Top tier American college chooses Preferred Utilities as their partner in a major burner and controls retrofit project on their existing (700 hp) Johnston Boiler. With the installation of the dual fuel Preferred Utilities API-InjectAire burner, the college will reduce its electric consumption on this unit by more than 75% while increasing combustion efficiency by more than double. […]
SIMONEAU STERLING MIDWEST exclusive representative for MN, IA, ND, SD, and WI.
Preferred is happy to announce Simoneau Sterling Midwest is Preferred’s new exclusive representative for Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Todd Moore, now with Simoneau Sterling Midwest, has been a valuable partner to Preferred over the years. We look forward to working with Todd on many more great projects, supported by Simoneau Sterling’s engineering and manufacturing.”
The PCC-IV: a NEW Generation of Quality
The PCC-IV loop controller is the next generation of Preferred’s loop controllers AND upgraded technology for the entire industry. The PCC-IV is more flexible, has extensive memory, and not only replaces the Preferred PCC-III, but also can replace the Siemens Moore 352 and 353, obsolete and no longer supported starting October 2017. Preferred Utilities’s controls are just that- […]
Preferred Utilities Yesterday and Tomorrow
A New Jersey paper mill came to Preferred Utilities recently needing a quote for a new burner for their 1961 Preferred Utilities Unit Steam Generator. What is wrong with their existing Preferred burner? Nothing. The plant is being forced to convert from No. 6 heavy fuel oil to natural gas. Will their next burner last 56+ years? Maybe. […]
Lessons from an Oil Spill
Last summer a facility in Texas spilled 3,500 gallons of diesel fuel intended for one of their emergency generators. The fuel was pushed up through a day tank vent, ran across their parking lot, and into a pond adjacent to their property. The clean-up team recovered about 2,100 gallons of fuel out of the pond, but at a […]
Keeping the Data Flowing
What happened the last time your house lost power? That email you were writing might have had to wait an extra half an hour, and your refrigerator might have warmed a few degrees. At most, ordinary power outages represent a minor annoyance to the home or office. The situation is different at the massive data centers of the […]
Liquid Wood: The Renewable, Carbon-Neutral Fuel Alternative That Is Finally Ready to Burn
Discussions of sustainable energy don’t often include food flavorings. However, the same process that creates liquid smoke—the stuff you can buy at the grocery store to add a smoky flavor to just about anything—can produce liquid wood, a very environmentally friendly fuel. You may not have heard of liquid wood because, until very recently, it was quite difficult […]
Combustion Theory – Efficiency
Understanding Combustion Efficiency The efficiency of a burner-boiler combination is simply the amount of useful energy leaving the system expressed as a percentage of the chemical energy in the fuel entering the system. Why should I care about efficiency? Accounting for the loss of useful energy is an important step in evaluating overall cost. For instance, a change in […]
Combustion Theory: Variables
Accounting for variations in oxygen and fuel For any burner-boiler combination, there is an ideal “minimum excess air” level for each firing rate over the turn-down range. Usually, burners require much higher levels of excess air when operating near their minimum firing rates than they do at “high fire.” More serious factors than dirty fan wheels and dampers […]
Preferred Utilities Performs Energy Retrofit on Pharmaceutical Boiler in Puerto Rico
In conjunction with Puerto Rico representative M.R. Franceschini Inc., Preferred recently replaced an existing flame safeguard and oxygen trim system with the Preferred BurnerMate Universal (BMU) system on a 500 HP boiler at a pharmaceutical plant outside of San Juan. In addition to oxygen trim, the BMU is controlling the forced draft fan variable speed drive (VSD), and […]