Power Plant Chemistry

Ion Exchange Process

Prepared By : -

Umar Farooq
Chemist “A” Chemical Section
MSC ( Chemistry ) MBA ( Marketing )
[email protected]
[email protected]
SEC Shoaiba Jeddah
Saudi Arabia 1
 Power Plant Chemistry

 Table of Content
 External Water Treatment
 RO Desalination
 MSF Desalination
 Lime Soda Softening
 Zeolite Softening
 Demineralization
 Weak Cation Resin
 Strong Cation Resin
 Weak Anion Resin
 Strong Anion Resin
 Mix Bed
 External Water Treatment
 Itis the removal of impurities from water
out side the ( Condenser ) in power plant
because raw water taken from the river or
sea contain a large number of impurities
with respect to surrounding ,so it is very
necessary to make cleaned and purify the
water before it entrance to wards
( Condenser boiler )

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 External Water Treatment
 Practically all surface water contain small
amount of mud, clay ,silt ,decayed, vegetation,
Micro Organisms etc.
To obtain required quantity of water
various techniques are applied Such as
Clarification ,Filtration ,Evaporation ,Softening,
Desalination (MSF & RO ) , Ion Exchange , De
Aeration , Aeration
Note: External water treatment for Pretreatment System and RO
System already discussed in earlier training module

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What is RO Desalination

Reverse osmosis is a membrane process where salty source

water is supplied under pressure to a semi- permeable
membrane resulting in the passage of fresh water through the
membrane prevents the passage of the dissolved minerals
leaving them in the concentrated brine

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 Polymer
Anti Scalant
Coagulant
Anti scalant
Acid 1st pass R O Caustic soda
S MBS

Cartridge
filter

H P Pump
DMF
Booster Pump
Seawater supply Pump

Back wash
ERD

Out fall

Backwash water
Tank

To SWCC Shuaibah II
Storage Tank
Potabilisation

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“A” Shoaiba Jeddah Transfer pump 2 nd pass R O Feed pump
What is MSF Desalination

Multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) is a water desalination

process that distill sea water by flashing a portion of the water
into steam in multiple stages of what are essentially counter
current heat exchangers .Multi-stage flash distillation plants
produce 85% of all desalinated water in the world

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 I P Steam Starting Ejector

2nd stage Ejectors 1st stage Ejectors

Duty Ejector

BVP Cooling water to

vacuum condensers

Sea Water Discharge

After Condenser Inter Condenser Pre Condenser

Sea Water Outlet

L P Steam

Sea Water Inlet

Quick filling
Make Up

Brine Heater 1 2 3 4 10 19 20 21 D/A

DP Prodn.

BRP 1
CEP
BRP2 BBDP
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Cond. Rtn 9
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 Water Softening

 The process by which Ca ++ and Mg ++ ion

removed from water is known as water
softening. There are two method is used
 Lime soda softening or precipitation
method
 Ion exchange method

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 Lime soda softening
 It is the process by which calcium and magnesium salt that cause
hardness in H2O are chemically precipitated and removed by
treatment with lime and soda ash .
Mg(HCO3)2 + 2Ca ( OH) Mg(OH )2 + 2CaCO3+2H2O
Ca(HCO3)2 + Ca(OH) 2CaCO3 + 2H2O
Soluble Insoluble
 Most of CaCO3 and Mg(OH)2 from a sludge can be removed by
settling and filtration. So lime can be used for removal of temporary
hardness
MgSO4 + 2Ca ( OH) Mg(OH )2 + 2CaSO4
MgCl2 + 2Ca ( OH) Mg(OH )2 + 2CaCl2
The soluble CaSO4 and CaCl2 are produced and contribute “non
carbonated hardness” There must be removed to attain complete
softening of water
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 This is done by treating soluble salt of Ca SO4 and CaCl2 with soda
ash ( Na2Co3).when these salt are precipitated as insoluble
carbonate.
CaSO4+Na2CO3 CaCO3+ NaSO4
CaCl2+Na2CO3 CaCO3+ NaCl
Insoluble Soluble
CaCO3 formed is precipitated as sludge the resulting NaSO4 and NaCl
are highly soluble non scale forming
Use of Coagulant in lime soda process
 Coagulant serve to agglomerate the particles in softening process
 They speed up settling of sludge
 Sodium Aluminates has a special advantage as a coagulant in lime
soda softening .practically in reducing magnesium .
 Effective use of coagulant to remove silica in the softening process.

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Advantage of Lime soda Softening
 Main advantage is reduction of hardness alkalinity TDS
and Silica
 Prior Clarification of water in not usually necessary
 Reduction of TDS can decrease the conductivity of feed
water, there by decreasing blow down and conserving
heat.
 Energy can be saved because of solid reduction in hot
process
 With hot process lime soda softening removal of oxygen
and CO2 can be achieved up to same extent

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 Disadvantage of Lime soda Softening

 The main disadvantage is that while

hardness is remove it is not completely
finished.
 Since this process involves adjusting the
amount of lime and soda ash being feed
there fore wide variation in water
composition and flow rate also make
control of this method difficult.

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 Ion Exchange Zeolite Softening
(Na2Al2Sio2O8.XH2O)
 Zeolite softening consist of passing water through a bed of material
that possess the property of removing calcium and magnesium from
water and replacing these ion with sodium or potassium. The
exchange takes place rapidly, so that hard water is passing through
Zeolite bed can be almost completely softened ,regardless of
variation in solution, bicarbonates, sulfate , chlorides etc.
 Considering only chloride as an example ,for the sake of simplicity
the softening reaction are.
Na2Z+CaCl2 CaZ+ 2NaCl2
Na2Z+MgCl2 MgZ+ 2NaCl2
Material usually applied for this purpose can be naturally occurring
Zeolite I.e. green sand , sulfonated coal or alumina silicate or
synthetic resin based on poly styrene or poly acryllates.
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 Advantage of Na2Z Softening
 Softened water has low scaling
tendency
 Operation is simple and
reliable
 Regeneration is easy to handle
 Waste disposal is not a
problem
 Softener's are easily available
and efficient
 Variation in water flow rate up
to large extent have not effect
on treated water quality

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 Disadvantage of Na2Z Softening
 Softening process has no effect upon alkalinity.
 Turbidity and the presence of iron and aluminum
can be deter mental for the ion exchanger.
 Strong oxidizing agent like chlorine present in
the water will attack the resin.
 At higher pressure and temperature the
exchange capacity of resin is effected.
 Zeolite material is unstable in high acidic and
alkaline media
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 Demineralization
 Removal of all kind of ion from water by ion
exchange is called demineralization. Any
salt dissolved in water consist of two types
of ions, +Ve ion called cat ion and -Ve
ion's called anion . In demineralization
process cat ion and anion present in water
are removed one after other by organic ion
exchange resin
The organic resin's are of four
types

 Weak Cat ion resin

R-COOH Carboxylic group
 Strong Cat ion resin
R-HSO3 Sulphonic group
 Weak anion resin
R-NH2OH Phenolic hydroxyl group
 Strong anion resin
R-NH3OH Amino group

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 Ion exchange material
 Ion exchange material are either natural or
synthetic. The natural ion exchangers are
termed as Zeolite e.g. green sand aluminous
silicate and sulphonated coal. These can be
regenerated by NaCl solution and are used for
the removal of hardness from water.
 Synthetic resins are polymer and co-polymers of
organic compounds like phenol, al dehydes,
styrene's and vinyl derivatives. They differ in
properties due to difference polar group.

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 Cat ion Exchangers
Weak Cat ion
 This filter bed removers cat ion of salt of weak
acids from water in the following manner e.g.
 2RCOO.H + CaSiO3 (RCOO)2 Ca+H2SiO3
 2RCOO.H + Ca(HCO3)2 (RCOO)2 Ca+2H2CO3
 2RCOO.H + CaCO3 (RCOO)2 Ca+H2CO3
 2RCOO.H + Mg(HCO3)2 (RCOO)2 Mg+2H2CO3
 2RCOO.H + MgCO3 (RCOO)2 Mg+H2CO3
 2RCOO.H + NaHCO3 (RCOO)2 Na+H2CO3
 2RCOO.H + NaCO3 (RCOO)2 Na+H2CO3
The water at the outlet of weak cat ion exchanger contain weak acids

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Weak Cat ion Regeneration

Normally 2% HCl is passed

through bed for half hour .All cat ions
that had bed absorbed by resins during
normal service operation are replaced
by H + ion of acid and soluble chlorides
produced in the process of regeneration
are drained to waste

(RCOO)2 Ca + HCl 2RCOOH+CaCl2

Exhausted Resin Regenerated Resin

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 Cat ion Exchangers
Strong Cat ion
A regenerated strong cat ion resins has
sulphonic functional group (-HSO3) and
removes cat ion of both weak and strong
salts of acids from water as given below.
 2RSO3.H + CaSO4 (RSO3)2 Ca+H2SO4
 2RSO3.H + CaCl2 (RSO3)2 Ca+2HCl Strong Acid

 2RSO3.H + Ca(NO3)2 (RSO3)2 Ca+2HNO3

 2RSO3.H + Ca(HCO3)2 (RSO3)2 Ca+2H2CO3 Weak Acid

 The water at the outlet of strong cat ion exchanger cat

ion strong acids ( HCl , H2SO4 , & HNO3 )
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 Cause of Strong Cat ion Exhaust
When strong cat ion filter bed exhausted . It has no H + ion to
exchange with the cat ion (Ca++,Mg+ +,Na+) These cat ion escape in
outlet water. In absence of H + ion . The conductivity of effluent water
decreases and pH is increases , Because H + ion are lightest of all
NaCl escape unchanged form 2nd stage to 3rd stage filter and are
release as NaOH in water
RNH2OH+NaCl RNH2Cl+NaOH
When weak anion filter is exhausted the conductivity
of effluent water increases stately but when strong cat ion resin gets
exhausted. The conductivity of effluent water of weak anion filter
more repaid. It is due to the formation of NaOH is 3rd stage filter by
leaking of Na+ from strong cat ion filter.
Acid Treatment
 Fresh 7% HCl solution prepared in deionized water is passed
through the filter almost 40 minute
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 Anion Exchanger
Weak anion
 A regenerated weak anion resin which has amino (-NH2) functional
group will remove all the anions of strong acid from water.
 RNH2.OH + HCl RNH2Cl +H2O
 RNH2.OH + H2SO4 (RNH2)2SO4 +H2O
 RNH2.OH + HNO3 RNH2NO3 +H2O
 The water at the outlet of weak anion exchanger will contain only
anion of weak acid . If any e.g. CO32- , SiO32- in the form of H2CO3
and H2SiO3
Alkali Treatment
 Fresh 3% NaOH solution prepared in deionized water is passed
through the filter almost 70 minute

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 Anion Exchanger
Strong anion
 This filter remove anion of both weak acids and strong acids.
 2RNH3.OH + H2CO3 (RNH3)2CO3 +2H2O
 2RNH3.OH + H2SiO3 (RNH3)2SiO3 +2H2O
 2RNH3.OH + HCl RNH3Cl +H2O
 2RNH3.OH + H2SO4 (RNH3)2SO4 +2H2O
 Alkali Treatment
 4% NaOH is used pass the alkali through the filter for one hour. This
filter is stopped for regeneration when SiO2 content increasing trend.

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 Mix Bed Filter
 The filter bed contain strong cat ion
The cat ion and anion resin are so
intimately mixed that water following
through the bed may be considered to
have comes across a large number of
small strong cat ion and strong anion
beds. The water at the outlet of mix
bed is of higher quality purity and its
conductivity may be low as 0.5 µs/cm.

Increase in silica content

of effluent water of the mixed bed is a
signal of exhaustion of strong anion
resin and increase of conductivity
means exhaustion of cat ion resin.

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 Ion Exchange Problems
 Excessive
Regeneration
Frequency.
 Higher Operating
Costs.
 Poor Treated water
Quality.
 Insufficient Volume of
Treated Water

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Common Causes of Ion Exchange
System Problem
 Desalination Water Chemistry Variation
 Mechanical Malfunction
 Resin Fouling and Degradation
 Variation and operating and Regeneration Procedure
 Variation in Flow Demand

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 Uses of
Demineraliz
ation water

Demineralizers are used to provide

highly purified water to high
pressure boilers as feed water make-
up. This highly purified water is also
used in a vast number of other
processes; such as wash water for
microchip manufacturing.

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