Limiting the Potential for Waterside Problems

Similarly, although the benefit of good industrial experience cannot be underestimated, service company representatives who lack appropriate technical qualification will always be limited in their ability to fully interpret analytical results and trends and provide authoritative recommendations. 

By and large, the provision of adequate training and potential problem awareness is less of a problem in large WT utility, process, and cogeneration boiler plants. Here the supply of high-purity steam is a primary product —staff are trained accordingly and possess a better awareness of the process technologies involved. 

In fossil fuel-fired WT boiler plants, boiler tube failure is perhaps the leading cause of forced outages, so identifying the chain of cause and effect is particularly important. 

For example, if tube failure occurs due to caustic gouging corrosion, the root causes are most likely related to the effects resulting from the availability offree sodium hydroxide in the BW, coupled with the development of localized caustic concentration. Control generally requires a twofold approach to remove the causes of this particular problem  

The limitation of free caustic in the boiler by modifying the water treatment program and maintaining the FW and BW chemistry within new, close-range parameters 

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To limit the potential for waterside problems throughout the steam-water system cycle a balance of water treatment processes is required with external items of capital equipment providing primary duty for FW pretreatment and internal specialty chemicals providing a supporting, polishing function. 

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