1

Water Treatment for Power Plant

An Overview

Tomy Suryatama
Sr. Industry Technical Consultant
11 March 2015
 2

Topics
 Water in Power Plant
 Raw Water Treatment
 Boiler Pretreatment
 Water Chemistry and Its Impact
Water & Its Function in Power Plant

Geothermal
Fossil (80%+) Nuclear (15%)
(<5%)

 Cooling the  Transfer heat from the  Transfer heat from

condenser earth to the turbine the steam generator
to the turbine
 Generate steam  Cool the condenser
 Cool the condenser
 Remove waste and  Scavenge sulfur dioxide
pollutants  Cool mission critical
equipment
 4

Why Water Treatment Important to the

Power Industry?
 Greater Efficiency
 More electricity generated
per unit of fuel
 Less waste
Water is the Blood of Power Plant
Raw Water
Treatment Boiler Pretreatment Boiler

Cooling Water FGD

Coal & Ash
Handling Waste Treatment

• =
 6

Water User in Fossil Power Plant

 Boiler make-up water
 2-5% from total steam capacity

 Cooling water: steam turbine condensers & auxiliary plant

 Once through cooling : 135,000 m3/hr/10,000 MW
 Recirculatingcooling : 8,500 m3/hr/10,000 MW

 NOX control for gas turbines (where required)

 Make-up water to flue gas desulphurization
 Ash handling and disposal (coal-fired power plant only)
 General domestic use
 7

Water Sources for Power Plant

Sea Water

River or Lake

Industrial Water
 8

Water Treatment System Configuration

Brackish Water and Industrial Water

MIXED BED

BOILER

UF BW RO 1 BW RO 2
CARTRIDGE
FILTER

SERVICE
WATER

RIVER OR LAKE CLARIFIER SAND FILTER COOLING WATER

 9

Water Treatment System Configuration

Sea Water

MIXED BED

BOILER

SW RO BW RO 1 BW RO 2
CARTRIDGE
FILTER

SERVICE
WATER

SEA WATER UF
SAND FILTER
 10

Water Treatment Purposes

 Suspended Solids Removal

 Dissolved Solids Removal
 Colloids Removal
 Organics Removal
 Dissolved Gases Removal
 11

Raw Water Treatment

 12

Raw Water Treatment

Equipment

 Primary Clarification
 Clarifiers
 DAF

 Multimedia Filtration (MMF)

 Gravity Filters
 Carbon Filters
 Chlorine removal
 Cartridge Filters

 Membrane Filtration:
 Micro-Filtration (MF)
 Ultra-Filtration (UF)
 13

Raw Water Treatment

Clarification

 Remove suspended solids by

Coagulation, Flocculation and
Sedimentation
 Clarifier/DAF
 Turbidity inlet > 20 NTU
 Target turbidity outlet < 5 NTU
 Type: sludge blanket, solids contact or
in-line plate clarifier
 14

Raw Water Treatment

Filtration

 Final polishing step before the water proceeds to the user.

 Removing flocs carry over, Al, Mn, Organics; etc in clarifier
effluent that could lead to fouling problem in down stream
process
Expected MMF Performance
 15

Raw Water Treatment

Activated Carbon Filter

 Soluble organic molecules

attached into the pores of
activated carbon granules
by means of surface
adsorption.
 Very good for THM,
aromatics, pesticide,
Phenol; etc
 Coconut shell = Low MW.
Coal =High MW
 Sensitive to microbio fouling
 16

Raw Water Treatment

Ultra Filtration

 Membrane that will

remove particles with size
0.1-0.001 m
 Removes colloids,
organics and protein
 RO Pretreatment
 Reduces SDI’s <1-1.5
 Reduces turbidities to
<1NTU
 17

Raw Water Treatment

Conventional vs Ultra Filtration

Conventional Membrane (UF/MF)

 Sand, Multi Media or
Activated Carbon Filter
 Turbidity < 0.3 NTU
 SDI < 3.0
 TOC < 3 ppm
 Microfiltration (MF) or
Ultrafiltration (UF)
 Turbidity < 0.2 NTU
 SDI < 2.0
 TOC < 2 ppm
 18

Raw Water Treatment

Treated Water Target

Parameter Unit Outlet Clarifier Outlet Filter

pH - 6.0 – 8.0 6.0 – 8.0

Turbidity NTU <5.0 <1.0

Aluminum ppm Al - <0.2

Total Iron ppm Fe - <0.2

Manganese* ppm Mn - <0.05

Free Chlorine ppm Cl2 0.2 – 0.5 -

Note: * if Manganese problem is exist

 19

Boiler Make Up Pretreatment

 20

Boiler Make Up Pretreatment

How Pure ?
 System Design Criteria:
 Steam Pressures/Temperatures
 Steam Turbine Reheat
 Attemporation or De-superheat
 NOx Control
 Process Steam Restrictions

 Unit Operating Mode:

 Base Loaded
 Cycling or Peaking
 Seasonal Operation
 Co-generating
 21

Boiler Make Up Pretreatment

Technology Options

Type of Feed Water Ion Exchange Reverse Thermal

Osmosis Desalination
Fresh Water Yes Yes No

Brackish Water No Yes No

Sea Water No Yes Yes

 22

Boiler Make Up Pretreatment

Desalination Technology

MSF

Thermal MED

Desalination TVC/VC
Technology
Reverse
Osmosis
Membrane
Electro
Deionization
 23

Boiler Make Up Pretreatment

RO Advantages

 Lower Energy Consumption

 Higher Yield

 Remove organics and colloids

Parameter Ion Reverse Thermal
Exchange Osmosis Desalination
Organics Removal No Yes Some
Colloidal Removal No Yes Yes
 24

High Purity Water Treatment

 Dual Bed Ion Exchange/ Reverse Osmosis/ Thermal
Desalination could not remove ions/ dissolved solids
to “trace” level as required by steam turbine/ boiler of
power plant.
Parameter Unit Boiler
Make- Up
Conductivity mS/cm <0.1

Sodium ppb <3

Chloride ppb <3

Silica ppb <10

Sulfate ppb <3

TOC ppb <300

 25

High Purity Water Treatment

Technology

Typical power plant configuration

• Dual Bed Ion Exchange + Mixed Bed Polisher
• Reverse Osmosis + Mixed Bed Polisher/EDI
• Thermal Desalination + Mixed Bed Polisher/EDI:
High Purity Water Technology
Mixed Bed Polisher

 Usually used as polishers after dual bed trains or after

reverse osmosis systems
 Strong cation and strong anion resin mixed in same vessel
 Cations and anions separate at same time
 Regenerated at same time
 Often regenerated off-site
 27

High Purity Water Technology

EDI/CDI

 EDI Anion/Cation plates or

membrane contain Ion
Exchange Resins
 The resins capture the ions
(Na+, Cl- and SO4-) just as any
Demineralization system does.
 The resins are continuously
regenerated by the H+ and
OH- created from the splitting
of water molecules.
- This splitting occurs due to the electrical
potential supplied.

High Purity Water Technology
Mixed Bed Polisher vs EDI/CDI
Mixed Bed Polisher
 Broad range of feed water
quality
 High quantity of chemical
quantity required
 Spent regenerant (waste)
 Regeneration issues
 Moderate capital and
maintenance cost
28
Electro Deionization
 High quality of feed water
(Hardness < 0.1 ppm; etc)
 No chemicals required
 No waste
 No regeneration issues
 High capital and
maintenance cost
 29

Water Chemistry & Its Impact

 30

Water in Power Plant

Good Chemistry

 Can be invisible,
forgotten
 Takes effort to maintain
 Has“Preventative”
value
 Canprovide
“Restorative” value
 31

Water in Power Plant

Bad Chemistry

 Is a cancer
 Can be chronic or
acute
 Little effort to maintain
 Degrades performance
 Increases Total Cost
 32

Water in Power Plant

Impact to Plant Cost Performance

 Loss of Efficiency : Increased Heat Rate

 Deposits, Corrosion
 Bio-fouling

 Loss of Capability: Derating

 Deposits
 Bio-fouling

 Loss of Availability: Forced Outage

 Deposits, Corrosion
Water Treatment & Typical non-Fuel Costs
Other Chemicals - Specialty
4% 1%
Operations
4% Chemicals - Commodity
Administration 1%
2%
Buildings & Grounds
0% Maintenance Contracts
25%

Plant Staffing
13%

Capital
Taxes & Insurance 25%
25%

Typical Combined Cycle Power Plant

Non-Fuel Total Cost of Operation
 34

Thank You !