Removal of iron oxide scale from feed-water in thermal power plant using superconducting magnetic separation

Abstract

The superconducting magnetic separation system has been developing to separate the iron oxide scale from the feed water of the thermal power plant. The accumulation in the boiler lowers the heat exchange rate or in the worst case damages it. For this reason, in order to prevent scale generation, controlling pH and redox potential is employed. However, these methods are not sufficient and then the chemical cleaning is performed regularly. A superconducting magnetic separation system is investigated for removing iron oxide scale in a feed water system. Water supply conditions of the thermal power plant are as follows, flow rate 400 t / h, flow speed 0.2 m / s, pressure 2 MPa, temperature 160 200 ° C, amount of scale generation 50 120 t / 2 years. The main iron oxide scale is magnetite (ferromagnetic substance) and its particle size is several tens μm. As the first step we are considering to introduce the system to the chemical cleaning process of the thermal power plant instead of the thermal power plant itself. The current status of development will be reported.