Presented By: M.

Touseef Tahir

Huaneng Shandong Ruyi Energy (Pvt.)

Ltd.
 Types of water According to source
1. Ground Water
2. Surface water
Water is generally classified into two
groups: surface water and groundwater. In
general: Groundwater is located underground
in large aquifers and must be pumped out of
the ground after drilling a deep well. Surface
water is found in lakes, rivers and streams and
is drawn into the public water supply by an
intake.
 Groundwater generally has dissolved impurities
and surface water has suspended impurities.
Suspending materials
Suspended material refers to the material whose size is bigger
in water. Because of the existence of this kind of material,
water becomes feculent (fouled with waste matter). According
to the different size and different relevant density of
suspended material, in stagnant water, some of them will float
above the water, and some will sink under gravity. This kind of
impurity is not stable in water, which can be separated easily
when the water flow is stable
 Colloids
The size of colloid particles is smaller than suspended
material but bigger than dissolved material. The colloid
in natural water is mainly two kinds: one is natural
inorganic colloid, such as compounds of iron, aluminum
and silicon; and the other kind is organic colloid, mainly
by the decomposition of animals and plants, because
their surface has negative electron charge mostly, they
cannot form as a bigger particle due to same colloid
electrostatic repulsive force, which is very stable is
water and difficult to be separated.
 Dissolved material
Dissolved material may include some mineral salts
dissolved in water when it flows over the stratum layer,
which is mostly ionized as cation and anion in water. In
addition, the dissolved material may also include some
gas molecules dissolved in water when it contact with
atmosphere. In natural water, calcium, magnesium,
sodium and potassium ions are the most common cation,
and carbonate radical, sulfate radical and chlorine ion are
the most common anions. Impurities existing in natural
water as molecules are mainly carbon dioxide and oxygen,
which are the main reasons of metal corrosion.
 Water is working fluid of fossil fuel power plant.
The requirement of high purity water increases
with the pressure requirement of steam.
 Raw Water
Raw water refers to the natural water without any
treatment (such as water comes from river, lake, sea and
underground water, etc. which is the source of various
water used in power plant.
Boiler Make-up water
After purification of raw water with various methods, it will
be used to make up the loss of steam and water in steam
and water circulation system, called boiler make-up water.
According to different purification method, the boiler
make-up water is divided into soft water, distilled water
and demineralized (DM) water.
 Condensate water
The steam condensed through condenser by water after
work in steam is called condensate water.
Drain water
The water condensed by steam in various steam pipe and
steam using equipment is called drain water.
Feed water
The water sent to the boiler is called feed water. The feed
water is composed of condensate water, make up water
and various drain water.
 Cooling water
The water used as cooling medium is called cooling water.
In power plant, it mainly refers to the water used to cooling
the exhaustion of steam turbine.
Internal cooling water
The internal cooling water refers to the water used to cool
the stator winding of generator.
 In order to compensate the steam and water loss
during circulating process, make-up water should
be filled continuously to circulating system
The main reasons of steam and water loss may
the followings:
1. Boiler Part
2. Steam turbine part
3. Loss in various water tanks
4. Loss in pipe system
 Boiler part:
1. the safety valve of boiler
2. the steam release valve of superheater exhaust steam to
outside,
3. Steam is used to push the accessory mechanism (such as
pneumatic feed water pump), and steam atomization
method is used for steam soot blow and liquid fuel
combustion (such as oil, etc.), all of which may cause steam
and water loss.
Steam turbine part:
1. Steam will be exhausted continuously at the gland seal place of
steam turbine,
2. Some steam will be discharged and gas exhaustion opening of
ejector and deaerator, which may cause loss.
 Loss in various water tanks:
1. Overflow of various water tank (such as drain water tank,
etc.)
2. Evaporation of hot water may cause loss.
Loss in pipe system:
1. Untight connection of flange in every pipe system
2. valve leakage may cause steam and water loss.

In order to maintain the normal steam and water circulation

operation of the thermal system in power plant, water should
be used to make up these losses, thus, this part of water is
called make-up water
 The items that can express single content of impurity in
water or the whole nature is called water index.

Kinds Of Indexes:
1. the first one refers to the content of impurity in water
(such as ion and compounds),content index;

1. The second one expresses the common feature of some

kind of impurity, which depends on the requirement of
water consumer, called technical index.
1. Suspended solid:
It refers to the solid that can be removed from water
sample by filtering or centrifugal effect under certain
regulated condition, whose unit is mg/L, which just can
express the bigger size suspending material in water
instead of small size suspending material and colloid can
penetrate the filter
 Turbidness:
it is the result comparing standard water sample with
photoelectric effect produced using the scattering process of
suspending material in water and colloid particles to light,
which is the integral index of two kinds of impurities in water.
The turbidness liquids prepared with hydrazine sulfate and
Hexamethylenetetramine are used as standard to be compared
with water sample, whose unit is FTU (Formazine Turbidity).
 Salt Content:
Refers to the summation of various dissolved slats in
water, which is expressed by mass concentration of all
measured cation and anion in water quality complete
analysis with the unit of mg/L or mol/L of cation or
anion concentration
Dissolved solid:
It refers to the content of water sample with certain
volume after drying to get constant weight at 105
110 with the unit of mg/L, which just can express the
approximate content of dissolved material in water.
 Hardness:
It is used to express the content of ion such as calcium
and magnesium in water, whose unit is mmol/L.
Calcium hardness and magnesium hardness and the
sum of them is called total hardness.
Alkalinity hardness also called temporary hardness,
which can be removed by boiling, mainly caused by
bicarbonate.
Un-alkalinity hardness also called permanent hardness,
mainly caused by sulfate of calcium and magnesium,
chloridate and nitrate, cannot be removed by boiling..
 Alkalinity:
It refers to the quantitative ability of water to react with
hydrogen ion. Generally, it expresses the sum of hydroxide
ion, carbonic acid radical, bicarbonate radical and other
weak acid salts. The alkalinity can be divided into the
following two kinds:
Methyl orange alkalinity: Methyl orange is used as
indicator; the titrating end is pH 4.2 to measure the
total concentration of all carbonate and hydroxide. It
also can be called total alkalinity.
Phenolphthalein alkalinity: Phenolphthalein is used as
indicator, and the titrating end is pH 8.3 to measure the
alkalinity. This alkalinity expresses total hydroxide ion
and a half of carbonate in water.
 Acidity:
Acidity expresses the quantity of material that can accept
hydroxide ion in water, which is mainly composed by various acids,
strong acid salt and weak alkali salt. In natural water, its acidity is
mainly H2CO3. The acidity of cation exchanger mainly refers to HCI,
H2SO4 and H2CO3.
Alkalinity and acidity can be measured with alkali and acid
titration method.
1. Chemical oxygen demand (COD):
Under regulated condition, oxidizer is used to deal with water
sample. The oxidizer amount required in oxidation of organics,
nitrite, ferrite, sulfide, etc is COD, which should be converted into
oxygen mass concentration with the unit of mg/L oxygen.
2. Biologic oxygen demand (BOD):
Under certain condition, the mass concentration of dissolved
oxygen consumed during biologic oxidation by organics and
inorganic matters in water is called BOD, whose unit is mg/L
oxygen.
3. Ignition solid reduction:
The residual of dissolved solid with constant weight after drying
should be put in high temperature burner at 750800C to be
burnt for some time till the residual becomes white. All lost weight
is called ignition solid reduction, which is approximate value of
organic content.
Alkalinity And Hardness:
Hardness is bigger than alkalinity:
This kind of water is called un-alkali water. Calcium and
magnesium ion will react with HCO3 and form carbonate
hardness (YDT), the residual hardness is non-carbonate
hardness (YDF) formed by calcium and magnesium iron with
other anion such as SO42-, CI-.
Hardness is equal to alkalinity:
In this kind of water, calcium and magnesium ion are reacted
with HCO3 to form carbonate hardness fully, thus, there is no
non-carbonate hardness anresidual alkalinityd.
 Hardness is smaller than alkalinity:
In this kind of water, the hardness will be converted as carbonate
hardness completely; the residual alkalinity will form sodium
alkalinity with Na+ and K+ called negative hardness. There is no
non-carbonate hardness at this moment.
 The alkalinity of ion may have 5 different conditions:
suppose the acid amount consumed during titration is a
(P) and b (M) (unit: ml).
a>b: The alkali ions are CO32- and OH-, without HCO3-;
a<b: The alkali ions are CO32- and HCO3-, without OH-;
a=b: The alkali ion is CO32-, without HCO3-, OH-;
a=0, b>0: The alkali ion is HCO3-, without CO32-, OH-;
b=0, a>0: The alkali ion is OH-.
 The alkalinity in water of boiler is mainly composed of OH-, CO32-,
HCO3- and other weak acid salts. HCO3- is nearly not appears in
boiler water, because of under high temperature and high
pressure:

HCO3- CO32- + H2O+ CO2

CO32- + H2O 2OH- +CO2

When hydroxyl exists with bicarbonate radical together, the

following reaction will happen:

HCO3- + OH- CO32- + H2O

Thus, the main alkalinities in boiler water are CO32-, OH-; and the
alkalinity in raw water is HCO3-.
 PH value is the index expressing solution acidity and
alkalinity. The bigger the pH value is, the higher the
concentration of OH- is. Besides the content of OH-, the
contents of CO32- and HCO3- are also included in alkalinity.
Thus, there are difference and connection between them.
Their connection is: under common condition, PH value
will increase along with the increase of alkalinity, but it
also depends on the proportion of OH- alkalinity in the
total alkalinity;
 the difference is: PH value just depends on the
corresponding content of OH- and H+, but the value of
alkalinity expresses the total amount of various ion
composed alkalinity. thus, for the boiler water whose PH
value is qualified, sometimes, its alkalinity may not be
qualified; whereas, the water whose alkalinity is qualified,
its PH value may not qualified.
 The chloride in natural water and in the water used for
boiler is generally stable. Thus under certain quality of
water, the ratio of dissolved solid content with the content
of Cl- is nearly to a constant (K), and the measurement of
Cl- is easy, so the dissolved solid is generally controlled by
measuring the content of Cl- during local water quality
measurement of drum and boiler,
k = dissolved solid/Cl-.
In this formula, the ratio k is called ratio of solid and
chloride for short. If the solid and chloride ratio is
measured periodically, k can be found out, and if just the
content of Cl- is measured, the content of dissolved solid
can be known, so that blowdown of boiler can be guided.
1. The classification methods of natural water are many,
according to its total hardness (1/2 Ca2++1/2Mg2+),
1. Very soft water (whose hardness is below 1.0mmol/L), soft water
(whose hardness is about 1.0~3.0mmol/L), middle hardness
water (whose hardness is about 3.0~6.0mmol/L),
2. hard water (whose hardness is about 6.0~9.0mmol/L), very hard
water (whose hardness is above 9.0mmol/L).
According to the slat contents,
1. low salt content water (salt content is below 200mg/L), middle salt
content water (salt content is between 200mg/L~500mg/L),
2. high salt content water (salt content is between
500mg/L~1000mg/L)
3. higher salt content water (salt content is above 1000mg/L).
 According to the relationship between hardness
and alkalinity, it can be divided as
1. alkalinity water (alkalinity is bigger than hardness)
2. non-alkalinity water (alkalinity is smaller than
hardness).
the non-alkalinity water also can be divided as
calcium hard water ([1/2 Ca2+] > hardness)
magnesium hard water ([1/2 Ca2+] < alkalinity).
 There are mainly water pre-treatment, boiler
makeup treatment, feed water treatment, boiler
water treatment and cooling water treatment
Purpose of treatment
1. Prevent or slow up corrosion of thermal
equipment
2. Prevent or slow up scaling
3. Guarantee the steam quality with high purity.
 Generally, corrosion refers to the
destruction and deterioration of
material under the work of
environment. The corrosion of
metal and alloy is mainly the
destruction of metal and alloy
under the electrochemical work
and also under the physical or
biological works, such as the
stress corrosion destruction is
the result of stress and chemical
work. Non-metal destruction is
generally caused by chemical or
physical work, such as
oxidization, dissolving or swelling
 Economic loss
1. Replacement of corroded equipment
2. Overdesign to allow for corrosion
3. Preventive maintenance, for example, painting Shutdown
of equipment due to corrosion failure
4. Contamination of a product, Loss of efficiencysuch as
when overdesign and corrosion products decrease the
heat-transfer rate in heat exchangers Loss of valuable
product, for example, from a container that has corroded
through
5. Inability to use otherwise desirable materials Damage of
equipment adjacent to that in which corrosion failure
occurs
 Thats one of the largest expenditures we make, and
its all going down the drain. The total annual
corrosion costs in the U.S. rose above $1 trillion in the
middle of 2013, illustrating the broad and expensive
challenge that corrosion presents to equipment and
materials and is now estimated at $1.1 trillion for
2016. These estimates are based on a landmark
study by NACE that estimated (direct) corrosion costs
were $276B in 1998 as reported in the NACE
Corrosion Costs Study. However, that report leaves
out the enormous (at least as much as direct costs,
according to the authors and other analysts) tally of
indirect costs that the consumers experience from
corrosion and the inflation increases since 1998
2-Hazards to security and environment
Not only economic loss will be caused by corrosion, it
also will threaten the security usually. The main
pressure bearing component of boiler and pressure
containers will contact with some corrosion mediums
during operation and various corrosion phenomenon
may appear and induce destruction or damage.
Hazards Of Corrosion
3. Hazards to the development of
new technology
During the production process of a
new technology, new product and
new industry, corrosion is one of the
problems that should be overcome.
The new technology, new product and
new industry can be developed just
corrosion is overcome
 4. Increasing the loss of natural resource
Usable mineral is stored in a thin earth shell and the
storage amount of metal mineral is limited and it is less
and less nowadays. People extracts metal from the
metal mineral but corrosion makes the metal become
useless and un- recuperative fragmental oxidize, etc. so
that the consumption of natural resource is
accelerated. In the aspect of prolong the consumption
of natural resource, corrosion protection is also very
important.
 State of metal corrosion can be classified as two
kinds of even corrosion and local corrosion
1. Even corrosion
2. Local corrosion
 Even corrosion produced corrosion product film:
corrosion is produced totally on metal or most of it is no metal
and form a corrosion product film on the surface of metal. If
this film is very thin passivating film, it has perfect protective
performance, but if the film is multi-hole un-compact oxidized
film, it does not have protective performance and will cause
local corrosion under corrosion product
 Even corrosion without film:
If the metal corrosion products are dissolvable,
corrosion product film will not produced on the
surface of metal. And the corrosion of metal will
proceed at certain speed under this condition
 Local corrosion appearing on the surface of metal can be
smaller to grain-boundary and be bigger to one part of the
whole area. The corrosion areas and shapes of various
metal corrosions are different. Local corrosion is far more
harmful than even corrosion, which usually cause sudden
and catastrophic accident, can induce various accidents,
thus more attention should be paid to them.
 Local corrosion can be classified into the following types:
1. Pitting corrosion
2. Gap corrosion
3. Intergranular corrosion
4. Stress corrosion abruption
5. Corrosion fatigue
6. Selective corrosion
7. Erosion corrosion
8. Caviation corrosion
9. Wearing and vibration corrosion
10. Wearing and vibration corrosion
11. Hydrogen corrosion
 Pitting corrosion is a kind of highly centralized local
corrosion state, the sizes of holes are different, big or
small, but under common condition, they will be small.
The diameter of common pitting corrosion is equal to or
smaller than its depth, there are also pan shaped and
disk shaped holes. Pitting corrosion generally appears on
the metal whose surface has passivating film or protective
film.
 Because of the deflects on metal surface and
active ion existing in solution that can destroy the
passivating film, the passivating film will be
destructed locally and the metal at crevasse
becomes anode and the large area of film round
crevasse becomes cathode, so that corrosion will
spread rapidly and produce pitting corrosion.
 This kind of corrosion usually appears in the metal gap
(such as welding seam, riveted gasp, undersurface of
gasket or settlement, so it is called gasp corrosion. The
destructive shape is gap shape and the serious one can
be penetrated the metal. It is a special shape of pitting
corrosion whose production and developing mechanism
are similar with pitting corrosion. Oxygen lack area is
inside of the gap and becomes cathode.
 The corrosion that canoe be seen from appearance
spreads into the inside from the surface of metal along
the grain boundary. But if observe with microscope,
reticular corrosion can be seen in the grain boundary and
the metal is out of strength and tensility seriously.
Breaking may appear under the condition of loading.
 The abruption produced under the work of metal and alloy
corrosion and stress together is called stress corrosion
abruption.
 Corrosion fatigue is a kid of metal corrosion abruption
caused under the work of alternate stress (a kind of stress
whose direction is changeable in cycle) and corrosion
together
 Under certain environment: under certain environment, a
part of alloy will be corroded, and other component will
form spongy substance, whose strength and ductility will
be lost completely. This kind of destructive state is called
selective corrosion, also called as de-alloy corrosion. The
most common is de-chroming of copper alloy, de-
aluminum of copper alloy and de-iron of cast iron
(graphitization), etc.
 Erosion corrosion is also called impact corrosion, is a kind
of destruction type that erosion and wearing at the same
time on the surface of metal. This kind of corrosion
generally appears under the impact of liquid with high
speed to damage the protective film of metal surface so
that the corrosion of exposed metal will be celebrated.
 The appearance characteristics of erosion
corrosion are: trough, corrugation, circular
aperture and mountain valley shape with
direction.
 It is a special type of wearing corrosion. It appears under
the condition of there is high speed liquid and the
pressure is changeable, such as on the rotating
equipments like impeller of pump, etc..
 Caviation will be produced caused by the impact wave
with extremely high pressure produced during the broken
of caviation that is formed because of turbulent flow or
local pressure reduction caused by temperature changing.
The characteristic of caviation corrosion is deep corrosion
pit distributed closely on metal and the surface of metal
will become rough
 When two contacting components bear load at the same
time, the damage of their contacting surface under the
work of vibration and sliding is called wearing and
vibration corrosion, also called fretting corrosion, which is
a special state of erosion corrosion.
 Hydrogen corrosion is also called hydrogen brittleness. In
hydrogen corrosion, the ductility and tensility of metal is
low and it is easy to induce embrittlement and
destruction. This is because hydrogen atom will enter into
the internal of metal at certain temperature and pressure
and react with a component or element,
 the volume of product in this reaction is bigger that will
produce big internal pressure to produce bigger strain in
embrittlement so that the ductility and tensility of metal
will be reduced and embrittlement will be induced.
 Put metal in atmosphere, a layer of very
thin film will be formed on the surface of
metal that cannot be seen with naked
eyeThe acidic gas CO2, SO2 and NO2, etc.
dissolved in liquid film (related with
atmosphere pollution) will form the
electrolytic liquid. Most l will be dissolved
in the liquid film spontaneously with the
state of metal ion, and the residual
electron in metal will reduce H+ as H2.
Corrosion micro-battery will be formed on
the surface of metal to induce corrosion.
Thus, the stability and performance of
metal material depends on the
electrochemical greatly.
 The corrosion caused by the
chemical reaction appearing
between metal and contacting
substances (such as O2, Cl2, SO2,
etc.) directly is called chemical
corrosion. This kind of reaction is
simple and just is oxidizing reducing
reaction between metal and oxidizer.
Such as iron will react with Oxygen
directly and induce corrosion.
 Steel cannot be corroded in dry air for a long time. But in
wet air condition, the surface of steel will absorb moisture
and form a thin layer of water film which will induce
electrochemical corrosion rapidly on steel. Because
oxygen and carbon dioxide exist in atmosphere, if carbon
dioxide is dissolved in water film, it can be worked as
electrolyte solution. Generally, carbon is one of the
content of steel, so that iron becomes cathode and
carbon becomes anode and water film forms many small
galvanic cell of electrolyte solution.
 The electrode reaction produced in cathode is:

Fe - 2eFe2 (Oxidation reaction)

The reactions produced in anode are two types. If the acidity of

water film is weak or neutral, the oxygen dissolved in water film
is used as oxidizer and the electrode reaction produced on
anode is:

O2 + 2H2O + 4e4OH-(Reducing reaction)

This kind of corrosion is call oxygen absorption corrosion. The

metal corrosion such as steel and iron is mainly oxygen
absorption corrosion
 When acidic gas is dissolved in the water film, such as
carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and oxynitride, etc, the
concentration of H+ in water film is bigger and the acidity
of water film is stronger, H+ can be used as oxidizer at
this moment, and the electrode reaction produced on
anode is:
2H +2eH2 (Reducing reaction)
This kind of corrosion is called hydrogen-evolved
corrosion
 Chemical corrosion will appear along with
electrochemical reaction at the same time,
generally
 Boiler Corrosion
In Boiler the temperature and pressure are very high, it give
rise to favorable conditions for Corrosion, scaling and salt
accumulation.
1. Oxygen corrosion of economiser pipe of boiler
2. Alkaline corrosion of water wall pipe of boiler
3. Acidic corrosion of water wall pipe of boiler
4. Hydrogen brittleness of water wall pipe of boiler
5. Stress corrosion of boiler metal
6. Corrosion fatigue of boiler metal
7. Pitting corrosion of the pipes of boiler superheater and reheater
8. Steam and water corrosion of the pipe of boiler superheater
9. Oxidizing peeling of superheater pipe of boiler
 The oxygen characteristics of economizer pipe are: pit
corrosion or ulcerative corrosion will be produced on the
surface of metal
 Salient corrosion products are laid on the corrosion places
they may connect to as a whole piece sometimes and it
seems like an even and thick rust layer.
After cleaning the rust layer in acid cleaning, it will be
found there are many different sizes of pits on the surface
of metal under rust layer.
The color and shape of corrosion product will be different
along with the changing of condition.
 If the dissolved oxygen in feed water is more, the surface
of corrosion products will be red brown, and the lower
layer will be black, and it will be hard teeth shaped.
The oxygen corrosion in the operation of economic is
generally serious at the inlet or low temperature stage and
light at high temperature stage.
The corrosion pits caused by improper maintenance
stoppage corrosion are mainly positioned at the lower part
of horizontal pipe. Sometimes, band shaped iron rust will
be formed.
1. Oxygen removing treatment should be done (thermal
oxygen removing or chemical oxygen removing).
2. The PH value of feed water should be increased, i.e.
volatile treatment (dosing ammonia into feed water).
3. For once-through boiler, under the condition of the
conductivity of cation in feed water is surely smaller than
0.1-0.2s/cm, 100-150g/L dissolved oxygen should be
kept in feed water and ammonia should be dosed to
maintain the PH value at 8.2-8.5, so that oxygen corrosion
and iron stripping can be prevented. This kind of method
is called combination treatment of feed water.
4. Anti-corrosion work should be done when economiser
stops working.
 Alkaline corrosion of water wall pipe of boiler generally
appears at the fire-facing side of water wall pipe, parts
with high thermal load, tiling pipe and under multi-hole
deposits.
The corrosion part is dish shaped with full of black
corrosion products.
These products will be burned as hard block after forming
a while that includes phosphate, silicate, copper and zinc,
etc. commonly.
After cleaning the deposits and corrosion products,
uneven, thinner and semi-circle groove will appear on the
pipe. The thinner condition and area of pipe is irregular,
and the serious place is even penetrated. The mechanical
performance and composition of the metal at corrosion
place will not be changed, generally. And the metal will
keep its ductility.
 The reason of alkali corrosion in water wall pipe is
because the sodium hydroxide in boiler water is
evaporated and concentrated to enough concentration to
induce corrosion.
Besides appearing under multi-hole deposits, at the small
gap between pipe wall and welding slag, alkali corrosion is
also easy to be induced because of the concentration of
free alkali.
1. Reduce the copper and iron contents in feed water and
reduce the deposits on the water wall pipes. The specific
measures is:
2. Dose ammonia into feed water to improve the PH value of
feed water to make the copper and iron content to the
lower level;
3. Carry out filtration treatment for condensate water and
drain water and carry out the maintenance work after
stoppage of steam and water system.
4. Chemical cleaning should be carried out for new boiler
before it is putting into operation.
5. Chemical cleaning should be done for boiler periodically to
remove the deposits on the water wall pipes.
 On the dish shaped pits of water wall pipe, there is harder
Fe3O4 salient, which is firmer than the alkali corrosion
products, and is layer shaped. On the junctional place of
deposits and metal surface, there are obvious corrosion
pits. Chlorine can be found at the corrosion pit and de-
carbon phenomenon under the corrosion pit through
microzone energy spectrum analysis
 The acid corrosion of water wall are mainly induced by
1. the salts of chloride and sulfate, etc. concentrate, decompose and
produce acids under the deposits of water wall pipe.
2. Sea water or chlorite leaking into condenser,
3. Fresh water with higher sulfate content or lower alkalinity will be
easy to induce this kind of corrosion.
1. Chemical cleaning should be carried out for new
boiler before it is putting into operation.
2. Reduce the copper and iron contents in feed water
and reduce the deposits on water wall pipes.
3. Chemical cleaning should be carried out for the
operating boiler periodically to remove the depositing
settlements on the water wall pipes.
4. Prevent the condenser from leakage, especially sea
water leaking in. Polish treatment should be adopted
for condensate water if the condenser is possible to
leak.
Hydrogen brittleness will induce explosion of water wall pipe,
and the explosion opening will be non-plastic fracture whose
edge will be rough without thinner or a little thinner. Many
slight cracks can be seen at the edge of explosion edge. The
mechanical strength of pipe suffered hydrogen brittleness
corrosion will be reduced obviously and the difference of
strength at the back burning side or face burning side is great.
 Metallographic analysis can find de-carbon phenomenon
of metal near the corrosion pit. The de-carbon layer will
be lightening gradually from the internal wall of pipe from
external, but the metal composition at the back fire side
of boiler pipe away from explosion place has no obvious
change. The hydrogen content in the destructive metal is
higher. Generally, it is dozen times or one hundred times
of the good place.
 The reasons of brittleness corrosion of water
cooling pipe is
The hydrogen produced in the corrosion of metal
deposits diffuses in the metal of boiler pipe in a large
amount and react with the carbon in steel and produce
methane, so that pressure will be produced in steel and
induce corrosion cracking. Sometimes, the broken pipe
will be damaged in whole block.
1. Reduce the copper and iron contents in feed water and
reduce the deposits on water wall pipes.
2. Prevent the condenser from leakage, especially sea water
leaking in. Polish treatment should be adopted for
condensate water if the condenser is possible to leak.
3. Chemical cleaning should be carried out for the operating
boiler in time to remove the depositing settlements on the
water wall pipes.
 Cracks and split appear on metal, the corrosion loss is
smaller, the extending of metal is shorter, the breach is
dull, there are many slight cracks at the edge of
explosion opening some times, and the cracks are
extended from the medium contacting surface to inside
of basal and form series cracks.
 Stress corrosion cannot be produced until the
following three conditions are met.
1. The material is sensitive for the stress corrosion
abruption.
2. Local over stress exists.
3. Sensitive component should be contained in the
medium for stress corrosion abruption.
 1.Alkali brittleness :
It is special electrochemical corrosion of boiler. The anode part of
metal will be dissolved as ferrate type in high concentration
sodium hydroxide and form crystal boundary corrosion.
2.Circumferential crack appearing at the expansion
pipe place of boiler pipe is also one of the types of stress
corrosion abruption of boiler pipe. Just the above three
conditions are meet, stress corrosion will appears.
1. The design and construction of boiler should be
reasonable. The reasons of local over stress of boiler
metal are many, but most of them relate to the improper
design and construction of equipment. In design, the
affect of stress produced after expansion of equipment
component after heating should be taken into the
consideration of design.
2. In construction, unreasonable expansion joint and welding
should be avoided as much as possible. And expansion
joint is improper to be adopted for boiler pipe.
3. Boiler operation regulation should be obeyed strictly to
avoid too large temperature changing and temperature
difference produced in startup and stop and operation of
boiler.
4. The content of sensitive ion of stress corrosion in water
should be controlled below the allowable concentration.
Water with chlorine ion or other medium with chlorine ion
are forbidden to be used for Austenitic stainless steel. In
order to prevent from alkaline brittleness, free sodium
hydroxide cannot be included in boiler water.
 Corrosion fatigue cracking occurs were there is a
combination of cyclical loading and stressing within a
corrosive environment.. Most cracks are extended at from
pitting corrosion or developed downwards at the broken
place of oxidized film. The cracks are generally coarse and
there are many horizontal cracks some times, the breaches
are truncated edge. Generally, there will be iron oxide inside
of cracks. Ball shaped pits will be found in cracks if check the
state of whole strip of crack from cutting face
1. Reduce the stress amplitude during startup and stopping
of boiler.
2. The equipment deflects should be eliminate and the
combustion working condition of boiler should be
improved to prevent metal temperature from strong
fluctuation.
3. Protection should be done well during the stopping period
of boiler to prevent the metal surface from pitting
corrosion.
4. Design and construction of boiler should be
reliable, local over stress of metal should be
eliminated and the production condition of
alternate stress should be reduced.
5. For the boiler has occurred corrosion fatigue, the
pipes under same condition should be checked
and the pipes in danger should be replaced in
time.
 Some pit will be produced on the surface of metal. The
surface around the pit whose diameter is small will be
plane.
There are grey black powder corrosion products in the
pits, and also the yellow corrosion products formed
shortly.
In detection, there should be no corrosion products.
The oxygen corrosion pits of superheater pipe generally
exist at the lower elbow of vertical superheater pipes, two
sides of vertical pipes and lower part of horizontal pipe.
The pitting corrosion of the pipes of superheater and
reheater is caused by corrosion appearing during stopping
 The corrosion protection work should be done well
during stopping period of boiler.
In order to prevent the pipe of superheater from
pitting corrosion, hot furnace water discharging
residual heat drying method, negative pressure
residual heat drying method, nitrogen filling
method and ammonia-hydrazine method, etc. can
be used.
 A compact iron oxide layer will be produced on the
surface of metal, and the metal below it will
become thinner at a large area.
 The reasons of local superheat of superheater
pipe should be found out clearly and measures
should be taken to prevent from local superheat
of the metal of pipe wall.
 Low alloy ferritic steel is easy to be oxidized above 500.
If the oxidizing speed is rapid, the oxidizing layer on the
surface of pipe will be thickened and expansion difference
will be produced between it and the basal metal, the
oxidizing layer may peel off from the surface of metal, this
phenomenon is called oxidizing peeling.
The peeled thin piece is hard and brittle, whose size is
between match box and coin.
 Oxidizing peeling mainly appears on the pipe of
secondary superheater, main steam pipes and
the high temperature parts of reheater. The
peeled chips will break the speed governor and
blades of steam turbine. In superheater and
reheater, if the chips are accumulated too much,
which cannot be brought away with high speed
steam flow, jamming will happen.
1. Oxidizing peeling mainly depends on the control of
temperature and stress.
2. The relationship between thickness of oxidizing layer and
time is parabolic curve. If the oxidizing film is double-lay
structure on the surface of metal, the oxidizing layer is
easy to be peeled off.
3. Chemical cleaning should be carried out for the surface
of metal to form single layer structure which can prevent
from oxidizing peeling.
1. Stress Corrosion of Steam Turbine
2. Corrosion fatigue of steam turbine
3. Impact corrosion of steam turbine
4. Acid corrosion of steam turbine
5. Wearing corrosion of solid particles of steam
turbine
6. Pitting corrosion of steam turbine
 The stress corrosion abruption of steam turbine mainly
appears on the impellers and blades. The stress corrosion
of blade mainly appears on the final stage blade made of
2Cr13 steel.
1. Improve the design and manufacture technology
of steam turbine to eliminate the part where
stress is too concentrated.
2. Improve the quality of steam and reduce the
sodium and chlorine ion contents in steam.
3. Nondestructive detection should be enhanced
during the maintenance of steam turbine; if
cracks are found, it should be repaired in time or
the component with cracks should be replaced in
time.
 Corrosion fatigue is a kind of destruction type under the
work of alternate stress and corrosion, thus it has the
integral characteristics of mechanical fatigue and stress
corrosion. If the factors of corrosion play a leading role,
the stress corrosion abruption characteristics will be
obvious at the broken part,, the macroscopic
characteristic of fracture will be granular, oyster shell
cannot be seen;
The obvious characteristics at fracture will be rock candy
shaped and strips may appear on the crystal boundary. If
corrosion fatigue factors play the leading role, the
macroscopic characteristic at fracture is oyster shell
shaped and it will have strips under micro objective.
7% of blade failure is caused by Corrosion Fatigue
 The corrosion fatigues caused by high frequency
resonance on the blade of steam turbine are
many. Generally, corrosion fatigue is easy to be
produced on the final stage blade with qualified
frequency, or small exciting force and smaller
resonance. The cracks of corrosion fatigue will be
not always connected with corrosion pit, but many
cracks begin from the corrosion pits.
1. The design and operation of steam turbine should
be improved to increase the dynamic strength of
blade and improve the vibration frequency of
steam turbine.
2. The impurity of steam at the inlet of steam
turbine should be improved.
3. Corrosion protection work should be done well for
steam turbine during stoppage to prevent from
pitting corrosion appearing on blade.
 The impact corrosion of steam system is caused by the
droplets formed by steam or the water entering into steam
turbine by other ways (such as the exhaustion water
spraying or water seal of shaft).
1. Corrosion in large-scale steam turbine:
2. End of long blades at low pressure stage.
3. Joggle and shell of long blade at LP stage.
4. The static blade or other flowing parts at the
upside of end of long blade at LP stage.
5. The horizontal seaming of diaphragm and shell
and the decomposing face of other engaged
component in wet steam.
 At the LP stage of steam turbine, the water
content in steam will mix in the steam with the
state of disperse water droplets and flow through
nozzle and impeller and induce strong impact
corrosion for them.
In HP stage, the flowing steam is superheat, and
nearly no water content, so impact corrosion
appears rarely.
 At every time of opening or checking the steam turbine,
should pay attention to check whether all drain water
outlets are clear and free or not, such a part of drain
water outlets are blocked, the drain water will flow through
the steam path so that the impact corrosion will be
aggravated.
During stoppage, the nozzles at exhaustion opening
should be checked to guarantee the spraying water does
not impact the final stage blade directly. In addition, water
flows back to steam turbine at extraction outlet also
should be prevented.
The shape of impeller should be changed, anti-corrosion
blade should be equipped and the PH value of steam
liquid film should be increased, all of them can reduce the
impact corrosion of impeller.
 The protective film on the surface of component
peels off caused by corrosion and the metal is silver
gray, whose surface is shown as the state after acid
cleaning of steel.
The roots of guide blades of some diaphragms have
been exposed
the corroding places at the outer of diaphragm rim
are shown as minor grooves. The corroding grooves
at some places have same direction with the flow of
steam. The steel suffered corrosion states as
honeycomb.
 The acid corrosion reason of steam turbine is the bad
steam and water qualities.
Acidic material or material easy to be decomposed into
acidic material are included in the DM water used as
make-up water, such as chloride or organic acid, etc. in
boiler water,
Chloride can react with the ammonia in water and
produce ammonium chloride, which is easy to be
dissolved in steam and decomposed as hydrochloride acid
and ammonia. Because of the difference of distribution
coefficient of them, the liquid film is acid.
The organic acid in steam and water is also one of the
factors of steam turbine corrosion.
1. Secondary DM water should be used to improve the
quality of boiler make-up water and the conductivity of
make-up water should be smaller than 0.2s/cm.
2. Organic amine and hydrazine with small distribution
coefficient should be adopted for feed water in the
treatment to improve the PH value of steam turbine liquid
film.
 Different level of corrosion is easy to appear on the
surface of the nozzle, blade and other components of
steam paths of steam turbine.
It appears at High pressure and high temp. side.
 There are foreign materials in steam, which are mainly the
peeling metal oxide and formed gradually during stopping
and operation and peeled off from high temperature pipes
when the temperature is changed transiently. For
example: they are peeled off from the pipes of
superheater, pipes of reheater and inner wall of main
steam pipe, and then brought into steam turbine to induce
solid particle wearing corrosion.
1. Better non-oxidizability material should be adopted to
manufacture the high temperature components such as
superheater pipes and main steam pipes.
2. Thorough steam blowdown should be carried out for the
high temperature pipe such as the pipes of superheater. If
there is thicker oxidizing layer inside of pipe, acid cleaning
should be carried out to clean the oxidizing layer before
peeling.
3. The unit cannot be operated under low load condition for
a long time.
 Pitting corrosion is expressed as some small corrosion pit,
which commonly appears on the nozzle of steam turbine
and surface of blade, and sometimes, it also appears on
the impeller and body of rotor.
The steam polluted by chloride may induce this kind of
corrosion in steam turbine. Chloride, moisture and oxygen
are the forming condition of pitting corrosion. Thus pitting
corrosion is easy to appear at the low pressure part of
steam turbine and also easy to appear during stoppage of
steam turbine.
1. The steam quality entering into steam turbine should be
improved and the content of chlorine ion in steam should
be controlled strictly.
2. The anti-corrosion work during stoppage of steam turbine
should be done well.
 The corrosion of feed water pump is mainly impact
corrosion and caviation corrosion and the places
are components of impeller, guide blade and closing
ring of pump. This kind of corrosion all happens in
HP units that adopt DM water as the make-up water
of boiler.
 The reason of it is the corrosion inhibition ability of pure
water is weak,
when the steel component of feed water pump rotates at
high speed, the ferrous dioxide on the surface of steel will
be scoured off soon, but keeping enough ferrous dioxide
concentration on the surface of steel is the necessary
condition of forming protective film of the surface of steel,
so in order to prevent the feed water pump from corrosion,
the PH value of feed water should be increased further at
one hand, and at the other hand, the forming of the
protective film on the surface of steel should be promoted.
And the more important thing is the material of feed water
pump should be replaced by the steel include chrome or
chrome molybdenum instead of iron cast and steel cast.
1. The Ph value of feed water should be increased to 9.2-
9.3.
2. The oxygen removing work should be done well.
3. The quality of make-up water of boiler should be
improved. Secondary demineralization should be adopted
and the conductivity of make-up water should be smaller
than 0.2s/cm.
4. The iron cast and steel cast in feed water pump should be
replaced by the anti-corrosion alloy component such as
2Cr13, etc.
 Oxygenation of Tubes
Ammonia Dosing System
Hydrazine
 The main mechanism of oxygen corrosion has been
introduced above. Dissolved oxygen in water will
corrode the metal materials contacting with it in one
hand, and in the other hand, under proper condition,
it also can produce passivating action. When metal is
oxidized caused by the depolarization of oxygen,
metal oxide or hydroxide will be produced and
deposited on the metal surface to form continuous
and protective oxide or hydroxide film. This film will
obstruct anode dissolving of metal so as to protect
the metal. Fe3O4 oxide film can be produced in the
reaction of iron with the oxygen in water.
7
6 Fe O2 6 H Fe3O4 3Fe 2 3H 2 0
2
 But the produced Fe3O4 layer is porous. Water can
be leaked from the clearance to corrode the surface
of steel, whose corrosion resistance is bad. But a
proper amount of oxidizer filled in the high purity
water, Fe2+ in water will be oxidized as stable Fe2O3,
i.e. a film of Fe2O3 will be covered on Fe3O4. This
layer of Fe2O3 is compact so that water cannot touch
the surface of steel.
 Caused by certain reasons, when this protective film is
deconstructed, the oxidizer in water can fix it rapidly.
Combined oxygen dosing treatment should be adopted.
That is, at the same time of oxygen dosing, ammonia
should be dosed in water to increase the PH value, which
can increase the buffer ability for the impurities appearing
occasionally in water that can produce acid in one hand,
and in other hand, that can increase the potential of steel
to protect it from corrosion in passivating area.
 In normal operation of chemical dosing system of super
critical unit, boiler feed water ammonia dosing, oxygen
dosing combined treatment (i.e. CWT working condition)
are adopted.pH needs to maintained in range of 8.5-9.3.
Ammonia is added to keep pH within range.
 Advantages:
1. There is no ammonia corrosion in the pipe of condenser,
main body of condenser and other places.
2. There is destructive iron oxide cover in thermal circulating
system, so the corrosion of thermal system is reduced.
3. The pressure loss at water and steam sides of boiler is
reduced.
4. The operation cycle of condensate water polish treatment
mixed bed is prolonged for 5 times so that the operation cost
and intensity of labor is reduced.
5. The 80% expenses of chemical is reduced.
6. 80% regeneration waste water discharging amount of polish
treatment is reduced.
7. The chemical dosing equipment is simple and its operation is
easy.
 The dissolved solution of ammonia (NH3) is called ammonia
water, which is alkaline, and the reactions are as follows:

NH3 + H2O NH4OH

The too low PH value of feed water is because of free CO2 in

water, NH3 should be dosed to neutralize the acidity of
carbonic acid. The reaction formulas are shown below:

NH4OH + H2CO3 NH4HCO3 + H2O

NH4OH + NH4HCO3 (NH4)2CO3 + H2O

Ammonia should be dosed to adjust the PH value of feed water

to 8.0-9.0 so as to prevent the corrosion of CO2.
 Why
In startup of unit or under abnormal water quality
condition, feed water ammonia dosing and hydrazine
dosing treatment (i.e. all volatile treatment-AVT) should
be adopted to reduce the oxygen content in water and
reduce the oxygen corrosion.
 In basic water, hydrazine is a kind of strong reducers,
which can reduce the dissolved oxygen in water.
N2H4 + O2 N2 +2H2O

In high temperature water (t>200), N2H4 can reduce Fe2O3

into Fe3O4, and the reaction formulas of Fe are shown as
below:
6Fe2O3 + N2H4 4Fe3O4 + N2 + 2H2O
2Fe3O4+ N2H4 6FeO + N2 + 2H2O
2FeO + N2H4 2Fe + N2 + 2H2O
 N2H4 also can reduce the CuO into Cu2O or Cu,
the formulas are shown below:

4CuO + N2H4 2Cu2O + N2 + 2H2O

2Cu2O + N2H4 4Cu + N2 + 2H2O

The characteristics of hydrazine can prevent the

boiler from iron scaling and copper scaling.
The following conditions should be maintained.
1. The temperature of water is high enough. The higher the
temperature is, the rapider the reaction is.
2. Certain PH value of water should be maintained,
generally, it is 9-11.
3. There should be enough excess amount of hydrazine in
water. The more the excess amount is, the time needed by
oxygen removing less is. The solution of hydrazine water is
slight alkaline, which will be decomposed during heating

3N2H4N24NH3
the decomposition of excess N2H4 also can increase the PH
value of water.
 The most well-intentioned chemical treatment plant may
be virtually worthless without representative sampling.
However online sampling does need care.
 Extracting the sample from the bulk solution so that it
represents actual conditions in process fluid
Conditioning the sample to prevent deposition of
dissolved matters in sample line
Conditioning (experimentation) the sample to (different)
pressures and temperatures that allow for analysis
 Chemistry upsets can occur anytime
Abrupt changes during intervening periods
Sample Point Online Analysis Grab sample Frequency
Analysis

Makeup System Sodium Chloride Daily,

Effluent Silica Sulfate Daily
TOC Weekly

Condenssate Sodium Daily

Storage Tank
Effluent
Sample Point Online Analysis Grab sample Frequency
Analysis

Condensate Pump Sodium

Discharge Cation Conductivity TOC Weekly
Dissolved Oxygen

Condensate Sodium
Polisher Effluent Cation Conductivity
Silica
Sample Point Online Analysis Grab sample Frequency
Analysis

Dearator Inlet Dissolved Oxygen

Oxygen Scvanger

Deartor Outlet Dissolved Oxygen Daily

Sample Point Online Analysis Grab sample Frequency
Analysis

Feedwater or pH Ammonia Daily

Inlet of Cation Cond. Iron Thrice-Weekly
Economizer Dissolved Copper Thrice-Weekly
Oxygen
Oxygen
Scvanger
Boiler Water pH
Specific Cond. Sulfate Daily
Silica Sodium Daily
Phosphate Ammonia Daily
Chloride Dissolved Daily
Oxygen
Sample Point Online Analysis Grab sample Frequency
Analysis

Saturated Steam Sodium

Silica

Main Steam Sodium

Silica Sulfate Daily
Chloride TDC Weekly
Sample Point Online Analysis Grab sample Frequency
Analysis

Makeup Sodium
system Effluent Silica
Condensate pH
Pump Specific Cond.
Discharge TOC
Sodium TOC weekly
Cation Cond.
Dissolved
Oxygen
Sample Point Online Analysis Grab sample Frequency
Analysis

Condensate Sodium
Polisher Cation Cond.
Effluent Silica
Feedwater pH
Cation Cond. Ammonia Daily
Dissolved Iron Thrice-weekly
oxygen Copper Thrice-weekly
Oxygen
Scvanger
Sample Point Online Analysis Grab sample Frequency
Analysis

Boiler Water pH
Specific Cond. Sulfate Daily
Silica Sodium Daily
Phosphate Ammonia Daily
Chloride Dissolved Daily
Oxygen
Saturated Sodium
Steam Silica
Sample Point Online Analysis Grab sample Frequency
Analysis

Main Steam Sodium

Silica Silica Daily
Chloride TOC Weekly
 Makeup System effluent
Condensate Storage Tank Effluent
Condensate Pump Discharge
Condensate Polisher effluent
Dearator Inlet
Dearator Outlet
Feedwater
 Boiler Water
Saturated Steam
Main Steam
Analysis of the anion effluent for sodium, silica, and
conductivity provide much meaningful information and can be
used to differentiate the problems between cation and anion
problems.
Elevated level of sodium indicates the poor performance of
cation bed, while high silica concentrations indicate poor
performance of anion bed.
Even though makeup system is usually of excellent
quality, contaminants may be introduced in the
storage tank. Daily analysis of sodium will help the
plant chemist keep an eye on water quality in the
tank.
Severe contamination of boiler caused by the leakage of
condenser. If condensate pump discharge is sampled properly
then the leakage can be detected on time and recommended
measures can be taken to reduce the contamination of boiler.
For plants having condensate polisher, monitoring of the
effluent is also important. The test is same as those for the
demineralizer. Ammonia test for hydrogen-cycle polishers can
also be valuable, since ammonia is the most weakly held ion,
and its breakthrough indicates the approach of bed
exhaustion.
Oxygen and Oxygen Scavenger analysis is done at the inlet of
Dearator. The data provide the performance of condensate
system. Also scavenger carryover can be determined by
analysis.
This sample gives the performance of Dearator.
Proper chemistry in the feedwater system is critical to prevent
corrosion of the feedwater piping and high pressure heaters,
transport of corrosion products to the boiler, and the
introduction of impurities of system.
Iron and copper analysis indicate how effective the chemical
treatment program is in controlling system corrosion.
This is another very critical sample, for it is in the boiler that
chemistry upsets typically cause the most damage. Analysis
should include pH, Specific Cond., silica and phosphate for
phosphate-treated units. Chemistry upset can deplete boiler
water treatment chemicals. When this happens, the boiler
water decrease beyond the recommended values.
Silica can make tenacious deposits on turbine blades thats
why monitoring for silica is important.
The major reason for sampling saturated steam is
to verify that the steam produced by the boiler
meets the turbine manufacturers steam quality
guidelines. Data from saturated steam and boiler
samples can be used to determine the percentage
of mechanical carryover from drum water to the
steam.
Data of main steam is very important because contaminants
introduced by the attemperator system will also be measured.
Main steam varify the steam quality for turbine guidelines.
Recommended analysis include sodium, silica, conductivity,
and chloride.
Sampling of condensate return at industrial plants is very
important because many contaminants may be introduced by
process heat exchangers or other equipments. If needed,
then condensate return is treated in the polisher, the polisher
is sampled similarly to those at electric utilities.
 Sample Nozel arrangement
Sample Conditioning
Sample flow rates
PLC is the data collection source for continuous data display
screens display screens located in the plant control room,
main lab., and engineering office. One screen is the primary
screen in the control room. If any value exceed the ranges
shown; a red light will flash. Only critical data is shown on that
screen. The personnel can look at any point in the system
through this screen.
Proper sampling of steam generation fluid sample
is very important in guaranteeing the overall
reliability of plant. Without representative
sampling, upsets could occur, that would have
catastrophic result.