Understanding your boiler system should not be difficult. An unfortunate trend in the industry, however, goes against making things simple, cluttering the market with terminology and explanations that are confusing and difficult to understand. 

Among the three biggest business challenges facing industrial steam users are a dedication to improving capital, a lack of qualified steam workforce and aging infrastructure, says one boiler manufacturer. Steam as a service is a turnkey approach that will allow processors to focus on their core businesses while having an on-site partnership design, build, operate, maintain and continuously optimize steam generation.

Steam heating technology commonly used to provide process heating will provide comfort heating for a large medical facility in the Southern California desert. The facility purchased 13 boilers from Parker Boiler to handle the steam and heating load of a new expansion.

Superior Boiler’s quality management system has been certified as compliant with ISO 9001 international quality standards. Isoqar Inc., an independent, accredited U.S. certification body, performed the audit and authorized the certification.

Babcock & Wilcox’s B&W Thermal segment will design, manufacture and supply superheater components for a B&W universal pressure supercritical boiler at Luminant’s Oak Grove Power Plant near Franklin, Texas. The facility provides low-emissions power to more than 1 million central Texas homes and businesses.

Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises Inc. received a contract to install economizers for two B&W TSSG natural-gas-fired boilers at an oil sands project in Alberta, Canada. The project, which was awarded to a subsidiary, is valued at more than $4 million.

Babcock & Wilcox was awarded a contract for approximately $30 million to supply replacement boiler components for an energy production facility. The company also received a contract to install new economizers for two of its natural-gas-fired boilers at an oil sands project in Alberta, Canada. That project is valued at more than $4 million.

A power plant in Tampere, Finland, ordered a biomass-fired boiler to replace an existing boiler that reached the end of its technical lifetime. Valmet will deliver a boiler plant utilizing circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology by the end of 2022. The delivery extends from the boiler silos to the existing flue gas heat recovery system.

When you are shopping for an industrial boiler, one of the most important factors you must consider is the lifecycle cost. After all, the off-the-shelf efficiency of your boiler system can help you predict the cost of your ownership over a 25- or 30-year lifecycle. Efficiency, however, is not the only factor that determines how long your steam boiler will last.

A benefit of a modular, once-through watertube design is the ability to rapidly generate full steam even from a cold start (on-demand steam). On-demand steam can improve steam generation operations by matching the actual load demand with boiler output in near real time. While traditional boilers typically are placed in a standby or idle mode when not in use, such operating techniques are not required with on-demand watertube boilers.