The Industrial Boiler and Steam System Hand Book

The complete working reference for industrial steam plant.

Steam is the backbone of modern manufacturing — and the boiler house is where efficiency, reliability, safety and cost are decided every single day. Yet most engineers learn boilers piecemeal: some thermodynamics at university, some hard lessons on the plant floor, and a manufacturer's manual that explains the equipment but never the judgement.

The Industrial Boiler Handbook closes that gap.

Written from more than 27 years of hands-on experience across FMCG manufacturing — confectionery, chocolate, coffee, edible oils and consumer products — it brings boiler engineering, steam utilities, water chemistry, maintenance, reliability, energy management and digital transformation together in a single professional volume.

Every chapter moves from first principles to the practical consequence on the plant floor: what the theory means for fuel cost, for steam quality, for the maintenance window, and for the people running the equipment.

Inside — 16 chapters:

• Boiler types, design, construction and selection
• Combustion, fuels, burners and emissions
• Feedwater treatment, water chemistry and steam purity
• Steam distribution, traps and condensate recovery
• Operation, start-up, shutdown and safe practice
• Maintenance, reliability and asset management
• Efficiency, heat recovery, energy auditing and sustainability
• Instrumentation, control, automation and the smart boiler house

Ten appendices built for daily use:

• Saturated and superheated steam tables
• Unit conversions for pressure, energy, power, mass and flow
• Efficiency, blowdown, flash steam and pipe-sizing formulas, with worked examples
• Water chemistry and steam purity limits
• Fuel properties and combustion data
• Start-up, shutdown, daily, weekly, monthly and annual inspection checklists
• Symptom-based troubleshooting guides
• Codes, standards and statutory reference
• Engineering reference charts
• Performance indicators and a structured improvement register

Plus a full glossary, abbreviations list and subject index.

Who it's for: boiler and utility engineers, energy managers and auditors, maintenance and reliability teams, instrumentation and controls engineers, plant and operations managers, and graduates entering industry. Suggested reading paths for each are given in the opening pages.

Whether you are commissioning a new boiler house, chasing the last few percent of efficiency, preparing for a statutory inspection, or troubleshooting at two in the morning, this handbook is built to be opened at the point of need.