Technical articles

Daily technical learning archive

The existing archive remains available, with original English and Hinglish lessons.

SFR is not boiler efficiency

SFR compares masses. Efficiency compares energies. A change in fuel calorific value or feedwater enthalpy can change the relationship. Record both quantities and the calculation basis before drawing a conclusion.

Example: 10 tonnes of steam from 2 tonnes of fuel gives SFR 5 and specific fuel consumption 0.2 t/t. Efficiency still requires fuel and steam energy data.

Build a defensible steam-cost baseline

Choose one period and one currency. Reconcile fuel inventory, steam measurement and purchased utilities. Keep fixed costs separate to show how production volume changes unit cost.

Example: total period cost 2,000 currency units and 100 tonnes of steam gives 20 units per tonne. This is an illustrative arithmetic example, not a market benchmark.

Compare like-for-like operating periods

Log load, fuel condition, steam pressure and feedwater temperature with performance measurements. A single favourable reading does not establish sustained improvement. Flag meter corrections and missing observations before calculating an average.