A boiler is a device that makes steam. It consists on the one hand of a combustion part that supplies the heat and on the other hand of the boiler itself, where the water is converted into steam.
Steam is used in many industries because of its unique properties. It is used in the heating of products, but also for the production of electricity.
The boiler receives feed water, which is composed of a part condensed steam (which flows back to the boiler) and a part fresh feed water.
It is of vital importance that the fresh feed water is of an excellent quality. In other words: the salts must be maximally removed from this water. The degree of purity is closely related to the pressure of the boiler. The higher the working pressure of the boiler, the purer the water must be. If there are too many salts in the water, this will cause deposits on the boiler tubes, resulting in a reduced heat transfer and thus loss of energy. In a next phase, overheating will occur, which can even lead to explosion.
In order to make a certain water source (tap water, surface water, etc.) suitable as boiler feed water, there are certain pre-treatment techniques, such as ion exchange or membrane techniques. As soon as the water source has gone through the pre-treatment, the water is suitable as boiler feed water and goes to a degassing phase.
In this degassing phase, oxygen is removed via a thermal-mechanical process. The oxygen that is present can lead to oxygen corrosion in the boiler. After the water has been degassed, it is fed to the boiler by means of boiler feed water pumps. Then it is converted into steam.