September 2019

38 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk September 2019 Energy, the Environment & Water Focus on: Boilers, Burners & Controls The heart of the matter! T hen it begs the question, “Why are they so frequently treated with such contempt?” Very little investment, operated and managed by either untrained or poorly trained personnel. If they are the heart of the operation you would think the focus on them as a critical point of failure would be much higher on the agenda than it is. Giving the boilers to an engineer and saying get on with it is not good enough. After all, no one would want a general surgeon to carry out open heart surgery, we would all demand a well-trained cardiologist. Therefore, it is obvious that if you give an engineer a task such as looking after the boilers then give him/her the extra training required to fulfil the task you will be in a much better position of security of supply. Make sure the operators are also trained to carry out their role, they should be the eyes and ears on your systems. Training is the first step, but there is always going to be resistance to providing it. They who hold the purse strings will come up with a myriad of reasons why the money can’t be released. This is short sighted and is actually illegal. Firstly, the legality, under PUWER it is a legal requirement to train staff to operate all equipment. Boilers have a special place however, especially with the HSE. When things go wrong and unfortunately, they do, the HSE will ask you to prove the competence of your operators and their management team. If they are all BOAS trained the HSE may look no further. If they are not trained to this level, then you will find it difficult to prove competence. When it comes to plant efficiency, the first weapon in the armoury to achieve this is well trained personnel. They know what to look for to keep boiler plant at its optimum efficiency. They know if the hotwell temperature is right, this will keep the injection of oxygen scavenger to its lowest acceptable level, so you will not be paying so much for chemicals. In turn this will help with the TDS levels, so you are not blowing down so much which further saves on energy and water usage. If the team are trained to use a combustion analyser, they will spot if the When looking around at various boiler operations and asking such question as “What would happen if you lost your boiler/boilers?” The common answer is “We would lose production,” or if it’s a hospital then it would be “We would have to close the operating theatres.” With replies of this nature it starts to become obvious that in the vast majority of cases the boilers and associated plant are the heart of the operation. Derry Carr – CEA Immediate past chairman – reports.