# Boiler feed treatment



## Don_Hargreaves (Feb 22, 2007)

Was the brown gloop from Houseman and Thompson we put in boiler feeds by the bucketful really sourced originally from the leaves floating in the Congo river?


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Don, it was tannin as in tea as I recall but where it came from I can't remember,

Bob


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## funnelstays (Nov 19, 2008)

Don I believe it came from various sources probably tanbark from oak.
A good oxygen scavenger allegedly.


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## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

was this to thicken ones porridge, or put into a shell boiler, or a wonderful mix one could put into a gentlemens teacup? Like a High pressure watertube boiler.
Who wears the alleged white ''gloves'' on watch in the engine room?? Answers on a post card Please!!


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## Unitedite (Aug 25, 2015)

Don't know a very great deal about marine boilers, but tannin based water treatments were also used extensively in land boilers for the self-same reasons, until they dropped out of favour. 

The stuff that we first used always seemed to smell of potato-peelings, and I remember being told that that is what they were made from. Nice!

However, I gather that they are now making something of a resurgence, allegedly as being organic, they, themselves, produce less solids than chemical-based scavengers and so, less blow-down.

So, next time that you make some chips, keep peelings, they might be worth something someday.


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## sternchallis (Nov 15, 2015)

And run your diesel on the fat you fry them in as McDee's do in their trucks.


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## jep1916 (Jan 31, 2014)

Unitedite said:


> Don't know a very great deal about marine boilers, but tannin based water treatments were also used extensively in land boilers for the self-same reasons, until they dropped out of favour.
> 
> The stuff that we first used always seemed to smell of potato-peelings, and I remember being told that that is what they were made from. Nice!
> 
> ...


I remember doing a dry docking at Smiths Dock, North Shields on the old Clyde Envoy. The ship had two Scotch Boilers and the just before closing up the water side the fitters chucked two sacks of spuds into each boiler.


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## Basil (Feb 4, 2006)

Never been involved with low pressure boiler water treatment.
For high pressure (600psi) Babcock water tube boilers we used Hydrazine (N2H4) to scavenge the last traces of O2. The reaction left you with nitrogen and water. It also changed rust to black oxide providing an O2 buffer.

When dinner guests are reluctant to leave I find that starting a conversation about boiler water treatment does the trick


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## surfaceblow (Jan 16, 2008)

Basil said:


> Never been involved with low pressure boiler water treatment.
> For high pressure (600psi) Babcock water tube boilers we used Hydrazine (N2H4) to scavenge the last traces of O2. The reaction left you with nitrogen and water. It also changed rust to black oxide providing an O2 buffer.
> 
> When dinner guests are reluctant to leave I find that starting a conversation about boiler water treatment does the trick


I also found that Phenolphthalein is dangerous in the hands of a pissed off engineer around food. The Engineer in charge of the boilers had some cake that went missing from the fridge so he laced the rest of the cake with the Phenolphthalein. The person that ate the cake had the runs for a long time.

Joe


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

surfaceblow said:


> I also found that Phenolphthalein is dangerous in the hands of a pissed off engineer around food. The Engineer in charge of the boilers had some cake that went missing from the fridge so he laced the rest of the cake with the Phenolphthalein. The person that ate the cake had the runs for a long time.
> 
> Joe


That was risky stuff for the three-oh doing boiler water analyses on the night twelve-to-four. In heavy weather one kept one's mug of tea well clear of the sampling table since it only needed one drop of Phenolphthalein in it to have somewhat explosive results! As a cure for constipation though it was incomparable!


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## Diesel Dan (Apr 16, 2014)

I was on a ship where the boiler 3rd's beer went missing from the fridge. A few days later, the 2nd mate certainly didn't stray far from the toilet. That was one drop of phenolpthalein.


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