THERMAL OIL BOILER:

(B JAMES JAYABALAN)

Problem envisaged :

Thermal oil boiler dumping condenser, tubes leakage.The cargo was getting heated by using the thermal oil. On a particular day, the circulating pump for the thermal oil started making noise and was loosing suction. Standby pump was started, but the problem repeated. Problem was traced and found that in the dumping condenser, the oil was leaking. Since the oil was available in storage tanks, the same was supplemented till the cargo discharge was over.

After the cargo work, the ship was taken to lay up berth and 6 leaky tubes were replaced.Though the operational wise, the thermal oil boilers are easier compared to water tube boilers, when the repair comes it becomes very expensive.