Case study on on-line chloride and sulfate analysis

Changes in how electricity is being produced means a growing number of power facilities have been forced to become cycling plants. This puts pressure on them to be more aware of operational processes required to bring them online quickly.

An additional frequent requirement in such plants, is running them with reduced operational and maintenance crews. This places greater emphasis on the need for enhanced plant monitoring to protect valuable assets.

This case study looks at how METTLER TOLEDO worked with a power company in the United States to give them a better understanding of their steam purity and identify undetected excursions that, if left unnoticed, could have led to plant failure and shutdown.

The plant had been experiencing turbine back-end corrosion in units with a high cycling frequency, even though the plant was running within specified guidelines. What was puzzling for the plant's chemist was that ion chromatography had not found the issue. In an attempt to identify the root cause, the plant decided to try on-line chloride and sulfate detection. A METTLER TOLEDO 3000CS on-line chloride and sulfate detection analyzer was installed on the main steam sample line.

Results from the analyzer were transmitted to the plant’s control center. This provided visibility to the operation team and confirmed that their levels were within acceptable limits. But through continuous, on-line chloride and sulfate detection, excursion that were not identified by other analyzers were recorded by the 3000CS.

The case study shows what the analyzer found and how its measurements are helping the plant to react quickly to excursions that would have previously gone undetected.

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