Question: Emegency low water level in the boiler

I want to know what should be my immediate action in

case I saw no water in the boiler gauge glass.

Answer:
Stop the burners immediately.
Do not pump in any feedwater until you know that the
boiler is undamaged.
If some parts of the plates or tubes are glowing,
then increasing of the water level will cause an
enormous evaporation and hence a pressure rise that
the safety valves can't manage and an explosion
might be a fact.

Question: Cavitation in a two flow line

We have a steam generating facility using process
heat. The condenser is a vertical condenser with
process vapours on tube side and boiler feed water
on shell side. The outlet of the shell side is a two
phase flow. Pipe thickness reduction of the shell
side outlet pipe is observed for last couple of
years. We replace the piece of pipe every one year.
I want to know the probable reasons for this to
happen.

Answer:
I guess it might be a cavitation problem. Calculate
the flow rate. Decreasing the speed of the flow
might be a solution i.e., increase the pipe diameter

Question: Boiler drum level control goes haywire

We are having 100 tones FBC boilers. Frequent
problem observed is that whenever there is sudden
load change the boiler drum level control goes
haywire leading to tripping of boiler and turbine on
drum level low or high. Our drum level control is 3-
element control in auto mode.

Answer:
The most common fault with a three-point level
controller is the steam flow transmitter.
Loosen the impulse pipes and cleanse the holes into
the measuring orifice.

Question: Firing light crude oil

Can a Main Boiler built to fire 380 cst HFO, be
fired with light crude oil directly from the cargo-
tanks?

Answer:
A completely new fuel system is required, from deck
to the burner rails of the boiler. To prevent any
possibility of gasses leaking from flanges, there
have to be ducting enclosing the entire fuel-system
with forced draft fans that vent 30 times the volume
of the trunking to the outside. Also there have to
be a burner hood to be constructed all over the
burner roof, equally vented. Naturally there have to
be new burners and so is the burner management.
There are two main contractors who are capable and
willing to carry this out: HAMWORTHY-Combustion
Engineering in UK and SAACKE in Germany.

Question: Seawater in the boiler

If the boiler had to be operated with seawater what
would be the result.

Answer:
The salinity will rise rapidly since the salt
remains in the boiler while the water boils off.
Salt will soon precipitate and accumulate on the
bottom and also on the heating surface where it,
just as boiler-scales, inhibit the heat transmission
to the water and causes the metal to overheat and in
worst case burst. You may also get foam in the
boiler that will cause difficulties to maintain the
water level and water droplets might follow with the
steam, causing problems with turbines and engines.
It is very dangerous to operate a boiler with salt
in it, and you have to control the salt
concentration by frequently blowing off from the
bottom of the boiler and form the water surface to
keep the salinity below 9.5% (boilermakers and
classification societies may recommend other
values).
It would also be a good measure to reduce the
capacity of the boiler.
After this emergency operation it would be wise to
open up the boiler for inspection since seawater
further accumulation of scales.

In the old days some ships sailing on lakes used the

lakes water as make up water for their boilers, but
even that water caused problem with salt in the
boilers although it is supposed to be fresh-water.

Question: Heavy fuel oil viscosity

Heavy fuel oil viscosity is defined in the standards
as the viscosity at 100°C yet the oils are often
described in terms of their nominal 40 or 50°C
temperature viscosities. e.g. a G35 oil (35cst at
100°C) is often described as anything from a 350cst
to 390cst oil. Refineries blend to control the
viscosity at 100°C. Testing aboard ship or in boiler
hosues appears to test the viscosity at 50°C.
Because of the variation in quality of the residual
oil and distillate that make up a heavy fuel oil, it
is difficult to make a good correlation between the
50°C and 100°C measurements. My question is, how is
the blending of oil in the terminals or on fuel
barges controlled? and how reliable is this in
achieving the required viscosity?

Answer:
The values you get from my Fuel Oil Calculation
program are normally sufficient for firing a boilers
heavy fuel oil burner. For a diesel engine on the
other hand, I assume that an automatic viscosity-
controller would be indispensable.

Question: Heating up a fire-tube boiler

Is there a minimum temperature that a fire-tube
boiler should reach before going to a high fire
state to prevent tubes from leaking?

Answer:
The important thing is to heat up the boiler slowly
so all parts of the boiler expand just as much. The
leaks occur when some part expands more, or less,
than the rest of the boiler. You will be on the safe
side if you slowly heat up the boiler to, or almost
to, normal operation pressure before you start high
firing.

Question: Combustion air preheating

Please tell me how air inlet temperature affects
boiler efficiency. What are the benefits of air
preheating?

Answer:
The combustion air will be heated to the flame
temperature. This heating cost money. If you have
some waste heat to be used for preheating the
combustion air it will pay.

Question: Water in the heavy fuel oil

Is it possible to overheat heavy fuel oil thus
causing any water in it to turn to steam and cause
problems at the pump and burner?.

Answer:
Yes it is. The temperature of the heavy fuel oil is
very often 130°C to 150°C and water introduced to
that temperature would immediately evaporate into
steam. When boiling it expands about 1590 times. The
situation might be dangerous since the safety valves
not are designed for steam.
This kind of problem is very likely to occur when
you change fuel oil tank and some water from a
poorly drained pipe mixes with the heavy fuel oil.

Question: Oil showing in the water level gauge

glass
Whilst on your engine room rounds, you discover oil
showing in the water level gauge glass of an
auxiliary boiler. Describe the remedial actions you
would take, explaining why such actions must not be
delayed.

Answer:
Stop the burner immediately.
Oil present, even small quantities, in boiler water
will cause foaming and moisture carry-over. It also
forms a heat insulating film, sometimes a carbonized
layer, over tubes or shell surfaces. Even a very
thin layer may result in tube or plate material
failure due to overheating.
The oil manifests itself by forming an oily ring
inside the water gauge glasses, at the water level.

Question: Emergency low boiler water level

You are an officer on watch, & finds the boiler
water-level gauge glass to be empty & the burner
firing...What is your course of action? (Assuming
the gauge glass to be clear & good working order)

Answer:
Normally a boiler is provided with two independent
sensors for emergency low water level burner cut-
outs. So this would never happen. However, if it
does, don’t take any chances! Shut off the burners
immediately!
Before you start raising the level in the boiler you
have to find out if any part of the furnace walls
has been overheated. If you raise the level over a
glowing steel-wall then the boiler might produce
more steam than the safety valves can handle and a
nasty explosion would be the result.

A quick test to see if it is safe to put water into

the boiler is to temporarily close the steam cock on
the gauge glass. If the level rises to the top of
the glass, it means that there is still a water
level in the water leg, which is also over the
highest heat exchange surface in a firetube boiler.
The water rises because of the vacuum caused in the
glass with condensing steam.

Question: Differential pressure transmitters for

the steam drum level
Way is the high pressure leg of the transmitter
connected to the water side and the low-pressure leg
connected to the steam side?
Answer:
The signal from the transmitter ought to increase
when the water level raises and decreases when the
level falls. Furthermore the signal shall be zero,
and give impulse to stop the burner, in case of
transmitter malfunction, power failure or cable
breakdown.

Both requirements will be fulfilled if the

transmitter is mounted with the high pressure
measuring point connected below the lowest water
level and the low pressure measuring point connected
above the highest water level. The output will
increase when the level is raised. To compensate for
the water column in the reference leg the output
signal's zero-point has to be elevated.
This is the common method.

If the transmitter is swapped, with the low pressure

side to lower end and the high pressure side to
upper end, then the signal will decrease when the
level is raised.
This signal can be used to control the level as
well, but the signal can not be used to stop the
burner for emergency low level in case of power
failure or cable breakdown. This system requires an
extra sensor to trip burner at emergency low water
level.
One can of course use the emergency high water level
alarm to stop the burner, but this is not correct.
The emergency high water level shall stop the feed
water pump and whenever applicable stop the steam
turbine, but not the burner.

Question: Fluctuating boiler water level

The feed water control valve is fully open and the
water levels fluctuate at normal boiler load.

Answer:
Check if:

 the control valve really is fully open by means

of the hand-manoeuvre device.
 all stop valves in the line are fully open.
 the suction filter to the feed water pump is
satisfactory clean.
 the feed water pump discharge pressure is
sufficient.
 the feed water control valve pressure drop is
normal. (>=2 bar or >=30 psi)

If all these are fund to be in order, then you

should recalculate the control valves KV-value (CV-
value). Under-sized control valves do exist, even
though over-sized control valves more often cause
malfunction of automatic control loops.
The tuning of the controller(s) is dependent on the
system you have, but do not even try to tune the
control loops until the above criteria are
fulfilled.

Question: The burner starts and stops very often

The burner starts and stops very often, sometimes
every second minute. An alarming temperature-raise
has been observed in the combustion air fans
electric motor.

Answer:

 Increasing the burners turn down ratio would be

a nice solution, but it's not always possibly.
 Run the burner in minimum load, i.e., prevent
the burner from increasing the load just after
 the burner start.
 Install a five to ten minutes' time-delay in the
fan-motor stop function. Then the fan will
continue to run during the shortest burner stops
and the combustion air fan motor will get a
little rest from the start current.

Question: Most likely source of errors

In which part of a boiler control system is it most
likely to get a failure.

Answer:
When you have problem with a boiler control system
you should keep in mind that most faults occur
outside the control cubicle, but on the other hand,
your problem might not be among the most common.

Statistically calculated
faults in control systems.
Transmitters and 40
sensors %
25
Actuators
%
10
Controllers
%
Loss of electric power 5 %
20
Others
%

Question: Open steam valves slowly

Why has a steam valve, or at least a big steam
valve, to be opened slowly?

Answer:
If you have a one liter of water standing in the
pipe just after the valve and open the valve too
fast, then you will get a projectile of one kg
rushing down the pipe. At next valve, bend or other
obstacle the speed of the water mass will be
converted into pressure. You can hardly imagine the
damage this energy can cause.
Thermal stress is an other reason to be very
cautious and drain out water carefully when you open
a steam valve.
A large steam valve ought to have a small by-pass
valve to simplify preheating of the pipe.

Question: Low viscosity fuel for high viscosity

burners
Our boiler plant is designed to be fired with heavy
fuel oil of 590 cSt @ 50°C.
Would it be safe to run it on Gas Oil of 7 cSt @
40°C?

Answer:
Well, this is a question for the burner maker. Don't
forget to ask them too.
It is outmost important that the fuel oil heaters
are by-passed when firing Gas Oil or Diesel Oil.
These fuels must never be heated above their flash-
point.

 For a steam atomized burner you have to switch

over to compressed air atomizing since light
fuels must not be atomized by means of steam.
This burner will probably fire the fuel without
any problem since they normally are designed for
fuel viscosity between 10 and 20 cSt.
 A rotary cup burner, on the other hand, might
give some problem with the flame since this
atomizing method normally require a fuel
viscosity of about 25 to 60 cSt.

In the event of failed ignition, gas-oil is more

likely to cause an explosive mixture than heavy oil.
However, a dangerous situation should never occur if
the procedure for such failed ignition is followed.
Upon two consecutive failed ignition attempts, a
thorough investigation into the cause should be
sought and the furnace correctly purged inline with
the manufacturers and ruling classification
society’s requirements.

N.B. 7 cSt @ 40°C = 5.5 cSt @ 50°C.

The viscosity’s of lighter fuels are normally given
at 40°C and the viscosity of heavier fuels at 50°C,
80°C, 100°C or even higher temperature.
For conversion of viscosity and density at one
temperature to viscosity and density at an other
temperature I recommend The FUEL OIL Calculation
Program.

Question: Fuel Oil Ignition Quality, CCAI

What is the CCAI of a fuel oil?

Answer:
The CCAI, the Calculated Carbon Aromaticity Index,
is a measure of the Fuel Oils Ignition Quality.
The value can be calculated using the following, ISO
8217 Ann.C, formula:
CCAI = D-81-141 Log10 Log10( VK+0. 85)-483
Log10((T+273)/323)
where
D = density (kg/m³) at 15°C
VK = kinematic viscosity (mm²/s) at temperature T
(°C)

The CCAI-calculation can easily be carried out by

means of The FUEL OIL Calculation Program.
Question: Composite Boilers
What is the inherent problem in Composite Boiler?

Answer:
There are different types of composite boilers.
Normally one part of the boiler is heated by means
of a fuel oil burner and the other part is heated by
the exhaust gases from a diesel engine.

 Heating of one part of a boiler at the time

often causes thermal stress that may lead to
leakage.
 One single composite boiler does not fulfill
normal requirement of redundancy when the steam
is used for essential service purpose.

Question: Steam valves open causing a sudden large

load
I have two 82,000 lb/hr natural gas fired boiler
that is designed for 300 psig and operating at 205
psig (saturated). The boilers serve a large campus
with numerous buildings, each with an integrated
building management control system. Due to an
unresolvable characteristic of the building control
system, occasionally all of the building steam
valves open causing a sudden large load on the
boilers that lasts for 20 to 30 minutes. The demand
for steam is not real in that no heat is actually
required by the buildings. When this condition
occurs we have a serious water carryover problem. My
question is how can we maintain boiler pressure and
water level while either ignoring or controlling the
sudden false load. Our combustion control system is
a PLC based system, metered/cross limited air-fuel
ratio , three element drum level and oxygen trim.
Shall we try to correct thorugh the control
algorithm or add backpressure control valves. I look
forward to any advise.

Answer:
The steam capacity doesn’t seem to be sufficient to
supply all the fully open control valves. First of
all recalculate the control valves. Over-sized
control valves are very common cause of problems.

Question: Transport superheated steam

Is it possible to transport superheated steam of the
order of 45 t/h at 30 bar pressure and temp of 300
deg from a aux boiler to a distance of 1.5 Km?

Answer:
Calculate with a velocity of 15 m/s (49 ft/s). To
avoid water hammering the pipe-line should slop
slitely downwards in the steam flowing direction. To
start up the line you will need a drain valve on
every 30 m (100 ft).