Test loops

Cormets loops are widely used in simulation of nuclear power plant, oil and gas production, steam turbine, sea water and chemical industry environments. Test loops simulating the nuclear power plant operation provide clean water with well defined dissolved oxygen or hydrogen concentration. A special attention is paid to the monitoring of both incoming and outgoing water flows and to removal of contaminants from water. High temperature and pressure are characteristic for loops operating in supercritical environment. Special attention must be paid to the controlled heating and cooling of water and components. The water purification is also important because the corrosive environment can cause high concentrations of dissolved species in water leaving the test chamber. Loops simulating oil and gas industry applications are designed to resist aggressive hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) gases. They are built of corrosion resistant materials such as Hastelloy C-276 and certain polymers. Loops are used in oil and gas applications because they provide large water volume the chemistry of which remains stable during long test periods and because the gas content of water can be better determined and monitored. The loops also provide aggressive H2S and CO2 containing environment needed in tests described at NACE standard TM0198-98: Test levels IV-VII. Recirculation loops are used in laboratories to provide environment that is similar to the plant environment. There is a large variety of operation parameters that could be simulated, but the most important ones are temperature, pressure, water chemistry, dissolved gases and flow rate. There is no standard loop design available but the loops are designed to provide the required operation parameters. A loop design can be divided in two major parts: low pressure and high pressure parts. The lowpressure part includes a storage tank in which the needed water is produced and stored. In most cases the dissolved oxygen is removed from water by bubbling it with nitrogen in the storage tank. The storage tank can be

pressurized with gas(es) if certain dissolved gas (e.g. oxygen, hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide) concentration is needed. The separate mixing pump circulates storage tank water through the analyzing sensor group (e.g. pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, dissolved hydrogen). Cooled water returning from external test chamber flows through the filter to the backpressure regulator and further to the water chemistry sensor group. Water can be purified using large mixed bed ion exchanger units, UV cells and active carbon filters. Ion exchangers can be used to feed chemicals to the flow too. The high pressure loop is pressurised using a diaphragm pump and a back pressure regulator valve. The preheater, heat exchanger and cooler maintain the required temperature in the highpressure section of the loop.

Automatic data acquisition of data produced by sensors and computerized control of instruments is an essential part of a loop. The data acquisition of various sensors and control of preheater and gas feeding system is performed using PC and Cormets Windows XP based applications. Safety features are paid special attention because typical loops operate often under high pressure and temperature. Purpose of the safety features is to protect the operators but also the

instrument itself from damaging it in case of abnormal incident. All the hot parts are insulated, pressure vessels and tubings are equipped with safety valves or rupture discs, heating devices are protected against overheating and possible leakages will stop the operation. Many design and operational parameters as well as instrumentation can be set according to customers requirements. Typical loop features, parameters and parameter ranges:

Parameter / feature Range Temperature Pressure Flow rates Volume flow Dissolved oxygen concentration Conductivity Construction materials 0C - 700C, typical 350C 0 MPa 100 MPa (deep sea loop), typical 20 MPa 0 m/s 15 m/s (high flow rate loops) 0 l/h 50 l/h (high flow rate loops higher) guaranteed min. 10 ppb min. 0.1 uS/cm if water reasonably clean Stainless steel, Hastelloy C-276, titanium, zirconium, polymers

Each Recirculating Test Loop is completely tested before delivery. Full operator training and research support is available.

Typical test loop applications

- Nuclear PWR and BWR test loops with 360C operation temperature and 200 bar pressure - Recirculation test loop for SSC test in hydrogen sulphide (H2S) environment according to NACE TM0198-98 Test levels IV-VII. - Crude oil loops - Loops for super critical environment - Steam loops - Deep sea recirculation test loops with working pressures up to 1000 bars and sea water temperature adjustment between +5 C - +20 C. - A process test loop can be built into a freight container and operated either in a laboratory or in the field. - High flow-rate loops with flow-rates up to 16 m/s. - Low-pressure loops to study e.g. water treatment, cooling towers, cleaning processes.