How To Calculate Steam Boiler Cost?
- Date: 2025-09-30
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These nine cost parts all take up different proportion of total steam cost. Calculating the cost of generating steam is relatively easy. The total variable cost of raising steam,CG, is the sum of all ......
In industrial factory production, steam cost accounting is a very basic but important work. If the plant has only one steam generator (boiler), uses a single fuel, and has a single steam pressure level, it is relatively easy to assign a cost to the steam.
Calculating the Cost of Steam Generation
We need to consider all running consumption items when calculate steam production cost. The first step, which has several components, is to calculate the cost of generating steam from the boiler(s):
1. Fuel (CF)
2. Raw water supply (CW)
3. Boiler feed water treatment—including clarification, softening, demineralization (CBFW)
4. Feedwater pumping power (CP)
5. Combustion air fan (FD or ID) power (CA)
6. Sewer charges for boiler blowdown (CB)
7. Ash disposal (CD)
8. Environmental emissions control (CE)
9. Maintenance materials and labor (CM)
These nine cost parts all take up different proportion of total steam cost. Calculating the cost of generating steam is relatively easy. The total variable cost of raising steam,CG, is the sum of all these individual contributions, expressed as dollars per thousand pounds ($/Klb) of steam generated.
Overall boiler efficiency is based on combustion air supply at ambient temperature, and boiler Feed water makeup temperature to the deaerator. It is assumed that boiler feed water preheat from ambient to condensate temperature (usually about 200°F) will be done by heat exchange against a process stream, outside the boiler island battery limits, with only some "top-up" heat recovery against hot boiler blow down. Most site engineers ignore this preheat rule in daily operation. The use of steam to preheat boiler feed water was common when energy was cheap, but using surplus process heat instead (from below the "process pinch" temperature) represents a significant opportunity for improved cycle efficiency. Overall boiler efficiency becomes primarily a function of the final flue gas temperature, and will typically be in the range of 80 to 85% when the excess air ratios are near optimal.
The second step is to calculate the cost of steam at lower pressure levels. This is not easy, as the cost depends upon the path that the steam follows from the point of generation to the point of use. Different steam delivery path will cause different cost loss. Low-pressure steam that is produced through a pressure letdown station, usually a pressure-reducing valve (PRV), has substantially the same enthalpy as the higher-pressure steam from which it was made.
Therefore, steam boiler equipment will be superheated, and the normal practice is to desuperheat it using condensate. The low-pressure steam cost is then calculated from the high-pressure steam cost.This two-step calculation method is suitable for most conventional boiler systems, it can help factory get accurate steam cost data.
Calculating the Cost of Steam Generation
We need to consider all running consumption items when calculate steam production cost. The first step, which has several components, is to calculate the cost of generating steam from the boiler(s):
1. Fuel (CF)
2. Raw water supply (CW)
3. Boiler feed water treatment—including clarification, softening, demineralization (CBFW)
4. Feedwater pumping power (CP)
5. Combustion air fan (FD or ID) power (CA)
6. Sewer charges for boiler blowdown (CB)
7. Ash disposal (CD)
8. Environmental emissions control (CE)
9. Maintenance materials and labor (CM)
These nine cost parts all take up different proportion of total steam cost. Calculating the cost of generating steam is relatively easy. The total variable cost of raising steam,CG, is the sum of all these individual contributions, expressed as dollars per thousand pounds ($/Klb) of steam generated.
Overall boiler efficiency is based on combustion air supply at ambient temperature, and boiler Feed water makeup temperature to the deaerator. It is assumed that boiler feed water preheat from ambient to condensate temperature (usually about 200°F) will be done by heat exchange against a process stream, outside the boiler island battery limits, with only some "top-up" heat recovery against hot boiler blow down. Most site engineers ignore this preheat rule in daily operation. The use of steam to preheat boiler feed water was common when energy was cheap, but using surplus process heat instead (from below the "process pinch" temperature) represents a significant opportunity for improved cycle efficiency. Overall boiler efficiency becomes primarily a function of the final flue gas temperature, and will typically be in the range of 80 to 85% when the excess air ratios are near optimal.
The second step is to calculate the cost of steam at lower pressure levels. This is not easy, as the cost depends upon the path that the steam follows from the point of generation to the point of use. Different steam delivery path will cause different cost loss. Low-pressure steam that is produced through a pressure letdown station, usually a pressure-reducing valve (PRV), has substantially the same enthalpy as the higher-pressure steam from which it was made.
Therefore, steam boiler equipment will be superheated, and the normal practice is to desuperheat it using condensate. The low-pressure steam cost is then calculated from the high-pressure steam cost.This two-step calculation method is suitable for most conventional boiler systems, it can help factory get accurate steam cost data.
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