On line dirt based soot blowing system using fuzzy logic for utility boilers

Abstract

Soot is a byproduct of burning coal in thermal power plants. The soot accumulates in the boilers tubes. It gradually spoils the heating surface which reduces the heating efficiency. Hence it has to be cleaned. This process is called soot blowing. The existing soot blower control system in the old boiler is composed of relays, timers and contactors which are not efficient. In order to improve the efficiency, an intelligent system is proposed which estimates the dirt in the boiler tube periodically and initiates soot blowing process to improve the thermal efficiency. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme when compared to relay logics.