A well-designed steam and water sampling system can give you the critical insights you need to monitor steam and condensate quality, cycle chemistry (power production) and identify potential problems in your Hydrocarbon plant.
Hydrocarbon processes require large amounts of energy, much of which is supplied by steam from on-site boilers, co-generation facilities, and local utilities designed to supply excess steam to neighbouring facilities.
The efficiency of these processes relies on optimising heat transfer in processing plants and controlling the inputs to steam production, such as returned condensate and makeup water, and the quality of the steam in processing equipment like heat exchangers.
Steam & condensate chemistry
Cycle chemistry monitors and protects any equipment directly involved with condensate, feed water and other aspects of the steam/water cycle, such as boilers, turbines, heating systems and piping. Cycle chemistry monitoring systems help plants maintain steam and water chemistry within operating limits to prevent potentially catastrophic equipment failures.
A well-planned and designed sampling system can help provide the critical insights you need to monitor cycle chemistry.
In co-generation and utility plants, chemistry in the entire steam-water cycle is closely monitored to ensure steam quality and to prevent and control corrosion in the system. Most plants typically monitor chemistry parameters such as:
- pH
- Conductivity
- Cation conductivity
- Total Organic Carbon (TOC)
Other parameters can be monitored as well. These will be dependent on system design, metallurgy, water characteristics and boiler chemistry.
ACCURATE AND REPEATABLE ANALYSIS
The validity of your analysis data is only as good as the entire sampling and analysis process.
With today’s analyser technology, you can implement online chemistry parameter measurements that automate the data collection process and remove sample collection and analysis bias.
Duff & Macintosh can help you choose the right Sentry products and services to:
- Make sure your sample is representative
- Measure the right characteristics
- Extract the sample
- Condition the sample
- Select chemistry parameter instruments
View the original blog post from the Sentry website.
Sentry offers a range of products and services to effectively condition, sample and measure gas, liquid, slurry, powder, solids, steam or water to obtain the critical insights needed to control and optimise their processes.
