Boiler Feed Water Treatment

• Feed water treatment is a pre-water treatment process to control deposition, eradicate

impurities and prevent corrosion within a boiler system.
• Fresh water has high amounts of dissolved oxygen. When this oxygen is mixed with
elevated temperatures, it becomes highly corrosive, particularly for the steel piping in
boiler systems that are made of carbon.
• In order to prevent corrosion, oxygen that is present in the pure water to be used in the
production of saturated steam must be eliminated through the use of chemicals and de-
aeration towers. This is what is done in feed water treatment.
• When a boiler water is not treated, the steam can cause scalding and serious burns in
addition to damaging equipment and/or the facility.
• Corrosion damage and scale formation could also result in reduced efficiency, low
steam quality, unreliable operations and shorter lifespan of the facility.

De concentration / Blowdown
 Boiler blowdown is water intentionally wasted from a boiler to avoid concentration
of impurities during continuing evaporation of steam.
 The water is blown out of the boiler with some force by steam pressure within the
boiler.
 Boiler blowdown is basically the removal of water from a boiler. Its purpose is to
control boiler water parameters within prescribed limits to minimize scale,
corrosion, carryover, and other specific problems.
 Blowdown is also used to remove suspended solids present in the system. These
solids are caused by feed water contamination, by internal chemical treatment
precipitates, or by exceeding the solubility limits of otherwise soluble salts.
 In effect, some of the boiler water is removed (blown down) and replaced with feed
water.
 Removal of suspended solids helps insure the boiler generates high quality steam.
It also prevents foaming at the water surface which can lead to unstable water levels
and excessive carryover of liquid in the steam.
The two most commonly used water treatment processes are:

De aeration Process
A deaerator is a device that is widely used for the removal of air and other dissolved
gases from the feed water to steam generating boilers.
In particular, dissolved oxygen in boiler feed waters will cause serious corrosion
damage in steam systems by attaching to the walls of metal piping and other metallic
equipment and forming oxides (rust).
It also combines with any dissolved carbon dioxide to form carbonic acid that causes
further corrosion.
 As shown in Figure, the typical spray-type deaerator is a horizontal vessel which has a
preheating section (E) and a de aeration section (F).
The two sections are separated by a baffle(C). Low-pressure steam enters the vessel
through a sparger in the bottom of the vessel.
The boiler feed water is sprayed into section (E) where it is preheated by the rising
steam from the sparger.
The purpose of the feed water spray nozzle (A) and the preheat section is to heat the
boiler feed water to its saturation temperature to facilitate stripping out the dissolved
gases in the following de aeration section.
The preheated feed water then flows into the de aeration section (F), where it is
deaerated by the steam rising from the sparger system. The gases stripped out of the
water exit via the vent at the top of the vessel.
Again, some designs may include a vent condenser to trap and recover any water
entrained in the vented gas.
The deaerated boiler feed water is pumped from the bottom of the vessel to the steam
generating boiler system.

Demineralization / Ion exchange process

Ion exchange as the name suggests means that exchange occurs in the process. A process that
exchanges one charged particle with another. The impurities that occur in water are charged
particles, making the process vital in boiler treatment process. The process takes place in the
closed container which is partially filled with charged resin. The resin is insoluble, material
made up of plastic and is capable of substitution for another ion. There are two types of ions
involved in the process and each one is capable of changing the other. The types are as:
· Cation = positively charged Ions
· Anion = negatively charged Ions
In this process, strong acid cation resin in the hydrogen form converts dissolved salts into
their corresponding acids, and strong base anion resin in the hydroxide form removes these
acids. Demineralization produces water similar in quality to distillation at a lower cost for
most fresh waters.
Principles of Demineralization

A demineralizer system consists of one or more ion exchange resin columns, which include a
strong acid cation unit and a strong base anion unit. The cation resin exchanges hydrogen for
the raw water cations as shown by the following reactions:

As a cation exchange unit nears exhaustion, acidity in the effluent drops sharply, indicating
that the exchanger should be removed from service. At this time the resin should be regenerated
with an acid solution, which returns the exchange sites to the hydrogen form. Sulphuric acid is
normally used due to its affordable cost and its availability. However, improper use of sulphuric
acid can cause irreversible fouling of the resin with calcium sulphate.
To complete the demineralization process, water from the cation unit is passed through a strong
base anion exchange resin in the hydroxide form. The resin exchanges hydrogen ions for both
highly ionized mineral ions and the more weak ionized carbonic and silicic acids, as shown
below:

The above reactions indicate that demineralization completely removes the cations and anions
from the water. In reality, because ion exchange reactions are equilibrium reactions, some
leakage occurs. Most leakage from cation units is sodium. This sodium leakage is converted to
sodium hydroxide in the anion units. There-fore, the effluent pH of a two bed cation-anion
demineralizer system is slightly alkaline.
In order to ascertain quality water, elaborate systems are usually employed but the basic
working principle remains same. Ion exchange resins have one serious disadvantage that they
possess limited capacity and finally become exhausted. There are enough processes which are
employed for regeneration but the regeneration occurs with salt brine which adds up the step
to mix it with fresh water such that no salt enters the process.

Question Bank
1. What is Boiler blow down?
2. With a neat sketch explain the Demineralization process of Boiler feed water treatment.
3. Explain De aeration process of boiler feed water treatment.
4. What are the methods used for feed water treatment? Explain any one.
5. What is the necessity of boiler feed water treatment?