Abstract

A boiler is an enclosed vessel that provides a means for combustion heat to be transferred into
water until it becomes heated water or steam. The hot water or steam under pressure is then
usable for transferring the heat to a process. Water is a useful and cheap medium for transferring
heat to a process. When water is boiled into steam its volume increases about 1,600 times,
producing a force that is almost as explosive as gunpowder. This causes the boiler to be
extremely dangerous equipment that must be treated with utmost care.

Producing quality steam on demand depends on properly managed water treatment to control
steam purity, deposits and corrosion. Two major types of boiler water treatment are: External
water treatment and internal water treatment. A boiler is the collector of the boiler systems. It
ultimately receives all of the pre-boiler contaminants. Boiler performance, efficiency, and service
life are direct products of selecting and controlling feed water used in the boiler.

A failure analysis investigation is much like the work of a detective. Clues or relevant facts
pertaining to the investigation must be gathered, analyzed, explored, and then studied to make a
knowledgeable determination. As in the case of a good detective, first hand field experience is of
the utmost importance, yet academic studies are also essential. This involves Visual inspection,
Determination of chemical composition and morphology of deposits, Deposit Weight Density
(DWD) determination, and Scale thickness measurement, Pit depth measurements, Wall loss
determination, Metallurgical analysis, Material composition and microstructure, Determination
of failure mechanism, Root cause analysis, Recommend corrective actions, Determination of
time for tube replacement.

Failure of boiler tubes by corrosion attack has been a familiar phenomenon in power plants
resulting in unscheduled plant shut down; in consequence, there are heavy losses in industrial
production and disruptions to civil amenities. The failure of boiler tubes appears in the form of
bending, bulging, cracking, wearing or rupture, causing leakage of the tubes. The failure can be
caused by one or more modes such as overheating, stress corrosion cracking (SCC), hydrogen
embrittlement, creep, flame impingement, sulfide attack, weld attack, dew point corrosion, etc.
After providing brief background knowledge of boiler function, boiler water treatment, failure
analysis methodology and failure mechanism of boiler tubes; a case study was conducted on
failed boiler tubes of Pakistan Steel. The purpose of investigation was to find out failure
mechanism, their root causes and finally recommend preventive measures to prevent future
failures of boiler tubes.

Figure 1 Boiler Room Schematic

Economizer: They are heat exchange devices that heat fluids, usually water, up to but not
normally beyond the boiling point of that fluid. For higher boiler efficiencies, the feed water is
preheated by economizer, using the waste heat in the flue gas.

The process of heating a liquid until it reaches its gaseous state is called evaporation. Heat is
transferred from one body to another by means of (1) radiation, which is the transfer of heat from
a hot body to a cold body without a conveying medium, (2) convection, the transfer of heat by a
conveying medium, such as air or water and (3) conduction, transfer of heat by actual physical
contact, molecule to molecule.

Boiler Systems
The boiler system comprises of: Feed water system, Steam system and fuel system. A typical
boiler room schematic is shown in Figure 1.
1) Feed water system provides water to the boiler and regulates it automatically to meet the
steam demand. Various valves provide access for maintenance and repair.
2) Steam system collects and controls the steam produced in the boiler. Steam is directed
through a piping system to the point of use. Throughout the system, steam pressure is regulated
using valves and checked with steam pressure gauges. The
3) Fuel system includes all equipment used to provide fuel to generate the necessary heat. The
equipment required in the fuel system depends on the type of fuel used in the system
Feed water: The water supplied to the boiler that is converted into steam. The two
Sources of feed water:
 Condensate: It is the condensed steam returned from the processes.
 Makeup water (treated raw water): Water which must come from outside the boiler
room and plant processes.

Boiler Specification

The heating surface is any part of the boiler metal that has hot gases of combustion on one side
and water on the other. Any part of the boiler metal that actually contributes to making steam is
heating surface. The amount of heating surface of a boiler is expressed in square meters. The
larger the heating surface a boiler has, the more efficient it becomes. The quantity of the steam
produced is indicated in tons of water evaporated to steam per hour. Maximum continuous
rating(MCR) is the hourly evaporation that can be maintained for 24 hours. F & A means the
o o
amount of steam generated from water at 100 C to saturated steam at 100 C

Boiler Make & Year XYZ & 2003

oC)
MCR(Maximum Continuous Rating) 10TPH (F & A 100
2
Rated Working Pressure 10.54 kg/cm (g)
Type of Boiler 3 Pass Fire tube
Fuel Fired Fuel Oil

Typical Boiler Specification

PAKISTAN STEEL BOILER OPERATIONS:
INTRODUCTION:
The boilers at Pakistan steel are water tube boilers that generate high pressure superheated steam
by burning natural gas, blast furnace gas, coke oven gases, and coal tar in boiler furnace. The
basic purpose of installing these boilers is to utilize by products generated at blast furnace and
coke oven batteries, which having high calorific values; if not utilized will go waste in
environment, and fulfill electricity demand of Pakistan Steel.

There are four boilers installed at TPP in series, all are of same configurations. Following are the
specification of boilers:

Boiler drum capacity 220 t/hr

Supersaturated Steam 5400 C (max.)
temperature
Working pressure 115 kg/cm2
Boiler type Water tube

CONSTRUCTION:
The boiler plant has an ∩-shaped lay out and consisted of combustion chamber (upstream gas
duct) and down-way convective shaft connected with transition gas duct. In the upper part of
furnace and in turning gas duct a platen part of supper heater is arranged. Following is the brief
construction of boiler.
Furnace (combustion chamber):

Combustion Chamber consists of following sections:

Burners:
The vacuum type furnace is divided into two sections upper and lower. In the upper section there
are four burners positioned, two for each natural gas & coke oven gases burning. Similarly in the
lower section two for each blast furnace gases and coal tar burning.

Water Walls Tubes:

The furnace refractory linings are covered with water wall tubes from bottom to the top and these
water walls are connected to boiler drum at the top. These water wall (carbon steel) tubes have
O.D of 133 mm and wall thickness of 10 mm.

Convective Shaft:
Various sections of Convective shaft and their functions are as follows:
Ceiling Super-heater & panels of turning chamber:

Steam from the boiler drum first enters in the sealing tubes (alloy steel), these tube covers the
whole roof of gas duct. The sealing tubes are connected to the turning tubes (alloy steel) which
covers rear & side walls of boiler gas duct. Both sealing and turning tubes have O.D of 32 mm.

Screen Super heater tubes:

Screen type super heater consists of two rows of vertical screens (16 screens in each row). A row
of so called radiation screens is arranged above an aerodynamic extension at the top of furnace; a
row of “convective” screen is arranged in turning chamber over the down way gas duct.

Convective 1st stage super heater:

Saturated Steam from screen super heaters collects into headers, where it gets uniform
temperature and then enters into 1st stage convective super heater tubes (alloy steel) and becomes
superheated steam. These tubes are positioned in horizontal direction. These tubes are supported
by suspender tubes with the help of attached heat resistant welded steel hooks.

Convective 2nd stage super heater:

Steam from 1st stage super heater, after passing through horizontal de-super heater, enter 2nd
stage super heater tubes, here steam temperature reaches to its final limit and converts into high
pressure superheated steam and, collects in to steam chest. In both super heater stages tubes are
arranged in U-shape two loops configuration.

Economizer tubes:

These tubes are positioned in horizontal direction in lower portion of convective shaft. The
primary purpose of these tubes is to pre- heat feed water to __, increasing the boiler efficiency.

Condenser:
Function of condenser is to form condensate for de super-heaters.it is located outside but on the
top of boiler plant. It consist of cylindrical steel shell in which feed water tubes are passing
through, and is connected to boiler drum by two pipes through which steam is provided. Here
steam transfers its energy to feed water, it gets preheated, and steam condensates to liquid water
which is free from all impurities.

Boiler Drum:
Steam/water mixture, on entering from water walls to drum is delivered to cyclones through
chest boxes, where steam and water are separated. Steam goes to super heaters and water to drum
and is recycled. In all there are 39 cyclones.
Water volume of drum is divided into two sections namely: clean section only. The feed water is
let into the clean section only. The feeding of salt section is realized with boiler water of clean
section through the holes in partition.

Table 1: Steam Ultimate Temperatures:

Surfaces At loop outlet(C0) At inlet header(C0)

Ceiling Super heater 350 340

Water wall of turning gas duct 360 350
Extreme radiation screens 415 400
Central radiation screens 450 430
1st stage Convective super heater 500 485
2nd stage convective super heater 560 540
BOILER BLOWDOWN:
When water is boiled and steam is generated, any dissolved solids contained in the water remain
in the boiler. If more solids are put in with the feed water, they will concentrate and may
eventually reach a level where their solubility in the water is exceeded and they deposit from the
solution. Above a certain level of concentration, these solids encourage foaming and cause
carryover of water into the steam. The deposits also lead to scale formation inside the boiler,
resulting in localized overheating and finally causing boiler tube failure.
It is, therefore, necessary to control the level of concentration of the solids and this is achieved
by the process of 'blowing down', where a certain volume of water is blown off and is
automatically replaced by feed water - thus maintaining the optimum level of total dissolved
solids (TDS) in the boiler water. Blow down is necessary to protect the surfaces of the heat
exchanger in the boiler. However, blow down can be a significant source of heat loss, if
improperly carried out. The maximum amount of total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration
permissible in various types of boilers is given in Table 2.1.

RECOMMENDED TDS LEVELS FOR VARIOUS INDUSTRIAL PROCESS BOILERS

Sno. Boiler Type Maximum TDS
2
1. Smoke and water tube boilers (12 kg/cm ) 5,000 ppm

2. Low pressure Water tube boiler 2000-3000

3. High Pressure Water tube boiler with superheater etc. 3,000 - 3,500 ppm

4. Package and economic boilers 3,000 ppm

Conductivity as Indicator of Boiler Water Quality

Since it is tedious and time consuming to measure total dissolved solids (TDS) in boiler water
system, conductivity measurement is used for monitoring the overall TDS present in the boiler.
A rise in conductivity indicates a rise in the "contamination" of the boiler water.

TYPES OF BLOWDOWN:
Conventional methods for blowing down the boiler depend on two kinds of blowdown -
intermittent and continuous.
BOILER WATER TREATMENT
Producing quality steam on demand depends on properly managed water treatment to control
steam purity, deposits and corrosion. A boiler is the sump of the boiler system. It ultimately
receives all of the pre-boiler contaminants. Boiler performance, efficiency, and service life are
direct products of selecting and controlling feed water used in the boiler.

WATER AND ITS IMPURITIES:

Water is the most important raw material on earth. Not only does it maintain life, it is also used
for transportation, it serves as a solvent and it stores energy. Pure water H20) is tasteless,
odorless and colorless in its pure state; however, pure water is very uncommon. All natural
waters contain various types and amounts of impurities.

When it percolates through the upper layers of the earth to the ground water table or flows over
the surface of the earth dissolving and collecting additional impurities. These impurities may
form deposits on heat transfer surfaces, causing metal corrosion, reduction in heat transfer and
associated overheating with loss of mechanical strength. As shown in Table 1, together with their
technical and commonly used names, chemical symbols and effects - the common impurities in
raw water are:-
Dissolved Solids:
Scale forming substances; the principal ones are the carbonates and sulphates of calcium and
magnesium. Not all dissolved solids will form scale.

Silica:
Silica forms scale in a similar way to the permanent hardness salts. When the scaleformed is a
mixture of silica, calcium and magnesium salts, it is very hard and therefore presents a difficult
problem at inspection time

Suspended Solids:
Sludge forming substances; usually solid mineral or organic particles carried in suspension.
These substances are not generally a problem with most waters.
Dissolved Gases: Corrosive impurities: oxygen and carbon dioxide can be readily dissolved by
water.
Scum forming substances:
Mineral impurities that foam or scum: usually soda in the form of a carbonate, chloride or
sulphate. In practice, any scale forming salts within the boiler should be chemically controlled so
that they produce suspended solids or sludge rather than scale. The amount of impurities present
is extremely small and they are usually expressed in any water analysis in the form of parts per
million (ppm), by weight or alternatively in milligrams per liter (mg/l).
WATER TREATMENT TERMINOLOGIES:

Hard Water:
Hard water does not produce good lather or form with soap and consume more soap. The hard
water contains bicarbonates chloride and sulphates of calcium & magnesium.

Soft Water:
The soft water when treated with soap produces more lather and consumes less soap and this is
due to the absence of dissolved salts of Ca& Mg in water.

Hardness:
It is the concentration of dissolved scale forming salts in water. There are two types of hardness.

(1) Temporary Hardness:

It is due to the presence of only bicarbonate of calcium & magnesium. This type of hardness can
be removed by boiling the water. It is also called Alkaline Hardness.

(2) Permanent Hardness:

This type of hardness is caused by the presence of chloride and sulphates of calcium &
magnesium. It cannot be removed by boiling the water. It is also called Non-Alkaline Hardness.

Alkalinity:
It is the ability of water to neutralize acids or quantity of anions (carbonates & bicarbonates,
hydroxides, phosphate, silicates & nitrates) in ppm.

pH:
It defined as negative log of H+ ions concentration in solution.

Total Hardness:
It is the sum of concentrations of Alkaline Hardness & Non-Alkaline Hardness.
TDS:
It is the sum of concentrations of Total hardness salts & Non-hardness salts.

Note: For hardness measurement see appendix 1.

REMOVING IMPURITIES FROM RAW WATER:

Two major types of boiler water treatment are: External water treatment and internal water
treatment. Before applying these treatments, water which is obtained from natural resources
(lakes, rivers and underground etc.), is first treated by Screening, Sedimentation &filtration to
remove all suspended solid particles.

SCREENING:
Screening is the process of removing floating materials from water. Raw water is allowed to pass
through a screen having a large number of perforations which removes the large & small floating
matter.

SEDIMENTATION:
It is the process of removing insoluble impurities by allowing the water to stay undisturbed for
some time. Water is allowed to settle in big tanks or reservoirs for a number of hours. The
suspended materials, other than living organisms which float due to the gases they produce, settle
down at the bottom due to the force of gravity.

CO-AGULATION:
Co-agulation is the process of removing fine sized particles from water with addition of certain
chemicals known as co-agulants. Actually the fine sized particles present in water either do not
settle down at all or take a long time. In order to facilitate quick settling of these particles, some
chemical agents known as co-agulants are used.
The commonly used co-agulants arethe salts of iron & aluminum. E.g. alum [K2SO4 Al2(SO4)3 ·
24H2O ], aluminum sulphate Al2(SO4)3 18H2O, ferrous sulphate FeSO4 · 7H2O, ferric chloride
FeCl3 etc.

These salts react with carbonate & bicarbonate radicals present in water & form coagulable
precipitates (flocks) of hydroxide of these metals. The precipitated hydroxide absorbs the
suspended impurities, bacteria & other micro-organisms &causes them to settle down.
FILTRATION:
When sludge etc. after co-agulation has settled down, filtration is carried out by means of filters.
Filtration is the process of removing insoluble, colloidal &bacterial impurities from water by
means of filters. The filters used in water filtration consist of several layers of sand particles of
different size. As the water percolates ( due to gravity ) through the fine sand bed, most of the
objectionable materials are absorbed by it & clear water collects in the under drain channel, form
where it is drawn out.

EXTERNAL WATER TREATMENT:

External treatment is used to remove suspended solids, dissolved solids (particularly the calcium
and magnesium ions which is a major cause of scale formation) and dissolved gases (oxygen and
carbon dioxide).

To remove hardness from water, three methods are used on a large scale.
(1) Soda-lime method
(2) Ion-exchange process

LIME-SODA TREATMENT (SOFTENING PROCESS):

Lime-soda treatment is a chemical precipitation is a process in which certain chemicals added
react with dissolved minerals in the water to produce a relatively insoluble reaction product. This
method is used in reducing dissolved hardness, alkalinity, and silica.
Calcium hydroxide (hydrated lime) reacts with soluble calcium and magnesium bicarbonates
(temporary hardness) to form insoluble precipitates. They form a sludge that can be removed by

Ca (HCO3)2 + Ca (OH)2  2CaCO3 + 2H2O

settling and filtration.

Soda ash is used primarily to reduce non-bicarbonate hardness (permanent hardness). The
calcium carbonate formed by the reaction precipitates as sludge and can be filtered out. The
resulting sodium sulfate and chloride are highly soluble and non-scale forming. Removal of

CaSO4 + Na2CO3  CaCO3 + Na2SO4

oxygen and CO2 by using hot softening process is possible.

MgSO4 + Na2CO3  MgCO3 + Na2SO4

Coagulants used in lime-soda process:
In the initial clarification process, coagulants are used to agglomerate fine suspended particles,
which can then be filtered out. Likewise, in the softening process, coagulants speed up settling of
sludge by 25-50%. Sodium aluminates used as a coagulant in lime-soda softening. Proper uses of
coagulants help remove silica in the softening process.
ION EXCHANGE:
This is most modern method for softening hard water. By using this method almost all salts can
be removed completely from hard water and the water obtained is as good as distilled water.

In this process two types of resins are used i.e. cation exchange resin & anion exchange resin,
cation exchange resin contains (-COOH, -SO3H) function groups and are capable of exchanging
their H+ ions with cations. The anion exchange resin contains (-NH2, -OH) functional group and
are capable of exchanging OH- ions with anions.
In the process two columns, one consist of cation exchange resin & another consist of anion
exchange resin are used. The hard water is first allowed to pass through a column containing
cation exchange resins. Which remove all the cations like Ca+2, Mg+2 etc. and release H + ions.
Reaction in first column takes place as under.

R-H2 + CaCl2 → Ca-R + 2HCl

R-H2 + CaSO4 → Ca-R -- H2SO4

The anions like chloride & sulphates are converted into acid like HCl&H2SO4. Which is passed
through another column containing anion exchanger i.e. R-(OH)2 resin where the following
reaction takes place.
R-(OH)2 + 2HCl → R-Cl2 + 2H2O
R-(OH)2 + H2SO4 → R-SO4 + 2H2O

Water thus obtained is free from all cations and anions & is called
softwater
Demineralization:
When the water is passed through both cation and anion exchange resins it is known as
Demineralization.

Dealkalization:
One of the ion exchange processes for reducing water alkalinity is referred to as De-
alkalization. In this process the water passes through anion exchanger operating on the chloride
cycle. The exchanger removes alkaline anions such as carbonate, bicarbonate, and sulfates,
replacing these ions with chloride. Cation exchange softening precedes de-alkalization process.

Ion exchange regeneration

Ion exchange resins have a certain capacity for removing ions from water and when their
capacity is used up they have to be regenerated. Cation exchangers operating on the sodium
cycle, salt (NaCl) or (NaOH) is added to replenish the sodium capacity. Resins operating on the
hydrogen cycle are replenished by adding acid (H2SO4 or HCl).

Ca-R + 2HCl → R-H2 + CaCl2 (in first column)

Mg-R + 2HCl → R-H2 + MgCl2
R-Cl2 + 2NaOH → R-(OH)2 + 2NaCl (in second column)
R-SO4 + 2NaOH → R-(OH)2 + 2Na2SO4

DE-AERATION:
In de-aeration, dissolved gases, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide, are expelled by preheating
the feed water before it enters the boiler. All natural waters contain certain dissolved gases in
solution such as carbon dioxide and oxygen, greatly increase corrosion. When heated in boiler
systems, carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) are released as gases and combine with water
(H2O) to form carbonic acid, (H2CO3). Carbonic acid corrodes (localized pitting) metal reducing
the life of equipment and piping.
De-aeration can be done by mechanical de-aeration, by chemical de-aeration or by both
together.

Mechanical de-aeration:
Mechanical de-aeration for the removal of these dissolved gases is typically utilized prior to the
addition of chemical oxygen scavengers. They operate at the boiling point of water at the
pressure in the de-aerator. They can be of vacuum or pressure type. The vacuum type de-aerator
o
operates below atmospheric pressure, at about 82 C, can reduce the oxygen content in water to
less than 0.02 mg/litre.

The pressure-type de-aerators operates by allowing steam into the feed water through a pressure
control valve to maintain the desired operating pressure, and hence temperature at a minimum of
o
105 C. The steam raises the water temperature causing the release of O 2 and CO2 gases that are
then vented from the system. This type can reduce the oxygen content to 0.005 mg/litre.

Chemical de-aeration
Good operating practice requires removal of trace oxygen of mechanical de-aeration with a
chemical oxygen scavenger such as sodium sulfite or hydrazine. Sodium sulphite reacts with
oxygen to form sodium sulphate, which increases the TDS in the boiler water and hence
increases the blowdown requirements and make-up water quantity. Hydrazine reacts with oxygen
to form nitrogen and water. It is invariably used in high pressures boilers when low boiler water
solids are necessary, as it does not increase the TDS of the boiler water.

Oxygen Limits
Even very low levels of oxygen can cause corrosion. Table I shows the concentrations which
must be complied with in deaerated water if corrosion to steel is to be avoided:

Type of Water Maximum Oxygen

Concentration (mg/L)
Cold Water 0.300
Hot Water 0.100
Low Pressure Boilers (<250 psi) 0.030
High Pressure Boilers 0.005

Another set of upper limits for corrosion prevention has been established by the American Boiler
Manufacturer’ Association (ABMA):

Drum Operating Pressure (psig) 0 – 450

Dissolved Oxygen (mg/L) < 0.040
REVERSE OSMOSIS:
To understand reverse osmosis (RO), one must first understand osmosis. Osmosis uses a semi-
permeable membrane that allows ions to pass from a more concentrated solution to a less
concentrated solution without allowing the reverse to occur. Reverse osmosis overcomes the
osmotic pressure with a higher artificial pressure to reverse the process and concentrate the
dissolved solids on one side of the membrane. Operating pressures of about 300 to 900 psi are
required to achieve this. Reverse osmosis reduces the dissolved solids of the raw water, making
the final affluent ready for further treatment. This process is suitable for any type of raw water,
but sometimes the installation and operation cost may not be economical.

BOILER WATER CARRYOVER

Boiler water carryover is the contamination of steam with boiler water solids. Common causes of
boiler water carryover are:
 Substances like alkalis, greases, oils, fats, organic matter and suspended solids are known
to cause foaming or bubbling on boiler water surface and leave with steam.
 Priming is a sudden surge of boiler water caused by a rapid change in load. It may be
caused by damaged steam-separating equipment, operation above the boiler rating,
sudden fluctuations in steam demand, or carrying too high of a water level in the steam-
release area.
 Steam contamination may also occur from leakage of water through improperly designed
or installed steam-separating equipment in the boiler drum.

Selective silica carryover

As the boiler pressures increase above 400 psi, there is an increase in the tendency for silica to
be selectively carried into the steam in amounts proportionate to the amount of silica present in
the boiler water.

Problems caused by carryover

Suspended and dissolved solids in the boiler water tend to deposit in the steam and condensate
system, resulting in overheating, corrosion and reduction of efficiency of the boiler itself
and other equipment.

Preventing carryover
The basic preventive measure is to maintain the concentration of solids in the boiler water at
recommended levels. High water levels, excessive boiler loads and sudden load changes are to be
avoided. The use of chemical antifoams is effective in controlling carryover due to
concentration of impurities in the boiler water. Steam-separating equipment must be
inspected for proper installation.
WATER TREATMENT AT PAKISTAN STEEL
Purpose of Water Treatment:

Water of a given quality satisfactory for one set of conditions may be totally unfit for another
purpose. In order to fit to the required specifications it is necessary to condition and treat it to
such an extent that can make it quite satisfactory and harmless for use. In Pakistan steel
requirement of water is for a super high pressure boiler feed (working press. 110 atm.) and this
type of high pressure boilers call for “extra-high” quality “Dematerialized water”.

There are four basic feed-water treatment aims in addition to a number of more specialized ones
developing from high-pressure boiler operation. These requirements are the prevention of:

 Scale

 Corrosion

 Steam contamination and

 Embrittlement of boiler steel.

Chemically pure water is an extremely rare liquid and is difficult to obtain, mostly because it is a
universal solvent, and practically all substances are soluble in it to some degree.

Process of Water Treatment:

Water Chemical Treatment Plant at Pakistan Steel’s Thermal Power Plant is designed to meet the
demands for:

 Dematerialized water: for steam generation purpose.

 Chemically treated water: for in plant technological needs at Blast furnace, Coke oven,
Rolling mills, oxygen plant etc.

 Steam condensate cleaning: to treat the contaminated condensate received from different
shops o f steel mill in order to make it suitable for reuse in the boilers.

The process of water treatment may be divided into the following stages:
  Cold process softening by liming followed by clarification aided with coagulation to
remove mechanical and organic suspended particles.

 Mechanical filtration.

 Softening by ion-exchange to reduce hardness of water for producing chemically treated

water.

 Demineralization, to remove all dissolved salts from water by treating it in a series of

cation and anion exchangers.

 Degasification (de-carbonation), to reduce the concentration and eliminate the dissolved

gases (especially &) in water.

Description of Raw Water Treatment Scheme at W.C.T.P:

A simplified flow diagram of water treatment at water chemical treatment plant (W.C.T.P) is
shown in fig. Raw water from a local pump station situated in the premises of Pakistan Steel Mill
is pumped to the water chemical treatment plant by two lines up to the inlet of three raw water
booster pumps. From here the water is pumped to the main building (TPP) where it is heated up
to 38-40°C in the blow-down water exchangers of boilers.

A pair of pipelines No.1 carries this water to main-building and a pair pipeline No.2 brings it
back to clarifiers at W.C.T.P. Here liming and coagulation is carried out simultaneously in order
to remove calcium and magnesium hardness present in soluble form by converting them to less
soluble compounds and to make colloidal impurities to settle faster. Hydrated lime, and
coagulant ferrous sulfate, are used for this purpose.

Lime-coagulated water from the top of clarifiers is stored in two limed-coagulated water storage
tanks of 500 volumes. Precipitated sludge formed during liming and coagulation is transferred
from different parts of clarifiers to clarifier pumped by clarifier sludge transfer pumps to a sludge
pit outside the boundaries of Steel Mills.

This clarified water previously termed raw water from limed-coagulated water storage tank is
pumped through any two out of three limed-coagulated water pumps to double-chamber
mechanical filers. Here all the suspended material is removed mechanically by passing water
through a porous bed of anthracite coal crush. These all are suspended impurities which may
have escaped from clarifiers or which are small enough to settle by gravity action in clarifiers or
which have formed in the way to mechanical filters by full completion of liming and coagulation
action which remained incomplete in clarifier due to the fluctuation in clarifier load, temperature
difference, in effecting mixing of chemicals etc.

After mechanical filtration the water stream splits up into two, one stream goes to a set of three
sodium cation exchangers working in parallel and the other to primary hydrogen-cation
exchangers.

In sodium-cation exchangers remaining calcium and magnesium cations in water which are
present due to their solubility and difficult to remove are exchanged by sodium-cations of
sodium-cation exchange material known as “sulfonated coal”.

This is a Na-exchange cycle, here the total quantity of salts does not change but the scale
forming hardness salts ,, etc. are converted into the sodium salts that do not form scale.

Effluent coming out from Na-cation exchangers is known as “Chemically treated water” or
“Technical water” which is supplied to serve technological needs of Steel Mill. At the exhaustion
of ion-exchange capacity the Na-cation exchangers are regenerated with a 3-6% solution of
common salt, NaCl.

The second stream coming out from mechanical filters is treated in four hydrogen-cation
exchangers of 1st stage, working in parallel, here the calcium and magnesium cations of water
soluble salts are exchanged by hydrogen-cations of H-cation exchange material. The cation
exchange material used in these 1st stage H-cation exchangers is also “sulphonated coal” and is
in H-exchange cycle. The water treated by the H-exchanger cycle is an acid. Regeneration of H-
cation exchange material of this stage is carried out with 1.5-2.2% sulfuric acid solution.

Acidic water of H-cation exchanger 1 st stage is led to primary anion-exchanger also working in
parallel and 4 in numbers. This is first stage of anion exchanger with a “weakly basic” anion
exchange resin. This weakly basic anion exchange resin is designated as AH-31. Here the
exchange of anion of strong acids (,) takes place. With the anions (,,) of exchange material. The
exhausted exchange capacity of primary anion-exchanger bed is renewed by regeneration it with
2-4 % aqueous sodium hydroxide, NaOH.

After this anion exchange in 1st stage two lines takes this water to a set of Decarbonizers. The
decarbonizers are filled with porcelain “rashing rings”, dumped into the structure in order to
increase water and air surface contact area to effect degasification. Here the carbonic acid
formed during previous treatments (H-cat. Exchange) is decomposed by spraying the water from
the top, the free and any other dissolved gases are stripped off with a counter-current air flow.

Two decarbinized water collecting tanks V=200 at the bottoms of decabonizers collects this “de-
carbonized water”. From these tanks any of the three decarbonized water pumps feed this
decarbonized water for a 2nd stage hydrogen-cation exchange to a set of three secondary H-cation
exchangers working in parallel. These H-cation exchangers replace mainly sodium as well as
water in place of their H-cations. Cation-exchange material used in these exchangers is a
synthetic resin KY-2-8.

After the ion exchanging in sec. H-cation exchangers the water enters a final stage of ions
removal called secondary anion-exchangers. Here a strongly basic ion-exchange resin AB-17
exchanges the anion of week acids, etc.

Thus by treating the water in a series of H-cation exchangers and anion exchangers the total
dissolved salt content reduces markably and the water known as “Dematerialized water”.

It is now suitable for use in high-pressure steam boilers.

The cation-exchange material of sec. cation exchangers is regenerated with 3.5-5.5% sulfuric
acid, and that of sec. anion exchanger material with a solution of 4-4.5% sodium hydroxide.