How we define the words we use to describe components, processes and actions should be universal.  In an effort to help both the neophyte as well as the expert, we are asking our community of members to help form this very important template for communication.  Words give us the power to communicate clearly, succinctly and easily.  We may not all agree on every definition, so lets all agree that some terms or words should have more than one definition associated with them.

BOILERS - The common elements include: the furnace, the boiler, the super-heat section (if applicable), and various heat-recovery sections. Boilers can be fired with a variety of materials from the conventional -- coal, gas, and oil -- to the less usual --  carbon monoxide, municipal waste, and various wood and chemical by-products.  Industrial boilers come in a wide variety of sizes and configurations.

ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR (ESP) - frequently used to clean dust and fly-ash from many industrial processes. By maintaining a high voltage potential between wires and collector plates in the ESP, a charge is induced onto the dust particles, and the dust particles are then electrostatically attracted to the collector plates.

HOPPER - Dust and ash collection devices typically located beneath Electrostatic Precipitator and baghouse compartments, below heat recovery units on boilers, and in various dust collection areas in chemical processes. They are conical or trapezoidal in cross-section and taper to a collection duct at the bottom.

INDUCED DRAFT FANS (I.D. Fans) - Large, single or two-staged scroll compressors used for moving flue-gas from a boiler or process to the stack. These precision balanced fans can be to 12 feet in diameter, and they store incredible amounts of energy in the inertia of the spinning rotor. Their purpose is to move thousands of cubic feet of gas per second. 

INDUSTRIAL BAGHOUSES - Come in many sizes and configurations depending on the industry and on the quantity of gas being processed. Most baghouses use cylindrical fabric filters from 6 to 12 inches in diameter and from 6 to 30 feet long. These baghouses are used to clean everything from fly-ash to all forms of dry dusts and powders including cement, carbon-black, kaolin, powdered milk, etc.

PROCESS/BOILER HEAT EXCHANGERS - devices used to remove heat from one process-stream and to add it to another as efficiently as possible. They can take many configurations including cross-flow and reverse-flow multi-tube exchangers. Heat-transfer surfaces can be configured as finned, dimpled, or bare straight tubes. Heat exchangers can be installed at the back end of boilers or located throughout many chemical processes as heat recovery devices.

STEAM TRAP - an automatic valve that releases condensed steam (condensate) from a steam space while preventing the loss of live steam. It also removes air and non-condensables from the steam space.

UTILITY BAGHOUSE (or multi-compartment fabric filter) - frequently used to clean fly-ash from the flue gas of a coal-fired utility power boiler. Each compartment in a utility baghouse has 2,000 to 5,000 fabric filter elements, each 30 to 40 feet long and about one foot in diameter.

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