Boiler Blog | Nationwide Boiler Inc.

Located in Lathrop, CA, the Discovery ChalleNGe Academy is a Community High School run by the California National Guard in partnership with the San Joaquin County Office of Education. Part of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program (NGYCP), the Academy was founded in 1993 to assist students in enhancing life skills, education levels, and employment potential.  This military-style program houses, feeds, and educates 16 to 18-year-old young adults that were unable to complete high school due to varying unfortunate circumstances. The program allows students to earn 65 High School credits while developing leadership, job, and academic skills, while improving self-esteem, pride, and confidence.  

With the school year coming to an end and graduation quickly approaching, The Academy set up a trip for a group of students working to complete their high school credits, and Nationwide Boiler was honored to participate. The goal of this field trip was to educate the graduating class on the many different education, trade, and career opportunities available to them once they step out into the real world.

The first stop of the day was San Jose State University, where they toured the campus and the new $130M recreation center. After experiencing lunch like a college student in the Student Union, they headed north to Nationwide’s shop in Fremont. Upon arrival, the students congregated on the patio to hear a warm welcome from President & CEO, Larry Day, and Vice President, Michele Tomas. The group was then taken on a tour of our 26,000 sq. ft. shop, where day-to-day activities include; boiler maintenance, welding, painting, electrical work, fabrication, equipment assembling, and other technical skills.

Nationwide Boiler’s Shop & Service Managers, Andrew Horne and Michael Rosmando, educated the students on the basics of a boiler system, and walked them through the different trade skills and career opportunities available not just here at Nationwide, but from other companies in similar and varying industries. Many of the students were interested in welding, electrical, and accounting careers. Who knows… we may have just met future Nationwide employees!

At Nationwide Boiler, we feel strongly about training and educating our youth so that we are able to successfully sustain our business and industry for future generations, and we are happy to have had the opportunity to be a part of this inspiring program. Thank you to Todd Robinson and the NGYCP for providing young adults with an opportunity that will help them secure their futures.

Recent studies show that companies are restructuring their culture, steering away from the competitive work environment with minimal employee recognition, and shifting towards adapting a more team-centric and collaborative working atmosphere.

Nationwide Boiler is proud to say that we have always been a company that encourages team building, and are more than happy to recognize and reward our employees as they excel in their position. In fact, in addition to 5-year length of service awards that are presented at our annual Christmas party, we recognize employees who make a big impact with our ‘Big Kahuna’ award at each quarterly birthday celebration.

To encourage camaraderie throughout our company, Nationwide Boiler coordinates multiple events for employees to take part in. This year we have a total of 6 sporting events in the lineup, including soccer, baseball, and college football. The next game we are looking forward to is the Oakland A’s vs. Texas Rangers, and of course, we will be rooting for the A’s! We also coordinate multiple barbeques & dessert socials throughout the year to satisfy our many food lovers and celebrate certain events. Most recently, we held our Independence Day barbeque the week of July 4^th. We had grill masters, Larry Day and Michele Tomas, cook up some delicious burgers and hotdogs; while Holly Lepo spoiled us all with her famous and delicious chili, yum! We can’t wait for the next one.

In addition to being sports enthusiasts and foodies, we also like participating and getting in on the action. We recently hosted a bowling lunch at our local bowling alley, Cloverleaf Family Bowl. The group was split into 8 teams (with fun, creative team names), in a competition to win the title of Nationwide Boiler’s 2019 Bowling Champions. In the end, Team Vapor & Team Combustion went head to head, but Team Vapor came out on top. Congratulations to Tim McBride, Phil Blake, Nic Petty, and Sandy Nevels. Let’s see who will take home the title at our next bowling event! 

Be sure to read Part I of this series to learn about emissions requirements in the SCAQMD.

In the last edition of Boiler Blog 101, we discussed air permitting rules and regulations in the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). In part II, we will cover the basics of air permitting for boilers in another California district that leads the country in air pollution control; the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD).

The SJVAPCD was founded in 1991 with a mission to improve the health and quality of life for all Valley residents through efficient, effective and entrepreneurial air quality management strategies. The SJVAPCD is made up of eight counties in the Central Valley of California; San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, and Kern.

The rules that have been set forth specifically for boilers, steam generators, and process heaters are outlined below:

Starting at the beginning of 2019, the SJVAPCD implemented a new rule titled, Best Available Control Technology (BACT). This rule requires that all new permits meet the lowest NOx limits that have been achieved, regardless of what is mandated. In addition, due to Assembly Bill 617, boiler owners in the SJVAPCD are mandated to meet Best Available Retrofit Control Technology (BARCT) for any existing equipment retrofits. This means that when your boiler needs to be upgraded or replaced, it must meet more stringent NOx limits, which can be as low as 7 ppm.

These rules can be overwhelming, which is why Nationwide Boiler’s AQMD experts are capable and ready to assist you with the permitting process needed for your facility. Furthermore, we can help you reduce NOx to comply with your air emissions regulations. Nationwide Boiler’s CataStak™ SCR system is proven to reduce NOx levels to as low as 2.5 ppm. Contact us today for more details.

Promoting a sustainable future is the focus now more than ever in the boiler industry, and Nationwide Boiler has been at the forefront of identifying and supplying reliable ultra-low NOx solutions to industry for more than three decades. Today, we can proudly state that we have achieved 5 ppm NOx performance with a recent ultra-low NOx burner/boiler package - and the outlook is bright for this ultra low NOx burner. 

With half of the state covered in forests, it is no surprise that Washington is one of the country's largest lumber and plywood producers. Exterior Wood is a leader in the industry for pressure treated wood products and is in the same business park as Nationwide Control Solutions, a division of Nationwide Boiler Inc. Facing operational issues with their existing 700 HP CB boiler, Exterior Wood consulted Nationwide Control Solutions to evaluate their system and recommend the best solution to address each of the problem areas.

The problem areas that were identified included: (1) the burner head assembly constantly getting burnt out and replaced, (2) the combustion air fan motor which was rebuilt many times without a like-in-kind replacement option, and (3) stack temperatures at low fire were so low that the stack gases would condense in the stack and rain down corrosive condensate on the boiler tubes. Plus, the boiler tuning was becoming increasingly difficult to meet their local emissions requirements due to the age and condition of the existing burner controls. After a thorough review of existing equipment, site conditions, and natural gas usage reports, we concluded that the boiler was greatly oversized and that continuing to replace and rebuild components was not a viable solution for the longevity of the system.

Based on these results, our team offered a new 250 HP Superior package firetube boiler with an Oilon LN30 ultra-low NOx burner that was capable of not just meeting but exceeding their NOx emissions requirements of 12 ppm. Upon start-up and source testing, the ultra-low NOx capabilities of the Oilon burner were proven with the impressive results of 5 ppm NOx and 0 ppm CO output. Plus, the LN30 recently completed additional testing on a boiler from Nationwide's stock inventory, with results that prove it to be a reliable 2.5 ppm option.

Built upon cutting-edge technology, this new Superior Boiler/Oilon burner package will provide Taiga / Exterior Wood with many years of low maintenance and reliable operation. And, with a commitment to sustainability and efficiency, this solution ensures future emissions compliance to help minimize environmental impact.

Check out Nationwide Boiler's recent press release for additional information. If you would like to learn more about how you can achieve ultra-low emissions requirements, contact us or call 1-800-227-1966.