There are so many options to weigh when looking for high efficiency boilers: hot water or steam, wetback or dryback, type of fuel, and more. However, there are a few key considerations to make when evaluating a new boiler for efficiency that will help you no matter what your other considerations may be. Look for a fan that can deliver a stable air supply, a burner and boiler unit that can produce low emissions, a design that maximizes flue gas velocity, smart pressure vessel design, and an efficient heating power to boiler surface ratio are just a few considerations to keep in mind. These simple but powerful design elements are hallmarks of solid construction and will add up to significant performance enhancements. Our team members are always available for consultation and can make specific recommendations when it comes to models once we know more about your needs.
Industrial boilers are welded from sturdy steel plates that are engineered to withstand intense heat and pressure - as a result of this thick steel, boilers can sometimes weigh as much as 165 tons! The construction of hot water boilers and steam boilers is very similar. They both feature a cylinder tube, otherwise known as the pressure vessel. The pressure vessel contains something called a flame tube, which is fired through a burner and a reversing chamber that feeds flue gases back through a second smoke tube. These flue gases are reversed again via an external reversing chamber. This reversing chamber sends the flue gases to the end of the boiler, in the third smoke tube pass. A major difference between hot water industrial boilers and the steam versions? Hot water boilers, as their name implies, are usually completely filled with hot water during their operation, while steam boilers are filled with water only until the ¾ mark, with the top fourth of the boiler reserved for steam.
All boilers, whether hot water or steam, depend on fuel to run. The heating process is initiated when the burner heats or evaporates the water inside it, which is ultimately transported via pipe systems. Hot water boilers rely on pumps to move the heat through the system, while steam boilers are transported with the pressure generated in the heating process. Eventually, cooled water or condensed steam is returned back through the pipes to the boiler system so that it can be heated once again. While the boiler is generating energy in the form of heat, flue gases, a byproduct of this process, are removed through a chimney system - which is why regulating the emissions of industrial boilers is taken very seriously.
There are a number of considerations to factor when determining the best boiler for your steam generation needs like operating pressure, steam pounds/hour output, demand fluctuation, general application requirments and total cost of ownership, etc.
Two primary boiler types, the firetube boiler and the watertube boiler, are essentially opposite in design. The firetube boiler passes combustion gas inside a series of tubes surrounded by water in a vessel to produce steam, while a watertube instead sends water through a series of tubes surrounded by combustion gas used to transfer heat energy and produce steam.
Today's businesses, regardless of industry, can always do more to improve their sustainability and limit the negative impact their actions have on the environment. There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the best is to use a boiler that's designed to limit the emissions of NOx — one of the most harmful greenhouse gases humans emit into the atmosphere. Aside from being good for the environment, a low NOx boiler can also be good for business.
A fire tube steam boiler is a boiler where the combustion gases from the burner are channeled through tubes that are surrounded by the fluid to be heated. The boiler body is the pressure vessel and contains the fluid. In most cases, this fluid is water that will circulate for heating purposes or become steam for use in processing.
Each set of tubes through which the combustion gas passes, before making a turn, is considered a "step". Consequently, a three-step boiler will have three sets of pipes with the outlet located at the rear of the boiler.
In a water tube steam boiler, unlike a fire tube, water circulates inside the tubes. The heat that is generated and the combustion gases that surround the tubes heat the water that circulates inside them. Many water-tube boilers operate according to the principle of natural water circulation.
The capacity of this type of boiler can be enhanced by increasing the number of tubes in the boiler.
A thermal fluid system is a closed loop using mineral or synthetic oil as the heat transfer fluid. These systems operate at elevated temperatures while maintaining low system pressures. Fluid is circulated within the heater tubes and flue gases heat the fluid.
