Boiler Maintenance 101: Low Feedwater

Temperature Causes Boiler Failure

Posted by Greg Frazier on Sat, Dec 31, 2016 @ 02:45 PM

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It’s winter in the Northeast and we are running into the coldest months of the year. If you operate
a commercial property, now is not a good time to have a boiler failure. If you operate an
industrial or manufacturing facility, there is NEVER a good time to lose a boiler! Unfortunately,
this a common occurrence throughout the winter months and culprit is very often cold feed
water. Monitoring your boiler feed water temperature should be an important part of your
daily boiler inspection and should be worked into your overall boiler maintenance program.

As you probably learned in high school science class, metal expands when it is hot and contract
when it is cooled. Remember when the teacher filled the metal gas can with hot water, put the
cap back on, and then ran the can under cold water? What happened? That’s right; the can
“crushed itself” almost as if by magic. This same principle can be catastrophic to a boiler.
Although modern boilers are manufactured to withstand some temperature fluctuation, they are
not designed to withstand severe fluctuations or even constant “mildly” severe fluctuations. In a
boiler system is manufactured to precise specifications and running at them at their intended
optimal operating temperatures are vital for overall system longevity. A common and
underestimated issue that plague many systems during this time of year are the effects of
allowing cold feed water into a hot boiler system.

Most boiler systems are designed and installed to address this issue, however, sometime hasty
planning or improper operation can cause cold water related issues to pop up. Low feedwater
temperatures during boiler operation have three major negative impacts:

1. Greatly increased fuel costs due to loss in efficiency. (No surprise here - it costs more money
to heat cold water.)
2. Increased occurrences of corrosion due to increased dissolved gases in feedwater. Oxygen
pitting is common in systems with low temperature feed water. This quickly lead to
premature system failure.
3. Increased boiler water treatment Boiler chemicals are used to remove excess oxygen from
feed water. The colder the feed water, the more dissolved oxygen it can hold. The more
dissolved oxygen in the feed water, the more boiler chemicals needed to remove it.
4. Increased chance of thermal shock (also known as boiler shock) which could lead to sudden
pressure vessel failure, a potentially dangerous and catastrophic event. (Remember the high
school professor’s gas can “crushing” demonstration?)
Cold feedwater is usually less of an issue in system that return a healthy amount of condensate
(75% or more); unless that condensate travels over a very long distance. In steam systems that
return very little condensate, it is necessary to make up the lost water with fresh incoming water.
This “make up” water is much cooler than the steam system needs to perform at optimal levels,
and therefore needs to be pre-heated before entering the boiler. The best practices for accepting
this makeup water in a steam boiler is usually outlined in the boiler manufacturer guidelines and
often includes some type of pre-treatment regimen. ASME guidelines often calls for water to be
introduced into a steam boiler at no less than 200 degrees Fahrenheit . Pretreatment of boiler
makeup water often includes, but is not limited to, chemical treatment, softening and heating of
the makeup water through a deaerator tank.

What is Boiler Shock?

A hot boiler can undergo significant damage if cold water is introduced without first being
tempered. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as thermal shock or boiler shock. In
extreme situations of an extremely hot boiler system and extremely cold feed water, catastrophic
failure can happen almost immediately, however this is typically not the case. Even though the
term boiler "shock" suggests that a boiler could be effected instantaneously or suddenly, the
reality is that most failures happen over time. The more typical problem is stress cycling caused
by the continuous heating and cooling of the internal metal components of the boiler. Thermally
induced stress cycling could be causing significant damage to a boiler system over the course of
a few weeks, but could happen over months or years; and is particularly common in boilers
installed in hot-water heating systems. When failures eventually do occur, they are typically due
to metal fatigue. Eventually the metal breaks down due to the consistent and extreme expansion
and contraction.

Failures caused by boiler shock are usually not an indication of poor boiler design or
manufacturing deficiencies, but instead are due to overall plant design (cutting corners) or the
manner in which the heating system is being operated or maintained.

In the following video, you can see the effect of thermal boiler shock on a boiler. In this case,
cold water introduced into the boiler cause micro fissures in the tube sheet and unseated many of
the boiler tubes. Depending on the size and type of boiler, this type of failure could cost tens of
thousands of dollars to repair.

The Use of a Steam Sparger

Avoiding boiler shock is a mechanical operation. A boiler system’s own steam is sometimes
used for preheating its own feedwater. The direct steam injection into the feedwater tank referred
to as steam sparging. A steam sparger is often engineered into the condensate return tank of a fire
tube boiler system to maximize efficiency by making sure that the boiler does not have to work
harder to transform cold makeup water into steam. Sometimes a condensate return tank may be
retrofitted with a steam sparger to fix a newly developed issue with low temperature condensate;
however, this must be done by an experienced engineer. Some tanks were not designed to handle
the increased heat that a steam sparger will cause in the feedwater. Also, the sparge design and
location affect the efficiency of the process.

Sparge Pipe vs Direct Steam Injection

While installing a sparge pipe into a condensate return take is a relatively low cost and easy
installation to have performed, it could have some drawbacks depending the size and overall
design of your system. While a job of steam sparger in a condensate return tank is to simply
maintain a feed water temperature of 200 degrees or better, the steam sparge pipe design is not
always the most efficient way to do it. Sparge pipes (simple pipes with drilled steam distribution
holes) tend to produce uneven water temperature control; they can also cause water hammer and
heavy vibration due to collapsing steam bubbles.

Another method of heating the water in a holding tank is through a direct steam injector or steam
injection heater. This type of direct steam contact offers greater control and has the capability of
addressing some of the potential downfalls and inefficiencies of the sparge pipe method.

Water Treatment Alone Cannot Do The Job of Removing Dissolved Oxygen from
Feedwater

Proper boiler maintenance and operation require multiple fields of expertise. While boiler water
treatment is an important part of a sound boiler maintenance program, it is equally important to
have system that is mechanically and operationally running at peak efficiency.

Oxygen is present in all make up water. Oxygen causes red iron oxide to form on a mild steel
surfaces immersed in water. This rust is active corrosion and it will continue until the metal is
completely corroded away. If the amount of oxygen in the water is limited, the iron oxide film
cannot form as easily; instead, the surface of the steel tarnishes with a very thin film of iron
oxide which is not so fully oxidized as the red iron oxide caused by full oxygen exposure. This
thinner film is also more dense and it tends to resist further corrosive attack. In water of with
higher alkalinity, this oxide film becomes more stable and gives more protection to the steel.
This is why your water treatment professional may have said to you that a little bit of rust color
in your opened boiler is not necessarily a bad thing.

Maintaining a higher temperature feedwater supply also reduces the work the boiler has to do to
produce steam. Increasing the feedwater temperature to 200 degrees or greater will save money
in fuel costs and reducing the chances of oxygen pitting in the boiler. It will also help reduce the
costs of boiler water treatment chemicals. To better understand your boiler system's chemical
requirements, it is best to consult your water treatment company.

An New Advancement in Boiler Water Treatment Has Become an Industry Game Changer
Until recently, providing a high pressure boiler with softened, nearly oxygen-free water was the
benchmark and cornerstone of any comprehensive boiler water treatment program. However,
new technologies in water treatment has reduced many of the complications associated with
maintaining those standards. For instance, today many boiler systems can be treated
with EcoSHIELD, a film-forming chemistry that virtually eliminated the need to remove oxygen
or even soften the water. EcoSHIELD chemistry treats the metal surfaces of the boiler, NOT the
boiler water. It bonds to steel surfaces at the molecular level and creates an impermeable
protective layer between the boiler water and the metal. EcoSHIELD is so effective that it
actually increases the heat transfer ratio in most boilers, which increases efficiency and reduces
fuel costs – as well as decreases the instances of breakdowns and tube failures. A typical “side
effect” of a boiler that is treated with EcoSHIELD is crystal clear boiler water.

Please note: The decision to use EcoSHIELD in a boiler should be made by an experienced
water treatment professional. Every boiler is different, and there are many considerations that
need to be assessed to determine the correct chemical program for each system. Regardless of the
chemistry used, most steam boilers will benefit from the practice of operating with feed water
that is at 200 degrees Fahrenheit or above.

If you would like most information regarding Clarity’s EcoSHIELD, please do not hesitate to
call us.

If you would like to know more about the common issues and pitfalls associated with boiler
maintenance, please download our free eBook: Ten Huge Mistakes Facilities Make in Boiler
Operation and How to Avoid Them below.

As always, thanks for reading!

ABOUT CLARITY WATER TECHNOLOGIES

Clarity Water Technologies is known

throughout the east coast as an innovative industrial/commercial water treatment company and
the innovators of 360 Degree Legionella Management Service. To put it simply: As New York
City's Top Environmental Consultants, we make commercial HVAC and industrial process
machinery last longer and run more efficiently, with less fuel and less downtime, by chemically
treating the water that runs through it. Typical systems that we treat include steam boilers,
chillers and cooling towers; however, we also offer advanced wastewater, glycol services, odor
control and fuel treatment services. We are one of Northeast’s most trusted Legionella
remediation companies and are widely accepted as one of the best consulting firms to establish
best practices for the implementation of ASHRAE Standard 188 - Legionellosis: Risk
Management for Building Water Systems.

As environmental consultants specializing in water treatment, we know that chemistry is only

one part of what makes a cooling tower system operate at peak performance. The other part of
the equation is proper physical cleaning, disinfection and maintenance. Today, Clarity offers one
of the most reliable and effective cooling tower disinfection services available throughout NY,
NJ, CT, DE, MD and PA. Clarity is a NADCA Certified HVAC Cleaning Service Company. Our
team also offers on-line cleanings, chlorine dioxide disinfection, Legionella remediation and
installation of the EcoSAFE Solid Feed System—one of the most advanced water treatment
systems for Cooling Towers in the world! Please contact us today for a free estimate on your
next project.

New York Water Treatment Professional and Environmental

Consultant, Greg Frazier has a vast knowledge of Industrial Water Treatment and is currently the
Managing Partner of Clarity Water Technologies, one of the top Water Treatment Companies in
the United States. Mr. Frazier has over 19 years of Industrial Water Treatment experience and
holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee. Clarity Water
Technologies specializes in comprehensive water treatment services. Clarity's service goes far
beyond administering Cooling Tower Water Treatment chemicals - it also includes Cooling
Tower Maintenance and HVAC Cleaning Services.

Tags: Thermal Shock, boiler water treatment, Cetamine, boiler chemicals,boiler

maintenance, Water Treatment Company, EcoSHIELD, Boiler Inspection, Boiler
Water, Boiler Shock
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Clarity’s Water Treatment blog is dedicated to topics having to do with the water treatment
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