The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.
welcome to scaling up the podcast where
we celebrate industrial water week
together happy industrial water week
folks trace blackmore here
so excited that another year of
industrial water week is here
yesterday we celebrated pre-treatment
monday and today
is boiler tuesday i am just so excited i
hope that you are just as excited about
celebrating what we do when it comes to
boilers as much as i am in fact i was so
excited i got out the dictionary to look
up the word boiler a boiler is defined
as a fuel burning apparatus or container
for heating water well how boring is
that that is not
anything that inspires me to do anything
around a boiler i mean that might be
what it is but i have to tell you the
boiler has been my backstage pass
to some of the coolest production
facilities around the world i’ve seen
how pvc pipe is made i’ve seen how coke
bottles are made i’ve seen how peanut
butter is made
i have seen how twinkies are made
yes
nation i hold the secret of how they get
that filling inside the twinkie i don’t
know how much of a secret it is the top
of the twinkie is really the bottom of
the twinkie as it bakes and they inject
it in three different holes when it
comes out of baking but it was very
exciting for me
to see and the list goes on all because
i am an industrial water treater all
because i treat the boiler so the
definition is not very sexy but i think
all the things that the boiler unlocks
for us to see
is extremely exciting and i think the
history of the boiler is exciting so did
you know
that the boiler is the reason the
industrial revolution was started
james watt figured out how to get water
in the form of steam to start doing the
work that before only man and animal
could do james watt is credited with
inventing the steam engine back in
1763 and he made improvements to his
steam engine all the way until his death
now watt figured out how to harness the
power of the btu the british
thermal unit and i have to say ever
since i interviewed my friend john
sanford on episode 203
who’s from the uk
and told me that they do not use british
thermal units i just have to laugh you
know btu stands for british thermal unit
so where else would they use it and
insult to injury they don’t even use
american thermal units over there so
it’s just funny how we come up with
these terms but if you’re wondering what
a btu is
it’s a measure of energy in our case
it’s a measure of heat now the
definition is
one btu will raise one pound of water
one degree fahrenheit in one hour
now if you look at the energy
that we can put into water
and then convert that energy into work
it is amazing what james watt figured
out you see one of his steam engines
could replace the same amount of work
that a horse could do
or
several horses could do
how many horses you might ask well
that’s where we get the term horsepower
so a 10 horsepower steam engine would
replace the work of 10 horses
and by the way
you don’t have to feed the steam engine
i guess you have to make sure the fire’s
there but you don’t have to clean up
after it maybe a little bit but not like
you do a horse
and maintaining it is not like a horse
getting sick
so when he introduced the steam engine
and was able to
let people know what it could really do
it took off quickly and that is the
reason
we had the industrial revolution it
started everything so
much more than a fuel burning apparatus
used for heating water it is amazing it
started the industrial revolution so i
hope you enjoyed that history lesson
about the boiler
when we learn about history it’s
especially when you apply it to what we
do on a day-to-day basis it’s just
incredible
all the things
that we can learn
speaking of learning or maybe in this
case relearning
i know
so many people have let me know that
you’ve enjoyed my walk down memory lane
to past episodes episodes of yesteryear
if you will so we’re going to hear
another detective h2o episode today
here it is
[Music]
welcome to detective h2o the case of
standing
the rain ran serpentine paths down the
windows of the rusty blue forward as
herbert henry oxidane picwt
set waiting on johnny keeland to open
the side powerhouse door of pork belly’s
processing
when the lanky man’s shaggy head popped
out the water detective made a run for
it dodging rain drops best he could
shaking buckets of water from his coat
detective h2o said
i’m here so what’s going on johnny i got
here as fast as my bald tires would
slide me glad you made it detective h2o
these boilers aren’t doing good right
now the connectivity is through the roof
higher than my grandma that time she ate
those special brownies how high
well she danced on the tables at the
nursing home not your grandma the boiler
connectivities there are over ten
thousand micro siemens the connectivity
meter is pegged out
detective h2o whistled
that is high what’s happening any idea
none but the auro permeate storage tank
is at 1500 micro siemens too how’s that
possible city water is only a few
hundred micro siemens and the ro drops
it down to less than 10 typically it’s a
real head scratcher this one is and you
don’t feed any alkalinity booster or
anything to the auro permeate storage
tank do you
no
nothing like that
how about your dechlorination feed
upstream of the ro
is it malfunctioning and grossly
overfeeding
no i thought of that already it has the
same setting as always i even watched
and listened to the pump seemed the same
as always as it pumped away
checking the ro feed water connectivity
after the pre-filters was the same as
always too it’s a mystery
don’t you return condensate to this auro
permeate storage tank too i’ve always
said you should rename this tank the
auro permeate and condensate storage
tank
yes
we do
said johnny as the thought slowly dawned
upon him follow me johnny
said the water detective as he led the
way through the maze of pipes and
equipment
five minutes later he stood in front of
the condensate polishers
picking up the water treatment log
sheets detective h2o saw that unit
number two had come online just a few
hours ago
what is it detective
can we put this unit into manual
regeneration right now uh yes but it
just came online this morning it
shouldn’t be anywhere near time for
regeneration i realized that just humor
me a little okay here goes
unit number one coming back online
unit number two going offline and
starting the backwash sequence
the water detective stood there beside
johnny watching the regeneration water
flow to the drain
the backwash stopped and the brine draws
started the brine level dropped as
expected
then the slow rinse step started aha
exclaimed detective h2o
uncharacteristically quick go get that
connectivity meter you use johnny ran
off quick as a whip and returned shortly
after with a black analog connectivity
meter what are we going to measure
there’s no water coming out
i know that’s just as i suspected just
wait
several minutes later water flow to the
drain started again as the faster instep
started detective h2o took the
conductivity meter and measured the fast
rinse each minute for the 15 minutes of
the rinse
that’s it fix that valve right there
that’ll fix your boiler connectivities
wait what why that valve how will that
fix the boilers
as you saw no water was flowing during
the slow rinse step the valve must not
be functioning properly
since the condensate polisher did not go
through a slow rinse all the salt and
any exchanged ions did not get rinsed
out of the polishing vessel
even though it went through a fast rinse
step the connectivity only got down to
three thousand micro siemens at the end
of this regeneration
when unit number two comes back online
it will be feeding this high
connectivity water straight to the ro
permeate storage tank with the next stop
being the boiler system
we found our culprit
wow detective h2o let me check out that
slow wrench valve
sure enough the valve was not
functioning properly and was rebuilt
with increased blow down and a little
time the boiler conductivities and ro
permeate storage tank connectivity
returned to
normal a week later as detective h2o was
sitting at his oak desk listening to the
rain and thunder his phone rang once
twice three times before he answered
detective h2o here the best water
treater this side of the ohio solving
water problems drop by drop what you got
detective this is marty cochran down at
pork bellies processing i’ve got a bone
to pick with you
this bill you sent is outrageous
johnny tells me you were here for only
an hour still looking at one piece of
equipment took a few readings and left
why would you charge such an outrageous
fee for only that
well
ten dollars of the bill was for the gas
to get to your plant
see my ford is a little gas hungry the
rest isn’t just for standing there as he
said the rest is for knowing where to
stand you’re welcome
[Music]
in the underbelly and penthouses of the
metropolis of waterville where the
boilers percolate and cooling towers fog
there is one man who works tirelessly to
end corrosion stop scale fight low-life
microbes and conserve water
that man is detective h2o best water
treater the side of the ohio solving
water problems drop by drop
so on our journey back to industrial
water weeks of yesteryear i’m going to
speak with one of my mentors bruce
ketrick now this was back in episode 51
that originally aired october 2nd
2018.
bruce is one of those people
that has has really always been there
for me and he’s one of those people that
has just seen the weirdest things and
when i look at something and i have no
idea what i’m looking at
nine times out of ten bruce is going to
know exactly what i’m looking at and he
can counsel me through what i need to do
next here’s bruce
bruce what are some of your favorite
boiler resources
my favorite boiler resources yeah so
what books do you go to when because you
know everything so you don’t have to go
to books but somebody like me and i have
to go reference something what do you
recommend i would say the grtm how’s
that one
all right well that’s definitely a good
one uh anything else you can think of
yeah i i mean i have i’m a book
collector i’ve got nalco’s book i’ve got
three different versions of uh the bets
book
i’ve got the drew book from uh 30 years
ago
there’s a permuted book that went out of
publication 50 years ago which probably
has
more information on actual corrosion
cycles and reactions than
anything else that’s out there they
handed out a little pocketbook that
has every
type of reaction or detail you can think
of which doesn’t exist in publication
anywhere else and unfortunately some of
the things i look at
are held together with spit glue and
scotch tape
nation i would not be the water treater
i am today without all of the people
that i consider
mentors if you don’t have a mentor
you’re missing out and i urge you to ask
somebody to mentor you now on the other
side of that if you are not mentoring
somebody
you are also missing out and i hope you
start both of those today
our next flashback takes us back to some
of our most listened to episodes
in the scaling up h2o library i did
three episodes about filming a means
that was episode 89
90
and 91 these are the episodes where
friend of show marie krabari
shared everything we wanted to know
about
filming a means in fact i want the
scaling up nation to know that i
normally have a few questions that i ask
of my guests
and
merity and i went through those very
quickly and we just kept coming up with
more and more things to talk about
so i had scheduled on my calendar for
about 45 minutes for that episode
and it was well
over
three hours we just kept going in fact
meridie asked me at one point she goes i
can’t believe we’ve been going so long
there’s so much more we can talk about
but please can we take a bathroom break
so there’s a little behind the scenes
that nobody knew about
with that
here is the episode that originally
aired on june 14 2009 episode 90.
now i have a boiler that’s on a
phosphate program and i decide that i
want to change that over to a filming
amine program
what do i need to know and what do i
need to do so
my answer is going to go in two
different directions
if we are in a
low pressure non-critical environment so
a cni if we’re in a hospital or if we’re
in an office building or a school or i
don’t know
pick a low pressure environment then
my answer is actually just turn the
conventional chemistry off and turn your
filming technology on there’s a million
different types of chemistry out there
there’s so many different formulations
everybody’s got niche options
for
all intents and purposes filming means
don’t usually have a negative
interaction with other types of boiler
chemistries however i don’t want to say
it’s not possible and so easiest answer
both
in practical application and
economically is turn one off let’s turn
the other one on and let’s get the
system turned over
the flip side of that is high pressure
high temperature
critical operating environments right
and in that regard i would actually
refer everyone to
um a document called tech it’s technical
guidance document eight put out by the
international association of properties
of water and steam it’s free and
available online they have all sorts of
different technical guidance documents
but it is i mean it’s truly an
international collaborative by the top
professionals within an industry on how
to apply different types of applications
so there’s one specifically on filming
and means um so it walks you through the
process you will learn a lot about
filming means and nomenclature probably
you know more in depth of what we
basically worked through last week but
then also
it talks you through a bunch of
different type of applications whether
it’s biomass plants or nuclear
facilities or you know pick your
favorite high temperature high pressure
environment and it will talk you through
the ins and outs of turning one chemical
program off and bringing another
chemical program on in our experience i
truly believe that turning one off and
turning the other on is is in your best
interest especially for the majority of
the awt marketplace
but if you want more details and just um
to be able to think a little more
critically i would refer you to that
document because i think it will be an
asset to you in your understanding and
application
another episode that i know the members
of the scaling up nation really liked i
know that because you told me was an
episode we recently did about tannins
friend of show louis cloutier of tgwt
joined us on episode 191
and that aired earlier this year april
23rd
let’s say if you look at the tannins by
themselves they replace the two products
that you’re using they replace your
sulfite and they will replace your
polymer slash dispersant that you’re
going to use so so if you look at tannin
there’s a
tropolone group to it and that group
will will take care of scavenge oxygen
and if you look at the reaction curve of
tannin
and oxygen it’s really really as almost
a copy of the the catalyzed sulfide
curve
it will react faster with ph and faster
with temperature so it’s really really
similar in that that fact then you’re
going to use a little less tannin to do
the same job as the sulfite
for the polymer part tannin have the
the the property to to disperse and
avoid the position in the boiler
but it’s one also of the
the only border product that will also
have an effect on chelate chelating on
the surface so it will
um that was the last paper we did at awt
last year we were able to prove that
tannin
will interlink with the magnetite
and form a
thinner and and more robu robust film on
metal than than the usual because
conventional product
will create the right environment for
the magnetite film to form but it will
they won’t have any effect on the
magnetite itself you know so and when
you look at how magnetite behave it’s
gonna
at one point larger crystals are pushing
out and and you’re gonna have exposed
surface from time to time
all over the boiler you know it’s just a
continuous movement everything’s gonna
be covered back but
and when you add tannin to that mix the
film is really even on the surface
and and you really need to scrub it off
if you if you want to get rid of it
and then the last part is condensate
treatment so
some of the people in the u.s use tannin
to replace polymer and sulfite and they
keep their amines to treat their
condensate but
we also have a like i was telling
earlier a product that’s all in one
where we add ammonia and then ammonia
will treat will be the part that will be
volatile in the steam to treat the
condensate and and why we picked ammonia
for dairies but also because the
distribution ratio of ammonia is is one
of the highest
so it’s a true
product that’s working really well in
almost all environments
well we definitely cannot wrap up
today’s show without giving you
the next
james’s mini challenge here’s james
hello scaling up nation and happy
industrial water week today’s boiler
tuesday james’s mini challenge is
[Music]
post a picture of a fire tube a water
tube boiler from an interesting angle
you get extra points for snapping an
inside photo during an inspection
there are so many boiler designs and
sizes out there what may be normal to
you may be interesting to someone in
another part of the world
feel free to draw from photos you may
have stored away as well
most of all be sure to share your
pictures on linkedin and other social
media by tagging it with hashtag iw21
and hashtag scalinguph2o this is james
mcdonald and i look forward to seeing
what you share
[Music]
scouting up nation i love to celebrate
industrial water week with all of you
but i’d love to see you too so here’s
your challenge from trace blackmore for
this week
take a picture next to your favorite
boiler and hashtag it to iw21
and hashtag scalinguph2o
love to see that and i would love for
you to join me tomorrow as we celebrate
cooling wednesday have a great boiler
tuesday folks
[Music]
nation as we talk about boilers i’m
thinking of all the people in my career
that have helped me
solve problems that i didn’t know how to
take the first step and that’s something
that i tried to create when we started
the rising tide mastermind now we talk
about technical issues but we also talk
about any issue we need to talk about
that needs to get solved we have a
special issue solving track that is
meant to get down to the root of the
issue so we’re not talking about a
symptom of an issue we’re talking about
the real issue if you are tired of doing
life alone and let’s face it life is
just too short to do it on your own
try to have a group of directors that
can help you with mistakes that they’ve
already made
so you don’t have to suffer through them
on your own if that sounds good to you
go to scaling up h2o.com forward slash
mastermind i’d love to have a
conversation with you about the rising
tide mastermind