Why do boilers soot?

RayWohlfarth

This weeks video discusses the common reasons boiler will soot. It's better to avoid boiler sooting and the mess it leaves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRPnOthFu9Q

Hap_Hazzard

I'll take a wild guess and say the air/fuel mixture is too rich. That's why internal combustion engines soot.Hydrocarbons contain hydrogen and carbon atoms. Hydrogen is more combustible than carbon, so burning hydrocarbons in the presence of too little oxygen for complete combustion strips off the hydrogen first, turning it into water, leaving the carbon to combine with itself in a variety of interesting ways, forming double bonds and cyclic hydrocarbons. Among these, the cyclic aromatic compounds are some of the most toxic, carcenogenic chemicals on earth. They're not just bad to breathe, they're the reason chimney sweeps were the first population doctors studied to try to understand cancer. Tumors galore.