Boiler

A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central heating, boiler-based power generation, cooking, and sanitation.

Heat sources

In a fossil fuel power plant using a steam cycle for power generation, the primary heat source will be combustion of coal, oil, or natural gas. In some cases byproduct fuel such as the carbon monoxide rich offgasses of a coke battery can be burned to heat a boiler; biofuels such as bagasse, where economically available, can also be used. In a nuclear power plant, boilers called steam generators are heated by the heat produced by nuclear fission. Where a large volume of hot gas is available from some process, a heat recovery steam generator or recovery boiler can use the heat to produce steam, with little or no extra fuel consumed; such a configuration is common in a combined cycle power plant where a gas turbine and a steam boiler are used. In all cases the combustion product waste gases are separate from the working fluid of the steam cycle, making these systems examples of external combustion engines.

Materials

The pressure vessel of a boiler is usually made of steel, or historically of wrought iron. Stainless steel, especially of the austenitic types, is not used in wetted parts of boilers due to corrosion and stress corrosion cracking. However, ferritic stainless steel is often used in superheater sections that will not be exposed to boiling water, and electrically heated stainless steel shell boilers are allowed under the European "Pressure Equipment Directive" for production of steam for sterilizers and disinfectors.
In live steam models, copper or brass is often used because it is more easily fabricated in smaller size boilers. Historically, copper was often used for fireboxes, because of its better formability and higher thermal conductivity; however, in more recent times, the high price of copper often makes this an uneconomic choice and cheaper substitutes are used instead.
For much of the Victorian "age of steam", the only material used for boilermaking was the highest grade of wrought iron, with assembly by riveting. This iron was often obtained from specialist ironworks, such as those in the Cleator Moor area, noted for the high quality of their rolled plate, which was especially suitable for use in critical applications such as high-pressure boilers. In the 20th century, design practice moved towards the use of steel, with welded construction, which is stronger and cheaper, and can be fabricated more quickly and with less labour. Wrought iron boilers corrode far more slowly than their modern-day steel counterparts, and are less susceptible to localized pitting and stress-corrosion. That makes the longevity of older wrought-iron boilers far superior to that of welded steel boilers.
Cast iron may be used for the heating vessel of domestic water heaters. Although such heaters are usually termed "boilers" in some countries, their purpose is usually to produce hot water, not steam, and so they run at low pressure and try to avoid boiling. The brittleness of cast iron makes it impractical for high-pressure steam boilers.

Energy

The source of heat for a boiler is combustion of any of several fuels, such as wood, coal, oil, or natural gas. Electric steam boilers use resistance- or immersion-type heating elements. Nuclear fission is also used as a heat source for generating steam, either directly or, in most cases, in specialised heat exchangers called "steam generators". Heat recovery steam generators use the heat rejected from other processes such as gas turbine.

Boiler efficiency

There are two methods to measure the boiler efficiency in the ASME performance test code for boilers ASME PTC 4 and for HRSG ASME PTC 4.4 and EN 12952-15 for water tube boilers:

Input-output method
Heat-loss method
Input-output method (or, direct method)

Direct method of boiler efficiency test is more usable or more common.
where

Heat-loss method (or, indirect method)

To measure boiler efficiency by indirect method, these parameters are needed:

Ultimate analysis of fuel
Percentage of O₂ or CO₂ at flue gas
Flue gas temperature at outlet
Ambient temperature in °C and humidity of air in kg/kg
GCV of fuel in kcal/kg
Ash percentage in combustible fuel
GCV of ash in kcal/kg
Configurations

Boilers can be classified into the following configurations:
; Pot boiler or Haycock boiler/Haystack boiler: A primitive "kettle" where a fire heats a partially filled water container from below. 18th-century Haycock boilers generally produced and stored large volumes of very low-pressure steam, often hardly above that of the atmosphere. These could burn wood or most often, coal. Efficiency was very low.
; Flued boiler: With one or two large flues—an early type or forerunner of fire-tube boiler.
; Fire-tube boiler: Image:Steam Boiler 2 English version.png|thumb|Diagram of a fire-tube boiler Here, water partially fills a boiler barrel with a small volume left above to accommodate the steam. This is the type of boiler used in nearly all steam locomotives. The heat source is inside a furnace or firebox that has to be kept permanently surrounded by the water to maintain the temperature of the heating surface below the boiling point. The furnace can be situated at one end of a fire-tube which lengthens the path of the hot gases, thus augmenting the heating surface which can be further increased by making the gases reverse direction through a second parallel tube or a bundle of multiple tubes ; alternatively, the gases may be taken along the sides and then beneath the boiler through flues. In case of a locomotive-type boiler, a boiler barrel extends from the firebox and the hot gases pass through a bundle of fire tubes inside the barrel which greatly increases the heating surface compared to a single tube and further improves heat transfer. Fire-tube boilers usually have a comparatively low rate of steam production, but high steam storage capacity. Fire-tube boilers mostly burn solid fuels, but are readily adaptable to those of the liquid or gas variety. Fire-tube boilers may also be referred to as "scotch-marine" or "marine" type boilers.
;Water-tube boiler: Image:Steam Boiler 3 english.png|thumb|Diagram of a water-tube boiler. In this type, tubes filled with water are arranged inside a furnace in a number of possible configurations. Often the water tubes connect large drums, the lower ones containing water and the upper ones steam and water; in other cases, such as a mono-tube boiler, water is circulated by a pump through a succession of coils. This type generally gives high steam production rates, but less storage capacity than fire-tube boilers. Water tube boilers can be designed to exploit any heat source and are generally preferred in high-pressure applications since the high-pressure water/steam is contained within small diameter pipes which can withstand the pressure with a thinner wall. These boilers are commonly constructed in place, roughly square in shape, and can be multiple stories tall.
;Flash boiler: A flash boiler is a specialized type of water-tube boiler in which tubes are close together and water is pumped through them. A flash boiler differs from the type of mono-tube steam generator in which the tube is permanently filled with water. In a flash boiler, the tube is kept so hot that the water feed is quickly flashed into steam and superheated. Flash boilers had some use in automobiles in the 19th century and this use continued into the early 20th century.
;Fire-tube boiler with water-tube firebox: Sometimes the two above types have been combined in the following manner: the firebox contains an assembly of water tubes, called thermic siphons. The gases then pass through a conventional firetube boiler. Water-tube fireboxes were installed in many Hungarian locomotives, but have met with little success in other countries.
;Sectional boiler: In a cast iron sectional boiler, sometimes called a "pork chop boiler" the water is contained inside cast iron sections. These sections are assembled on site to create the finished boiler.

Safety

To define and secure boilers safely, some professional specialized organizations such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers develop standards and regulation codes. For instance, the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is a standard providing a wide range of rules and directives to ensure compliance of the boilers and other pressure vessels with safety, security and design standards.
Historically, boilers were a source of many serious injuries and property destruction due to poorly understood engineering principles. Thin and brittle metal shells can rupture, while poorly welded or riveted seams could open up, leading to a violent eruption of the pressurized steam. When water is converted to steam it expands to over 1,000 times its original volume and travels down steam pipes at over. Because of this, steam is an efficient method of moving energy and heat around a site from a central boiler house to where it is needed, but without the right boiler feedwater treatment, a steam-raising plant will suffer from scale formation and corrosion. At best, this increases energy costs and can lead to poor quality steam, reduced efficiency, shorter plant life and unreliable operation. At worst, it can lead to catastrophic failure and loss of life. Collapsed or dislodged boiler tubes can also spray scalding-hot steam and smoke out of the air intake and firing chute, injuring the firemen who load the coal into the fire chamber. Extremely large boilers providing hundreds of horsepower to operate factories can potentially demolish entire buildings.
A boiler that has a loss of feed water and is permitted to boil dry can be extremely dangerous. If feed water is then sent into the empty boiler, the small cascade of incoming water instantly boils on contact with the superheated metal shell and leads to a violent explosion that cannot be controlled even by safety steam valves. Draining of the boiler can also happen if a leak occurs in the steam supply lines that is larger than the make-up water supply could replace. The Hartford Loop was invented in 1919 by the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company as a method to help prevent this condition from occurring, and thereby reduce their insurance claims.