BOILER

EXTERNAL
&
INTERNAL
TREATMENT
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 BOILER EXTERNAL & INTERNAL TREATMENT

 INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE To

 understand fundamentals of water
treatment, as well as the system in POM
 To be aware of treatment requirement and
prevent problems to boiler

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 BOILER EXTERNAL & INTERNAL TREATMENT

 Water treatment in POM

1. External treatment
 Clarifier
 Filter
 Softener
 Deaerator
2. Internal treatment
 Chemical treatment in boiler and condensate
system

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 Water treatment in POM

De-aerator
Feed
Water
Tank
Softener

Clarifier

Filter River
Water pump

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 Water treatment in POM
 External treatment is so crucial as…
 It is most critical part of the total boiler
system with respect to maintaining boiler
cleanliness.
 It is to produce water of acceptable quality for
use in the boiler

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 Clarifier

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 Clarifier
 To remove the settable
and suspended solids
 To provide liquid-solids
separation with addition
of coagulant and
flocculants
 To achieve TSS 10ppm
or less
 Typical type in POM-up
flow and sludge
recirculation, water
retention time at 2
hours and rise rate at
2m3/hr

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 How liquid solids separation takes
place in clarifier
Step 1: pH adjustment
 If pH less than 6, use soda ash(Na2CO3)/
caustic soda(NaOH)/ lime (Ca(OH)2/
pottasium hydroxide(KOH)
 If pH more than 8, use acid (HCI, H2SO4)
 Important to get correct pH before addition of
coagulant (especially alum)

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 How liquid solids separation takes
place in clarifier
Step 2: Coagulation
 Charge neutralization process
 Addition of chemical coagulant to destabilize
colloidal particles in water by neutralizing the
forces that keep them apart. The process
requires mixing energy to make destabilized
particles to collide for floc formation
 Chemical coagulants commonly used are
 Aluminium salts: Alum, Polyaluminium Chloride (PAC)
 Polyelectrolyte
 Organic coagulant

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 How liquid solids separation takes
places place in clarifier
Step 3: Flocculation
 Floc building process Polymers are added
to agglomerate small coagulated flocs to
form big & dense ones so that it can settle
fast
Step 4: Settling
 After coagulation and flocculation process,
dense flocs will settle at the bottom of
clarifier and form sludge blanket.

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 How liquid solids separation takes
places place in clarifier
 Sludge blanket
 Depth of sludge blanket is the working depth of
sludge over the bottom of the sludge recirculation
draft tube in an upflow-solids contact clarifier.
Typically 60 to 80 inches below the water surface
 Too high or too low a blanket will results into
carryover

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 Clear Water Clear Water

Typical Flow Diagram

Of a Up flow Sludge Blanket
Water Clarifier

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 How liquid solids separation takes
places place in clarifier
 Sludge blowdown
 Sludge must be removed in proportion to the
amount formed and frequent intervals
 Too less sludge blowdown
 Sludge solidified and become hard to remove
 Raised sludge blanket too high>excessive carryover
 Scum floating and odor – anaerobic decomposition
 Too much sludge blowdown
 Deplete sludge blanket>excessive suspended solids carry
over.

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 How to determine
chemical dosage?

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 How to determine chemical
dosage?

Jar Test
And
Plant
Trial

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 Where are typical injection points?

Flocculants
Water rise rate
2m3/hr

Soda Ash
Coagulant

Coagulant Soda Ash Raw Water

10 ~15 ft 5 ft

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 Filter

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 Filter
 To filter the solids
escaped from the clarifier
 To remove fine particles
up to 10 micron size
 Optimally operated filter
will not burden softener
 To achieve water turbidity
<5NTU

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 Filter

 When to backwash the filter?

 High pressure dropped across the filter and
resulting low water throughput, or
 Filtered water turbidity has reached the preset
value, i.e. turbidity >5NTU

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 Softener

 Functions to remove Total Hardness, namely

calcium and magnesium ions by ion exchange
process in sodium zeolite resin
 Subject to mud and iron fouling – hence
important to receive acceptable influent
 Backwash and brine regeneratiom is required
 Reversible process – based on ion selectivity and
concentration dominant

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 Ion Exchange Process

Magnesium
Calcium
Sodium

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 Ion Exchange Process

Calcium

Sodium

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 How Can You Tell If Your Softener
Is Not Working Correctly?
 Check hardness of water leaving softener.
Good if below 2 ppm
 Check amount of treated water between
regeneration – to determine regeneration
cycles (in days)

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 What if softener is exhausted
and high hardness breakthrough?

Backwash Brining
Until clear water 45~60 min

Fast Rinse Slow Rinse

45~60 mins 20~25 mins

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 Purpose Of Backwash
 Remove mud, sand, dirt and broken resin
beads
 Dirt and broken resin beads must reach
top of water distribution header
 A successful backwash
 50% expansion of resin bead
 10~20 minutes
 Clear water

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 Purpose Of Backwash
 SOFTENER-Brining
 Remove hardness ions from resin beads
 Replenish sodium ions on resin
 Must be enough salt to force calcium & magnesium off the
resin SOFTENER-Regeneration
 A successful regeneration
 Use 1kg of salts/ 5liters of resin
 Prepare brine solution concentration of 25~27% by
weight in brine tank stirrer
 Has at least brine solution concentration 8% by weight
after softener eductor
 Maintain a brine concentration at 8% by weight >30
minutes to fluidized resin bed

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 Purpose Of Backwash
 SOFTENER-Slow rinse
 Push salt all the way through the softener
 Is at the same rate as generation for 20~25 minutes
 SOFTENER- Fast Rinse
 Remove excess salt from the softener before it goes
back on service
 Uses the same flow rate at which the softener
operates

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 ELUTION STUDY
REGENERATION PROFILE

30
Salometer 20
Degree 10

0 Regeneration
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Time

Regeneration

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 SOFTENER CYCLES
G=(Ec, Eq/L)*(Resin Vol,L)*(50)
TH,ppm

G=______m3/regeneration?

Where G = Capacity (m3/regeneration)

Ec = Exchange capacity (Eq/L resin)
L = Resin Volume (Liters)
TH = Total Hardness (ppm)

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 How do you determine the
condition of the resin

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 Poor control and monitoring
of softener

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 Poor control and monitoring of
softener: SCALE

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 DEAERATOR

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 DEAERATOR
REMOVING GAS FROM WATER
 Dissolved gases present in boiler water
 Oxygen
 Carbon dioxide
 They are corrosive and must be
removed before boiler use
 DEAERATOR is used to removed this
dissolved gases by achieving water
boiling point
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 DEAERATOR
Solubility of Oxygen in Pure
Water
28

24

20
Oxygen, ppm

16

12

0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240
10 psi 10 10 8 7 6 4 3 2 2 2 0
5 psi 14 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 4 4 0
0 psi 16 16 13 11 10 9 8 7 7 6 5 0
-10 psi 26 26 24 20 15 12 10 9 8 7 6 4 0
MOHD IKHSAN YAACOB Temperature C
 DEAERATOR

TWO TYPES OF DEAERATOR

1. PRESSURE DEAERATOR

2. VACUUM DEAERATOR

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 PRESSURE DEAERATOR
Steam Water
Inlet Vent Inlet
To
atmosphere

Water Outlet

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MOHD IKHSAN YAACOB
 PRESSURE DEAERATOR
 Usually used in power plant to remove
O2 in feed water
 Water is atomized, steam scrubbing and
venting of gases
 Operate at 5psig, 100~105OC
 O2 can be reduced to 0.07~0.04ppm

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 VACUUM DEAERATOR
Steam

-550mmHg Vacuum
Boiling Point 70OC

From
Feed Water
Tank

Deaerated Extraction pump

Water

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 VACUUM DEAERATOR
 O2 and CO2 is removed by creating
vacuum pressure
 In this case water boiling point is
lowered
 Pressure -550mmHg, coupled with water
temperature between 60O~70OC
 Decrease solubility of dissolved gases at
boiling point

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 VACUUM DEAERATOR
 Vacuum is created using steam ejector
(Venturi effect with high kinetic head
 O2 can be reduced to 0.2~0.5 ppm
 Have to prevent air in leakage into the
system through pump, seals, valve,
fittings, flanges etc.
 Water level must be below the water
sprayer nozzles for atomization

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Poor Control & Monitoring of De-
aerator will results into OXYGEN
PITTING

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 BOILER INTERNAL
TREATMENT

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 Circulation in A Water Tube
Boiler
Super
Steam Heater
Drum Header

Hot Down comers

Gase
s
Mud
Drum

Risers
Fire
Box

Mud
Drum

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 Saturated Steam

Main Steam Steam

Range
Drum
Superheated
Steam Down Risers
comers

Super Heater
Header

Top
Side Wall
Tube Header
Typical Water/Steam
Flow Diagram of a Fraser
Water Tube Boiler
Bottom Side Wall Tube Header

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 BOILER WATER
TREATMENT
 THREE MAJOR PROBLEMS IN BOILER
 Corrosion
 Scale and deposition
 Carryover
 THE PURPOSE OF BOILER WATER
TREATMENT
 To prevent corrosion
 To prevent scale and deposition
 To prevent carryover

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 ROOT CAUSE OF BOILER
WATER PROBLEMS
 Poor water quality
 Hardness, TDS, pH, Silica, Iron, etc
 Poor external treatment
 Pre-treatment i.e. Clarification, Filter,
Softener and De-aeration
 Poor internal treatment
 Scale and deposit Control, Corrosion
prevention, anti foaming

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 CORROSION
 Corrosion cause
 Oxygen and low pH is the main culprit
 Deposition that cause underneath corrosion

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 CORROSION
 IMPACT
 Deterioration of boiler metal/tube puncture
 High repair cost
 Unscheduled shutdown
 PREVENTION
 Remove dissolved gases (O2 and CO2) by deaerator before
entering boiler
 Maintain alkaline pH in boiler water
 Use oxygen scavenger to remove residual O2 and maintain
sufficient reserve in boiler water
 Keep TDS within operating limits
 Proper wet storage procedure when boiler will be idle for
long period

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 SCALE
 SCALE CAUSE
 Calcium, magnesium, sulfate, silica, soluble iron, aluminium form
precipitates (Over saturation)

 IMPACT
 Scale form insulator film affecting heat transfer efficiency.
 Tube failure from overheating
 Underneath deposits corrosion
 Deposits plug tubes causing starvation and subsequently
overheat
 Take long time for cleaning
 Might need acid cleaning, depends on scale
 Productivity downed
 Mill profitability downed

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 SCALE

 PREVENT SCALING
 Minimize hardness in softener water(0~2
ppm)
 Maintain recommended Silica level
 Maintain suspended solids/ turbidity in feed
water <3 NTU
 Keep minimum Aluminum in feed water<0.3ppm
 Minimized the amount of iron in feed water <
0.3ppm
 Maintain good blow down frequency over TDS
level <2000ppm
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 SCALE

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 CARRYOVER
 WHAT IS CARRY
OVER
 Boiler water carried
into steam
 CAUSE BY
 Foaming (Chemical)
 Misting (Operational)
 Priming (Operational)

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 CARRYOVER
 WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES
 Deposits in superheated tubes-tube burst
 Deposits in turbine blades-Efficiency dropped
 Turbine erosion
 PREVENTION
 Use anti foam if cause by foaming
 Do not run boiler at high water level
 Do not overload boiler
 Control dissolved solids level
 Avoid oil contamination

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 BOILER INTERNAL
TREATMENT
Sulfite Oxygen Scavenger
 Prevent pitting corrosion
 Catalyzed: React with O2 500 times faster
than ordinary sulfite
 Maintained reserve at 30~50 ppm
 Low sulfite
 High DO in feedwater
 Boile may have corrosion problem

 High Sulfite
 High treatment cost

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 BOILER INTERNAL
TREATMENT
Orthophosphate
 Hardness inhibitor

 Form Calcium HydroPatixe (less Adhesive Sludge)

before it is removed through blow down
 Below range ~ No protection on hardness in leakage

 Maintain 30~80 as reserve

 Low PO4
 High hardness in feed water
 Boiler may have scale problem
 High PO4
 High treatment cost

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 BOILER INTERNAL
TREATMENT
Alkalinity Booster
 pH Maintained at 10.5 ~ 11.5

 P-Alkalinity maintained at 350~800 ppm

for boiler pressure <350psi
 Dose depend on feed water M-Alkalinity
& Silica level
 Maintain Silica to Alkalinity ratio 1:5

 Important in preventing corrosion and

scale especially silicate deposit.
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 BOILER INTERNAL
TREATMENT
 Scale inhibitor or dispersant
 Synthetic polymer
 Keep the hardness solubilization in bulk
water
 Disperse precipitates and keep the
sludge suspension form in bulk
 Low dose ~Deposits or Scale formation

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 Control specifications
Total M-
Total iron
hardness pH alkalinity
(ppm)
(ppm) (ppm)

Softened
0~2 <0.3
water

Boiler
feed 0~2 <0.3 7.0~7.5 25~35
water

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 Control specifications
SULFITE 30~80 PPM
PHOSPAHATE 30~80 ppm
TDS <2000 ppm
P Alkalinity 350~8--
pH 10.5~11.5
Iron <5 ppm
Silica <150ppm
Chloride <500 ppm

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