Boiler Veins
Posted by:
Peter Heid (IP Logged)
Date: March 25, 2002 12:36AM
<HTML>Boiler health, I found, is related to human health when it comes to blockages to flow and their remedies. Chelation (Kee-lay-shun) is the incorporation of a metal or other substance in to a heterocyclic ring. The chelating agent is normally a colloid, a tiny particles that forms a colloidal with water, not a true solution. Starch is the colloid most people are familar with, even if not familar with the term. A chelating agent floats around in the form of an incomplete cyclic ring waiting to be electrochemically satisified by incorpating a metal into its structure an acheiving a neutral charge while completing the ring. When incorporation forms a closed ring, the incorporated metal looses its properties and assumes those of the ring it is now part of. The ring , being neutral, will not easily bond to similar metals or its containing vessel. Human chelation procedures were developed in Russia for the treatment of toxic metal poisioning in 1931 using EDTA. EDTA (ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid), a non toxic amino acid often used as a food preservative, was the first successful treatment for lead poisioning of any sort. Since then EDTA has been used for the effective removal of radiation and calcium deposits such as kidney stones, prosthetic calcinosis and clacific bursitis. The most common use is for the removal of atherosclerotic plaques, the goo that blocks blood vessels and is the cause of occlusive vascular diease. Though not officially recognized by our cash cow medical system, many countries use EDTA chelation for the treatment of stroke, senility, blood vessel diease, kidney trouble and other degenerative dieases with great success.
Yes I know, you don't run steam through your veins and you can't blow down your kidneys so why on the steam forum you ask ? Well way back in the early days of steam, some workers tending Watts steam machine were in the habit of cooking potatos in the boiler. One day they apparently were interupted from their dinner and forgot the potatos in the boiler. Two weeks hence, they discovered to their amasement, the potatoes kept the boiler much cleaner and any deposits were mushy and easily removed. This was the first use of a chelating agent, discovered by accident, the most common method of discovery. By 1820 it was common to add 1 to 2% of potatos to feed water. The most frequently used colloids for boiler theropy are tannins, starch and casein. The use of chelating colloids for boiler water treatment may not prevent the accumulation of deposits but it will slow the process and make the deposits easier to remove during cleaning.
Again I must wonder about the use of a cathodic treatment to provide boiler protection. The accumulation of deposits, as with metalic corrosion, requires ion availability to occurr and a cathodic devise can prevent this.
Peter Heid</HTML>