Chemical Safety in Steam Boiler

Steam boiler operation always use chemical to treat feedwater and boiler water as expected purpose. Chemical which is injected into steam drum has a purpose to make scale and sediment is soluble and drainable. Chemical is also used for water treatment system to solvent, descale, softening, and so on. Chemical around steam boiler area has a lot of types and functions. Therefore the operator should have good knowledge and has special consideration for chemical materials and equipments to ensure steam boiler is running safety.

All of chemical material must be identified and labeled based on its type and function whether the chemical is toxic content or not, flammable or not, explosive able or not and so on. The label must show the content of chemical, hazardous type, etc (see figure 1). Operator of steam boiler or other personnel must be equipped with safety protection such as mask, rubber shoes, rubber apron, face shield, goggles and rubber gloves.

Figure 1: One of Chemical Label in Steam Boiler Area

Do not open or change related with chemical storage or equipment such as label, seal, cover, location and so on if do not know what is the content and function of that chemical equipment. Identify chemical content is useful to take proper action to use, make disposal procedure, and clean up procedure. For more detail safety induction in steam boiler can be seen in code National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).