Characterization of the U.S. Industrial Commercial Boiler Population

APPENDIX A
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND ON THE DATA
SOURCES
Since there is no one complete source of data on boiler populations, this report is based
on the analysis of a wide range of data sources. This section reviews the data sources and
their strengths and weaknesses.
A.1 ABMA Sales Data
The American Boiler Manufacturers Association (ABMA) compiles sales data for boilers
sold in the United States. EEA reviewed ABMA data from 1964 through 2002.
Although other sources inventory large industrial boilers (larger than 10 MMBtu/hr), the
ABMA sales data capture sales of the thousands of units that fall below this threshold.
The most detailed information is for 1992 to 2002. Table A-1 shows a basic summary of
sales by boiler type for this period. Unfortunately, we do not know the application for
most of these units (85 percent), especially the small boilers.
Table A-1 ABMA Sales 1992-2002
Boiler Type
Number of
Units
Firetube 36,357
Watertube 33,873
Fluidized Bed Combusto 47
Stoker 68
Total 70,345
Capacity
(MMBtu/hr)
input
306,545
260,539
39,674
19,665
626,423
Firetube, typically smaller, boilers account for 52 percent of the units and 48 percent of
the capacity sold during this period. Watertube boilers account for 48 percent of the units
and 44 percent of the capacity during this period. The average capacity per unit for both
the firetube and watertube boilers sold was about six MMBtu/hr. This shows that very
few large watertube boilers were sold during this period. FBC and stoker boilers
accounted for less than one percent of the units sold since 1990 but their average size was
Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc. A-1