1. Heat exchangers

1.1 Role of interchanges

From a schematic point of view, a fossil-fuel boiler can be reduced to :

• a furnace to convert the potential energy contained in the fuel (calorific value) into hot gases and radiation;

• heat exchangers used mainly to transfer the energy contained in these gases to a fluid that can be used in a thermodynamic power generation cycle, which in the context of this study is water in liquid or vapor form, currently used in almost all power generation cycles.

If we follow the path of this fluid along the boiler (figure