Publication: Data driven technique for boiler water quality monitoring in palm oil mills
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Date
2022-07-01
Authors
Rusdi, Muhammad Rufaizal Izham
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Abstract
Steam boilers widely used in oil palm mills are intended to generate steam in the factory for process use. Based on the statistical data from DOSH Perak Section Analysis and Process, repair work for boilers in Perak for Palm Oil showed that the number of cases increased between 2014 and 2018. The increasing of repaired cases reported to DOSH need to be studied to help facilitate the operator and in the future as the lesson learn to avoid unscheduled shutdown due to increasing numbers of repaired jobs for boilers failure. In this work, the data was collected from 39 palm oil mills from the year 2017 to 2019. Data driven analysis methods of the data collected were carried out for the parameter namely total hardness, pH, total dissolved solid (TDS), total Iron, hydrate alkalinity, silica, sulphite, phosphate, chloride and cycle of concentration. A centralised data-driven technique for boiler water monitoring systems using statistical process control (SPC) was developed in this study. The application of toolboxes like box plots and correlation coefficients adequate in providing profiles and analysis for all parameters and the correlations between the parameters. From the results of the analysis, 6 parameters that being investigate which are hardness, pH, chloride, silica, total iron and sulfite are not within the recommended ASME guidelines. Total Dissolved Solid (TDS), silica, hardness, and total iron are four factors that have a significant impact on the treatment of boiler water. Therefore, proper monitoring and treatment of boiler feedwater based on ASME guidelines and performing blowdown based on the cycle of concentration for boiler water effectively protect from scaling and corrosion of boiler. As a conclusion, the finding from this study can be introduced to DOSH and it can facilitate DOSH in improving the enforcement of boiler operators to properly monitor and control parameters according to the ASME guidelines in reducing the number of boiler repair jobs, enhance and prolong the life of the boiler.