A Practical Approach to Feedwater Quality Requirements in Boiler Systems

The steam boiler system is a critical component of most manufacturing processes. Steam production reliability is often a key component in assuring product quality and overall production efficiency.  Mechanical, operational, and chemical requirements of the steam will usually determine what boiler design and feedwater or makeup water quality is needed.  If you define the steam requirements, you typically define the rest of the system.

This paper will discuss typical purity and quality requirements for some common steam users and show how that translates to boiler design, feedwater and makeup purity requirements, and condensate return.  We will also discuss how typical treatment program choice, chemical control limits, and boiler blowdown rates are affected by steam purity requirements.