The Impact Of Water Treatment System

Design And Operation On Boiler Feedwater

Purity And Boiler Tube Failures
ROBERT HOLLOWAY, Holloway Associates
Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada

IWC 00 31

INTRODUCTION

This report describes conditions and occurrences in feedwater treatment systems that can
contribute to boiler tube deposition, corrosion and possible failure. The information is
based on many years of personal observation of the design and operation of all types of
make-up water and condensate treatment equipment.

CAUSES OF TUBE FAILURES

Our personal expertise is in the treatment
of water, for use primarily as feedwater
for boilers, by many unit processes, not
in boiler tube failure analysis. We have
no a database regarding the number of
failures that may be attributed to various
causes.
To quantify failure causes for this report,
we conducted an informal survey of
persons in a position to supply such data.
Our question In your experience, what
percentage of boiler tube failures can be
related to feedwater purity? resulted in
very inconsistent answers. Estimates
ranged from less than 10% to 85% of
failures due to feedwater purity. One
respondent stated high occurrence of
failure is due to overheating associated
with boiler cleanliness. This divergence
of opinion seems due in part to
individual biases in defining of the root
cause of failure.
There are excellent reference books
available illustrating failed boiler tubes
and giving details of the cause. It is not
possible to discuss this part of the topic
in any detail but some general statements
are worthy of repetition.
Failures may be diagnosed as being due
to either deposition or corrosion but
deposits may ultimately cause under
deposit corrosion.
Deposits refers to materials
originating elsewhere and moved to the
point of deposit and the source may
include (1):
1) Inadequately treated makeup water
or condensate
2) Corrosion products from the power
cycle system or from the boiler itself
3) Contaminants
Deposits from these sources may
interact to increase deposition rates, to
produce a more tenacious layer, and to
act as nucleation sites for deposit
formation. Such species include metal
oxides, carbonates, silicates,
contaminants, as well as a variety of
organic and inorganic compounds (1).
Corrosion mechanisms on the
waterside of boiler tubes are very
complex to define and may be caused by
a number of chemistries. Contamination
by acid and caustic regenerant leakage
from demineralizer regeneration systems
can be a contributing factor (1).
There is clear evidence that feedwater
purity impacts on boiler tube failure.
Examples of operating and design
conditions likely to cause either
Deposition or Corrosion are on inlet water analysis, that a counter-
presented.
FEEDWATER PURITY
REQUIREMENTS
Industrial boiler operating pressures
continue to increase and more
independent combined cycle and
cogeneration facilities are being built
every day. The need to understand
feedwater purity requirements is critical.
The required feedwater purity for any
desired boiler installation should be
established by reference to published
standards. There are a few helpful
documents published by various
authorities but one widely used is that
published by the ASME (2). However,
while implicit in the data, that document
is not intended as a guide for the
selection of either the type and extent of
the make-up or condensate treatment
systems or the internal chemical
treatment regime. The reader is urged to
use such documents properly, carefully
read the document text and footnotes to
the Tables so as not to misapply or
misconstrue the guidelines (3).
SYSTEM DESIGN AND
SELECTION TO MAINTAIN
FEEDWATER PURITY
Once the required feedwater purity and
bulk boiler water concentrations have
been established, the external treatment
system used must be carefully designed
if deposition or corrosion problems are
to be avoided. It is important to carefully
differentiate between the theoretical
performance and the likely performance
under worst operating condition and
during unanticipated operating problems.
For instance, it is expected, dependant
currently regenerated, two bed, strong
base demineralizer will produce effluent
water having a specific conductance of
1.0 S/cm and reactive silica
concentrations < 10-20 g/L. Many
systems do produce water of this purity
under normal operating conditions.
However, under some conditions caused
by a variety of influent water and
operational problems, the demineralizer
may be incapable of maintaining the
required purity on a continuous basis.
In several plants, reliable and
unrestricted steam production has only
been possible because second stage
polishing systems were originally
installed. In some plants it has been
necessary to install secondary mixed bed
polishers. Basic design faults, combined
with operating problems, in the primary
demineralizers caused production of
lower purity water than needed to ensure
boiler integrity on a continuous basis.
Design faults vary and occur for a
variety of reasons. One plant with high
make-up flow and very low TDS raw
water had multiple trains of 8 diameter
units with 24 deep resin beds. Design
problems were compounded by required
installation in a low headroom area. The
system constantly produced water with
specific conductance several orders of
magnitude higher than theoretical value
and higher than acceptable silica
leakage. Because of resin bed geometry,
there were continuous problems with
service and regenerant distribution and
channeling, short service cycles and poor
treated water quality.
Another system constantly leaked an
assortment of contaminants to service
because of inefficient underdrain design
that created pockets of regenerant
hideout. Inefficient regenerant
distributors compounded the problems.
Service cycles were always far short of
design. It was not unusual to run
exhausted units past the service
endpoints because of multiple
regenerations and a shortage of time.
Water quality was poor with high
leakage to the feedwater circuit.
Poor internal distributor design,
combined with contaminated regenerant
solutions contributed to high specific
conductance and high silica leakage to
the boilers in another plant.
In all three cases, major revisions to the
treatment systems became necessary to
adequately protect the boilers.
Similarly, the theoretical purity of water
produced by a two-pass reverse osmosis
system may be entirely satisfactory for
feedwater under normal operating
conditions. In a two pass system
permeate from the first pass is re-
pumped as feedwater for the second
pass. When unplanned outages of one
pass occur the purity provided by the
remaining single pass will be
unsatisfactory. On a particular water,
with 4 year old membranes, a computer
model projects 2nd pass permeate at 0.2
mg/L TDS and <50 g/L Silica.
However, the first pass permeate quality
is 9.5 mg/L TDS and 100 g/L Silica.
The system effluent purity would be
unsuitable for high pressure boiler make-
up if one pass is unavailable for any
reason.
The prudent engineer or operator must
consider:
1) The worst influent water analysis
likely to be encountered.
2) The minimum and maximum
amounts of water to be treated
under variable operating
conditions.
3) The potential contaminants from
pretreatment systems (naturally
occurring or intentionally added),
contaminants contained in
regenerant chemicals, process
chemical leaks into feedwater
components.
4) The effects of system component
unavailability because of failures
or regular maintenance
requirements.
5) Normal reduction in performance
of system components due to
aging or fouling of resins and
membranes etc.
CONTAMINANTS
Contaminants present in feedwater may
originate from a variety of sources. The
literature (1) documents the presence of
Alumina carryover from the primary
pretreatment system as a contributing
factor to tube deposition and failure.
Hardness contamination of treated
effluent has been traced to precipitated
Calcium and Magnesium in both
dealkalized and demineralized water. In
chloride anion dealkalizers, the use of
rock salt and hard water for dissolving
caused hardness contamination of the
treated water. In demineralizers,
particularly in the pulp and paper
industry, mill water containing hardness
is often used as dilution water for the
preparation of process caustic solutions.
The process solution is usually the
primary source of regenerant caustic for
the demineralizers. Even though the final
dilution stage may use demineralized
water, the damage has already been done
and hardness precipitates present cause
hardness contamination in the anion
effluent.
Process contamination caused extreme
acid conditions in a 1900 psig boiler
several years ago. Condensate is treated
in a cation condensate polisher
regenerated with acid and then ammonia.
The polisher converted the salts in a
process leak to the ammonium form. In
the boiler the ammonia flashed off
leaving a high concentration of acid in
the drum with pH 3.0 resulting.
In a pulp and paper mill, an acid
regenerant injection valve failed on a
cation exchanger in service while a
companion unit was regenerating. The
major acid leak into the common cation
effluent completely exhausted the
downstream anions and injected several
hundred pounds of acid into the recovery
boiler.
Frequent regenerant contamination
occurs when automatic main outlet
valves open during regeneration. In the
case of cation acid leaks, strong base
anions may neutralize the acid if the
amount of acid is not excessive and if
the anions have sufficient exchange
capacity. However, in the case of caustic
soda leaks during anion regeneration,
there is frequently no means of removing
the contaminant that then enters the
feedwater system.
Particularly in paper mills, condensate
becomes contaminated during plant and
process unit start-ups or by other process
leaks. Contaminants may include
hardness, metal oxides and process
liquors at concentrations far above
acceptable limits.
Analysis of bulk boiler water frequently
reveals iron concentrations much higher
than can be explained by normal
condensate iron levels, as tested
routinely, or by corrosion of internal
boiler metal. Cation condensate
polishers frequently discharge metallic
oxides in crud bursts undetected by
routine wet chemical or Millipore pad
tests. Polishers primarily remove
particulate iron and copper oxides using
filtration as the mechanism. Filtration is
enhanced by the use of high surface flow
rates that compact the resin bed and
partially compress the resin beads.
Any change in unit, or system, flow rate
causes instability of the particulates held
in the resin bed and crud bursts to occur
as crud is forced from the interstices of
the bed. To minimize flow rate changes,
flow recirculation systems are frequently
installed to maintain a relatively constant
flow rate on the outlet of the polishers.
The common outlet flow control loop
maintains a minimum set flow by
adjusting a recirculation valve. Some
recirculation systems fail to adjust for
the frequent changes in that occur during
daily subsurface wash and regular
regeneration. The flow changes cause
particle sloughing to the effluent.
Regeneration frequency is usually once
every week or two for units regenerated
with sodium chloride and every 1-3
months for amine form regeneration. In
either case, the resin accumulates
considerable particulate metal oxides
and high bed P results, which dictates
daily subsurface washing to break up
bed compaction in the top 6-12 of the
resin. The flow rate used loosens the
resin and disturbs the particulates on the
top of, or in, the resin bed but is
commonly insufficient to lift and remove
the particulates. Crud is released to the
feedwater in high concentrations
immediately following this step. Rinsing
the unit to waste before return to service
may minimize the amount discharged to
the feedwater circuit.
PREVENTATIVE MEASURES
A manual service outlet isolating valve,
with micro switch, should be installed on
the service outlet of every unit in a
system to eliminate most harmful
regenerant leaks to the feedwater. The
micro-switch provides a permissive
control on regeneration initiation by
confirming valve closure before
regeneration can be started.
Continuous in-line analyzers, for critical
feedwater constituents, should be used to
monitor excursions often undetected by
infrequent operator wet tests. These may
include turbidity, calcium hardness,
silica, conductivity, sodium and pH
monitors where appropriate
The use of redundant instruments is
recommended in the common treated
water headers upstream of demineralized
or feedwater water storage tanks. Such
instruments allow automatic isolation of
the tank inlet to prevent contamination
of good quality feedwater.
See Figures 1 and 2 for recommended
on-line monitoring of systems.
Condensate systems should be equipped
with on-line monitors to alarm and
automatically dump contaminated
condensate until the quality is
acceptable. Accurate monitoring of
feedwater oxide levels is possible using
a particle monitor which is capable of
measuring particles not detected by
turbidimeters.
Flow rate maintenance recirculation
systems should be installed on
condensate polishers. Subsurface wash
rates should be comparable to the
backwash rate to remove accumulated
particulates and this must always be
followed by rinse to sewer until the
effluent is acceptable. See Figure 3.
Conclusion
Impure feedwater definitely impacts on
boiler tube deposition, corrosion and
perhaps ultimate failure.
The external treatment systems for both
make-up and condensate can contribute
contaminants to the feedwater stream
that may create or contribute to deposit
formation, corrosive attack on boiler
metal and tube failures.
Such contributions may be a factor of basic equipment design, system operation or
unanticipated system or component failure.

Preventative measures may be taken to reduce accidental contamination of feedwater and

divert or dump unsuitable water.

ON-LINE MONITORING
SOFTENED MAKE-UP

AC
P
Na AC D
AC
CC
D

AC
pH
CC D
Process
pH Condensate
Boiler
Receiver

Turbine
Hotwell

Feedwater

CC AC Condensate
CC AC Polisher
pH
pH
Condensate

Softener

H AC

Make-up

NaZ

DO Storage

Fig.1
Deaerator

C= Specific Conductance P=Particulates

CC= Cation conductivity Na=Sodium SO= Shut Off (Auto)

H=Calcium AC= Alarm Contacts D = Dump (Auto)

 ON-LINE MONITORING
DEMINERALIZED MAKE-UP

AC
P D
Na AC
AC
CC D

AC pH
CC D
Process
Boiler pH Condensate
Receiver

Turbine
Hotwell

Feedwater

CC AC Condensate
CC AC Polisher
pH
pH
Condensate

Demineralizer

pH AC
C SO AC Si
Si
Make-up
AC C
Anion Cation

DO Demineralized
storage

AC Si Na AC
Deaerator
C

Fig.2
AC

C= Specific Conductance P=Particulates

CC= Cation conductivity Na=Sodium SO= Shut Off (Auto)

Si=Silica AC= Alarm Contacts D = Dump (Auto)

 CONDENSATE POLISHER MINIMUM
FLOW RECIRCULATION SYSTEM

Make-up
Optional Condensate
Condensate L
T LI
Flow Control
Receiver
Low flow
Recirculation

FR
Deaerator
FT FE

FI

Condensate
Polishers

Fig.3
References and Bibliography:

1) Herro, H. M. and Port, R. D.,The Nalco Guide to Boiler Failure Analysis,

McGraw Hill, Inc., 1991

2) American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Research and Technology

Committee on Water and Steam in Thermal Power Systems, Consensus on
Operating Practices for the Control of Feedwater and Boiler Water Chemistry in
Modern Industrial Boilers, ASME I 00367, 1994

3) Tvedt, T. J. Jr. and Holloway, R. T., Operating Practices for the Control of
Industrial Boiler Water Chemistry; A New ASME Consensus, Proceedings of
the International Water Conference, Vol. 56, 1995, pp. 165 170.

4) Steam / Its Generation and Use, 40th. edition, Babcock & Wilcox Company,
1992

5) Standard Handbook of Power Plant Engineering, McGraw Hill, Inc., 1989

6) American Society of Mechanical Engineers, The ASME Handbook on Water

Technology for Thermal Power Systems, Chapters 16, 17 & 18 pp 1325 -
1547, ASME I00284, 1989.

7) Betz Handbook of Industrial Water Conditioning, 9th edition, 1991

8) The Nalco Water Handbook, 2nd. edition, McGraw Hill, Inc., 1988