Best Practice in Boiler Water Treatment

Boiler Water Treatment Part 1 - Pre-Treatment

Pre-treatment (external treatment) refers to the treatment of the raw or mains water supply as far
as the hotwell/deaerator. The treatment that takes place between the feedtank and the boiler itself
is covered in the guide “Boiler Water Treatment Part 2 – Internal Treatment” which you can
download from Explore on Tuesday 30th June.

- The water should be clear and produce no stable foam when agitated
- The pH should be somewhere between 8.5 and 9.5 (9.2 in systems containing copper alloys)
- The water should contain NO hardness, oil, or grease

Filtration
Where water has been taken from a source other than a potable one, it may be necessary to filter
the water to remove solid matter.

A number of techniques can be used depending on the source:

- Sedimentation (allowing time for heavier particles to sink naturally)

- Clarification (using charged particles to attract fine suspended solids into clumps that
subsequently sink)
- Sand/carbon filtration

Water Softening
When it comes to industrial boilers all mains water is hard water (even if you live in an area
considered to have soft water by the washing powder companies!)

The amount of hardness salts must be lowered below two parts per million (measured as calcium
carbonate). If this level is not maintained, a hard ‘rock-like’ substance (scale) forms on the heat
transfer surfaces of the boiler forming an insulating layer, reducing the boiler efficiency and
increasing the metal temperatures. Some of the solid material will break off and collect in the
bottom of the boiler. Left unchecked, insulated surfaces can overheat and crack leading to leaks or
even catastrophic failure.

Note: Magnetic water softening equipment must not be used on industrial boilers.
The main methods of water softening are:

Base exchange softening

The simplest and probably most commonly used method.

A resin bed is ‘charged’ with sodium ions by washing it with a strong brine solution. As hard water
passes over the resin, the sodium is substituted for the calcium or magnesium ion in the water. The
resultant sodium compounds will not deposit out in the boiler, therefore preventing scale formation.
These dissolved solids are instead removed by TDS blowdown. Once the resin bed has been
exhausted, it is again recharged using a brine wash. The time between washes can be determined by
a simple time clock but is more commonly measured by metering the water flow through the
softener. While the bed is being regenerated hard water is allowed to bypass. As a result, it is
common to find two units side by side to ensure a continuous supply of soft water.

De-alkalisation
Base exchange softeners do not reduce the level of alkalinity or dissolved solids in the boiler water.
The alkaline component decomposes in the boiler, releasing carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is
reabsorbed by returning condensate to form carbonic acid. This acid will erode condensate
pipework. Where the make-up water is particularly alkaline in nature, steps should be taken to
reduce the level of alkalinity in order to protect condensate pipework.

De-alkalisation differs from base exchange by exchanging ions of calcium and magnesium for
hydrogen instead of sodium, thus converting alkaline hardness elements to water and carbon
dioxide (also reducing the level of dissolved solids). The carbon dioxide is then extracted through a
de-gassing tower. The now acidic water is then treated to raise the pH above 8.5 before being
passed, if necessary, to a base exchange softener to remove any non-alkaline hardness.

De-mineralisation
De-mineralisation units look similar to base exchange softeners but produce water with very low
levels of dissolved solids by removing all minerals. The units work by first passing the water through
a strong acid to remove the cations and then a base solution to remove the anions. A degassing
tower is used to remove carbon dioxide.

The resin beds are regenerated using dilute hydrochloric or sulphuric for the cation bed and sodium
hydroxide for the anion bed. De-mineralisation plants are not often found working alongside steam
boilers due to the high running cost, although it is normal to expect a hot-water system, which uses
considerably less water than a steam system, to be charged with demineralised water.
Reverse Osmosis (RO)
Osmosis refers to the free flow of a solvent (in our case, water) through a semi-permeable
membrane into a region with a comparatively higher concentration of dissolved solids. This tends to
balance the concentration of solids on both sides of the membrane. The process can be reversed by
using pressure; this pushes the solvent (water) back through the membrane whilst retaining the
impurities. This purified water (called permeate) typically has a dissolved solids concentration 99%
lower than the feed water. If the rejected solution (brine) cannot be used in a low grade process, it
must be disposed of.

RO will not remove dissolved gasses so consideration should be given to including a degasser where
the feed water contains high levels of CO2 or is alkaline in nature. The efficiency of the RO plant can
be improved by pre-treating the water with a base exchange softener

De-aeration
To remove dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide through mechanical means. Since the solubility of a
gas in water is related to the water temperature, simply raising the water temperature will reduce
the amount of O2 and CO2 accordingly.

It is important to promote good mixing within any storage tank to ensure even heat distribution and
rapid de-aeration of fresh water, the position of connections and the use of sparge pipes should
therefore be carefully considered.

A typical feed tank will maintain a stored water temperature around 85 °C.

The inclusion of a de-aeration tower allows for the extraction of dissolved gas outside of the vessel
by dripping water through a series of trays blanketed in steam. This allows for a stored water
temperature of around 105 °C.

The Effect of Temperature on the Oxygen

Content of Water
16
14
12
10
mg/kg

8
6
4
2
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Temperature (°C)