Best Practices in Boiler Field Services

The field servicing of boilers is challenging. Often there are tough deadlines to meet, limited outage windows, severe space constraints, and many other difficulties to overcome. Here are some key best practices Rentech has gleaned from servicing hundreds of boilers (Figure 1) over the years.

Know-How from the Start

Projects usually arrive via a call from a customer. Some companies try to use a receptionist or a non-technical administrator to deal with such traffic. However, that approach can easily lead to poorly planned projects, and unforeseen circumstances that cause project overruns, excess charges, and unhappy customers.

As these calls come in, they should be directed to a knowledgeable person with years of experience. This person must be able to ask the right questions, and evaluate the job and what it will really take to fix the problem.

Know-how can’t be faked. If you attempt to, you will quickly be found out. But you don’t gain such knowledge by studying a course or two, reading a manual, or asking another expert. It takes years of hard-won experience that can only be obtained by putting in time on projects. It takes years on the job to understand what customers are running into, what questions to ask, and determine the underlying situation.

Your point of contact for customer requests and field service problems must be able to establish such things as:

• How many people may be needed for a project.
• What other experts might be required onsite.
• What type of testing should be done (for water quality issues, for example).

This individual should be able to differentiate what may look like straightforward projects from the trickier tasks that might require more time and labor.

Advance Planning

The initial contact is critical. It is important to gauge as accurately as you can what might be involved in a new job. After all, you are usually expected to provide a quote. If that is wrong, all kinds of trouble may lie ahead. It is in the planning stage that manpower needs are assessed as well as the materials, tools, and components that are needed. You don’t gain that kind of savvy from a reference guide, as every job is different.

But smart field service teams don’t rely only on the work of one expert based on a single customer call. They send someone to the site in advance of the project to verify what is already known and find any unknowns that might interfere with a smooth in-and-out visit. Once again, you must talk to the customer, have them show you what they think is wrong, and conduct inspections so you know what it will take to complete the job.

It all comes down to preparation. Boilers are under severe stress. They deal with high temperatures, big changes from hot to cold, pressurized steam, fuel combustion, humidity, and condensation. Everything may not be as it seems from the outside. And it takes a lot of coordination with the customer as they must understand what that process is going to be and what you’re going to need.

Contingency Planning

No matter how good your first point of contact is or how well you scope things out on the ground, there is always a need for contingency planning. Once you physically get inside a unit, you may find there is a lot more wrong than anyone suspected. There needs to be an action plan in place and some kind of a contingency plan to tackle issues in a timely manner. It is best to arrive onsite with replacement components in hand and to be ready to deal with any other eventualities.

A common boiler problem, for example, is leaky tubes. By all indications, the job may only require the repair of one of two tubes—a relatively simple project. You shut down the unit, let it cool off, access the drum, and execute the repair. All that is generally required is to roll the tubes, that is, a rotating tool is placed into the tube end that expands the tube and tightens the seal between the tube and the drum. This is a run-of-the-mill repair that happens all the time.

Boiler Retubing

Sometimes when you get in there, you realize the tubes are shot. They need to be completely replaced. That is a whole different ball game in terms of complexity and scope. The boiler must be peeled apart in place in the middle of this facility. If the parts and manpower aren’t onsite, they need to get there immediately. Those doing the repair should have a firm knowledge of tube and boiler manufacturing. Such jobs are often best done by a field service team that is part of a boiler manufacturer.

Is there a way to predict when a boiler needs to be retubed and whether it makes sense to do a partial retube or if the whole boiler should be done at once? The short answer is not until you get inside and can determine its condition. However, there are things that can be done to minimize the risk of tube degradation. The importance of water quality, routine maintenance, and proper boiler and burner operation cannot be overstated.

Poorly operated units sometimes need tube replacements in as little as a couple of years. Conversely, a well-maintained unit can appear new for decades. Certain variables create uneven tube wear within the boiler.

Poor water quality or improper blowdown procedures can manifest unevenly throughout the pressure vessel internals, creating poor circulation or corrosion in various areas of the boiler. On the air/gas side of the boiler, improper burner performance, too, can create uneven heat distribution. Further, a buildup of combustion byproducts (such as soot) can cause hot spots or corrosion.

In these cases, a partial retube may be all that’s required to repair the specific areas that have been damaged. In other cases, a full retube may be needed if the damage is extensive and boiler-wide—or if the unit has reached its typical life expectancy. Due to these variables and inconsistencies, the condition of a boiler and required repairs must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis (Figure 2).

Project Coordination

Good planning is half the battle, but project coordination and execution is the other half. A smooth job requires interaction between the field service team, plant management, and maintenance personnel. They want you in and out quickly with the job done well.

Sometimes things go exactly to plan, but far from always. What you want to avoid are situations like people wanting to operate the boiler up to the moment you begin the job. You have to establish when it needs to be shut down so it cools enough for you to work on.

There are many aspects to project coordination including:

• Safety. Safety should always be a priority for your crew and the plant. Expect that the facility you go to will have its own safety program operating. Take time to liaise with plant safety personnel, understand their safety protocols, and align these with how you intend to operate while onsite. Stay in close contact with plant safety personnel throughout the job.
• Equipment Access. Lack of equipment access can cause severe problems and throw planning out completely. Boiler access, in particular, can be difficult as there is often lots of congestion in refineries, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities. Carefully measure entrances, sharp turns, headway clearances, and the area around the boiler to isolate any areas of difficulty. You want to avoid problems such as semis with large boiler parts being unable to turn into a facility or unable to deposit the components close to where the work needs to be done.
• Work Spaces. Having enough space to work near the boiler is another key point of coordination. Workers onsite often need a trailer set up nearby, an area where systems and components can be laid down, and enough room to remove parts of the boiler and place them somewhere near but not obstructing the job. Make sure these spaces are not used by moving vehicles. On the other side of the coin, don’t obstruct areas of the plant where personnel need to have right of way.
• Timeline. In most cases, a short window is available for maintenance and repairs during an outage. During this period, be aware that other work may be ongoing and that these other projects may sometimes collide with your own. Those maintaining or commissioning a turbine, for example, may want the boiler fired up at the same point that you want it offline. Go over these points carefully in advance. Preparation is the way to avoid conflict. Make sure you can do the work needed on the boiler in the time apportioned by preparing well for whatever needs to be done.

Manpower

Manpower has become a major issue across the industry. Due to retirements, cutbacks, and lack of training of the new generation in industrial operations, there is a shrinking pool of resources. Finding boiler expertise can be difficult. Be sure the company you bring in possesses trained and experienced resources to do the job, and has others on hand in the case of unforeseen circumstances. Failure to do so could mean exceeding the planned outage window.

Boiler problems should be dealt with sooner rather than later. Boilers are under tremendous strain and are integral to so many processes within the facility. A small problem can quickly escalate due to the pressure extremes they operate under. Anytime there is even a small issue, it is best to act. Call your local service company and get somebody in to look at it before something more serious occurs.

An industrial boiler is generally a custom piece of equipment operating as part of a specific process. Those servicing them must understand how the boiler integrates with other equipment in the plant. In a refinery, for instance, the boiler plays a role in most workflows. The output from crackers and other refinery equipment can grind to a halt without a working boiler. Thus, boiler errors in the field can prove very expensive.

That’s why it is always best to align with a reputable service team that is part of an established boiler manufacturer. Manufacturers possess the deepest knowledge of how boilers work and what it takes to put them together. Their service groups can call upon this knowledge to successfully repair units and overcome any challenges that may crop up.

—Shawn Brewer is director of Business Development and Field Services at Rentech Boiler Systems.