Project Condensate Treatment
What is the goal of this project?
- A better insight in the fate of conditioning chemicals (and their resulting protection) in steam-water cycles.
- An improved conditioning of steam and treatment and polishing of condensate, so more condensate can be reused in the process.
- A greater knowledge on the detrimental effects of different organic carbon compounds, with respect to the guidelines for boiler feed waters.
Three work packages
These goals were summarized in three work packages.
- Work package 1 is aimed at elucidating the fate of the conditioning chemicals, added to the boiler feed water, after the steam-cycle. This includes the formation of residuals, their distribution along the system and the corresponding long-term effects on the metallurgy in the system.
- In the second work package, the treatment of off-spec and heavily polluted condensate waters is investigated, to increase their reuse.
- The third work package couples the insights of the first two work packages to corrosion measurements to increase the knowledge on the necessary pre-treatments. This is paramount in the removal of organic compounds. Furthermore, this provides insight into the conditioning of the boiler feed water, necessary to protect the production process. Focus here is on film forming and neutralizing amines and processes operated at higher temperature and pressure (350-550°C and 30-130 bar).
Result
The efforts of this project will results in a better description and modelling of the behavior, distribution and effect (in combination with a better monitoring) of different amines and organic contaminants and their breakdown products in steam and condensate cycles at elevated temperatures.
The project will provide better treatment methods of off-spec and polluted condensates. This will result in the development of a robust condensate quality assurance system.