BOILER FEED WATER AND ITS

TREATMENTS
Shibu G. Pillai
Contents
• Boiler Feed water
• Major Problems in Boiler
Scaling
Boiler corrosion
Caustic embrittlement
Foaming & priming
Boiler Feed Water
• A boiler is a device for generating steam
• Consists of two main parts:
• Furnace and Boiler proper
 Furnace provides heat, usually by burning a fuel
 Boiler proper, a device in which the heat changes
water into steam
• The steam or hot fluid is then recirculated out
of the boiler for use in various processes in
heating applications
 Boiler Feed Water

• Boiler receives feed water in the form of

• Recovered condensed water (return water)
• Fresh water (make up water: purified in varying
degrees or natural water in its raw state)
• Feed-water composition therefore depends on
the quality of the make-up water and the amount
of condensate returned to the boiler.
• Steam which is coming out from the boiler,
contains liquid droplets and gases.
• Water remaining in the liquid form at the bottom
of the boiler picks up all the impurities from any
form of water.
• The impurities must be blown down by the
discharge of water from the boiler to the drains.
 Boiler Feed Water

• Proper treatment of boiler feed water is an

important part of operating and maintaining a
boiler system.
• As steam is produced, dissolved solids become
concentrated and deposits inside the boiler.
• This leads to poor heat transfer and reduces the
efficiency of the boiler.
• Dissolved gases such as oxygen and carbon
dioxide will react with the metals in the boiler
system and lead to boiler corrosion.
• In order to protect the boiler from these
contaminants, they should be controlled or
removed, through external or internal treatment
 Problems in Boiler
Scaling
• In boiler, water is continuously converted into steam
• Increasing the concentration of salts.
• Concentrates changes into loose and slimy precipitates
called sludge and
• if these are become hard and adherent, called scales.
• Scales are hard deposits, which stick very firmly to the
inner surface of the boiler.
• The type of scale will depend upon the chemical
composition of the concentrated water.
 Scale due to calcium and magnesium
 Scale due to iron oxide
 Scale due to copper
 Scale due to silica
 Scaling

Effect of Scale or Sludge Formation

• The thermal conductivity of boiler scale is very low
(similar to insulating brick). The scale acts as an
insulating layer and prevents an efficient transfer of
heat through the tubes to the circulating water. The
reduction in thermal conductivity means lower boiler
efficiency which in turn leads to overheating and may
result in the softening, bulging or even fracturing of
the boiler tubes.
• Boiler scale can also cause clogging or partial
obstruction of circulating water tubes in a boiler,
which again causes overheating of the tubes.
• It increases the maintenance and operating costs.
• Scales also cause corrosion (serious problems in boiler
operation)
 Scaling

Prevention of Scale or Sludge Formation

External pretreatment of feed water with water softeners,
demineralizers, or reverse osmosis to remove minerals
before enter into boiler
• Scale/sludge is prevented by introducing the kerosene,
colloidal substances such as tannins, lignosulphonates,
polyacrylates, maleic acrylate copolymer, maleic styrene
copolymer, polystyrene sulphonates etc. these colloids get
coated over the scale and forming particles and are
suspended in water which can easily blown-off from the
boiler.
• Internal treatment using chemical conditioning
carbonate conditioning
phosphate conditioning
calgon conditioning
into boiler feedwater to keep the scale forming materials in
dissolved form.
 Prevention of Scale or Sludge Formation

Carbonate Conditioning Process

• Sodium carbonate is added to boiler water.
• Scales react with it and form insoluble calcium
carbonate
CaSO4 + Na2CO3 → CaCO3↓ + Na2SO4
• Used only for low pressure boilers
• In high pressure boilers the excess of sodium
carbonate get converted into sodium hydroxide
due to hydrolysis and causes caustic
embrittlement
 Prevention of Scale or Sludge Formation

Calgon Conditioning Process

• Calgon [sodium hexametaphosphate,
(NaPO3)6] is added to boiler water
• forms the sludge [Na4P6O18]2- and
prevents the scale formation by forming
the soluble complex compounds
Na2[Na4(PO3)6+ → 2Na+ + [Na4P6O18]2-
[Na4P6O18]2- + 2CaSO4 → *Ca2P6O18]2- + 2Na2SO4
 Problems in Boiler
Boiler Corrosion

• Destructive attack or decay of boiler material

or metal by chemical or electrochemical
reaction with its environment
• Main responsible for corrosion in boiler:
 Dissolved Oxygen
 Dissolved Carbon dioxide
 Acids from dissolved salts
 Boiler Corrosion

Dissolved oxygen (D.O)

• Water usually contains about 8 ml D.O/L at
room temperature
• D.O in water and presence of high
temperature attacks boiler material
2Fe + 2H2O + O2 → 2Fe(OH)2 ↓
4Fe(OH)2 ↓ + O2 → 2*Fe2O3.2H2O+ ↓
Ferrous hydroxide (Rust)
 Boiler Corrosion

Removal of Dissolved oxygen (D.O)

• By mechanical deaeration
• Chemically, oxygen is removed by adding oxygen
scavenger or absorbing chemicals in a calculating
amount such as sodium sulphite or hydrazine or
sodium sulphide
 If only small quantities of oxygen is present, the addition
of sodium sulphite is practical , in large quantities causes
foaming
 Hydrazine is used in large utility boilers to remove
dissolved oxygen but not recommended for heating
boilers because it must be closely controlled because of
explosive nature of hydrazine and if used excess, it
decomposes to produce ammonia which again cause
corrosion
 Boiler Corrosion

Dissolved carbon dioxide

• Carbon dioxide in presence of water forms
carbonic acid (H2CO3)
CO2 + H2O → H2CO3
• Carbon dioxide is also released inside the
boiler, if water used for steam generation
contains bicarbonates
Mg(HCO)3 → MgCO3 + H2O + CO2
• Slow corrosive effect on the boiler material
 Boiler Corrosion

Removal of Dissolved Carbon Dioxide

• By adding calculated quantity of ammonia

2NH4OH + CO2 → (NH4)2CO3 + H2O

• By mechanical deaeration process, reduces CO2

concentration to 5-10 ppm
 Boiler Corrosion

Acids from dissolved salts

• Water containing dissolved magnesium salts
liberate acids on hydrolysis

MgCl2 + 2H2O → Mg(OH)2 ↓ +2HCl

• The liberated acids reacts with iron (of the

boiler) producing HCl again and again
 Problems in Boiler
Caustic Embrittlement

• Caustic embrittlement is a type of boiler

corrosion caused by using highly alkaline
water in the boiler.
• During softening process by lime-soda
processes, free sodium carbonate is present
• sodium carbonate decomposes to give
carbon-dioxide and sodium hydroxide
(caustic)
Na2CO3 + H2O → 2NaOH + CO2
 Caustic embrittlement

• sodium hydroxide containing water flows into

the minute hair-line cracks by capillary action
• water evaporated and the dissolved caustic
soda concentration increases gradually
• caustic soda attacks the surrounding area,
thereby dissolving iron of boiler as sodium
ferrate
• This causes embrittlement of boiler parts
 Caustic embrittlement

Prevention of Caustic Embrittlement

• By using sodium phosphate as softening agent
instead of sodium carbonate

• By adding tannin or lignin to boiler water

• By adding sodium sulphate to boiler water,

blocks hair cracks in the boiler

• By adjusting the pH of boiler water to 8.0–8.5

 Problems in Boiler
Priming and Foaming
Priming
• When a boiler is producing steam very rapidly
some particles of the water carried along with
the steam. This process of ‘Wet Steam’
formation is called priming.
• It is caused by:
• presence of large amount of dissolved solids such
as alkali sulphate and chlorides
• sudden boiling
• improper boiler design
• sudden increase in steam-production rate
 Priming

Disadvantage of Priming

• Reduces the efficiency of boiler

• Decrease the life of the machinery part

• maintenance cost increases

 Priming

Prevention of Priming
• By improving the designing of boiler
• By addition fitting of mechanical steam
purifiers
• By maintaining low water level in the boilers.
• By using softwater.
• By decreasing the amount of dissolved salts
present in the feed-water.
 Problems in Boiler
Foaming

• Foaming is the persistent formation of

bubbles or foam in the boiler
• which do not break easily.
• It is due to the presence of oily substances in
water.
• These oily substances reduce the surface
tension of water in boiler
 Foaming

Disadvantage of Foaming

• Actual height of the water column cannot be

judge.
• Dissolved salts in water carried by the wet
steam may damage the machinery parts
especially turbine blades.
• Boiler pressure cannot be maintained
 Foaming

Prevention of Foaming

• By the addition of anti-foaming agents such as

castor oil, Gallic acid, tannic acid etc.

• By adding compounds like sodium aluminate

for removing oil from boiler water.