Factors That Fact Fuel Consumption of Boiler

There are many factors affecting boiler consumption. Here are several important factors.

Feed water temperature
To improve any system’s efficiency, it is important to maintain the standard of all the inputs of that system. In boiler system, it is the feed water which plays an important role in deciding the boiler fuel consumption.

Supply of air/steam to burner
Air/steam is required to ensure adequate fire is generated inside the furnace through good combustion. It is therefore important to know the percentage of air/steam for efficient combustion.

Blow down control
It is normally observed that boiler blow down is not performed regularly by operators. Blow down is only performed when the water test results are high in chloride or when high conductivity alarm occurs. This leads to uncontrolled continuous blowdown which is actually waste of boiler heat and efficiency. This reduces prominent amount of high temperature water inside the boiler and addition of moderate temperature water from hot well.

Fuel rank and quality
The grade and quality of fuel directly affect the boiler combustion efficiency. If the fuel moisture is too large, not only the furnace temperature will be lowered, but also the heat loss of exhaust gas will be increased.

Periodical cleaning of boilers
Clean heat transfer surface to reduce fouling and scale. Solid deposits in the form of soot or slag on the gas side surfaces of boiler tubes reduces the heat transfer of the boiler water thereby reducing the efficiency of the boiler and the fuel consumption will be increased.