OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF STEAM BOILER

CHAPTER ONE

THE STEAM BOILER

1.0 INTRODUCTION 

Boilers are pressure vessels designed to heat water or produce steam which can then be used to provide space heating and/ or service water heating to a building. In most commercial heating applications, the heating source in the boiler is a natural gas fired burner. Oil fired burners and electric resistance heaters can be used as well. Steam is preferred over hot water in some applications, including absorption cooling, kitchen, laundries, sterilizers and steam driven equipment. Capehart, B. (2006). 

Boiler is multipurpose equipment in all manufacturing industries. Industries like: Nigeria bottling company, textile mail, laundries, breweries, matches company e.t.c. A boiler is an enclosed vessel that provides a means for combustion and transfer heat to water until it becomes hot water or steam. The hot water or steam under pressure is then useable for transferring the heat to a process. When water is boiled into steam, it’s volume increases about 1,600 times, producing a force that is almost as explosive as gun powder. This causes the boiler to be extremely dangerous equipment and should be treated carefully. When liquid is heated up to the gaseous state, it evaporates, this process is known as evaporation. 

Any part of the boiler metal that actually contributes to making steam is known as heat surface. Heating surface is any part of the boiler; hot gases for combustion are on one side and water on the other side. Albert Oladele. (2017).

The burner is meant for the combustion generated, while the boiler is meant for building steam. The combination of the boiler and the burner and vertical boilers can be easily differentiated apart from their physical view. Horizontal boilers and vertical boilers can be so easily differentiated apart from their physical view. Horizontal boilers are bottom supported while the vertical boilers are top supported.  ASME BOILER AND PRESSURE VESSEL.CODE (BPVC) 2010

Since boiler is a closed metallic vessel, heating water above the atmospheric pressure, steam could be generated at the desired pressure and temperature. To heat the water fuels like: coal, diesel oil, gas etc may be use. The function of a boiler is to evaporate water into steam at constant pressure and to supply the required type of steam.