🔍 Key Concepts

• Boiler combustion process – what must happen to heavy fuel oil so it can burn efficiently. • Difference between air supply equipment (fans, dampers) and fuel equipment (pumps, heaters, atomizers). • How surface area of fuel droplets affects the rate and completeness of combustion.

💭 Think About

• Think about what condition the fuel must be in when it enters the furnace so that it can ignite and burn completely. • Which device on a boiler is responsible for handling air flow, and which one directly handles the fuel as it enters the burner? • How does changing the size of fuel particles (large stream vs very small droplets) change how quickly and cleanly it burns?.

✅ Before You Answer

• Identify which option describes changing the physical form of the fuel, not its temperature or the air flow. • Eliminate choices that talk about air control, which is usually handled by forced draft or induced draft fans, not atomizers. • Focus on the answer choice that most directly improves fuel-air mixing by increasing fuel surface area for combustion.