Sealed vessel where water is converted to steam; SYN. steam boiler.
Any vessel that converts water into steam. Boilers are used in conventional power stations to generate steam to feed steam turbines, which drive the electricity generators. They are also used in steamships, which are propelled by steam turbines, and in steam locomotives. Every boiler has a furnace in which fuel (coal, oil, or gas) is burned to produce hot gases, and a system of tubes in which heat is transferred from the gases to the water.
The common kind of boiler used in ships and power stations is the water-tube type, in which the water circulates in tubes surrounded by the hot furnace gases. The water-tube boilers at power stations produce steam at a pressure of up to 300 atmospheres and at a temperature of up to 600şC/1,100şF to feed to the steam turbines. It is more efficient than the fire-tube type that is used in steam locomotives. In this boiler the hot furnace gases are drawn through tubes surrounded by water.