BOILER OPERATORS

HANDBOOK

prepared by
National Industrial Fuel Efficiency Service Ltd.

Graham & Trotman

First published in 1959 as
the New Stoker's Manual
and in 1969 as The Boiler Operators
Handbook

This revised edition published in 1981 by

Graham and Trotman Limited
Sterling House
66 Wilton Road
London SW1V 1DE

Reprinted 1985

© National Industrial Fuel Efficiency Service

Ltd, 1981, 1985

ISBN-13: 978-0-86010-251-9 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-9134-3

DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-9134-3

This publication is protected by international

copyright law. All rights reserved. No part ofthis
publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission ofthe publishers.

Biddies Ltd, Guildford, Surrey

Typeset in Great Britain by

Input Typesetting Limited, London
 CONTENTS

List of Figures v

Foreword vii

Chapter 1 Fuels in Common Use

Coal. Calorific value. Sizes. Ash. Moisture. Sulphur.
Coke. Liquid fuels. Gaseous fuels

Chapter 2 Combustion 9
Combustion in practice. Air supply in practice.
Combustion of coal on a grate. Burning oil, gas
and pulverised fuel. Flames. Flame type.

Chapter 3 Water and Steam 18

Steam raising. Definition of terms. Water. Priming
(causes and treatment).

Chapter 4 Boiler Efficiency and Beat Transfer 29

Boiler thermal efficiency. Gross or higher calorific
value. Heat losses. Heat lost in flue gases. Effect of
raising flue gas temperature. Air supply. Flue gas
temperature. Dirty heat transfer surfaces. Boiler
load. Carbon in ash. Heat lost in dust and fly ash.
Radiation and other losses. General fuel efficiency
within the boiler house. Operating efficiency. Heat
transfer. Boiler heat recovery plant. Feedwater
economisers. Superheaters. Air heaters. Cleaning
heat transfer surfaces.

Chapter 5 Boiler Types 48

Vertical boiler. Horizontal boiler. Packaged
boilers. Locomotive boiler. Thermal storage
boiler. Water-tube boiler. Forced circulation
boiler. Steam generators. Sectional boilers for
central heating. Automatic or magazine boiler.
Chapter 6 Principles of Solid Fuel Firing 60
Hand firing. Fuelbed thickness. Methods of firing.
Firing tools. Grate or firebars. Reducing the grate
area. Recovering unburned fuel. Clinker
prevention. Cleaning fires. Banking.
Chapter 7 Mec:Iumic:a1 Firing 69
Types of mechanical stoker. Sprinkler. Coking.
Chaingrate. Automatic controls. Underfeed.
Maintenance of mechanical stokers. Vekos
automatic auxiliary furnace.
Chapter 8 Pulverised Fuel 83
Drying the fuel. Conveyors and storage.
Pulverised fuel burners. Ash handling.
Chapter 9 Liqaid. Fuels 88
Delivery, han~g and storage. Fuel oil systems.
Oil heaters and filters. Liquid fuel burners. Burner
maintenance. Care of burners when shutting
down. Carbon deposit.
Chapter 10 Gaseous fuels 98
Natural gas. Liquid petroleum gases. Combustion
characteristics. Types of burner for use with
natural gas. General.
Chapter 11 Central Beating: What the Caretaker Should 105
Know
Plant operation. Draught control. Repairs. Air inlet
to boiler room. Tools. Fuel. Operating Procedure.
Chapter 12 Automatic: Control and lDstruments 115
Automatic control. Safety function. Functional
control. Anticipatory/sequential control. General.
Instruments.
Chapter 13 Safety 127
Statutory safety equipment for boiler plant. Boiler
safety. Notes on safety valves arising from
insurance co. requirements for steam boilers.
Water gauges. Gauge glass drill. Automatically
controlled steam and hot water boilers. Blowing
down of water level controls. Other safety aspects.
General safety points. Conclusion.
Chapter 14 The Clean Air Act 140
Smoke. Smoke control areas. Grit emission and
dispersion of combustion products. Chimney
height. Acid smut formation. Grit arrestor.
 LIST OF FIGURES

1. Percentage of carbon dioxide in flue gas by volume 10

2. The combustion of coal 11
3. Coal burning on a grate 14
4. Properties of steam 19
5. Vertical smoke tube boiler 47
6. Lancashire boiler 49
7. Two-pass dryback economic boiler 50
8. Packaged boiler 51
9. Locomotive boiler 52
10. Thermal storage boiler 52
11. Three drum water tube boiler 54
12. Forced circulation boiler 55
13. Steam generator. From proceedings of 1977
conference 'Steam at Work' by courtesy of
Institute of Mech. Engineers 56
14. Cast iron sectional hot water boiler 57
15. Automatic hot water boiler 58
16. Rotary type sprinkler stoker 70
17. Ram type coking stoker 72
18. Chain grate stoker 74
19. Hopper model underfeed stoker. By courtesy of
NCB/College of Fuel Tech. (London) 77
20. Vekos. By courtesy of NCB/College of Fuel Tech. (London) 81
21. Pulverised fuel system 85
22. Parallel flow pulverised fuel burner 86
23. Ring main system 90
24. Pressure jet burner 91
25. Low pressure air burner 93
26. Sectional view of motor-driven rotary cup burner 94
27. Atmospheric injector burner 100
28. Dual gasloil burner 101
29. Automatic gas burner 104
30. Hypothetical control for large burner with pilot 118
31. Orsat gas analyser 123
v
32. Fyrite gas analyser 124
33. Fusible plug 129
34. Ringelmann chart 142
35. Simple grit arrestor 149
36. Multicell grit arrestor 150
37. General scheme of electrostatic precipitator 151

vi
 FOREWORD

The popularity of the Boiler Operators Han~ook has prompted

the issue of a revised edition.
Other than a relatively small number of developments, essen-
tially associated with solid fuel firing methods using the fluidised
bed technique, no radical changes have occurred since the first
edition of the Handbook was issued in 1969. In revising a work
of this kind there is a great temptation to omit practices that are
now less common in the UK. In view of the enormous pressure
on Global energy resources, however, the chapters dealing in
methods of hand-firing have been retained in the hope that they
may be of value to those in the less developed nations where
energy problems are infinitely greater than ours.
High combustion intensity boilers, commonly known as Package
Boilers, of the Shell Construction design, have now much greater
steam output than their predecessors and the need for high
levels of maintenance and operating skills remain as essential
as when this group of boilers first appeared on the market. Also
the standard of water treatment required is probably higher
than the Operator has been accustomed to.
The Health and Safety at Work Act re-emphasised the continued
need for adherence to the principles that ensure a pressure
vessel be maintained in a safe condition at all times. Accordingly
the revised edition of the Boiler Operators Handbook has en-
larged its sections on Safety and the Clean Air Act.
The Boiler Operators Handbook, like its predecessor the New
Stoker's Manual, is intended to help the boiler operator carry
out his important work with skill and efficiency. It is not a
textbook, nor does it go into great detail. Within its compass
however, it contains sufficient information to encourage the
vii
operator to study the subject more extensively and obtain a
recognised qualification.
Any of the NIFES offices are prepared to discuss the availability
of courses to enable the operator to further enhance his know-
ledge and skills.
Both the Imperial units and their SI equivalents have been in-
cluded in this new issue.
Much inefficiency and many accidents are the result of ignor-
ance and it is to be hoped that this new issue will help the
operator and/or nominated attendant to understand the princi-
ples involved and enhance his interest in the plant under his
care.

viii