Tuning a combustion control system: Advanced and unconventional methods

Finishing up our series on combustion control systems, this blog post offers advanced and unconventional methods for tuning a combustion control systems.

By Chris Hardy, Cross Company February 10, 2015

Normalizing fuel with steam flow

Back in "How Do Burner Combustion Control Systems Work?" I wrote, "So we convert fuel flow to percent by multiplying it by a constant." That is the best way to normalize fuel flow when the fuel is consistent and the mass flow is properly measured. For #2 diesel oil, natural gas, or propane, just use a constant.

However, for fuels with inconsistent heat values, or where you can only measure volumetric flow and the density varies significantly, you may get a significantly different heat rate for the same fuel flow rate. This is problematic because the amount of air needed is based on heat rate, not flow rate.

One elegant way of overcoming this problem is by normalizing the fuel flow percent with steam flow percent: Divide steam flow percent by fuel mass flow and run that ratio through a very long filter (>20 minutes). Ideally, the filter should only update when both steam and fuel flows are significantly above zero. 

Cross-limiting with a deadband

With the standard cross-limiting scheme (for reference, read How Do CCSs Work?), O2 will be higher than the trim SP after a significant load change in either direction; this is more desirable than low O2. Also, flow PVs (especially air) typically jump around, and this causes the SPs to jump around. The fuel flow is frequently bumped down under the boiler master due to measurement noise rather than an actual air deficit.

To avoid that problem, while retaining the safety benefit of cross-limiting, I prefer the modified cross-limiting scheme in this diagram: The airflow SP is the greater of the boiler master and the fuel flow PV percent minus 1%, and the fuel flow SP is the lesser of the boiler master and the airflow PV percent plus 1%. That 1% "deadband" allows the fuel to briefly run up to 1% ahead of the air, which is not nearly enough to cause an explosive situation. As the airflow PV bounces around ±1% of SP, the fuel flow will remain steady. A small signal filter on airflow is also helpful.

Setting the FAR PWC on the fly

The conventional way to set the FAR curve (for reference read How to Tune CCSs) is to run the system from minimum to maximum with air and fuel flows in manual. If the system has been tuned before, there are advantages to leaving those loops in auto with the O2 trim centered in manual and the boiler master in manual. You can hit precise intervals quickly and easily since the fuel flow PID will do the valve adjusting for you, and the airflow PID loop can make fine air adjustments. The downside is that this can introduce oscillations into the system which would not exist in full manual.

With this method, each time you move to an interval, you set the Y for the PWC to that interval’s fuel flow percent, and the X for the required airflow in mass flow units. If the O2 settles below the target, you increase the X so that the airflow loop adds more air. When the O2 is settled near the target, you move on the next increment.

When the PWC adjustment is complete at maximum load, run it back down to minimum and complete the FAR tuning as the conventional section describes.

Raise and lower inhibits

Raise-inhibits stop the boiler from increasing load when doing so will likely result in a trip. This may result in a small steam pressure slump, but that is preferable to the sudden, large slump that follows a trip at high load.

A raise-inhibit is the inhibition of a PID or A/M/Bias block from raising its output when a discrete external condition exists. For example, you should raise-inhibit the boiler master when the BFW valve is open more than 95%. Unlike alarms, these conditions do not need delays. They do not cause a drastic action, just prevent load from increasing further.

Suggested raise inhibits:

  • Inhibit the boiler master if:
    • The BFW valve is >95%
    • The airflow PID SP has reached its maximum limit
    • The airflow PID output has reached its maximum limit
    • The fuel flow PID SP has reached its maximum limit, or
    • The fuel flow PID output has reached its maximum limit.
    • Any other limits such as windbox pressure, furnace pressure, temperatures, etc.
  • Inhibit the plant master if all of the boiler masters in auto are either inhibited or at maximum.
  • Inhibit the three-element drum master level PID loop output if the slave flow loop output is at max.

You should lower-inhibit the O2-trim PID loop any time the air is at its minimum (either SP or output). 

Don’t take unsafe shortcuts

Oil and gas burner CCSs use the same blocks as any other process control configuration, but arrange them in some unusual ways so that the boiler master, fuel flow, and airflow all match as percentages, which makes cross-limiting easier.

O2 at the furnace exit is a critical measurement-it is used to maintain a proper FAR under different conditions.

Make sure you have everything ready to tune a CCS before starting. Then, run the burner from minimum to maximum in manual and capture the data. Use that data set, the FAR PWC curve, and the output device curves. Once those curves are set, run the burner back down to minimum with everything but the boiler master in auto to check the curves. That is also a good time to adjust PID loop tuning.

Add a deadband to the cross-limiting logic to help stabilize fuel flow and boiler load. Burners using inconsistent fuel may benefit from automatically normalizing fuel and steam flow percent. Rise-inhibit loops when limits have been reached to avoid unnecessary trips.