Boiler Plant Operational and Water Treatment Basics

5 BOILER PLANT OPERATIONAL AND WATER TREATMENT BASICS 

Boiler operational management processes vary considerably in their degree of complexity. At larger facilities these processes are controlled by managers who are always qualified engineers (usually mechanical or electrical) and their operators are typically also appropriately qualified and licensed. 

For smaller facilities this is not always the case, and many boiler houses will not necessarily require the presence of permanent operators, which can sometimes make the smooth implementation and seamless operation of a water treatment program quite difficult to achieve. 

Boiler operational management processes provide for various daily procedures, maintenance routines and checks, including attending to BD, ash removal (where solid fuels are used), and the monitoring and control of fuel and MU water consumption, steam production, operating pressures, air and flue-gas temperatures, and FW and CR flows. 

In larger facilities much of this monitoring work is carried out in real time, with the data transmitted to a remote control station. Increasingly, the corrective actions necessary may take place automatically through a computer modem. 

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