Water Quality of NPP Secondary Side with Combined Water Chemistry of Ammonia and Ethanolamine

Ammonia (AM) and Ethanolamine (ETA), as pH control additive agents, were injected to the secondary side in a Korean NPP for the even pH in the entire secondary system including the wet region and the condensate. Ammonia and ETA are dominant in the vapor and liquid phases, respectively, since the former and latter are more and less volatile than water in the temperature range of 30 to 300 . pH of 9.5 to 9.7 was maintained in the water-steam cycle at the concentrations of ammonia with ∼1.0 ppm and ETA of ∼1.8 ppm. From the standpoint of corrosion, i.g, concentration of Fe, the water quality of secondary side was improved by the combined water treatment of ammonia and ETA, compared to all volatile treatment of ammonia. The electrical conductivity was increased from 6 to 10 μS/cm due to the presence of organic carboxylates produced by the decomposition of ETA. ETA was broken down by <5% in steam generator and converted into formate, acetate, and glycolate, among which acetate was largely formed. But inorganic ions such as Na⁺, Cl^-, and SO₄^2- are not changed because their ingress was not made and the selectivity of resin over those ions was not fairly altered. The runtime of demineralizer in steam generator blowdown was shortened by a third for a mixture of ammonia and ETA. Most of Fe was originated from the shell side of heat exchangers including the condenser as a result of corrosion. Fe was only eliminated by ion exchange demineralizers, i.e., 46% at CPP and 3% at SG BD and 70% of Fe oxides were accumulated at the steam generator, on the basis of Fe concentration at the final feedwater. In conclusion, ETA is preferable to ammonia for the enhancement of pH in the liquid phase of water-steam mixture such as the shell side of heat exchanger and also the full-flow operation of CPP is more desirable than partial-flow operation for the improved removal of corrosion products, regardless of hydrogen- or amine-type operation. (authors)