Operational experience on dual condensate clean-up system reducing regeneration

By installing a condensate filter and improving the material, load on the condensate demineralizer has been decreased substantially. In order to reduce the amount of waste produced by demineralization, the operation method of the demineralizer has been changed to non-regenerative operation. From the long operational experience on the demineralizer without regeneration, we have reached the following conclusions: If there is no major sea water leakage through the condenser, the condensate demineralizer can be operated for five or more cycles without regeneration. Among effective measures for longer non-regenerative operation are bypassing the condensate demineralizer during clean-up operation before start-up, back-washing the demineralizer during each periodic inspection, and stopping sea water leakage at an early stage. Non-regenerative operation permits reduction in the amount of waste. By operating the demineralizer without regeneration, the silica concentration in the reactor water is increased slightly without deteriorating the quality of the reactor water in terms of electric conductivity and pH. It is slightly more advantageous to discard the resin used in the non-regenerative operation than to regenerate it for recycled use. (J.P.N.)