In power generation, high purity water forms an essential part of the steam cycle. This demineralised, or “ultra pure” water is necessary to minimise scale formation and corrosion within the boiler and turbine.
Scale formation leads to reduced energy efficiency and increases maintenance costs. In large scale industrial processes, where considerable volumes of steam are consumed as part of the plant operation require large high efficiency demineralised water treatment plants.
Industrial processes with high UPW requirements, such as pulp & paper and petrochemical industries often utilise ion exchange systems to generate fresh demineralised water. Produced demineralised water flow rates output by ion exchange processes are typically in excess of 100-150m3/hr.
The Ion exchange processes will typically have a higher operating recovery than other bulk demineralisation processes such as RO.
The typical high flow demineralised process involves dedicated cation/anion exchange columns followed by a mixed bed process, which contains both cations and anion resins within a single ion exchange vessel.
The cation resin removes all positive ions, including heavy metals, calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium and replaces them with hydrogen (H+) which is loosely bound to the polymer matrix.
Similarly, the anion resin removes all negative ions, including sulfate, chloride, nitrate, carbonate as well as weakly ionised carbon dioxide and silica.
In some processes, additional ion exchange pre-treatment is required with weak base anion IX systems for management of organic carbon impurities or additional cation IX for management of heavy metals and hardness.
Hydroflux and our partners Flootech specialise in the manufacture of condensate polishers for the power, pulp & paper, mining, petrochemical and other heavy industries. We design and manufacture a wide range of systems for condensate polisher plants
In addition to the above, the treatment process may also involve pre-treatment steps to manage other impurities in the feed water.
– Pre-screening with Hydroflux range of high capacity FlooScreens
– Gross solids and algae removal with HyDAF and FlooDAF systems
– Final solids polishing with HyPURE MMF and/or HyPURE UF filtration
– Pre-treatment solid waste management with sludge dewatering solutions
Hydroflux® also offers a wide range of ion exchange processes for the power sector.
Details on our HyX Groundwater Remediation processes can be found here.
Details on our FlooIX Condensate Polishing systems can be found here.