1.

Tray-Type Deaerator
A tray type deaerator incorporates two stages in order to completely deaerate the incoming water
to 7 ppb O2 content. The first stage is a spray type pre-heater which includes the water inlet nozzle, a
water box or header to house the spray nozzles, and vent baffles to collect and dispose of the concentrated
non-condensable gases that have been released from the water. Since the gases are a little more corrosive
when concentrated, it is normal practice to construct the entire pre-heating section of corrosion resisting
material, usually 18-8 stainless steel.
Directly below the spray section is the tray section which includes a set of trays and a tray
enclosure which supports the trays and provides the baffle needed to contain and control the direction of
flow of water and steam through the trays. Since most of the oxygen present in the water is removed by
the spray pre-heater, the water that enters the tray section has a low corrosive potential and the use for
corrosion resistant materials of construction for the tray section is not necessary to ensure a long service
life unless the parts are constructed of very light gauge material.
The size and arrangement of the deaerator trays varies among the manufacturer but, in general,
deaerator trays are press formed from corrosion resisting steel. Thin material is used to decrease handling
weight and to allow forming of the trays. Trays may be furnished as individual tray units or as assemblies
of a number of individual tray units. The surface of each tray is provided with adequately sized openings
to provide a path for steam and water flow. The remaining metal surface serves to collect the water and
cause it to flow as films to provide the steam-water contact area. The trays are installed in multiple layers
to develop a tray stack of sufficient height, according to each manufacturers process, to ensure that the
contact time needed for complete deaeration is available. Tray type deaerators are relatively unaffected by
high turndown (can be operated 0-100% of rated capacity), have a low steam side pressure loss, and can
be built to handle any capacity (largest so far about 16,000,000 pph).
Tray type deaerators may be further classified with respect to how the steam and water flow
through the tray stack. Two schemes are mainly used in tray type deaerators counterflow and parallel
flow. Both flow schemes can achieve 7 ppb final O2 performance and it is left to the deaerator
manufacturer to explain the advantages of his design approach.
a. Parallel Downflow
In parallel downflow units, water enters the pre-heating compartment through stainless steel
spring loaded spray nozzles. The partially deaerated water falls to the bottom of the pre-heating
compartment from which it flows through water seals located between the sprays and the top of the
tray stack. The water flows from the water seals to the trays. The water seals serve to prevent the
bypassing of steam from the tray compartment to the pre-heating compartment and ensure that no
non-condensable gases pass from the pre-heater to the tray compartment. The water seals are
designed with troughs that evenly distribute the water over the trays. It is the water seals that permit
the operation of the deaerator in a parallel downflow mode. The water seal also eliminates direct
impingement of sprays on trays, ensuring even and consistent distribution of water over the tray
stack. It is designed with troughs that evenly distribute the water over the trays. In addition, water
delivered from the spray area to the trays is at a uniform temperature and low dissolved oxygen gas
level. Cold spots and stagnant areas are eliminated, and proper water distribution onto the trays is
assured at all loads.

Steam enters the deaerator in the space provided below the water seals and above the trays.
The steam is forced to flow downward through the trays, co-current with the water flow, due to the
water seals. The water and steam mixture is agitated in the tray stack to scrub out the final traces of
dissolved oxygen. The water leaving the tray stack is completely deaerated and falls to storage
where it is available for immediate use. The steam leaving the tray compartment is directed around
the outside of the compartment to the pre-heater where it is condensed by the incoming water with
only a small amount vented to atmosphere along with the removed non-condensable gases.
b. Counterflow
The typical horizontal tray-type deaerator in Figure 1 has a vertical domed deaeration section
mounted above a horizontal boiler feedwater storage vessel. Boiler feedwater enters the vertical
dearation section above the perforated trays and flows downward through the perforations. Lowpressure dearation steam enters below the perforated trays and flows upward through the
perforations. Some designs use various types of packing material, rather than perforated trays, to
provide good contact and mixing between the steam and the boiler feed water.
The steam strips the dissolved gas from the boiler feedwater and exits via the vent at the top
of the domed section. Some designs may include a vent condenser to trap and recover any water
entrained in the vented gas. The vent line usually includes a valve and just enough steam is
allowed to escape with the vented gases to provide a small and visible telltale plume of steam.
The deaerated water flows down into the horizontal storage vessel from where it is pumped to
the steam generating boiler system. Low-pressure heating steam, which enters the horizontal
vessel through a sparger pipe in the bottom of the vessel, is provided to keep the stored boiler
feedwater warm. External insulation of the vessel is typically provided to minimize heat loss.
2. Spray-Type Deaerator
The first stage of deaeration in a spray type deaerator is the same as a tray type deaerator, where
water is sprayed into a steam atmosphere via a spring loaded spray nozzle. The difference occurs during
the second stage where deaeration is accomplished by dividing the water flow into small pieces (droplets,
strings) and mixing it intimately with the steam flow. In contrast to the tray type, the second stage of
deaeration is accomplished with a very much shortened contact time, maybe 1/10 second compared to
few seconds in a tray design. This allows a spray type deaerator to be more compact than a tray type of
equal capacity. Most spray type deaerators are housed in a single, horizontal tank, where the deaeration
section (first and second stages) and stored water share the same volume in the tank. Spray deaerator
designs though come at the expense of a small, but increased, steam pressure loss. With respect to
obtaining sufficient spray action to ensure full deaeration of the water, there are different approaches
that divide the spray type deaerator second stage designs into two classifications, fixed orifice or variable
orifice.

a. Fixed Orifice
In the industry, it is common to refer to fixed orifice designs as scrubber types which
causes the water to be atomized by steam in a parallel (co-current) mode. The sprayed water from
the first stage is collected into a downcomer pipe which moves the water to the second stage
where the atomization with the steam occurs. The water is introduced into the scrubbing section
where it mixes with the steam at the bottom of an enclosed chamber. The energy from the steam
forces the water upwards through a series of baffles where the remaining oxygen is removed from
the water. The water leaves the scrubbing portion and falls into the tank where the stored water is
held to be pumped to the boiler feed pumps. The non-condensable gases will then leave the
deaerator through the vent condenser. A fixed orifice design has a limited range of operation
because at low load the mixing and atomizing effect is reduced due to reduced steam velocity
through the orifices.
b. Variable Orifice

The need for a spray type deaerator with improved turndown capability led to the
development of a variable orifice design. Variable orifice designs are commonly referred
to as 'atomizing' deaerators and required an atomizing valve to perform the second stage
of deaeration. The variable orifice feature maintains the steam velocity needed for
optimum atomization of the water even as the load decreases. This is accomplished by
causing the steam to flow through a spring or weight loaded valve (atomizing valve) just
prior to making contact with the water where the high speed jet of steam atomizes the
liquid. A turndown of 20:1 is readily attainable with a variable orifice spray type
deaerator.

3. Steam Injection Type Deaerator

Figure 2: A schematic diagram of a typical spray-type deaerator.

As shown in Figure 2, the typical steam injection deaerator is a horizontal vessel which
has a preheating section (E) and a deaeration 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 feedwater is sprayed into section (E) where it is preheated by the rising steam from the
sparger. The purpose of the feedwater spray nozzle (A) and the preheat section is to heat the
boiler feedwater to its saturation temperature to facilitate stripping out the dissolved gases in the
following deaeration section.
The preheated feedwater then flows into the dearation 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. Also again, the vent line usually includes a valve and just
enough steam is allowed to escape with the vented gases to provide a small and visible telltale
plume of steam.The deaerated boiler feedwater is pumped from the bottom of the vessel to the
steam generating boiler system.