Condensate Polisher Ready for Shipment to Chemical Plant in Louisiana



Res-Kem will be shipping a condensate polisher to a chemical plant in Louisiana in a two days.  This system will be used to treat condensate to save water treatment chemical costs, identify process equipment leaks and will likely improve product quality of the chemicals they produce.

What is the problem?
The chemical plant uses steam in heat exchangers and jacketed process reactors.  The steam condensate returns at about 20 ppm hardness 24/7.  Recycling this high hardness condensate back into the boiler makeup water reduces the number of cycles of concentration possible and increases water treatment chemical usage.  Given the number of heat exchangers and reactors, it has been difficult to determine where the leaks are coming from.

What is the system solution?
Working with a Res-Kem subject matter expert, a condensate polisher was selected to reduce the hardness in the steam condensate prior to being returned to the boiler makeup.  A Hach SP-510 hardness analyzer installed on the treated water side of the CP will be used to determine when the polisher needs to be regenerated every two minutes process.  A Hach APA-6000 will be used to measure the incoming value of the hardness during operation.  By measuring and recording the water hardness and which process is operating, the plant engineers should be able to correlate which heat exchanger and/or reactor has the leak.    

 

Single Condensate Polisher with Bray Valves and Sample Cooler

System Operating Parameters:
The new, single tank condensate polisher will treat up to 140 gpm and since the system uses a highly crosslinked cation exchange resin, the system will operate at a maximum of 185 F.  As stated above, the Hach SP510 analyzer will take samples of the treated condensate every two minutes.  When the treated condensate reaches 10 ppm a signal will be sent to the DCS in the control room.  Depending upon the production schedule, regeneration of the condensate polisher start.

System Features:
Res-Kem has a customizable standard design for our condensate polishers from 20 to 66" in diameter with single to multiple tanks in parallel.  All wetted materials of the polisher are manufactured in 304L and 316L stainless steel.  The single mineral tank is an ASME-code vessel with a design pressure of 100 psig and test pressure of 130 psig.  The valves are Bray butterfly valves with 316L wetted parts.  Since we have a customizable standard design we easily accommodated the customer's company-wide standard of HYTORX actuators with position indicators.   

Bray Valve with HYTORX-131 Actuator and Flow Control on Condensate Polisher

Optional Added Features:

• Sample cooler-Required to operate the Hach hardness analyzers.  The maximum operating temperature for these instruments is F.  Also, the sample cooler insure accurate measurement of pH in the condensate.  Without a sample cooler, the pH will be inaccurately high.
• Hach SP510 Go/No Go hardness analyzer-This unit has multiple ranges which need to be selected when ordering
• Hach APA 6000
• Emerson HYTORX actuators

For Additional Help:

• Contact a Res-Kem condensate polisher expert.
• CP Product Bulletin
• Condensate Polisher Checklist PDF
• CP Checklist Webpage
• Value Engineering White Paper

Water Softener Shipped to Food Flavorings Company in New Jersey

Res-Kem recently shipped an industrial water softener to a food flavorings plant in southern New Jersey.  The water treated by the water softener is used to make steam to sterilize the raw plant material prior to extraction and extract the flavoring.   The softener will be a replacement to an existing tank which has failed after 40 years of service.

System Operating Parameters:
Since most of the steam ends up in the plant matter and the extracted flavor ingredient, very little steam condensate is returned.  This make the makeup flow very large.  Each of the three softeners operate at 200 gpm and 80 psig.  Because to the system's age, corrosion of the tanks and piping have become a maintenance nightmare. 

Existing Industrial Water Softener

New System:
The new system is an 84" diameter steel vessel and is finished in an epoxy coated interior and exterior.  The face piping is Schedule 80 PVC.  The valves are Bray valves with Bray air-to-air actuators.  The system is controlled by an Aquamatic 962 controller.  At this point, regeneration will be initiated manually when production will allow.  To handle the existing uneven floor, four jack legs were provided.

New Water Softener prior to Shipment to Food and Flavorings Plant

I Can't Believe It's Not A Water Sample!

Holy Moses! It wasn't 1 week after my last blog on October 28th 2011 about receiving water sample in old pickle jars when I get a water sample in an used margarine container!

Water Sample Container Received by Res-Kem

P-L-E-A-S-E!. My disclaimer: "results not guaranteed for accuracy due to improper sampling container" Ok, the courtesy testing we do is of the non-critical, aesthetics only variety, however, I'm sure the old butter will skew my results. Now that the blue is leaving my face, please help a friend out and read my October 28th 2011 blog. Matter of fact, print it out and keep it in your shirt pocket or maybe tape it to the back door of your work van. Amen.