Deaerator

1.1 Tray-type deaerator

Deaerator plant

A deaerator is a device that is widely used for the removal of oxygen and other dissolved gases from the
feedwater to steam-generating boilers. In particular, dissolved oxygen in boiler feedwaters will cause serious corrosion damage in steam systems by attaching to the walls
of metal piping and other metallic equipment and forming
oxides (rust). Dissolved carbon dioxide combines with
water to form carbonic acid that causes further corrosion.
Most deaerators are designed to remove oxygen down to
levels of 7 ppb by weight (0.005 cm/L) or less as well as
essentially eliminating carbon dioxide.[1][2][3]

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

The typical horizontal tray-type deaerator in Figure 1 has

a vertical domed deaeration section mounted above a horizontal boiler feedwater storage vessel. Boiler feedwater enters the vertical deaeration section above the perforated trays and ows downward through the perforations.
There are two basic types of deaerators, the tray-type and Low-pressure deaeration steam enters below the perfothe spray-type:[2][4][5][6][7]
rated trays and ows upward through the perforations.
Some designs use various types of packed bed, rather than
The tray-type (also called the cascade-type) includes
perforated trays, to provide good contact and mixing bea vertical domed deaeration section mounted on top
tween the steam and the boiler feed water.
of a horizontal cylindrical vessel which serves as the
The steam strips the dissolved gas from the boiler feeddeaerated boiler feedwater storage tank.
water and exits via the vent valve at the top of the domed
The spray-type consists only of a horizontal (or ver- section. Should this vent valve not be opened suciently
tical) cylindrical vessel which serves as both the the deaerator will not work properly, causing high oxygen
deaeration section and the boiler feedwater storage content in the feed water going to the boilers. Should the
tank.
boiler not have an oxygen content analyser a high level in
the boiler chlorides may indicate the vent valve not being far enough open. Some designs may include a vent
condenser to trap and recover any water entrained in the
1 Types of deaerators
vented gas. The vent line usually includes a valve and just
There are many dierent horizontal and vertical deaer- enough steam is allowed to escape with the vented gases
ators available from a number of manufacturers, and to provide a small visible telltale plume of steam.
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.

The deaerated water ows 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
1

REFERENCES

bottom of the vessel, is provided to keep the stored boiler facilities such as petroleum reneries may use whatever
feedwater warm. External insulation of the vessel is typ- low-pressure steam is available.
ically provided to minimize heat loss.

1.2

Spray-type deaerator

3 Oxygen scavengers
Oxygen scavenging chemicals are very often added to the
deaerated boiler feedwater to remove any last traces of
oxygen that were not removed by the deaerator. The
type of chemical added depends on whether the location uses a volatile or non-volatile water treatment program. Most lower pressure systems (<650psi) use a
non-volatile program. Most higher pressure systems
(>650psi) and all systems where certain highly alloyed
materials are present, are now using volatile programs
as the old phosphate-based programs are phased out.
Volatile programs are further broken down into oxidizing or reducing programs [(AVT(O) or AVT(R)] depending whether the waterside environment requires an oxidizing or reducing environment to reduce the incidence
of ow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) which is a highly debated topic within the industry today. FAC-related failures have caused numerous accidents in which signicant
loss of property and life has occurred.

Figure 2: A schematic diagram of a typical spray-type deaerator.

As shown in Figure 2, the typical spray-type deaerator is a

horizontal vessel which has a preheating section (E) and a
deaeration section (F). The two sections are separated by
a bae (C). Low-pressure steam enters the vessel through
a sparger in the bottom of the vessel.

The most commonly used oxygen scavenger for lower

pressure systems is sodium sulte (Na2 SO3 ). It is very
eective and rapidly reacts with traces of oxygen to form
sodium sulfate (Na2 SO4 ) which is non-scaling. Another
widely used oxygen scavenger properly diluted and for
locations using volatile programs is hydrazine (N2 H4 ).

Other scavengers include 1,3-diaminourea (also known

The boiler feedwater is sprayed into section (E) where it as carbohydrazide), diethylhydroxylamine (DEHA),
is preheated by the rising steam from the sparger. The nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA), ethylenediaminetetraacetic
purpose of the feedwater spray nozzle (A) and the pre- acid (EDTA), and hydroquinone.
heat section is to heat the boiler feedwater to its saturation
temperature to facilitate stripping out the dissolved gases
in the following deaeration section.
The preheated feedwater then ows 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 feedwater is pumped from the bottom of the vessel to the steam generating boiler system.

4 See also

Air preheater
Economizer
Feedwater heater
Fossil fuel power plant
Thermal power station
Degasication
Defoamer

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

5 References
[1] The Deaerator Principle
[2] Pressurized deaerators

[3] Deaerator Presentation

[4] Spray-type Deaerator Operating Principal
[5] Robert Thurston Kent (Editor in Chief) (1936). Kents
Mechanical Engineers Handbook (Eleventh edition (Two
volumes) ed.). John Wiley & Sons (Wiley Engineering
Handbook Series).
[6] Babcock & Wilcox Co. (2005). Steam: Its Generation
and Use (41st ed.). ISBN 0-9634570-0-4.
[7] Thomas C. Elliott, Kao Chen, Robert Swanekamp (coauthors) (1997). Standard Handbook of Powerplant Engineering (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 007-019435-1.

External links
Association of Water Technologies

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Deaerator Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaerator?oldid=682087677 Contributors: Mwanner, Evand, Pearle, Hooperbloob,

Linas, RHaworth, ScottDavis, Rtdrury, Ewlyahoocom, RussBot, Avraham, Dore chakravarty, N Yo FACE, Hmains, Langbein Rise, Can't
sleep, clown will eat me, Theanphibian, Mbeychok, Chardy~enwiki, Natalie Erin, RobotG, Chemical Engineer, LorenzoB, Beagel, Verdatum, Tanvir Ahmmed, Maine12329, Dthomsen8, Imran mehdi, Addbot, BerkeleyLab, ChNPP, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Fraggle81, Daniele
Pugliesi, JackieBot, Materialscientist, Citation bot, Steamplant10, Chongkian, Hamamelis, FrescoBot, Gire 3pich2005, DrilBot, EmausBot,
Cranenv, Steamplant7, Widr, Helpful Pixie Bot, Chadillac187, Ignatus, RscprinterBot, Darreny, BattyBot, Mrt3366, AutomaticStrikeout,
Riddleh, Supdiop and Anonymous: 57

7.2

Images

File:Deaerator.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Deaerator.png License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons. Original artist: Mbeychok at English Wikipedia
File:Open_deaerator_plant.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Open_deaerator_plant.jpg License:
CC0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Ignatus
File:SprayDeaerator.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/SprayDeaerator.png License: Public domain
Contributors: Own work Original artist: Mbeychok

7.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0