Ensuring water quality in industrial boiler applications with SWAS

Endress+Hauser's solutions ensure precise water quality monitoring, reducing costs, protecting assets, and maintaining compliance in modern power generation

- Praveen Menon

MAINTAINING optimal water quality in industrial boiler systems is not just a best practice, it's a necessity for operational efficiency, equipment longevity, and plant safety. Even slight deviations in water chemistry can trigger a chain reaction of corrosion, scaling, and performance loss, potentially leading to unplanned downtime, costly repairs, and reduced asset lifespan.

Critical components like heat exchangers, turbines, and superheaters are extremely sensitive to impurities in the water-steam cycle.

GROWING CHALLENGE IN MODERN POWER GENERATION

The global shift toward renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and biomass, has transformed how conventional power plants operate.

Rather than running continuously at steady loads, many plants now face frequent shutdowns and startups to balance grid fluctuations.

While necessary for modern energy strategy, these operational changes increase accelerating oxygen desorption, corrosion, and mechanical wear, leading to scaling risks.

Moreover, turbine and boiler manufacturers impose strict warranty requirements on water and steam quality.

Even minor deviations from the prescribed chemistry can void warranties and jeopardise plant performance.

This is why consistent, precise, and reliable water quality monitoring has become more critical than ever.

WATER QUALITY MONITORING IS ESSENTIAL

In high-pressure, high-temperature boiler systems, bypass measurement with sample conditioning is the gold standard for accuracy and safety.