Desalination 198 (2006) 4146

Reverse osmosis in water treatment for boilers

Pavel uda, Petr Pospil*, Jaroslava Tenglerov
Hradec Krlov Branch, MEGA a.s. Praha, Veverkova 1343, 500 02 Hradec Krlov, Czech Republic Tel. / Fax: +420 (498) 500-393; email: petr.pospisil@mega.cz, www.mega.cz Received 3 November 2005; Accepted 22 December 2005

Abstract Intense treatment of feed water solves high demands on a demineralized water quality in the processes involving hot water/steam boilers. There are various demands on water quality parameters its hardness, alkalinity, pH value, carbon dioxide and oxygen content, etc. according to the type of boiler and its working pressure. Collectively, efficient demineralization and/or softening are always inevitable. Every desalination water treatment unit consists of a standard pre-treatment part and a demineralization part. Arrangement of the pre-treatment part depends on the kind of water source (well, surface, or tap water) and its individual analysis. This part of a water treatment unit is essential to protect the plant. Thereafter, the demineralization part of a water treatment unit is chosen and designed to meet product water quality demands. There are two basic methods used for brackish water desalination in the Czech Republic: reverse osmosis and ion exchangers. An application is presented of the Mega Companys reverse osmosis units in the area of water treatment for boilers. It describes some installations and their properties source water quality, pre-treatment techniques, and product quality. A brief comparison of the reverse osmosis process and ion exchangers is also presented. Keywords: Reverse osmosis; Boilers; Ion exchange; Demineralized water; Brackish water

1. Introduction Water treatment serves as supplementary technology in all industrial applications. The quality of technological water or wastewater plays a very
*Corresponding author.

important role in industrial processes and even in local ecology. Thus, a question of proper water treatment with respect to economical or environmental aspects is discussed. An application of advanced membrane processes enters the industrial playground nowadays.

Presented at the 2nd Membrane Science and Technology Conference of Visegrad Countries (PERMEA), Polanica Zdroj, Poland, 1822 September 2005.
0011-9164/06/$ See front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.desal.2006.09.007

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This paper describes an application of reverse osmosis (RO) in the area of water treatment for boilers and cooling systems. Two examples of RO water treatment units built by Mega are presented. A brief comparison of the RO process and ion exchange (IE) process is also given. Demands for boiler water quality are different for various types and working pressures of boilers. There is also a question of usage of water in boiler circuits: water can be used as circulation water or feed water to cover sludge blow-off and surface blow-down losses. Generally, clear and colourless water must be assured, without suspended solids, oils and aggressive chemicals. Other parameters of product water are low content of hardness, alkalinity, carbon dioxide, oxygen and SiO2, and pH value above 8.5 [1]. This paper deals only with treatment of brackish water. There are some applications of RO technology in seawater treatment around the world [2,3], successfully competing with thermal desalination processes [4,5]. River water treatment by RO technology is combined with ultrafiltration in newer installations instead of clarification and sand filtration processes [6,7]. Furthermore, the application of membrane process pre-treatment and the RO process for purification and reuse of secondary treated effluent have been installed to the cover fresh water requirements of power stations in Australia [8]. 2. Water treatment Water treatment units with desalination can be divided into a pre-treatment part, desalination part and post-treatment part. Pre-treatment of the source water plays a significant role in efficiency, the economical aspects and life-span of a desalination unit. When the investment costs of a new water treatment unit are calculated, the price of pre-treatment is nearly constant irrespective of desalination method applied. The set-up of the pre-treatment depends on the type of source water. In greater capacities surface

water can be treated; in small capacities it is well or tap water which is usually treated. The aim of the desalination and post-treatment parts of water treatment plants is to reach a composition of the water according to regulations for the type of boiler and its working pressure. The following methods can used to produce water of standard parameters for boilers from brackish waters in the Czech Republic: C IE filters (softening, decarbonization), C one-pass RO followed by IE demineralization, C oneppass RO followed by electro-deionization (EDI), C two-pass RO. IE filters are a conventional method for water demineralization, softening and decarbonization. It seems now that their disadvantages (e.g., high consumption of regeneration chemicals together with production of salty wastewaters) predominate over their advantages (e.g., low investment cost). RO, a well established process for water demineralization, can be introduced here due to its advantages. By using two-pass RO or a combination of RO with a complementary desalination process, it is possible to obtain product water with conductivity less than 0.1 S/cm. 3. Comparison of desalination methods A comparison can be drawn among desalination methods in connection with various attitudes. Generally, the most important are: C investment costs, C operational costs, which can be roughly sort out on costs of electric energy, chemicals and operators, C ecological impact of proposed technology. As said above, investment costs of pre-treatment are practically identical regardless of desalination method, and this can be also said about its operational costs. Thus, a comparison of desalination methods is of interest. When the criterion

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Table 1 Comparison of chemicals costs for two technology arrangements (tap water, TDS 730 ppm; production of boiler water, 8 m3/h) Process order RO IE Cons. (kg/m3) Unit price (/kg) Cost (/m3) 38% H2SO4 for RO 100% NaCl for IE Cost on 1 m3 of product 1.060 0.008 0.113 0.267 0.120 0.002 0.122 IE RO Cons. (kg/m3) Unit price (/kg) Cost (/m3) 0.093 1.564 0.113 0.267 0.011 0.417 0.428

for choosing the right desalination technology is volume of treated water and its salinity, then: C RO is better in treatment of large capacities and waters with higher levels of TDS. C IE filters are better in small capacities and waters with low TDS. This contention is based on experience and on calculation of costs [9]. It can be seen from the following example where the chemicals costs have been calculated for RO and IE softening that the ordination of joint technologies in desalination is also important. RO units are still more expensive for treatment of both large and small capacities, but total operational costs are lower than chemicals costs of IE filters, but no word about their environmental impact. The consumption and cost of chemicals in the Czech Republic are compared for a relatively small capacity in Table 1. This is the case of a potential customer who has had an old water treatment plant with softening by IE to produce boiler water. Because of the need for product quality, they required a RO unit as a second step to the IE unit (see Fig. 1a). The chemical costs were calculated for this demand and compared with the chemical costs of technology where the order of desalination methods is reversed (see Fig. 1b). It seems better from the point of view of the environment to decrease the TDS of tap water on the RO unit
Fig. 1. Technology set-up: (a) demanded by customer, (b) proposed by Mega.

with a relatively higher electrical energy cost and then remove the remaining calcium and magnesium content on an IE softening filter with a very small capacity and with low consumption of chemicals. Nevertheless, the investment costs were more important in this case than the operational costs with a negative environmental impact of softening by IE; thus, the technology was designed according to the original demand of the customer by a competitor. The advantages of the set-up shown at Fig. 1b compared to 1a are: C smaller osmotic pressure of feed water for RO, which means low pump pressure and therefore low operational costs, C lower alkalinity of the product, C lower concentration of dissolved solids (TDS) in product, C lower concentration of dissolved solids (TDS) in RO concentrate, and a small volume of wastewater from regeneration of the IE filter.

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4. Reverse osmosis application Application of the IE desalination process for water treatment for boilers is widely spread in the Czech Republic. Low mineralized well or surface water is commonly treated so the IE process sometimes seems economical [9]. The ecological impact of IE is overcome by the investment costs of new desalination processes, although they are becoming less expensive. Even the operation costs of new desalination processes are lower with new types of low-pressure membranes (in the case of RO) and low electrical resistance membranes (in the case of electrodialysis and electrodeionization processes) introduced into the market. When new boiler rooms are built or some older ones are reconstructed, it can be observed that RO is a promising alternative. IE demineralization is also sometimes used as a supplementary second stage of demineralization after RO. Mega has designed two RO units for applications in water treatment for boilers in recent years [10]. Both technologies serve as a substitute of IE desalination units treating well water. In the first application the production of demineralized water was 2.1 m3/h; the second application produced 60 m3/h of demiwater. The first application in Saint-Gobain Vertex (Litomyl, Czech Republic) was designed in 1999. The simple set-up of technology is shown in Fig. 2, which gives a diagrammatic representation of the system. Well water enters the treatment plant through the ball valves with a bypass. Then a protective cartridge filtration follows. Before well water enters the RO unit, pH is adjusted to the proper value by an addition of H2SO4 solution. The acid dosing is controlled according to the pH value measured by the through-flow pH detector placed behind the dosing. The RO unit (Fig. 3) divides the feed water into the permeate stream and the concentrate stream. The concentrate stream is drained off and the permeate stream passes into the

Fig. 2. Technology set-up at Saint-Gobain Vertex, Litomyl.

Fig. 3. RO unit in Saint-Gobain Vertex, Litomyl.

aeration tower where CO2 is removed. The pH of permeate is adjusted to the proper value by an addition of NaOH solution and residual ions are removed in a IE softening filter. The RO unit pressure vessels are filled with nine Hydranautics ESPA2-4040 membrane modules in 32 + 31 configuration. The working pressure of the unit is 13 bar. Overview of technology at Saint-Gobain Vertex: C treatment of well water, TDS 535 ppm C pre-treatment: cartridge filtration, acid dosing C RO unit: permeate flow of 2.1 m3/h, recovery 66% C post-treatment: aeration to remove CO2, IE demineralization, alkalization, and thermal degasification The composition of the waters in Saint-Gobain Vertex is shown in Table 2, Col. A. The main ions in the well water are calcium and

P. uda et al. / Desalination 198 (2006) 4146 Table 2 Comparison of water composition, Saint-Gobain Vertex, Litomyl, Czech Republic Indicator Col. A Well water Ca (mg l ) Mg2+ (mg l!1) Na+ (mg l!1) K+ (mg l!1) NH4+ (mg l!1) ! (mg l!1) HCO3 2! SO4 (mg l!1) Cl! (mg l!1) ! (mg l!1) NO3 SiO2 (mg l!1) pH TDS (mg l!1) Conductivity (S/cm!1)
2+ !1

45

Col. B IE 1.0 0.1 154.5 2.7 < 0.05 243.4 70.0 31.0 44.2 5.0 7.45 557.0 768.0

Col. C RO + IE 0.38 0.03 2.56 0.07 < 0.05 6.1 0.4 < 0.2 < 3.0 < 0.1 7.0 12.0 13.4

Fig. 4. Technology set-up at Saint-Gobain Vertex, Litomyl (Perla a.s. sti nad Orlic).

124.0 4.7 4.6 2.7 < 0.05 243.4 70.0 31.0 44.2 5.0 7.45 535.0 827.0

Fig. 5. RO unit in Perla, st nad Orlic.

bicarbonate. Water produced by previous technology (col. B) was characterized by low hardness but an increased content of sodium and bicarbonate. It led to frequent surface water blowdowns. With the new technology, the blow-off is reduced to a minimum so heating energy is also saved. The composition of boiler water treated by new technology is presented in Col. C. A second application of the Mega RO unit for production of water for boilers is installed in Perla, st nad Orlic, Czech Republic. It was built in 2004. A simple set-up of the technology is shown in Fig. 4 which gives a diagrammatic representation of system. Well water enters the treatment plant through the ball valves with a bypass. Then the pH is adjusted to the proper value by an addition of H2SO4 solution. The acid dosing is controlled according to the pH value measured by the through-flow pH detector placed behind the dosing. The RO unit (Fig. 5) divides the feed water into the permeate stream and the concentrate stream. The concentrate stream is drained

off and the permeate stream passes into the aeration tower where CO2 is removed. The pH of permeate is adjusted to the proper value by an addition of NaOH solution. The RO unit pressure vessels are filled with 30 Hydranautics ESPA2-7 membrane modules in a 45 + 25 configuration. Working pressure of the unit is 12 bar. Overview of technology at Perla: C treatment of well water, TDS 508 ppm C pre-treatment: acid dosing C two RO units: permeate flow 230 m3/h, recovery 75% C after-treatment: aeration to remove CO2, partial alkalization, thermal degasification

5. Conclusions RO is very promising technology in the preparation of water for boilers. Its application allows reduction of operating costs and the introduction of a higher level of automation of the

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water treatment process. It also improves ecological indices of power plants by reducing the amount and salinity of wastewaters. RO, followed by IE, can be used to prepare completely mineralfree water. When the decision between RO and IE for demineralization of water is made, then it is necessary to consider the capacity of the plant, feed water salinity and requirements of product quality. When the feed water has medium or high mineralization and the capacity of the water treatment plant is planned to be large, then it is advantageous to install RO technology. When the feed water has low mineralization, the capacity of the plant is small and product water does not need to have low TDS and conductivity, it is advantageous to install IE softening. IE demineralization is not good in any case due to the high consumption of regeneration chemicals and production of great volumes of waste water from regeneration. The future of water demineralization probably belongs to combination of RO and EDI where the chemical cost and production of wastewater are lowered to a minimum. EDI, which combines the advantages of electrodialysis and IE resins, can, in combination with RO, produce ultra-pure water of very high quality.

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