Boiler Feed and Cooling Water Treatment was the Hot Topic February 18, 2010

Ram Venkatadri, Global Marketing Manager in the Energy Group of Pall Corporation, focused on treatment of make-up water and reuse water to provide high quality boiler feed water. He stated the following:

• In water-scarce regions such as the western US, the purchase of fresh makeup water is an expensive proposition.
• Many municipal and industrial plants are converting secondary/tertiary effluent from their wastewater plant into water for boiler feed or use in processes such as cooling tower makeup.
• Microfiltration / reverse osmosis and demineralization are technologies used in water re-use projects.
• The example shown in the slides was from the Burbank Water and Power plant in Burbank, CA.

Devesh Mittal, Vice-President of Industrial Solutions (America’s) at Aquatech International Corporation, discussed FEDI (Fractional Electro De-Ionization), an advanced EDI technology to eliminate the need for rental mixed beds to treat RO permeate. Fractional Electro De-Ionization has the following advantages:

1. Ability to handle hardness 3 ppm (max 5 ppm) as CaCO₃.
2. Ability to handle free CO₂.
3. Lower power consumption.
4. Hardness scaling extremely low.
5. Silica scaling extremely low.
6. Membrane deterioration very low.
7. Bypassing of IX resin media non-existent.
8. Ability to regenerate modules in short time.
9. Feed pressure requirement 40 psig vs. 70 psig for others.
10. Water splitting only as desired.

David G. Daniels, Principal Scientist at M&M Engineering Associates, Inc., analyzed flow accelerated corrosion. His advice was as follows:

• Higher pH is better
  • 9.0-9.3 (mixed metallurgy)
  • 9.2-9.6 (all ferrous)
• If you don’t have copper alloys don’t use a reducing agent.
• If you do have copper alloys – maintain a consistent low (ppb) residual of the reducing agent in the feedwater.

Tony Rossi, Global Product Manager GE Water and Process, evaluated alternatives for condensate treatment.

• Neutralizing Amines – address carbonic acid and reducethe corrosive effect of dissolved oxygen, as well, by boosting pH.
• Filmers – address both oxygen and carbonic acid.
• Passivators – improve treatment performance when O₂ is present.

Our webinars in the past months have tied many plant operations to heavy metals in the wastewater. One Wisconsin utility has identified the metals in the acids they use as a contributing factor. Another traced the high nickel emissions to the FGD grinding balls, so there is new interest in the contribution of boiler and cooling water discharges to water toxics.

The Bios, Abstracts and Photos can be viewed as follows:

BIOS, PHOTOS, ABSTRACTS - FEBRUARY 18, 2010.htm

The individual slides can be viewed through the following links.

Devesh Mittal - Aquatech 02-18-10.pdf

Ram Venkatadri - Pall Corp. - 02-18-10.pdf

David Daniels - M&M Engineering Associates, Inc. 02-18-2010.pdf

Anthony Rossi - GE Power & Water - 02-18-10.pdf