Deaeretor

A Deaeretor is a device that is widely used for the removal of air and other dissolved gases from the feed water to steam-generating boilers. In particular, dissolved oxygen in boiler feed waters will cause serious corrosion damage in steam systems by attaching to the walls of metal piping and other metallic equipment and forming oxides (rust). Water also combines with any dissolved carbon dioxide to form carbonic acid that causes further corrosion. Most Deaeretor are designed to remove oxygen down to levels of 7 ppb by weight (0.0005 cm/L) or less. There are two basic types of Deaeretor, the tray-type and the spray-type:

The tray-type (also called the cascade-type) includes a vertical domed deaeration section mounted on top of a horizontal cylindrical vessel which serves as the deaerated boiler feed water storage tank. The spray-type consists only of a horizontal (or vertical) cylindrical vessel which serves as both the deaeration section and the boiler feed water storage tank.

Types of Deaeretor
There are many different horizontal and vertical deaerators available from a number of manufacturers, and the actual construction details will vary from one manufacturer to another. Figures 1 and 2 are representative schematic diagrams that depict each of the two major types of deaerators.

Tray-type Deaeretor

Figure 1: A schematic diagram of a typical tray-type deaerator.

The typical horizontal tray-type Deaeretor in Figure 1 has a vertical domed deaeration section mounted above a horizontal boiler feed water storage vessel. Boiler feed water enters the vertical deaeration section above the perforated trays and flows downward through the perforations. Low-pressure deaeration steam enters below the perforated trays and flows upward through the perforations. Some designs use various types of packing material, rather than perforated trays, to provide good contact and mixing between the steam and the boiler feed water. The steam strips the dissolved gas from the boiler feed water and exits via the vent at the top of the domed section. Some designs may include a vent condenser to trap and recover any water entrained in the vented gas. The vent line usually includes a valve and just enough steam is allowed to escape with the vented gases to provide a small and visible telltale plume of steam. The deaerated water flows down into the horizontal storage vessel from where it is pumped to the steam generating boiler system. Low-pressure heating steam, which enters the horizontal vessel through a sparger pipe in the bottom of the vessel, is provided to keep the stored boiler feed water warm. External insulation of the vessel is typically provided to minimize heat loss.

Spray-type Deaeretor

Figure 2: A schematic diagram of a typical spray-type Deaeretor. As shown in Figure 2, the typical spray-type Deaeretor is a horizontal vessel which has a preheating section (E) and a deaeration section (F). The two sections are separated by a baffle(C). Low-pressure steam enters the vessel through a sparger in the bottom of the vessel. The boiler feed water is sprayed into section (E) where it is preheated by the rising steam from the sparger. The purpose of the feed water spray nozzle (A) and the preheat section

is to heat the boiler feed water to its saturation temperature to facilitate stripping out the dissolved gases in the following deaeration section. The preheated feed water then flows into the deaeration section (F), where it is deaerated by the steam rising from the sparger system. The gases stripped out of the water exit via the vent at the top of the vessel. Again, some designs may include a vent condenser to trap and recover any water entrained in the vented gas. Also again, the vent line usually includes a valve and just enough steam is allowed to escape with the vented gases to provide a small and visible telltale plume of steam The deaerated boiler feed water is pumped from the bottom of the vessel to the steam generating boiler system.

Deaeration steam
The deaerators in the steam generating systems of most thermal power plants use low pressure steam obtained from an extraction point in their steam turbine system. However, the steam generators in many large industrial facilities such as petroleum refineries may use whatever low-pressure steam is available.

Oxygen scavengers
Oxygen scavenging chemicals are very often added to the deaerated boiler feed water to remove any last traces of oxygen that were not removed by the Deaeretor. The most commonly used oxygen scavenger is sodium sulfite (Na2SO3). It is very effective and rapidly reacts with traces of oxygen to form sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) which is nonscaling. Another widely used oxygen scavenger is hydrazine (N2H4). Other scavengers include 1,3-diaminourea (also known as carbohydrazide), diethyl hydroxylamine (DEHA), nitriloacetic acid (NTA), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and hydroquinone.

Deaeration Systems
Deaerators are used to remove oxygen from boiler feedwater. Industrial Steam designs and manufacturers a complete line of Boiler pre-treatment equipment including:

Deaeration Systems Boiler Feed water Systems Blowdown Systems (Intermittent and Continuous) Heat Recovery Systems
Read an article on deaeration of boiler

Deaeration designs include:

Atmospheric Deaerators Pressurized Deaerators Tray type Deaerators

feedwater.

Atmospheric Deaerators
The Spray Flow II (SP5II) Atmospheric Deaerators offers a Guaranteed performance of . 005 cc/1 from 0-100% load.

Split-section receiver with integral recycle pump

Unique design eliminates the threat air re-entry Eliminates high vent losses common to other atmospheric designs

How it works : Modulated make-up water is sprayed through a stainless steel spring-loaded nozzle into a stainless steel internal vent condenser located in the scrubbing section. The nozzle produces a thin conical sheet of water, which condenses the vapors while permitting oxygen to exit through the unrestricted atmospheric vent. Pumped low temperature returns are also sprayed through the nozzle. Gravity returns flow unrestricted to the scrubbing section. The combined make-up and returns in the scrubbing section is heated with steam and recycled deaerated water from the deaerating section. Both the steam and the deaerated water enter the scrubbing section through separate stainless steel manifolds. The perforated steam manifold provides jets of steam to vigorously scrub the major portion of the dissolved oxygen from the make-up, pumped returns, and gravity returns. The temperature in the scrubbing section is controlled at 208oF at sea level, which assures the release of the majority of the dissolved oxygen without flash loss.

Atmospheric Deaerators

The scrubbing section water, which is nearly fully deaerated, is continuously recycled to the deaerating section where it is sprayed through stainless steel, wide angle, full cone nozzles. Steam enters the deaerating section in response to the temperature in the scrubbing section. Since the cycle is continuous, pure steam is always available for final deaeration. The last traces of oxygen are removed at the point of contact with the purest steam. Excess, fully deaerated water flows continuously from the deaerating section to the scrubbing section through the stainless steel recycle manifold. Trapped returns are piped to the deaerating section where flash steam is prefentially used for final deaeration. Since the recycle pump capacity exceeds the deaerator capacity by at least 25%, the deaerator is able to meet 0.005 cc/l, from zero to 100% load. This same feature also enables the deaerator to supply fully deaerated water to the boiler on start-up. Rapid load changes and on-off boiler feed water controls. which are very troublesome for other atmospheric Deaerators, will not affect the Spray Flow II's performance or operation.

Pressurized Deaerator
How it works: Water flow Incoming undeaerated water and pumped returns enter the deaerator through a springloaded stainless steel nozzle, which directs the flow in conical sheets into the steam atmosphere of the direct contact vent condenser. At this point, the water temperature is raised to within a few degrees of steam temperature and most of the corrosive, noncondensable gases are removed. The water is directed by a stainless steel tray section into the Jet Spray atomizing valve. Here a high velocity of incoming pure steam literally atomizes the water into minute particles. This violet scrubbing action removes the last traces of dissolved gases. The hot, deaerated water then falls to the storage compartment for boiler use.

Pressurized Deaerator

Steam Flow - Steam initially enters the deaerator through a special, stainless steel Jet Spray atomizing valve. This valve is designed to fully atomize and provide complete deaeration under all load conditions. This design insures that the purest steam comes in contact with the purest water. Once this high velocity steam mechanically shakes out the last traces of non-condensable gases from the water, it flows upward into the preheater area where it meets the incoming make-up water and pumped returns. This water continuously condenses the steam, which preheats and releases the non-condensable gases into the internal vent condenser where they are metered harmlessly to the atmosphere. This action causes more steam to be drawn into 6the system to complete the cycle.