Condensate Polishing Critical to Protecting Gas-Fired Combined Cycle Power Plant Assets

Rapid growth in North American natural gas-fired electrical generating capacity has boosted demand for the installed base to operate at maximum capacity as well as driving the construction of new natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power stations. Increasingly, power producers find that condensate polishing (CP) technology is critical to maximizing NGCC facility performance, preventing serious equipment degradation and protecting valuable plant assets.

One of the ways power producers are managing operations to achieve peak performance is by optimizing water chemistry on the heat recovery steam boiler condensate. When these plants were running as peaking plants in the past, condensate polishing (CP) was often left out of the balance of plant requirements due to cost constraints. According to Graver, plants without CP are already facing consequences such as flow accelerated corrosion, long cycle starts, inefficient operations with associated higher costs and future capital expenses to replace damaged equipment.

Conversely, many plants with installed CP have realized significant operational benefits beyond strict reliance on blow-down and chemistry treatment. CP performs key functions such as safeguarding expensive assets, stabilizing cycle chemistry to achieve EPRI recommended iron levels, preventing CRUD transport and deposition while optimizing start up and operation of these units. These benefits are especially pertinent to facilities employing air-cooled condensers and the resulting high metal oxide loads.

Graver Water, a leading equipment supplier of condensate polishing equipment for the power generation market for over 60 years, recently launched a range of state-of-the-art standardized and cost-effective products designed specifically for NGCC facilities. “With a variety of technologies and pre-engineered systems, we can install condensate polishing at a cost that will protect the assets and provide a significant ROI,” says Michael O’Brien, President of Graver Water Systems.

Products include:

• Large Diameter High Flow disposable TurboGuard® filtration vessels
• Graver AFA® Backwashable filters for filtering and polishing return condensate
• Skid-mounted Powdex® Precoat Demineralizers
• Deep bed ion exchange polishing systems.

Graver Water in conjunction with Graver Technologies, a leading supplier of ion exchange and filter media, designed each of these technologies to address the specific operating modes, various types of condensers and HRSGs to mitigate the negative impacts that CRUD deposition and corrosion can have on combined cycle unit operation. Marketed jointly by the two Marmon Water “Graver” companies, Graver Technologies LLC and Graver Water Systems, these products are available for new installations or easily retrofitted to existing plants.

For more information contact Graver Water Systems at [email protected] (908.516.1400) or Anand Harohalli at [email protected] (800-533-6623). Also, visit our NGCC websites at www.graver-ngcc.com

Graver Water Systems LLC is a global supplier of condensate polishing and other water treatment equipment solutions. Graver Technologies LLC develops and manufactures an array of high performance products for critical trace contaminant removal in a variety of industrial applications. These include power generation & condensate polishing, precious metal catalyst recovery in pharmaceutical API manufacturing, liquid sugar polishing, air and gas filtration and high purity liquid process and cross flow filtration. Both companies are member companies of The Marmon Group (a Berkshire Hathaway Company), an international corporation providing products, services and solutions around the world.

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