August 2008 - Editorial

Dear readers:

In our seminar Condenser Operation (Material Selection, Tube Failures, Cooling Water Treatment, Condenser Cleaning, Chemical Surveillance, and Inspections), held in German in Stuttgart, June 24–25, 2008, two contributions dealing with Legionella issues attracted great deal of attention. This was the motivation for us to publish a paper focusing on this topic: this journal issue starts with a paper authored by Matthew R. Freije, a consultant specializing in Legionella and other waterborne pathogens (Reducing the Risk of Legionnaires' Disease Associated with Cooling Towers). He presents nine ways to reduce the risk of Legionnaires' disease associated with cooling towers.

We at PowerPlant Chemistry were all very surprised by the response of our readers to the first two interviews published in our journal. It seems that power plant chemists are interested in how chemistry is organized in other utilities or power plants. After the previous interviews with utility chemists from Germany and Israel, this time our interviewee is a chemist managing the water chemistry for fifteen cogeneration facilities in the United States. I hope that you will enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed the interview itself.

Arvind D. Belapurkar, Salil Varma, Archana Shirole, and Jyoti Sharma from the internationally respected Indian Bhabha Atomic Research Centre deal with a very different topic important for nuclear power plants – hydrogen mitigation under loss-of-coolant accident conditions. They describe the development and properties of a novel catalyst for the recombination of hydrogen and oxygen (Cordierite-Supported Platinum Catalyst for Hydrogen-Oxygen Recombination for Use in Nuclear Reactors under LOCA).

Information about the upcoming International Conference on the Properties of Water and Steam (Berlin, Germany, September 7–13) has appeared many times in our journal. PowerPlant Chemistry has received many e-mails asking for more information about the organization itself, the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS). For this reason, you will find a contribution by our editorial team informing you about this very important international organization. As an example of the IAPWS work, one of the important IAPWS releases, the Release on the Ionization Constant of H2O, is attached (A Brief Introduction to the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam).

Chemistry in power plants has many different tasks. One of them is ensuring the trouble-free operation of transformers. This includes fault diagnosis of power transformers. The paper by Shun'an Cao, Rui Li, Yihua Qian, and Kai Sheng from Wuhan University, People's Republic of China, focuses on the role of sulfur in transformer oil in sulfur-related transformer failures and analytical techniques for determining the corrosive sulfur (Overview of Research on Corrosive Sulfur in Transformer Oil).

In the February 2008 issue, we introduced our project PPChem 101 "Fossil Cycle Chemistry" with the first lesson (What Is Plant Cycle Chemistry and Why Is It Important for Steam and Power Generating Plants?). In this issue, we present the seventh lesson (Feedwater Treatment with Organic Chemicals). We hope that this lesson will also be positively received.

In this issue, you will again find the Second Announcement for the 2nd International Conference Interaction of Organics and Organic Cycle Treatment Chemicals with Water, Steam, and Materials, which will take place in Lucerne, Switzerland, in November of this year. The keynote presentations Nanotechnology for Water Purification in Power Stations and Current Fossil Cycle Chemistry Guidelines and Organic Chemicals as well as the papers to be presented in the sessions Natural Organics, Makeup Water Treatment – Removal of Organics, Fate of Organics in Plant Cycles, Analytics – TOC, CO2, Degassed Cation Conductivity, Organic Plant Cycle Treatment and Preservation Chemicals, Combined Cycles with Heat Recovery Steam Generators, Operation Experience with the Application of Organic Chemicals, and Chemical Cleaning with Organic Solvents will surely be of interest to all our readers. Remember, plan your attendance at this important conference in good time.

Starting September 10, you may download the preliminary conference agenda at our homepage (www.ppchem.net).

That's all for now. Remain true to us and do not forget: the best source of the latest information on power plant chemistry is a subscription to our journal.

Albert Bursik, Editor