An innovative steam boiler water treatment technology from Spirax
Sarco uses reverse osmosis (RO), enabling steam users to achieve a
step-change in energy efficiency.
RO is a robust, chemical-free technology that uses semi-permeable
membranes to deliver purified water to boilers and clean steam
generators. It can strip out between 98 and 99% of the total
dissolved solids (TDS) in the feed water, slashing the boiler
blowdown rate to less than 1% and knocking between 1 and 3% off fuel
bills.
Where conventional RO water treatment systems reject approximately a
third of the water that passes through them, Spirax Sarco’s unique
zero-loss systems use an innovative approach to eliminate virtually
all waste water. This alone saves typical steam users 2-3% of fuel
costs.
Combined with other savings, such as reducing the need for chemical
water treatments, Spirax Sarco RO systems will usually pay for
themselves in well under a year, and sometimes in six months.
Elsewhere in the steam system, RO helps cut down on plant outages by
reducing corrosion in the condensate circuit caused by the build-up
of carbonic acid, provided it’s used with the right complementary
treatments.
So just what is RO? Osmosis is a natural phenomenon that controls
the flow of fluid across a semi-permeable membrane barrier. It
balances the flow of fluid and nutrients across every cell wall in
our bodies, for example. With RO a pump is used to apply pressure
and force the natural process into reverse. The pump effectively
forces a concentrated stream of salts is forced through a membrane
into two streams. One stream is the reject stream or concentrate
stream, the other is the sought after pure water (permeate) stream.
RO is a safe way of producing pure water because it doesn’t need the
acid or caustic regenerants used in conventional demineralisation
plants.
RO systems comprise a pressure pump, housing and membrane. Water is
pumped into the RO system under pressure and the pure water (or
permeate) is forced out, directly into either a hotwell or permeate
holding tank. In steam applications, the boiler or clean steam
generator would be the next stop. The biggest cost of running an RO
system is the energy needed to pump the water, so Spirax Sarco uses
optimised, composite membranes and smaller, more efficient pumps
that minimise the pumping energy needed.
Anyone concerned that introducing a new technology might involve
adding substantially to the maintenance burden can stop worrying.
Provided the water entering the RO system is properly treated, the
robust membranes are very low-maintenance. And if they are damaged
they’re easy to replace.
To find out how a Spirax Sarco RO system can bring you significant
energy savings and other benefits please email below.
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E-mail Spirax Sarco |