New Brochure Focuses on Level Measurement Solutions for Demineralisation Tanks

Power generation plants rely on boilers and feedwater heaters to produce necessary steam. Because modern high-pressure boilers evaporate several million pounds of water every working hour, the purity of feedwater circulating inside the boiler is essential.

Ensuring pure feedwater can be achieved using different methods. A feedwater evaporator can be used as an alternative method to chemicals by removing impurities through evaporating raw water with extraction steam. However, most often the purity of feedwater is achieved by chemical treatment. This chemical treatment takes place in demineralisation tanks, which transform the raw water into water that will not harm or corrode the boiler.

Magnetrol® has produced an applications brochure for the power and utilities industry, detailing measurement challenges and solutions for each step of the power generation process. This blog post is part of an occasional series exploring each application in detail.

Because support chemicals for water treatment can include caustics, sodium hypochloride, sulphuric acid or other additives, it is important to choose level instruments that will be able to withstand these harsh conditions. Managing the water supply level requires instrumentation that maintains its accuracy even when exposed to chemicals. Small nuances in how the demineralisation tanks are monitored relative to level technology can have a dramatic effect on the day-to-day practicality and reliability of the type of instrument(s) used. Individual chemistry and storage requirements will dictate the level instrumentation selected.

Magnetrol has produced level measurement solutions for demineralisation tanks. For point level measurements they offer the Models T52 or T62 float-actuated switches, whilst for continuous level they have the Eclipse® Model 706 guided wave radar transmitter or E3 Modulevel® displacer-actuated transmitter.