inspection, it was also brought to our knowledge that overhead
primary tank needs to be renovated due to its obsolete condition which also
creates an opportunity to propose optimum dimensions for construction of
the new tank to minimize overflow and save energy. Dimensions can be
proposed once the exact flowrate and volume of fluid is known.

High temperature water pump -> search and procurement of pump

The heating cycle as shown in the diagram 1, constituted a water pump that
feeds high pressure water to boiler. This existing water pump had a maximum
operating temperature limit of 40C. For effective utilization of solar
preheating and heat extraction from return flow, the maximum temperature
limit needed to be increased and thus, a new economically justifiable pump
had to be purchased which fit our required characteristics. The new pump,
shown as pump 1 in the diagram above is an essential component which
makes the proposed system effective.

Instrumentation of the system for data acquisition

Analysis of the system was carried out using estimated average values of the
required data (e-g exit temperature and flowrate) which are not reliably
accurate. So, instrumentation of some critical missing portions of the system
was proposed for more accurate analysis and validation of previous results.
Since now, instruments have been installed for measuring temperature and
flowrate of returning flow of water just before the pressuring pump. The
measuring devices have been manufactured and can be replicated for
installation at various points.

Validation of effectiveness of proposed solutions

Literature review
SOLAR ENERGY USE FOR WATER PRE-HEATING IN BOILERS OF
AGRO-INDUSTRIES, 2014
by RAFAEL CELUPPI, JAQUELINE SCAPINELLO, etc.

The following research concludes that using Solar Heaters for pre-heating boiler
fluid is an effective method. By using 4 solar heaters in series, the payback time is 4
years for firewood as the fuel.
Moreover, the positive environmental impact of using the said method is another
favorable factor.
The research had the following substantial factors that need to be compared:
Four solar tubular collectors (Apricus brand, model AP 30 tubes), with aperture area
of 2.83 m2 and
total gross area of 4.4 m2, were installed in series in a rural area of Chapec, Santa
Catarina State,
Brazil (2707'54" S and 5270'88" W). Angle of inclination 37 and flowrate of
0.0598 L/s were used. Efficiency of solar collectors is set as 65%.
A total cost of the solar heating system installation and implementation is set to R$
92,800 and per unit (kg) cost of firewood is R$ 0.1923.

Schematic and Results of simulations on Trnsys

Degree

We have used Solar Evacuated Tube Collector. The parameters including the
efficiency, flow rates and collector area have been obtained from recent researches
in this field. Please find the research article Solar Energy Use for Water Preheating
in Boilers of Agro-industries by Rafael Celuppi.
In order to account for line losses, we have also used piping feature on Trnsys. The
weather data being used here is that of Lahore. The results snap shot above shows
the maximum temperature obtained at the outlet of the evacuated tubes
throughout the year; 0 hours being beginning of January and 8760 marks the end of
December. The specification used for the evacuated solar collector is as follows:
Flow rate = 215L/hr
Gross Area=4.4 square meters

Inclination angle = 45 degrees

These simulation results are based on one collector. The purpose of this simulation
was to check if we were heading in the right direction by using solar collectors for
industrial heating. The graph above shows significant temperature changes when
using standalone solar heating system.
The simulation results and evidence from literature urged us to conclude that this
idea of using solar collectors in a hybrid industrial heating system is worth
exploring.

Feasibility assessment of proposed solutionseconomic analysis

Rating of Wood =

3.5 KWh/kg

Gross Area of Collectors 4.4 4=17.6 m

8 KWh

Energy Rating of Evacuated Tube Collector day . m 2

ETC efficiency= 65 %
Total Energy produced by ETC/month = 8 9.6 25=1920 KWh/month
Money Saved/month =

2288 KW /month
Rs 12/kg=Rs 7844.6 /month
3.5 KWh /kg
Source:

Annual Saving =

Rs 94,134/Year Rs 94,000 /Year

Average consumption of wood/month = 275,000 kg

Average Annual Cost of Fuel = 275,000
12 12=Rs 3,960,000
% Saving by ETC Pre-heating =

94,000
=2.37
3960000

Total Cost of Installation and Integration of System = Rs

125, 000

Cost of equipment:
Rs 30,000 4 per 30tubed collector
Rs 10,000 water pump +
piping
Rs 5,000 Measuring

Payback Time =

Rs 125,000
=1.33 Years .
94,000

Although the payback time is less, the economic feasibility of solar heating
system is not significantly positive. Very less percentage of total fuel cost i-e
2.37 % is saved.
However it must be noted that this analysis has been carried out on semireliable data and experimental validation is needed to support this claim.

Data acquisition
Instrumentation (hardware equipment + code)

Arduino Mega was used as the microcontroller to implement the code into
thermocouple (K-type) and flow meter (Hall Effect flow sensor) to detect and process
signals as a part of data acquisition. An LCD displays Temperature, flowrate and
total flow volume. An instrumentation box was designed to assemble all the
hardware and is installed with the piping path to the boiler.

[code]
#include<LiquidCrystal.h>
#include <max6675.h>
LiquidCrystal lcd (12, 11, 6,5,4,3);

byte sensorInterrupt = 0; // 0 = digital pin 2

byte sensorPin

= 2;

float calibrationFactor = 4.5;

int thermo_gnd_pin = 23;
int thermo_vcc_pin = 25;
int thermo_so_pin = 31;
int thermo_cs_pin = 29;
int thermo_sck_pin = 27;

MAX6675 thermocouple(thermo_sck_pin, thermo_cs_pin, thermo_so_pin);

volatile byte pulseCount;

float flowRate;
float flowLitres;
float totalLitres;
long day;

unsigned long oldTime;

void pulseCounter()
{
// Increment the pulse counter
pulseCount++;
}
void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
lcd.begin(16, 2);
// Initialize a serial connection for reporting values to the host
Serial.begin(38400);
// Set up the status LED line as an output

pinMode(sensorPin, INPUT);
digitalWrite(sensorPin, HIGH);

pulseCount
flowRate

= 0;
= 0.0;

flowLitres = 0;
totalLitres = 0;
oldTime
day

= 0;
= 1;

// The Hall-effect sensor is connected to pin 2 which uses interrupt 0.

// Configured to trigger on a FALLING state change (transition from HIGH
// state to LOW state)
attachInterrupt(sensorInterrupt, pulseCounter, FALLING);

pinMode(thermo_vcc_pin, OUTPUT);

pinMode(thermo_gnd_pin, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(thermo_vcc_pin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(thermo_gnd_pin, LOW);

void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
if (millis()- (day-1)*86400000 > 86400000)
{
totalLitres = 0;
day++;
}

if((millis() - oldTime) > 1000)

// Only process counters once per second

{
// Disable the interrupt while calculating flow rate and sending the value to
// the host
detachInterrupt(sensorInterrupt);

// Because this loop may not complete in exactly 1 second intervals we calculate
// the number of milliseconds that have passed since the last execution and use
// that to scale the output. We also apply the calibrationFactor to scale the output
// based on the number of pulses per second per units of measure (litres/minute
in
// this case) coming from the sensor.

flowRate = ((1000.0 / (millis() - oldTime)) * pulseCount) / calibrationFactor;

pulseCount = 0;
// Note the time this processing pass was executed. Note that because we've

// disabled interrupts the millis() function won't actually be incrementing right

// at this point, but it will still return the value it was set to just before
// interrupts went away.
oldTime = millis();
attachInterrupt(sensorInterrupt, pulseCounter, FALLING);

// Divide the flow rate in litres/minute by 60 to determine how many litres have
// passed through the sensor in this 1 second interval.

flowLitres = (flowRate / 60.0);

// Add the litres passed in this second to the cumulative total

totalLitres += flowLitres;
//Serial.print(" Current Liquid Flowing: ");

// Output separator

//Serial.println(totalLitres);
}
unsigned int frac;

// Print the flow rate for this second in litres / minute

lcd.setCursor(0,0);
lcd.print("Q: ");
lcd.print(int(flowRate)); // Print the integer part of the variable
lcd.print(".");

// Print the decimal point

// Determine the fractional part. The 10 multiplier gives us 1 decimal place.

frac = (flowRate - int(flowRate)) * 10;
lcd.print(frac, DEC) ;

// Print the fractional part of the variable

lcd.print(" L/min");
// Print the number of litres flowed in this second
// Print the cumulative total of litres flowed since starting
lcd.setCursor(0,1);

lcd.print("V: ");

// Output separator

lcd.print(totalLitres);
lcd.print(" L");
lcd.setCursor (10,1);

// Code for Calculation of Temperature and displaying it.

// For loop is run to get multiple readings from both thermocouple and
//ambient temperature sensor, and then averaged out.
Serial.print("Temp: ");
Serial.println(thermocouple.readCelsius());
lcd.print (" T: ");
lcd.print(thermocouple.readCelsius());

delay(1000);

[/code]

Experimental validation (temperature and flowmeter)

Experimental validation was carried out to test the working of

equipment, accuracy and reliability of results. Experimental set-up as
shown in the picture was used to validate the flow meter.
Similarly, thermocouple readings were noted at ice point and steam
point of water with reference to a glass thermometer.

Analysis of results
Previously, the superheated/condensed steam, at very high temperatures
was dumped into a cold storage tank. This wasted significant thermal energy
and rocketed the fuel costs. The primary recommendation to improve the
efficiency of the unit was to reuse the water returning from the factory and
reroute it to the boiler instead of the cold storage tank. This would mean that
the boiler will have to heat preheated water at temperatures greater than 80
C to the required temperature of 200C, resulting in significant cost savings.
The proposed regeneration system will make use of waste process heat to
preheat water without making use of any external energy sources.
The pump that fed water to the boiler would malfunction at temperatures
greater than 50C. Thus, only water from the underground tank was used.
However, with the proposed system, this pump will also be replaced with one
that can work at temperatures close to 100C.
Solar pre-heating was also given a due consideration in the proposed
solution. To replenish the lost water from the system, the cold water storage
tank (secondary tank) will be used. Since, this water will be at rtp, it was
proposed that a solar preheating system be used to raise the temperature of
the water to required level. However, upon analyses, it was determined that

this system only provides 2.37% cost savings, which in the context of the
industrial fuel expense, is insignificant.
It must be noted that the analysis is semi-reliable due to lack of data. More
accurate analysis can be carried out once the data has been collected, as
mentioned in future recommendations.

Market survey and procurement

High-temperature pump meeting our pressure requirements was not easily available
in Pakistani market. Some available pumps surpassed the required specifications
but were not justified economically. Various other online options were explored
including Aliexpress website.
A pump was bought that has been installed in parallel with the existing pump to
allow minimum intrusion to existing system. Although manufacturers specifications
doesnt recommend for operation under required high temperatures(i-e around 90
C) but it has been experimentally observed to work fine and is yet to be tested
once the proposed system is put into practice.

Safety considerations

Safety was an important parameter considered when proposing the new design of
the system.

When water in the primary tank heats up to a temperature of 100 C, steam

formation starts which can damage the pump 1. Operator will monitor
temperature readings provided from instrumentation sensors to be installed
before the pump to ensure the pump remains safe for damage.
Overflow safety valve will ensure that primary tank doesnt overflow and
dump the surplus water into secondary tank. Overflow safety valve should be
pressure-operated to ensure that steam formation in primary tank doesnt
increase thresholds pressure levels. In case, the safety valve malfunction, a
manual water level sensor will indicate state of volume in the tank.
Load shedding factor has been considered which hinders the process of data
acquisition of flowrate and total flow volume. It is recommended that
operator notes down readings periodically for a specified time (i-e a month)
for provision of sufficient data required for accurate analysis.
It is also recommended to increase the height of return flow piping system for
countering back pressure from the primary tank. Moreover, return pipe
connection with primary tank should be at the top of the tank to avoid
hydrostatic back-pressure.

Due to high mineral water clogging is expected to occur in solar collector

tubes. A heat exchanger can solve this problem compensated by decrease in
efficiency of the system. Heat exchanger will also make the system robust as
malfunctioning of solar heating system will not disturb the main heating
system.
The proposed system is highly dependent on use of water pump that works
fine in high temperatures. Although, the pump is costly, it is likely that the
profits will outweigh the cost.
Sealing glue can used to prevent moisture content from entering the
instrumentation box, which can damage the electronic components.

Conclusion
It can be concluded that the aims were not fully achieved since the existing system
needed improvements which were a prerequisite for installation of solar system.
Moreover, additional data was required for accurate analysis. The project goals were
pivoted to solve the existing, more important problems for example the inefficient
heating cycle, low-temperature pump and insufficient instrumentation. All of these
issues were highlighted and solutions were proposed despite being constrained by
the limitations of resources, data and time. Documentation of this project has been
primarily completed to facilitate future work on this project.

Recommendations and future work

o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Collection of data (temperature, flow rate and total flow) provided by

instrumentation done in the project.
Refinement of accuracy of analysis by using data collected from
instrumentation.
Recommendation of the optimum dimensions for primary and
secondary storage tanks after data acquisition.
Further instrumentation of autoclave and press for specific analysis of
these machines.
Automation of systems.
Use of higher number of solar collectors which can increase cost
savings.
Review of safety issues and suggestions for safer, robust and cheaper
equipment.
Search for prospects of using solar collectors for industrial heating for
other purposes.

o
o

Calculations of the positive impact solar system leaves on the

environment.
Experimental validation of using proposed system.