On-Site Consulting and Training
BMA can provide hands-on assistance at your plant. Whether you need troubleshooting, a diagnostic evaluation of your combustion equipment, or on-site training on combustion principles and boiler efficiency for your operating personnel, you can have BMA's expertise at your doorstep.
BMA’s troubleshooting experience includes:
- Reduced boiler or furnace capacity
- Reduced boiler or furnace capacity efficiency
- Excessive fouling
- Boiler vibrations (continuous or periodic)
- Boiler tube rupture
- Premature deterioration of burner components including burner flame stabilizer (bluff body or swirler diffuser), burner refractory throat, gas injectors, oil gun and atomizer components
- Burner, gas injector, or oil gun coking
- Combustion instabilities
- Abnormally high emissions
- Flame impingement
- Ignition problems
- Flame detection failure
What you can get out of a diagnostic evaluation of your combustion equipment:
- Determination of the instantaneous efficiency curve of your boiler, not just a single point
- Mechanical inspections to determine the condition of your boiler, burners, and other auxiliaries and how their condition is affecting your boiler/furnace performance
- Evaluation of existing operating procedures or operating curves
- Measurement of flue gas emissions (BMA is equipped with a portable combustion gas analyzer for measuring O2, CO, CO2, NO, NO2, and hydrocarbons)
- Action plan for improvements of your combustion equipment including ROI (Return On Investment) scenarios
A few examples of how clients have benefited from our on-site services:
Vibration troubleshooting:
Following the occurrence of vibration problems after the installation of new low-NOx burners on a 500 MMBTU/hr powerformer unit of a refinery, BMA provided third party consultation to evaluate the vibration report made by the burners’ supplier. On site troubleshooting and evaluation of the operation were also carried out to determine the exact cause of the vibrations. Although certain of the burner supplier's recommendations were endorsed, others were refuted and some new recommendations were provided in order to eliminate the vibration problem.
Boiler diagnostic evaluation:
BMA carried out a diagnostic evaluation of two heavy oil-fired, 90,000 PPH boilers for the steam plant of a pulp and paper mill. The evaluation included a complete mechanical inspection of each boiler and its burners, burner windbox, and air preheater, and the determination of the efficiency curve for each boiler. A full report containing short-term and medium term action plans was provided including ROI scenarios for both boilers. In addition, on site troubleshooting was provided to determine the cause and eliminate the frequent flame instability problem when starting up the boiler's second burner.
Troubleshooting boiler startup problems:
BMA provided troubleshooting for a 30,000 lb/hr, dual-fired (natural gas and #2 oil) boiler of a hospital that was having problems starting up after the installation of a new chimney lining. An on site evaluation of the startup operating procedures revealed that new set points were required for certain damper settings in order for the normal BMS (Burner Management System) startup sequence to be completed. A temporary solution was implemented in order to allow the boiler to startup using its normal startup procedure. Additional recommendations were provided such as upgrading existing instrumentation and optimizing the damper operation in order to avoid unnecessary boiler trips during the normal boiler operation.