CONTROL OF

DEAERATOR
 DEAERATOR
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 ppm by weight (0.005 cm/L) or
less as well as essentially eliminating carbon dioxide.
 There are two basic types of deaerators,
the tray-type and the spray-type:
1.The tray-type (also called the cascade-
type) includes a vertical domed deaeration
section mounted on top of a horizontal
cylindrical vessel which serves as the
deaerated boiler feedwater storage tank.
2.The spray-type consists only of a
horizontal (or vertical) cylindrical vessel
which serves as both the deaeration
section and the boiler feedwater storage
tank.
 Tray-type deaerator

The typical horizontal tray-type deaerator in Figure.

Figure . A schematic diagram of a typical tray-

 It 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 flows
downward through the perforations.
Low-pressure deaeration steam enters below
the perforated trays and flows upward through
the perforations.
Some designs use various types of packed
bed, rather than perforated trays, to provide
good contact and mixing between the steam
and the boiler feed water.
 The steam strips the dissolved gas from the boiler
feedwater and exits via the vent valve at the top of
the domed section.
Should this vent valve not be opened sufficiently the
deaerator will not work properly, causing high
oxygen content in the feed water going to the
boilers.
Should the 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 vented gas.
The vent line usually includes a valve and just
enough steam is allowed to escape with the vented
gases to provide a small visible telltale plume of
steam.
 The deaerated water flows 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 bottom of the vessel, is provided to
keep the stored boiler feedwater warm.
External insulation of the vessel is typically
provided to minimize heat loss.
 Spray-type deaerator

Figure . A schematic diagram of a typical spray-type

deaerator
 As shown in Figure, 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 baffle (C).
Low-pressure steam enters the vessel through
a sparger in the bottom of the vessel.
The boiler feedwater is sprayed into section (E)
where it is preheated by the rising steam from
the sparger.
The purpose of the feedwater spray nozzle (A)
and the preheat 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 flows 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.
 Control of Deaerator
The deaerator is an important feed-water system
component which is used to remove the
dissolved gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide
in the feed water.
The presence of these gases in the feed-water
which will enter in boiler or steam generator can
causes a rapid corrosion in the tubes.
So the deaerator uses the following techniques
to dissolve the gases.
1) If the partial pressure of the liquid reduces
then gas dissolved content will be reduced. This
done by spraying the feed-water in deaerator.
 2) If the temperature of the solution rises
up to saturation temperature then the
solubility content will reduces.
This is that the feed-water is spared in the
presence of high temperature steam and
gets heated up so that the dissolved gases
will flow through the deaerator vents.
After the above process the feed water will
be collected in deaerator storage tank
from which it is supplied to steam
generator (boiler) through Boiler Feed
water Pump (BFP).
 Deaerator Storage Level Control

The Feed water after spraying and heating,

it is collected in deaerator storage tank.
The deaerator with inlet water, steam and
outlet water paths is shown in figure.
Figure . Deaerator flow diagram
 The condensated water from the hot well is fed to
the deaerator through the condensate extraction
pump.
The steam consists of two paths, one is extraction
steam from main steam and other one is the
drainage of the feed water high pressure heaters
(HPH 5&6).
The output is connected to BFP to supply the feed
water to steam generator.
So the water storage in the tank depends on the
input and output flows from the deaerator, i.e. if
the inlet is more compared to outlet then the level
is increases and in other case the level decreases.
To control this level it is envisaged to control the
inlet flow from condensate which gives better
results.
 Effects of Beaerator Level
Deaerator high level: If the water in deaerator
storage tank level increases then the pressure in
the deaerator increases which effects the inlet
steam flow. This affects heating of inlet water
which reduces the temperature of the water. So
the removal of dissolved gasses will be
disturbed.
Deaerator Low level: The low level may not
have significance affect on the deaeration
process but due to this low level the outlet flow
may reduce which is delivered to steam
generator. There will be a trip sigal to BFP on
deaerator low level. So the deaerator level
should be maintained.
Deaerator storage tank level control loop

Figure. Deaerator Level Control System

 In a power plant the deaerator control loop is one
of the important control system which controls the
CEP outlet flow by throttling the CEP outlet valve.
The arrangement of control loop schematic is
shown in figure above.
The control loop gets three measurement inputs
which is called as three element deaerator level
controller.
The three elements of the controller are:
1. Deaerator Level control
2. Feed water to the boiler(steam Generator)
3. Condensate water to the deaerator.
 In earlier days it is only one element
(deaerator level) controller i.e. the
level is the measured value and
controller throttles the valve
according to this level to match to
the set value.
But during transient conditions the
performance was poor so it is
replaced with the three element
controller.
Three element controller
In this controller the difference
between feed water and condensate
water acts as main controller
element and the deaerator level acts
as fine control element.
This combination provides the better
control of level during transients.
Block diagram of the controller is
shown in figure.
Figure . Deaerator level three element
control system
 Let us consider the combined inlet flow i.e.
extraction steam, Heater drainage and condensate
flow is raised to 120%.
This affects the level of the deaerator in which the
outlet is constant at 100%.
The difference 20% is sense by the controller as a
first element and reduces its control output which
closes the CEP outlet valve so that the flow
reduces.
This prevents the increase in deaerator level i.e. it
acts as a feed forward controller and counteracts
for the increase in level.
This results very small raise in level which is
course controlled by the level controller as a
second element controller.
 Deaerator Pressure
Control
Deaerator pressure control system is one of the
important control system in a power plant.
It controls the extraction steam to the deaerator
which directly impacts the temperature of the
deaerator. I.e. this pressure impacts on heat
transmission of steam to water to remove the
dissolved gases.
It also helps inventing the dissolved gases i.e. it
avoids mixing of separated gases once again
with the water.
 Deaerator Steam Lines
Normally deaerator is provided with two paths of steam
lines to maintain the redundancy. i.e. if any of the path
fails the next will provide the required stream.
The diagram shows the possible steam extraction lines to
deaerator.
The first steam line is from IPT (intermediate Pressure
turbine) extraction point.
This line provides steam during normal turbine operating
conditions.
The second steam path is from the turbine bypass which
provides the steam to the deaerator in the case of turbine
trip.
An auxiliary steam supply is also provided to maintain the
pressure during starting or in the case of unavailable of
two steam paths.
This path is controlled manually by the operator.
Figure . Deaerator Steam Flow Line
 Two Pneumatic valves will be used to
control the steam in the two live
steam paths.
An automatic logic will be provided to
open the valve in one path if the
second path steam is not available.
Once the valve opens it is modulated
to control the pressure by the
pressure control system.
Deaerator pressure controller

Figure . Deaerator Pressure Control System

 Two valves are modulated pneumatic type
which are operated by the digital control
system, normally this PI controller is used to
modulate the valve.
The basic arrangement of control system is
shown in figure.
The deaerator saturation pressure is measured
with three pressure transmitted.
2/3 voting logic is used to consider the pressure
logic at the input of the control system.
An Auto/Man station is also provided to take the
control in to Manual in abnormal condition.
The selection and manual throttling process is
normally done by the plant DCS (Distributed
Control System).
 The actual pressure is compared with the set-point
fed by the operator by OWS (operator work station)
and generates an error.
The error is fed to the digital PI controller to produce
new demand according to the demand. This is
conventional PI controlled with the Kp and Ti
constants.
There will be an option to tune the controller also by
changing the parameters.
The output digital demand is converted to
pneumatic pressure control to modulate the control
valve.