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CHAPTER 40 WATER TREATMENT PLANT

The water available from different water sources cannot be used directly in boilers as such. The objective of water treatment plant is to produce the boiler feed water so that there shall be: No scale formation No corrosion No fouling

The treated water is called De-mineralized Water and the plant where it is treated is called Water Treatment Plant.

40.1 REQUIREMENT
The importance of maintaining supply of high purity water for Boiler purposes in Thermal power stations is well recognized. The presence of undesirable contaminants in water exceeding the few PPB level may lead to serious consequences.

The requirements of pure water have been met by recent developments of improved ion exchange resins and regeneration techniques.

The need for removal of dissolved solids from water arises under several situations. These range from effluent water treatment, water purification for portability, treatment as boiler feed and other industrial applications.

Why treatment is required? If proper treatment is not done for water then Corrosion, Scaling, Microbiological contaminants and fouling will occur in the system. a). Corrosion It is an electrochemical process by which a metal returns to its natural state. For e.g. Mild Steel is commonly used metal in cooling water systems and is very susceptible to corrosion. It will return to its iron oxide.
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Corrosion can be prevented by or minimized by one or more of the following method: When designing a new system choose corrosion resistant material to minimize the effect Apply protective painting Protect catholically using sacrifice metals Add protective film forming chemical inhibitors.

b). Scaling Scale is a dense coating of predominantly inorganic material formed from the precipitation of water soluble constituents Some common scales are: Calcium carbonate Calcium phosphate Magnesium salts Silica

Four principal factors determine whether or not water is scale formed: Temperature Alkalinity or Acidity Amount of scale forming material present Influence of other dissolved materials

Scaling can be controlled by following methods: Limit the concentration of scale forming minerals by controlling Cycle of concentration Feed acid to keep the Calcium carbonate dissolved Treat with chemicals designed to prevent scale.

c). Fouling It is the accumulation of solid material other than scale in a way that hampers the operation of plant equipment.

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Common fouling elements are: Dirt and silt Sand Corrosion products Microbial organism Aluminum phosphates

40.2 PROCESS IN WATER TREATMENT PLANT

The treatment process can be divided in two sections: Pre treatment methods Demineralization methods

40.2.1 PRE-TREATMENT METHODS Pre-treatment plant removes suspended solids like clay, salt, plants, micro-organisms, etc. form raw water to give clarified water. Suspended solids can be separable or nonseparable. Separable solids are heavier & large and can easily be removed by an aerator. Non-separable solids have finer size and taken long to settle down. Hence they are required to be flocculated. In this, water is first dozed with lime and alum. This forces finer particles to coagulated increasing their weight and size. Non-separable solids can now be separated in clariflocculator. The clarified water is then stored in clarified water storage tanks. Following are the different pre-treatment methods used in water treatment plant: Mechanical methods Chemical methods

40.2.2

DEMINERALIZATION METHODS

The following methods are normally used for demineralization of water: a). b). c). Membrane based physical process and electro chemical process Separation by Phase change method Ion exchange method

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a).

MEMBRANE BASED PHYSICAL PROCESS AND ELECTRO CHEMICAL PROCESS

These are essentially physical methods involve the use of membrane for separation which occur at molecular levels. Typical examples are Reverse osmosis (RO) and Electro dialysis (EDI).

Reverse Osmosis In the RO process the membrane acts as a molecular filter removing upto 99% of all dissolved minerals. Water passes through membrane under high pressure and the dissolved and particulate materials are left behind, This process can be described as filtration at molecular level. Electro-dialysis The process of Electro dialysis EDI involves the passage of electric current through brackish water in a chamber in which many closed spaced ion selective membrane are placed thus dividing the chamber into compartments. An electric charge causes the salt to concentrate in alternate compartment.

b).

SEPARATION BY PHASE CHANGE METHOD

Separation by phase change method includes freezing and distillation. The freezing of salt solution causes crystals of pure water to nucleate and grow leaving the brine concentration behind. In the distillation process feed water is boiled to produce steam. This steam is condensed as pure water. The most common distillation processes are Multistage Flash (MSF), Vapour compression, Multi effect distillation (MED).

c).

ION EXCHANGE METHOD

Separation of Cat-ions and Anions by this process involves an ionic exchange reaction between the mineral ions in water with hydrogen or hydroxyl ion on the ion exchanging resins. During the process the ions are in their hydrated forms in aqueous media.

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1)

Brief description of De-mineralization process:

It is the process of removal of dissolved mineral impurities from water by means of ion exchange resins. Cat-ion resin exchange namely Ca ++, Mg ++, Na ++, K ++ etc with H+ ions and the resultant decationised water becomes acidic.

(R)H (Resin)

+ Na, K, Ca, Mg

(R) Na (R) K (R) Ca (R) Mg

H2SO4 HCL

HNO3 H2CO3

Then it is passed through a degasser tower having pall rings where it is brought to counter current contact with air resulting in dissociation of weak carbonic acid and CO2 gas is stripped out. Anion resins remove the anions namely Cl--,So4--, NO3--,HCO3 etc., from water and release equivalent OH ions in water to form H2O with H+ ions released by Cation resins.

(R)O (Resin)

H2SO4 HCL HNO3

(R) SO4 (R) CL (R) NO3

H2O

If further polishing is required then cationised water from anion exchanger is passed through Mixed bed exchanger, that removes most of the ions slipped from Cation and Anion units and produces polished water. There are various types of resins namely weakly acidic, strongly acidic, weakly basic & Strongly basic Type 1 & 2 which are commonly used in DM plant.

2)

Regeneration In the power plant the Demineralization plant (DM Plant) is an important part of system and the resin is a vital and expensive component of DM plant. Resins to DM plant is like heart in human body which should be kept in perfectly healthy condition mainly by treating the feed water to DM plant to remove all constituents which may foul the resins.

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Recharging the exhausted form of resin i.e. regeneration employing 5% of acid/alkali as below:

Cat-ion resin:

R Na RK R Ca R Mg

HCL

RH

NaCl KCl CaCl2 MgCl2

An-ion resin:

RSO4 RCl RNO3

NaOH

ROH

Na2SO4 NaCl NaNO3

40.3 SELECTION OF TREATMENT METHODS

The following specific site factors are to be considered in choosing the treatment method: Feed water source and quality available Feed water cost and quantity available Final makeup water quantity and quality required Final make up water maximum and average flow required Chemical storage handling and usage cost Waste disposal cost and waste treatment equipment available Existing water and waste treatment equipment available Operation & Maintenance cost Storage capacity

Other factors to be considered: Short or long term requirement of equipment or service Acceptable limitations on membrane liability
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Operating labour availability Capital available Environmental policy

Capital cost and operating cost are important issues in considering what type of pretreatment is to be used. This is invariably linked to plant output. For smaller capacities plants it makes little sense to build an extensive and expensive pre treatment plant in the upstream of RO DM plant. In this case it is more economical to just use a cartridge filter and replace the membranes more frequently

For larger plants although cost considerations may dictate the final choice of system cost alone should not be deciding factor. It is essential to understand that a plant designed with a good pretreatment plant will lead to efficient and trouble free operation and maintenance.

At times it may be tempted to ignore many important pre treatment processes during design stage in order to reduce the capital cost especially for the plant constructed on EPC /BOOT basis. It is therefore very essential to critically look at the pretreatment process that ultimately controls the operating cost.

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