BOILER OPERATOR`S COURSE

Course objectives
• 1) To achieve low fuel costs
• 2) To achieve low maintenance costs
• 3) To achieve low downtime and factory/production loss
• 4) To reduce dangerous and expensive accidents
• 5) To achieve reduced air pollution
• 6) To achieve a well run boiler plant
• 7) To achieve worker satisfaction
• 8) To achieve low labour turnover
 A boiler
• Definition
• A boiler is a pressure vessel designed to generate steam at a
pressure above atmospheric
• Or
• A boiler is a closed vessel in which water, under pressure is
transformed into steam by the application of heat. In the furnace,
the chemical energy in the fuel is converted into heat, and it is the
function of the boiler to transfer this heat to the water in the most
efficient manner
 A boiler
• INPUTS OUTPUTS
1)feed water Steam
 
2)Fuel
 
3)Air
 
4)Chemicals Effluent Blowdown

 
• Refuse (Ash)
 Boiler types
• 1) Fire tube/shell boiler
• Is one of the of the most basic type of boiler.
• In the fire tube boiler, the fuel is burnt inside a furnace.
• The hot gasses produced in the furnace then pass through the fire tubes
• The fire tubes are immersed in water inside the main vessel of the boiler
• As the hot gasses are passed through these tubes, the heat energy of the
water surrounds them
• As a result steam is generated in the water.
Fire tube boiler
 2) Water tube boiler

• Is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated

externally by the fire
• Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils
water in the steam generating tubes
Water tube boiler
 3) Electric boiler

• Use electricity to operate the heating element

• Electric boilers are energy efficient, no separate flue or
chimney is required meaning that heat is not lost and they do
not require the burning of fossil fuels to provide heat
• Electric boilers are intended to produce steam for process
industry or other uses such as drying, heat treating and for
central heating in homes
Electric boiler
 Electrode boiler
• An electrode boiler -is a type of boiler that uses electricity
flowing through streams of water to create steam
Electrode boiler
 Components of the boiler
• On the boiler
• Tube plates- these are flat plates on both sides of the boiler which
hold the tubes
• Flue- is the inner part of the boiler in which combustion takes place
• Stay bars- these are solid bars which hold the tube plates together
they are welded on the boiler to hold the boiler together
• Stay tubes- these are thick boiler tubes welded to each or to both
sides of the tube plates
• Plain tubes- these are tubes expanded on both sides of the
tube plates they are used to transfer heat
• Smoke boxes- these are blank spaces on both sides of the
boiler from which the flue gases are diverted into the tubes
• Tell tale holes- these are holes drilled on the stay bars which
act as a signal for the corrosion of the boiler internals
• Bowling hoopes- these are corrugations in the flue which are
insterted to help the flue contract and expand
• Man hole- is the access used to enter the waterside of the
boiler
• Mud hole or hand hole- these are inspection facilities of the
boiler internals
 Boiler mountings

• Safety valves –these are valves which are fitted on the boiler to prevent it
from operating above authorized pressure
• Air release valves- are used to expell air from the boiler on start up and to
break vacuum formation on cooling
• Feedcheck valve- is used to feed the boiler with water
• Blowdown valve- is used to empty or reduce water level in the boiler or to
stimulate circulation during start up
• Sampling valve- is used to draw water from the boiler for analysis purpose
• Sootblower valve- is used as an online cleaning device
• Gauge glasses- is used to observe physically the level of water in the boiler
• Gauge glass corks/ valves- these are valves used to isolate or drain water
from the gauge glasses
• Pressure gauge- is used to indicate the pressure in the boiler when in
operation
• Pressure gauge isolating valve- is used to isolate the pressure gauge from
the boiler, for example when the pressure gauge is faulty the isolating
valve isolates the pressure gauge and then replace the pressure gauge
 Feed water

• Water softeners- are plants used to treat boiler feed water or

remove hardness from water
• Hotwell/ feedtank- is a reservoir used to supply water to the
boiler
• Dearator- is used as a reservoir and also to remove dissolved
oxygen in boiler feed water
• Boiler feed pumps- are used to supply the boiler with
feedwater
• Dual/ two switch mobrey (big one)- is used to:
• A) to control the feed pumps
• B) to warn of low water in the boiler
• Single switch mobrey (small one)- is used to:
• A) Shutdown the boiler when the water level has reached the
lowest legal water level (LLWL) and to activate the siren which
indicates the boiler has been shutdown
 Fuel handling system

• Coal bunker- is a storage facility for fuel

• Coal screw feeder- is used to feed coal on to the boiler coal hoper
• Coal hoper- is used to feed coal on to the stoker
• Stoker- is used to feed coal into the boiler for combustion purposes
• Ignition arch- is used to ignite coal as it enters the boiler through the
stoker
• Guillotine door-is used to regulate the level of coal fed into the boiler
• Front peephole- is an opening used to observe the ignition line of coal
as it enters in the boiler, it is also used to observe the flame angle
• Rear peephole- is used to observe the combustion of fuel in
the boiler
• Rear access door- is used to remove ash and gain access to the
boiler from the rear into the combustion chamber
• Ashpot- is used to remove ash from the boiler
• FD (Forced Draught Fan)- is used to supply air for combustion
• ID (Induced Draught Fan)- is used to draw flue gas from the
boiler and discharge it to the chimney
• Cyclone- is used to trap or remove dust particles from the flue
gas as it passes to the chimney
• Chimney- used to expel flue gas from the boiler to the
atmosphere
• Control panel- is used to house controls and instruments for
the boiler and ancillary equipment
 Water
Feed water analysis
• Water is the most abundant liquid on Earth
• It exists naturally in three states
• Solid (i.e) ice
• Liquid (i.e) water
• Gas (i.e) vapour
 Impurities
• Water is a universal solvent that is it dissolves almost all known
substances
• As a result it never occurs pure in nature
• Impurities in water are found as either suspended or dissolved
matter
• Dissolved matter will include both salts and gasses
 Effects of impurities on boilers
• If impure water is used in boilers the following can occur:
• Deposition of hard scale which will reduce heat transfer
• Accumulation of sludge which will later deposit as scale
• Corrosion of boiler metal by oxygen and or other substances
• Production of poor quality steam because of foaming and
carryover
 Purpose of treatment
• To make the water more suitable for use in the boilers by:
• Removing or conditioning all scale forming salts
• Removing or conditioning all sludge forming substances
• Removing or reducing oxygen which can cause corrosion
• Neutralizing acidic substances if present
• Making the steam produced suitable for use as process steam
 Scale forming minerals\salts
• The scale forming minerals found in natural waters are:
• Calcium sulphate (CaSo4)
• Calcium silicate (CaSo3)
• Magnesium silicate (MgSio3)
• Magnesium hydrate (MgO2H2)
• Magnesium carbonate (MgCO3)
• Ferric oxide (fe2o3)
 Methods of water treatment
• There are two methods of water treatment which include:
• External treatment
• Internal treatment
 Methods of treatment
• External treatment
• This involves conditioning of water outside the boiler by the
use of chemicals.
• External treatment involves a process called water softening
• Softening i.e the replacement of scale forming salts by non-
scale forming salts
• This can be done by chemical means or by the use of ion-
exchange resins
• Water softening has 2 modes of operation
• i. Service- ie holding impurities eg Magnesiums and irons
• ii. Regeneration- is the process of using a chemical solution,
known as a regenerant to replace the unwanted ions that have
been added onto an ion exchange resin during water treatment.
The unwanted ions are flushed and replaced with new ions in
order to refresh the capacity of the exchange medium for reuse
•
 Regeneration
• Regeneration occurs according to a:
• Timer by clock
• Volume- in litres or tonnes of water
• Purity- how clean is the feedwater
 Regeneration stages
• i) Backwash- cleaning of sludge and trapped materials, it takes
5 to 10 mins and then
• ii) Brine inject- to recharge the resin beads it takes 30 to 45
mins then
• ii) Slow and fast rinse- rinsing the unused sodium chloride
leaving the resin beads charged, it takes 5 to 10 mins
• Another method of treating water externally is by introducing steam
to the feedtank
• Steam is introduced into the feed tank for basically two reasons:
• i) To expel dissolved gasses, especially oxygen from boiler feed water
• ii) To pre-heat the feed water so as to prevent thermal stress to the
boiler when in operation
• The maximum temperature of the feed water is normally between
90-93°c depending on the size of your pumps. If using a deaerator
the temperature can reach up to 100°c
• When using a hot well tank the water should not boil (ie reach
100°c) as this will cause feed pumps to fail or to carvitate
• Again If the water temperature is too low it has the following
effects:
• i) it allows dissolved oxygen to pass to the boiler thereby
increasing the chances of corrosion or the dosing of high volumes
of oxygen scavenger
• ii) causing thermal stress to the running boiler and times causing
steam pressure to drop
 Methods of treatment
• Internal treatment
• This involves the conditioning of water inside the boiler by the
use of chemicals these chemicals:
• React with incoming hardness salts to prevent them from
forming hard scale
• The chemicals are dosed directly into the boiler
 Internal treatment
• The chemicals used in internal treatment include:
• i) An Anti Scalant
• ii) An Oxygen Scavenger
• iii) An Anti Acid
 Internal treatment
• An anti scalant
• Is used to react with scale forming salts e.g calcium,
magnesium and silica to prevent scale building up on the
heating surfaces, boiler tubes and boiler internals
• An oxygen scavenger
• Is used to react with oxygen to prevent corrosion of boiler
tubes and boiler internal heating surfaces
• An anti acid
• Is used to keep or prevent the boiler water from becoming acidic.
(Acidic water will corrode or react with boiler tubes and heating
surfaces or waste away boiler internal surfaces).
• Safety precautions taken when handling chemicals like sulphuric
acid and caustic soda include:
• Wear correct PPE ie leather gloves, rubber gloves, safety gloves,
safety goggles, face shield, apron and safety shoes and at times a
musk
• To test the acidity of boiler water a pH scale is used :
Ph Meter
• Under normal conditions boiler feed water should be
maintained at a pH of between 9.5 to 11.5 on the pH scale
• If the caustic level is low on boiler water, the pH may go below
7 which may result in boiler water becoming acidic, thereby
attacking boiler tubes and boiler internals
 Chemical dosing
• There are two methods of chemical dosing that is:
• Manual dosing- the chemicals are dosed directly into the boiler
by hand.
• Pump dosing- the chemicals are dosed by a pump that
introduces chemicals into the system each time fresh water is
fed to the boiler.
• If the dosing pump fails the chemicals are administered or
dosed into the feed tank or hotwell tank manually
• Chemicals are dosed everytime the dosing tanks runs low
(when using dosing pumps) or
• Every shift (as instructed by the laboratory or chemist).
 Boiler Blowdowns
• Definition
• Blowdown is the removal of water from boiler
• Its purpose is to control boiler water parameters within prescribed
limits to minimize scale, corrosion, carryover and other specific
problems
• Blowdown is also used to remove suspended solids present in the
system
• These solids are caused by feedwater contamination by internal
treatment
 Blowdown uses
• To control TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) between 2500-3500ppm
• To drain the boiler when level is too high
• To empty the boiler
• To stimulate heat transfer during startup
 Boiler blowdowns
importance of blowdowns
• Reason
• Blowdowns are very important aspect of boiler operation
• They are meant to compliment the work of chemicals used in
the treatment of boiler water
• They are in most cases the only way of removing precipitated
sludge from the boiler
• They also remove “spent” chemicals from the boiler especially
when sulphates are used as oxygen scavengers
 blowdowns
• They are used to control TDS within limits
• Check the TDS of your boiler water on a daily basis
• Notes
• Too much blowdowns waste fuel, water and chemicals
• Too little blowdowns will result in the excessive build up of TDS
and the accumulation of chemicals dosed into the boiler
 blowdowns
• Boiler manufactures will lay down correct blowdown procedures
• These must be followed all the time taking into account that this
is a tool to help in the provision of a good chemical programme
• Short intermittent blowdowns are preferable to a few long
blowdowns because:
• They do not deplete the boiler of used chemicals
• They do not subject the boiler to thermal shock