If you have talked with your plant chemist or chemical provider lately, you are probably aware that prices for many of the chemicals used by generating plants have steadily risen…
Water
Technical, legal, and regulatory articles on water-related topics for power plants: cooling, wastewater, intake, chemistry, purge water, and once-through systems
WATER TREATMENT Tackling substandard water sources Boiler and cooling tower feedwater typically must be softened prior to use, usually with well-established processes for reducing water hardness. A growing problem for many…
Many plants are being forced by changing environmental laws and public pressure to retrofit existing power generating facilities to closed-circuit cooling water systems or even dry cooling options rather than…
Condensate polishers are resin-based ion exchange systems that are commonly used in power plant condensate systems to remove dissolved contaminants (chlorides and silica) and suspended contaminants (iron or copper oxide…
No doubt some power plant engineers feel that tackling environmental problems is a lot like dealing with the Hydra, the ancient mythological serpent monster with multiple heads. When an attacker…
WATER TREATMENT Tag-teamed seawater cleanup The scarcity of water resources is causing big problems in China, both directly and indirectly. The lack of potable water directly impairs the health and well-being…
Drought conditions across the Southeast have begun affecting power plant operations. According to the Associated Press, 24 of America’s 104 nuclear reactors are in areas now experiencing the most severe…
GRID RELIABILITY New CIP standards leave questions unanswered This January, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order No. 706 approving a set of eight reliability standards for critical infrastructure…
Sample and analysis panels are on the front lines of the constant battle to detect power plant water chemistry problems. However, at many plants, operators have low confidence in the…
In coal-fired power stations, flue gas desulfurization (FGD) is used to “scrub” most of the sulfur dioxide (SO2) from the gas. FGD is often performed using a wet process in…