Problem statement:

Cationic conductivity of LP superheated and saturated steam are above the recommended limits.

First, we discuss about the Deaerator before going to understand the actual problem. There are two
Type of Deaerator

 spray type deaerator.

 Tray type Deaerator.

Purpose of Deaerator:

Deaerator is used to remove the oxygen and carbon dioxide from the boiler feed water.

Principle of Deaerator:

Deaeration in deaerators is based on two principles. The first principle can be described by Henry’s Law.
As per Henry’s Law, the gas solubility in a solution decreases as the gas partial pressure of gas
decreases. The second principle that governs deaeration is the relationship between ‘gas solubility’ Vs
‘temperature’. Gas solubility in a solution decreases as the temperature of the solution rises and
approaches the saturation temperature.

Cationic conductivity is increased due to some reasons.

 When resign is exhausted.

 When Concentration of ammonia is increased in steam for this purpose cationic resign is
installed.
 Due to anion contaminants such as chlorides, sulfates and organic acids.
 Due to bicarbonate ion (HCO3-) from CO2 which could increase the cationic conductivity and air
intrusion also raise the cationic conductivity. For this reason, a degasified is sometimes used to
further condition the sample by removing the CO2.

Discussion:

Bhiki power plant have partial spray type deaerator in which stork spraying device is used to spray the
feed water and LP saturated steam is mixed with spraying water to decrease the partial pressure of
dissolve gases and gases are moved by Henry’s law and this is not enough because temperature is
decreased in deaerator instead of increasing so complete gases are not removed so carbon dioxide is
evaporated in LP drum to LP steam and concentration is also increased because LP steam flow rate is
50T/h and flow rate of inlet of LP drum is 450T/h. Carbon dioxide is converted in to bicarbonate due to
high pH in LP steam as we see in graph. Cationic conductivity in LP steam is high due to bicarbonate
(HCO3-) which is present in LP steam. Air ingress also cause to increase C.C because of carbon dioxide
which is present in air and converted in to bicarbonate (HCO 3-).
Solution:

 Solution of this problem is Mechanical not chemically.

 we can install the Degasifier after the cationic resign which apparently remove carbon dioxide
from the LP steam sample and conductivity will reduce up to recommended limit.
 Condensate polisher is also used to remove the impurities from condensate so by this we can
remove all type of impurities and so Cationic conductivity can be reduced.

Comparative study:

Bhiki and Baloki power plant face the same problem but havaili bahudr shah power plant is not facing
this problem because of condensate polisher. Installed capacity of condensate polisher in hvali bhadr
shaha is (600T/H).