Establishing a boiler water treatment plan will provide you with real-time feedback of your boiler system so you can get ahead of any issues that might occur as a result of poor water quality. We broke down the boiler water treatment process into three simple steps that you can incorporate into your preventative maintenance practices.
Water quality is of the utmost importance in proper and safe boiler operations. An improperly treated feedwater system can result in the scaling of the boiler internals, safety equipment and auxiliary piping.
A condensing boiler can condense the water vapour in the flue gases and withstand the corrosive and acidic qualities of the flue gas condensate. Although most boilers can condense the flue gasses, only boilers that have heat exchangers constructed from materials able to withstand the corrosion should be used in condensing application. Condensing boilers with primary and secondary heat exchanger do not work well as they are not able to fully condense and defeat the purpose of using a condensing boiler. Also, boilers with this arrangement are prone to condensation in the primary heat exchanger at lower firing rate which can cause damage to the heat exchanger.
In addition to water, other fluids can transport heat in industrial boilers, and thermal fluids usually replace water when higher temperatures are needed.
As their name implies, hot water boilers operate by being completely filled with hot water. On the other hand, steam boilers are usually only filled approximately 3/4th of the way full, while the top quarter is reserved for steam.
Whether it's an industrial hot water boiler or an industrial steam boiler, they all depend on fuel to run. The process of heating is initiated as the burner heats or eventually evaporates the water inside of it. It's actually transported via intricate pipe systems.
Steam boilers transport through the pressure created by the process, while hot water boilers use pumps to move heat throughout the system. Eventually the condensed steam or cooled water returns back through the pipes to the boiler system, so the heating process can be initiated again.
As the boiler creates heat energy, a byproduct of the process — flue gases — are exited through a chimney system. Because of this, regulating the industrial boiler emissions is a very serious issue.
The packaged boiler is so called because it comes as a complete package with burner, level controls, feedpump and all necessary boiler fittings and mountings. Once delivered to site it requires only the steam, water, and blowdown pipework, fuel supply and electrical connections to be made for it to become operational.
Shell boilers may be defined as those boilers in which the heat transfer surfaces are all contained within a steel shell. Shell boilers may also be referred to as "fire tube" or "smoke tube" boilers because the products of combustion pass through the boiler tubes, which in turn transfer heat to the surrounding boiler water.