News

Boilers are one of the important equipment onboard required for functioning of the engine. Onboard, boilers are used for multiple applications.

Irrespective of the form of propulsion of a vessel—steam powered or diesel engine based—boilers are necessary in one way or another.
For steam powered vessels, boilers are used to generate high temperature and high pressure steam. In contrast, vessels using diesel engine usually have one or more smaller boilers. These are used to run various machineries and services.

Types and mechanisms of marine boilers
Traditionally, industries around the world used smoke or water tube systems. These two acted as the basic boiler types, while the rest were simply modified versions of these two.

In water tube boilers, feed water is passed through tubes while hot gases are passed over the tubes. The opposite is true for smoke or fire tube boilers. Hot gases pass through the tubes while feed water surrounds them.

However, water based systems may not be suitable for every setting. Hence, these systems are now being replaced by oil-based boilers.
In these boilers, heat transfer fluid (HTF), a special form of oil is used instead of steam. The oil acts as a heat carrier, operating at a temperature of around 300°C.

Apart from achieving higher operating temperatures, use of thermal oil boilers also results in lower maintenance costs, lesser risk of corrosion, reduction in heat loss, and easier and quieter operation.
Increasing Energy Efficiency

Efficiency of boilers can be further increased by using preheated feed (only in case of water feed). It passes through an economizer before entering the boiler.

The boiler’s exhaust gas is also passed over the air heater, which helps heat up the combustion air before it enters the furnace. Utilizing this exhaust energy, instead of letting it go to waste, further increases the efficiency of the equipment.

Various safety fittings as well as control systems are used with these boilers to ensure proper functioning. Aspects such as feed supply, fuel oil flow rate, and flow of combustion air are monitored to ensure efficient performance.

Different mountings are also available with these boilers for safe operation.

If your vessel’s boilers are malfunctioning or if you require other marine spare parts, we recommend contacting Chuangrun Trade. They have both water/steam based and thermal oil based boilers available. The company also deals with a variety of marine main engine parts, heat exchangers and several other equipment.

You can contact them via phone, email, or Skype.