Highlights:
- Identify Top Boiler Maintenance & Repair Problems
- Design Your Facility’s Game Plan for Boiler Improvement
- Phoenix Specializes in Online Boiler Maintenance & Repair
At Phoenix High Temperature Repair, safety is in our DNA. We don’t say “safety first” just as a motto, it’s our only way of operation. Our processes have safety embedded within them that is essential to each scope of work that we perform for our clients from oil and gas refineries, power plants, chemical facilities and pulp & paper factories. The Phoenix commitment to safety has earned us a stellar record, specifically in industrial boiler maintenance and repair.
This is one of our specialties. We know how important boilers are to the operations of industrial facilities and how a malfunction can be deadly. Phoenix not only provides quality boiler maintenance and repair services for industrial facilities, but we also like to provide complimentary value in the form of information. In this article we will talk about designing a game plan for keeping your industrial boilers online and in top condition with Phoenix as your industrial boiler repair contractors of choice!
We have all heard and read the headlines about how there was a boiler-related industrial explosion that killed so many people. Some of these tragic stories make it to mainstream media, but a large majority of these accidents get overlooked. We have definitely come a long way compared to 100 years ago when boiler-related explosions and deaths were pretty much a daily occurrence. But even now in the 21st century there are still far too many incidents occurring. According to the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors, there has been a plateau in terms of boiler safety which can be attributed to the aging infrastructure or insufficient enforcement of existing codes and standards.
Identify Top Boiler Problems
This is problematic because human lives are at stake. In order to reduce preventable accidents and explosions related to industrial boiler problems, we need to identify the top combustion equipment issue and then design the game plan that will minimize the generation of these issues! Phoenix wants to provide its clients with all kinds of value. Below you will find the top 5 industrial boiler maintenance and repair related problems:
Not Adhering to Safety & Inspection Laws
- Lack of personnel adequately trained in equipment maintenance, start-up and shutdown procedures
- Insufficient adherence to safe testing and inspection guidelines mandated by law
Grandfathering Old Equipment
- Compliance codes are constantly evolving as new technology allows for better operation. The problem is that equipment is usually only inspected in accordance with the codes that were in place when it was first installed. This causes a gap that can lead to lives lost.
- Jurisdictional code inspectors may give your facility the green light of passing, but there are serious limitations since inspectors are only required to evaluate the equipment according to the codes existing when they were originally installed.
- False peace-of-mind is created in industrial managers when their 50-year-old boiler passes inspection. With the new knowledge of safety that arises every year, old equipment may not be compliant with new safety codes placing workers at major risk.
Lack of Safety Culture at Facility
- 40% of all boiler deaths and accidents are caused by human error
- Cultivating a safety culture where procedures are enforced prevents costly circumstances
No Preventative Maintenance
- Few industrial facilities contain in-house expertise to proper boiler preventative maintenance
- Preventative maintenance has to be done regularly, not just once or twice a year
Improper Documentation
- Many issues have happened due to improper troubleshooting because adequate information was not filed.
- Closely monitoring panel drawings, switch set points, purge times and component model numbers and operational manuals can prevent faulty troubleshooting of problems
Power Magazine names other more specific boiler operational and maintenance failures such as boiler tube leakage as being a fundamental reason for an unexpected shutdown. The Confederation of Indian Industry includes that causes like “overstressing, starvation, overheating of tubes, creep life exhaustion, stress corrosion, waterside corrosion, fireside erosion, hydrogen embrittlement, age embrittlement, thermal shock, improper operating practices, poor maintenance, and welding defects” are all constituent items that need a regular amount of maintenance, repair or replacement.
Design Your Facility’s Game Plan for Boiler Improvement
Now that we’ve outlined what typically causes boiler hiccups that can turn into costly events, let’s design an airtight game plan to make sure boiler maintenance and repair operations are improved at your industrial facility.
Step 1: Implement Best Practices for Boiler Maintenance & Repair
The United States Department of Energy suggests adopting these best practices they have developed as a starting point:
- Maximize boiler efficiency by automating control boiler excess air
- Determine blowdown rates by measuring conductivity or total dissolved solids continuously or at least once a shift
- Check that water treatment is functioning adequately at least once a day
- Eliminate steam system water hammer at a minimum of once a month
- Monitor fuel cost to generate steam & measure steam/product benchmarks at least once per quarter
- Check steam quality to ensure that you are generating dry steam
- Inspect the boiler plant equipment (boiler, deaerator, feedwater tank, chemical treatment equipment), distribution equipment (piping, valves, pressure-reducing stations), end-use equipment (turbines, piping, heat exchangers, coils, air vents, and vacuum breakers) & recovery equipment (condensate pumps, flash tanks, piping, valves and fittings) at least once a year.
Step 2: Design a Boiler Maintenance & Repair Schedule
Once these best practices have been implemented, a maintenance schedule needs to be developed. Areas including record-keeping, personnel, training and finance should be addressed in the boiler maintenance and repair game plan. Something else to keep in mind is that when boilers are maintained well, they can outlive the employees at the plant which means the game plan should address the transfer of knowledge to future personnel as well.
There are three main topics to keep in mind while developing your boiler maintenance and repair schedule as suggested by Power Magazine:
Maintaining Optimum Air-to-Fuel Ratio for Boiler Efficiency
- Inadequate air flow = CO formation releasing less than ⅓ of the heat quantity
- Excess air = fuel burning completely with heat carried by excess stack gas
- Continuous monitoring of O2 content of the flue gas
- Ensure boiler system is sealed against air leakage for accurate measurement
- O2 readings in the stack will rise if air is entering after the combustion chamber
- If downward adjustments are made on the inlet air level to rectify the erroneous reading, boiler combustion efficiency will drop!
Ensuring Heat Transfer Surfaces are Clean
- Deposits of calcium, magnesium & silica line the water sides of heat transfer tubes over time
- Since this scale has lower thermal conductivity than the bare steel, heat transfer is delayed & overheating plus tube failures occur
- Fuel loss of 3.5% can be caused by even the smallest 1/64-inch coat of iron + silica scale produced by high-pressure steam (Power Magazine)
- How to detect scale or deposit formation: a rise in flue gas temperature
- Verify presence of scale through visual or ultrasonic inspection & remove through acid wash or mechanical means
- How to prevent build-up in the 1st place: use water-softeners, demineralizers, reverse osmosis plus conducting blowdown practices & adding scale retardant chemicals to water
- To reduce soot build-up and loss of heat transfer: clean fire side of the tubes
- Wall blowing system will clean areas when a drop in heat absorption is detected
Obtain Knowledge from Others
- Each operations and maintenance game plan needs to address the specific needs of the boilers in its plant, but should incorporate the expertise of leaders in the boiler maintenance and repair industry.
- Boiler manufacturers, turbine manufacturers and boiler repair & maintenance firms such as Phoenix High Temperature Repair should be consulted for optimizing boiler production in plants!
Phoenix Specializes in Online Boiler Maintenance & Repair!
As we have been suggesting, Phoenix High Temperature Repair has expertise in many areas involving industrial facilities such as oil and gas refineries, power plants and chemical companies. An outstanding perk about Phoenix is that they are basically the “boiler maintenance and repair service near me” because they can deploy to your facility within 24 hours anywhere in North America!
When you have an urgent need for coal, carbon monoxide or oil boiler repair or maintenance need, waiting for a turnaround or shutting down all or part of your plant is time consuming and costly. Phoenix completes your tasks while your equipment is online so you can avoid lost production and minimize operational disruptions.
To learn more about the specifics of Phoenix online boiler repair and maintenance services, please head to our website! https://www.hightemprepair.com
