New contamination monitoring system?promotes energy recovery

Spirax Sarco has launched a Turbidity Monitoring System for detecting non-conductive contaminants such as fats, oils and greases in condensate, enabling steam system operators to recover substantial amounts of energy that would otherwise be lost.

Such contaminants, if accidentally released into condensate, could cause the boiler to overheat and some operators discard hot condensate rather than recycle it as boiler feedwater. With condensate containing around 25% of the useful energy in the original steam, recovering it can substantially reduce water, energy, effluent and chemical treatment costs.

The Spirax Sarco Turbidity Monitoring System helps operators to re-use condensate by providing real-time monitoring, raising an alert if contamination rises above a set level, allowing the tainted condensate to be diverted to drain. The system can also be used to monitor the quality of other water sources, such as mains, demineralised and reverse osmosis supplies. This makes it suited to applications where water quality is paramount, such as food and drink manufacturing.

The Turbidity Monitoring System comprises a turbidimeter and a converter. The turbidimeter uses light in the visible and ‘near infrared’ range to penetrate the fluid medium. Four sealed photodiodes detect any light scattered by contaminants. A fifth photodiode measures unscattered light to provide a reference measurement. This innovative ‘dual channel’ method provides more accurate and reliable results than conventional single channel systems.

The converter comes with four fixed and one variable measuring range, allowing operators to tailor turbidity levels to specific process parameters. It has a three-digit LED indicator that displays the turbidity level as a percentage of the selected measuring range. Contamination can be displayed in parts per million (PPM). Steam system operators can also use the system to free up valuable resources as it helps to meet national and international standards for unmanned boiler operation.

The new Turbidity Monitoring System complements the Spirax Sarco Condensate Contamination Detection (CCD) system, which detects conductive contaminants. Steam system operators can now enjoy total protection against conductive and non-conductive contamination entering make-up water and condensate returns to the boiler feedwater system.

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