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Boiler Feed Water Treatment In steam boiler plants, water is used as medium for transportation of energy and heat. To be used as process steam as well as for production of electricty in steam turbines. The water feeding the steam boiler is called boiler feed water. It consists of make-up water and condensate. Make-up water is added to the water-steamcycle in order to replenish losses caused by vapours, boiler blow-down and process steam usage. Condensate accumulates in steam turbines and during certain processes, and remains in the water-steam-cycle. Various gases and salts diluted in water will result in corrosion and scaling in the water-steam-system. Thus, in order to ensure a safe, failure-free and ecomonic boiler operation, there are specific requirements for the quality of boiler feed water. Saturated steam boilers are often run in salty mode, steam boilers with superheaters in low-salt mode. If steam with a high purity is required, for example for turbine operation, the boiler is run salt-free. High pressure steam boilers are always operated salt-free, a further distinction is made based upon the method of chemical conditioning. See Limit and Guideline Values for Steam Boiler Operation.

Picture: Thermal deaerator for boiler feed water treatment, flow capacity 50 t/h, commissioned 1999 in Georgsmarienhtte, Germany.

A complete boiler feed water treatment plant is composed of a make-up water treatment plant, a thermal deaeration plant, and a dosing plant. In case of salffree boiler operation, or in case of condensate pollution for operational reasons, an additional condensate treatment plant may be required. The make-up water is treated with different processes, depending upon the operation mode of the steam boiler and the quality of the raw water. The goal is to reduce the concentration of hardness builders and salts diluted in the water. For smaller steam boilers in salty operation mode, a simple softener is often sufficient. In case of raw water with a high amount of carbon hardness, an additional reverse osmosis plant or decarbonisation plant will be required.

Assuming a high raw water quality and a high condensate return, a softener can sometimes also be sufficient for steam boilers in low-salt operation however. However, an additional reverse osmosis plant is usually required. A salt-free operation mode of the steam boiler requires demineralised water. This can be obtained with either ademineralisation plant based on ion exchange, or with a reverse osmosis plant, each with a downstream mixed bed filter or EDI for fine purification respectively. The thus threated make-up water and the condensate still contain diluted gases like oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. In order to reduce especially the oxygen content to the required guideline values, the boiler feed water needs to be treated via thermal deaeration. This is conducted with a thermal deaeration plant, which also serves as last step of the boiler feed water preheating process. The dosing of conditioning agents into the boiler feed water serves for adjustment of the pH-value in the boiler water and condensate to the required guideline values. Depending upon the operation mode of the steam boiler, an excess of oxygen and hardness scavenging agents is also required, in order to scavenge traces of residual oxygen and residual hardness. The dosing agents are injected with dosing plants. Also see dosing agents for steam boiler operation. Further accessories are sample coolers for monitoring of the boiler feed water quality, a condensate tank for collecting the condensate which often accumulates free of pressure, a vapours condenser for condensation of the deaerator vapours and for pre-heating of the make-up water, as well as a blow-down vessel for pressure relief and cooling of the boiler blow down.

Picture: Boiler feed water treatment plant. Consisting of: (1) ion exchanger for make-up water treatment; (2) thermal deaeration plant; (3) vapours condenser; (4) condensate tank; (5) dosing plant; (6) blow down tank; (7) blow down cooler.