Boiler Safety
When water is converted to steam it expands in volume over 1,000 times and travels a down a steam pipes at over 100 kilometres/hr. Because of this steam is a great way of moving energy and heat around a site from a central boiler house to where it is needed, but without the right boiler feed water treatment, a steam-raising plant will suffer from scale formation and corrosion. At best, this increases energy costs and can lead to poor quality steam, reduced efficiency, shorter plant life and an operation which is unreliable. At worst, it can lead to catastrophic failure and loss of life. While variations in standards may exist in different countries, stringent legal, testing, training and certification is applied to try to minimise or prevent such occurrences. Failure modes include:
- overpressurisation of the boiler
- insufficient water in the boiler causing overheating and vessel failure
- pressure vessel failure of the boiler due to inadequate construction or maintenance.
Read more about this topic: Boiler (steam Generator)
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