Boiler feedwater pump

A boiler feedwater pump is a specic type of pump

used to pump feedwater into a steam boiler. The water
may be freshly supplied or returning condensate produced
as a result of the condensation of the steam produced by
the boiler. These pumps are normally high pressure units
that take suction from a condensate return system and can
be of the centrifugal pump type or positive displacement
type.

Construction and operation

Feedwater pumps range in size up to many horsepower

and the electric motor is usually separated from the pump
body by some form of mechanical coupling. Large industrial condensate pumps may also serve as the feedwater
pump. In either case, to force the water into the boiler,
the pump must generate sucient pressure to overcome
the steam pressure developed by the boiler. This is usually
accomplished through the use of a centrifugal pump. Another common form of feedwater pumps run constantly
and are provided with a minimum ow device to stop
overpressuring the pump on low ows.The minimum ow
usually returns to the tank or deaerator.

1.1

Weir feedwater pump

Failure of mechanical seal

pump was often powered using a small steam engine that

ran using the steam produced by the boiler. A means had
to be provided, of course, to put the initial charge of water into the boiler (before steam power was available to
operate the steam-powered feedwater pump). The pump
was often a positive displacement pump that had steam
valves and cylinders at one end and feedwater cylinders
at the other end; no crankshaft was required.

Since the corrosion inhibitor hydrazine has been forbidden as of the health risks connected to it, mechanical seals
of boiler feedwater pumps show signs of electrical corrosion unknown before. The relative movement between
the sliding ring and the stationary ring provokes static
charging which in contrast to the past are no longer
diverted as of the very low conductivity of the boiler water below one micro-Siemens per cm [S/cm]. Within
short periods of operation in some cases only a few hundred operational hours pieces having the size of nger
tips break o from the sliding and/or the stationary ring
and cause rapid increases in leakage current. Diamondcoated (DLC) mechanical seals avoid this problem and
extend durability remarkably.[1]

2.1 Duplex steam pump

A duplex steam pump has two sets of steam and water cylinders. They are not physically connected but the
steam valves on the rst pump are operated by the movement of the second pumps piston rod, and vice versa.
The result is that there are no dead spots and the pump
is always self-starting.[2]

Steam-powered pumps
3 See also

Steam locomotives and the steam engines used on ships

and stationary applications such as power plants also require feedwater pumps. In this situation, though, the

Boiler feedwater
1

4
Injector

References

[1] Diamond-coated (DLC) seals in 27.000h endurance test,

Technical University of Graz
[2] Duplex Pump (from Internet Glossary of Pumps)". Animatedsoftware.com. Retrieved 2012-04-22.

REFERENCES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

Boiler feedwater pump Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiler%20feedwater%20pump?oldid=653732215 Contributors: Edward,

Discospinster, Mwanner, Hooperbloob, Atlant, Bill, SmackBot, Sandybanger, EdJogg, Pumpmind, Tetris L, Andy Dingley, DavesPlanet,
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ClueBot NG, BG19bot, Bewisi and Anonymous: 23

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