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Title: Optimize water-treatment economics at your powerplant

Journal Article · · Power (New York)
OSTI ID:51701

This article describes how power producers can minimize overall long-term cost by improving system chemistry. Power producers are well aware of the economic penalties they incur when a component failure causes a plant shutdown. One of the heaviest financial burdens is attributed to steam-cycle corrosion, which is said to account for about half of the forced outages experienced in the US electric-utility sector and about $3-billion annually in operating and maintenance costs. Attractive financial returns are possible by improving cycle chemistry, because of the high benefit-to-cost ratios obtainable--in some cases as high as 1000:1. Upgrading chemistry monitoring with a continuous sodium analyzer at a cost of a few thousand dollars is a classic example. Keeping track of a steady increase in that feedwater contaminant, with its potential for turbine and superheater caustic corrosion if unchecked, can eliminate millions of dollars in maintenance costs.

OSTI ID:
51701
Journal Information:
Power (New York), Vol. 139, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1995
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English