WATER TREATMENT UNIT

Water treatment is very important for power plants. Chemical

composition of underground raw water is very harmful for metals. To
increase the durability of pipe and boiler water needs to be
dematerialized. Raw water is dematerialized in water treatment unit.
There are two processes for water treatment.
1. Ion exchange column process
2. Reverse osmosis process
But in northern power plant ion exchange column process is used for
water treatment.

Working process of water treatment unit:

There are two units for ion exchange column process water
treatment. Descriptions of all units are given later. Water to be treated
is pumped up from underground and reserved in raw water tank. Then
Water is taken to the unit-1 from the raw tank by using feed pump. If
conductivity of water below 400S/cm and the pH below 11 then the
water is taken to the unit-2, otherwise the water send to the day tank.
Then using the booster pump the water from the day tank supplied to
boiler. Elaborated description is given below:

Unit-1:
1st column (multimedia column):
This column removes the normal impurities from water.
This dematerialized water is used in second and third column.
This is a simple treatment process. Simple impurities are taken
out by backwash process.
2nd column (cat ion column):
This column contains negative resin. At first 200L water is
mixed with 20-25L hydrochloric acid and send to this column.
Metal impurities contains in water will react with the resin and
will form a new compound. This new compound will react with
hydrochloric acid and will form a precipitant of metal compound.
This precipitant is taken out by backwash process.
R M+ =R-M+ + HCl = R-H+ + MCl
This reaction is known as cat ion column regeneration.

3rd column (anion column):

This column contains positive resin. At first 500L water is
mixed with 16 kg caustic soda and send to this column. Acidic
impurities contains in water will react with the resin and will form
a new compound. This new compound will react with caustic
soda and will form a precipitant of sodium salt. This precipitant is
taken out by backwash process.
R- + (SO42-, PO43-, Cl-) = R2SO4 + NaOH = ROH +(Na2SO4,Na3PO4,NaCl)
This reaction is known as anion column regeneration.

Unit-2:
This unit is used when desired conductivity and pH is not gained
from Unit-1. This unit contains two ion exchange columns.
1st column (cat ion column):
This column contains negative resin. At first 200L water is
mixed with 20-25L hydrochloric acid and send to this column.
Metal impurities contains in water will react with the resin and
will form a new compound. This new compound will react with
hydrochloric acid and will form a precipitant of metal compound.
This precipitant is taken out by backwash process.
R-+M+ =R-M+ + HCl = R-H++ + M + Cl
This reaction is known as cat ion column regeneration.
2nd column (anion column):
This column contains positive resin. At first 500L water is
mixed with 16 kg caustic soda and send to this column. Acidic
impurities contains in water will react with the resin and will form
a new compound. This new compound will react with caustic
soda and will form a precipitant of sodium salt. This precipitant is
taken out by backwash process.
R- + (SO42-, PO43-, Cl-) = R2SO4 + NaOH = ROH + (Na2SO4, Na3PO4,NaCl)

This reaction is known as anion column regeneration.

Measurement processes:
Name of the
determinate
pH

Tool for
determination
pH meter

Conductivity

Conductivity
meter

Hardness

Hardness test kit

Determinat
ion process
By merging
meter in
water
By merging
meter in
water
By mixing 5
drops of
buffer
solution, 5ml
water, 1
drop of
indicator
with desired
amount of
EDTA until
desired color
is found.

Maximum level
13
800 S/cm
100 ppm

Importance of water treatment:

In a power plant water is used everywhere as steam. Boiler
generates steam. If water is used in boiler without any treatment then
boiling temperature of water will increase. This will increase the cost of
burning process. Untreated water contains different minerals which can
create sludge or scale inside boiler and steam pipe. This can damage
boiler and can create an obstacle to flow of steam. Treated water is
also used for engine cooling. Dematerialized water cools engines
without making corrosion.