Eight tips to keep steam dry and clean

Maintaining steam quality can reduce plant downtime, improve energy efficiency and minimize the use of chemicals and water.

By Spirax Sarco January 8, 2014

1. Keep contaminants at bay by checking the total dissolved solids boiler blowdown rate.

2. Make sure the first stream trapping point after the boiler goes straight to waste in case any contaminants are carried over from the boiler.

3. Check to see if the chemical dosing is accurate. Too little, water quality will suffer, too much, and you are wasting costly chemicals.

4. Aim for maximum condensate return. In a well-maintained system, condensate will be more pure than any top-up water.

5. Check the feedtank to see if it is at the optimum temperature. A higher temperature is energy efficient and minimizes corrosion by driving off dissolved gases.

6. Use a sample cooler to improve the quality of samples and make your water-quality monitoring more reliable.

7. Avoid overloading the boiler, which may lead to water being carried over into the steam system.

8. Use a conductivity meter to quickly and accurately check the quality off feedwater, boiler water, and condensate.

Content provided by Spirax Sarco, originally published in Steam News Magazine.

– Edited by Jessica DuBois-Maahs, Associate Content Manager, CFE Media, Plant Engineering, Control Engineering