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Posted by Rick on February 27, 2007 at 21:13:48:
In Reply to: Johnson firetube boiler, (biomass) posted by Kraig on February 27, 2007 at 18:58:47:
: They are specking out a johnson firetube boiler for the new biomass plant being built this spring.(25,000 lb. hr. boilker) I do not know anything about Johnson boilers or firetubes for that matter, we have all watertube. How will cleaning a firetube boiler be as compared to a watertube? I know it is not much fun crawling into the drums on a watertube boiler.We will be burning the gas from the wood chips so I assume it will be very clean. Is punching the tubes on such a unit difficult? We have an air driven tube cleaner. How about the reliability/durability of the Johnson boiler? any Pros or Cons? Thanks.
The boiler manufacturer is Johnston and they market scotch marine boilers equipped with stokers for burning solid fuels. If you are burning biomass from wood waste a firetube is not your best bet, depending on the amount of sap in the waste. It will plug up the tubes on a firetube boiler and make it much more difficult to clean than a watertube boiler. A watertube boiler would be a better design but much more expensive.