OIL NOZZLES

Darrell

Just went back to five boilers that I did a yearly on in September that quit or started nuisance lockouts. All of them had black crap...kinda dusty looking...on the brass filter of the nozzle. Pulled the can filters in line and crystal clear. So when I stopped at the Oil distributer to but more filter cans I whined to him. He said the new low sulphur oil is to blame! These are pristine systems, no dirty tanks, no dirty lines, good oil, well-maintained by me only...please tell me that the new oil isn't going to foul my nozzles in six months time!

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Glen

low sulphur

has been blamed for several things - clogged nozzles is not one of them. Checked oil passages in the pump - for residual bits and pieces?

Bruce M

What Make Nozzle

You did not mention the make of the nozzle or of the burner. Did you set the 3 positions of the electode gap and the distance of the nozzle?

mtfallsmikey

Baked?

Poor overfire draft, nozzle assy. too far in the burner tube?

Ed_26

fouled nozzles

What kind of fuel filters? I have seen the 'felt' type (1A-30)clog smaller nozzles for some reason. Changed to fram style spin-on to remedy.

Bruce Marshall

Fouled nozzles

What you are seeing is one of the results of the refining process called calalytic cracking. This process has been used for several years now and one of the byproducts is that black sludge type material collecting on nozzle and pump strainers. Basically it is the oil molecules re-attaching to themselves. John Berg coined a term for it a few years ago....aglutenation...don't bother looking it up in a dictionary, it isn't there. Today's heating oil has a shelf life of about six months before this occurs. Double filtration with a 10 micron canister type filter has become the accepted practice.

Bruce Marshall

Bruce M

Catalytic Cracking

I believe you are speaking about catalytic cracking, you may have made a typo when you called it calalytic cracking. It has been in use at least from 1920. I believe that most of the fuel oil problems are related to micro-organisms, bacteria and enzyme activity, fungus, yeast and mold cause fuel oil degradation and the formation of waste products. In this case, the fuel filters are free of sludge and debris which leads me to believe it may be a defective nozzle, an incorrect nozzle, incorrect pump pressure or electrodes that are not gapped properly.

escaseadjug1793177

Nozzles

Check ou this site http://www.fuelright.com/
Look under Tech Notes, has nice illustration of fouled strainer on nozzles.

Darrell

Delevan A nozzles. ALL of the adjustments are done right...that's what I do. Two of them are new installs from tank to chimney top...so I doubt that old oil is a factor. The nozzle faces are clean, not burned, not anything. The Garber Spin on filters are clean, the tanks are clean, the lines are clean. All six of them have Tiger Loops. All six of them are 500 gallon tanks so the oil changes pretty regular. What ever this is is precipitating out on the brass sinter(?) filter on the nozzle and nowhere else. Not like the red stuff they were putting in the heating oil a few years back. Three of the six are Beckett AFG, Two are Beckett AFII, and one is a WMC QB. Three of the six have outside air kits. Three WMC-GO, Two Burnham-LEV, One Peerless. All of them are in clean boiler rooms. All of them are regularly maintained. Four of them have them same oil supplier and two from another. The oil supplied has always been good from both tank farms.

I'm back, after checking the web site given above...here is my situation, and I'm copying from the site:

"Degraded fuel particles. These form a dull, non-shiny black-to-brown deposit. When wet with fuel oil this stuff feels very slippery with almost no body - almost like a graphite/oil lock lubricant. As it dries out it turns to a dry, crumbly solid that turns to black dust when rubbed between your fingers.

"These particles are formed when unstable fuel oil is heated at or just ahead of the nozzle each time the burner cuts off. It is usually found on air heaters or chambered boilers - rarely on unchambered boilers. If you are treating with Fuel Right and have fouled nozzles, you will probably find that your filters and strainers are basically clean, and you have a classic case of fuel thermal instability.

"Fuel Right treatment will not help with this problem. In fact we have not found any chemical solution to this one. There are two known cures. One is to switch to a fuel with better thermal stability, such as dyed low-sulfur diesel fuel. The other is to add a 2-minute post purge to the burner to prevent nozzle heat-up upon shutoff."


Well...nuts!



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Glen

did it refer -

to how oil became unstable? I know distillate is the best fuel oil - with the second crack a less pure oil. One would expect filtration to look after it - unless the particles are less than 10 micron.

Ed_26

filters

What about Delevan's nozzle line filters? May save the nozzles at least. As a side note... I have been seeing more nozzle problems in the last month... most with recent tank fills -- may be dirty tanks, but still...?

Norm Harvey

Hey is this the Emerson Swan Bruce Marshal?

Good to see you around here.

Bruce M

Monarch Nozzles

Why not do a semi-scientific study and run half the systems with Monarch nozzles. I like Monarch because they test every single nozzle they make. They also have porous bronze filters on the nozzle.

Steamhead (in transit)

So in other words

set these burners up like we would on a W-M 68 or Peerless JO series boiler, with valve-on delay and motor-off delay.

Makes sense to me.

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Darrell

Yes, but that is a fairly expensive change of controls for something that ought not be happenng anyway. It's a tough sell..."I've eperienced some problems with nuisance lockouts on some boilers and the fix is apparently that I need to change your working, but simple, control and change it out for one that is more complex."

And, by the way, do you know what a two minute post purge does to a boiler that is connected to combustion air with an air kit at -20? At the minimum it pushes it back under the limits, on-off, on-off, on-off, there goes any efficiency that we could possibly design into a burner. At the worst, it'll freeze it.

Is this unstable oil a response to the green movement?

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Steamhead (in transit)

We usually use

the R7184P which has a 30-second motor-off delay option. 2 minutes is a bit much, especially with -20° outside air coming to the burner. I think the new GeniSys control has a 15-second MOD option but don't quote me on that....

Not such a tough sell if it eliminates these nuisance no-heat calls and the HO having to take time out of their day to let us in.

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escaseadjug1793177

Darrell

You might want to take a look at this site, It may be a simple and inexpensive cure, its worth a try.
http://www.priproducts.com/pridpage.htm

I myself do use Fuel Right. but will be looking at Pri-D for my diesel generator fuel storage as it only runs exercise cycles, and of course on outages. Could sit for a year or more. Hope this helps, Ernie.