Our History

 

The founding history of DesignBoiler.com dates back to the early 1980’s. A Professional Mechanical Engineer named David Parsons worked for many years in Australia with three boiler manufacturers, two of which were licensees of the two largest boiler manufactures in the world. He was a design engineer for many years with two of these companies. These companies were responsible for the design and construction of hundreds of watertube boilers worldwide, ranging from relatively low-pressure coal and biomass grate fired boilers up to multi-burner supercritical coal fired power station boilers.

Recognising an urgent need for an independent boiler design service with similar design capabilities as these large manufactures, he established Turn Enterprises in 1983. The initial objectives of this company were to apply specialized testing and computer modelling techniques to diagnose defects with existing boiler plant and provide redesigned solutions to solve operational problems. Over a number of years Turn took on many challenging assignments including the design of a reference boiler for a 250 MWe power station project. It also developed an impressive collection of boiler performance and boiler circulation computer programs to support its primary activities of boiler design and diagnostics.

During the 1980’s, the UK Central Electricity Generating Board [CEGB] were researching technologies to extend the operating life of their power stations and boilers. Many of their boilers were built in 1960s and were approaching the end of their design life. Around this time two CEGB engineers who were involved in this research setup a private company as a means of offering this developing technology to industry. Turn quickly became affiliated with this new pioneering enterprise and provided it with boiler and thermal design expertise on multiple power station and industrial boiler plant projects.

Despite the almost universal usage of boiler plant within industry today, basic instruction on boiler design is not and hasn’t been for many years, offered to undergraduates at our universities. As such it is very difficult for engineering graduates to confidently analyze problems they encounter with steam generation equipment after taking up employment as boiler plant managers.

In 1988 Turn’s management made a concerted effort to address this problem by engaging Dr Roger Wilmshurst from the University of Manchester in the UK to assist with the development of a 3-day boiler design course. The course was loosely based on a steam and boiler design technology course offered to undergraduates at the university in the 1960’s. It was designed to incorporate a balance of theoretical and practical knowledge relating to boiler design and became known as the “Boiler Design Principles” Course. It has been extremely well received by industry and has been continuously updated over the years. To date it has been presented throughout the world for over 30 years in Asia UK, US, Australia and South America.

Towards the end of the 1990’s many VLCC oil tankers built in the 1970’s were approaching their useful life as ocean going vessel. A large number of these tankers were being reutilized on off shore well heads as Floating Production Storage and Off-loading [FPSO] facilities. The re-utilisation of these tankers required the conversion of their main propulsion boilers from oil to gas firing and modification represented a significant variation from their their design.

Turn Enterprises became involved in undertaking the necessary testing and computer modelling required by the various marine certifying authorities ( ABS , Lloyds, DV etc) for many of the boilers on these vessels and by 1996 the company was heavily committed to the marine and off shore boiler sector through this work. Initially it was predominantly involved in carrying out boiler performance computer modelling of the gas conversion of oil fired boilers on VLCC oil tankers. These tankers were being converted to fire gas for off shore operation as a Floating Production Storage and Off-loading [FPSO] facility. Often the boilers on these tankers were also subjected to substantial boiler performance testing and analysis by Turn personnel to assess their condition prior to conversion from oil to gas.

Over the years since, the company has completed many more similar studies involving the gas conversion of main propulsion boilers on oil tankers which have been repurposed for FPSO operations. Many of these vessels are still in operation around the world today in places like Brazil, Africa and Asia. Turn personnel has also completed similar testing and modelling studies on LNG super tankers and a multitude of boiler diagnostic studies on oil and LNG gas tankers as well as other FPSO installations.

But our experience has not simply been limited to oil and gas firing systems. Since its inception in 1983 the company has been heavily involved in solving combustion and operational problems, along with redesigning equipment for numerous wood and biomass grate fired boilers. It has extensive experience with pulverized coal firing, oil refinery CO boilers, boilers in chemical and food processing plants, as well as steelworks and metal processing plant boilers.

In 2007 Turn’s operation was significantly expanded after it was taken over by a global marine servicing company based in Dubai. The takeover expanded its operation in the Middle East, Africa and South America, and resulted in Turn’s technology being utilized in a number of prominent waste heat recovery plants, including two waste heat systems at refineries in the middle east and a forced circulation HRSG intended for deck mounted off shore operation. It was also involved in the design of a range of gas and oil fired boilers for deck mounted FPSOs.

After almost 35 years of operation Turn reached a significant milestone in its development when it was relaunched into an online format. The overarching objective for the transition to an online format was to provide easier and more cost-effective access to its Boiler Design IT, and to broaden its potential customer base. The online relaunch was instigated in 2017 and involved its renaming to DesignBoiler.com to better reflect its online context.