Steam feed deaerators help your boiler live longer. It all comes down to oxygen. You see, we humans love oxygen. In fact, we can’t live without it. But for the water-side internals on your boiler, dissolved oxygen in your feedwater is practically deadly.
At high concentrations and temperatures, oxygen becomes corrosive, which leads to pitting in tubes, tube sheets, and tanks. Pitting, of course, leads to leaks, and leaks lead to serious problems. Steam feed deaerators help alleviate this danger by removing dissolved oxygen from the water.
YOUR WATER ISN’T TUBE-FRIENDLY
While the water in your facility’s pipes may be fine for the coffee pot or the microwave, it doesn’t belong in your boiler. Regular city-supplied water carries far too much dissolved oxygen to allow it directly into your boiler.
A steam feed deaerator removes that extra oxygen before it gets to the boiler, venting it safely into the atmosphere. That way, your boiler gets feed water that’s 99.9% pure and ready to get to work. A steam feed deaerator works via a process known as “stripping”. Inside the deaerator’s tank, steam interacts with the water under 5-7psi of pressure. As water sprays or trickles through trays in the deaerator, steam scrubs out the excess oxygen, which is then vented through the top of the tank.
Since steam feed deaerators operate at around 225° F, they also provide the added bonus of preheating your water before it enters the boiler. This reduces shock as the water enters the boiler, while also helping your boiler fire at a lower, more energy-conscious rate.
There’s not a lot of extra work required to run a steam feed deaerator, either. Systems installed by WARE are all designed with a reliable monitoring system that fine-tunes operating pressure, and sounds an alarm if water levels, temperatures, or pressures ever fall outside of their designated parameters.
WARE has a full line of steam feed deaerators ready to install. We also have the skill and expertise to service and maintain your existing steam feed deaerator. We’ll help you keep your boiler system running at its absolute best. Let us know how we can help.