Preceedings available

The preceedings of the 2nd EPRI/PPChem Conference "Interaction of Organics and Organic Plant Cycle Chemicals with Water, Steam and Materials," November 4–6, 2008, Lucerne, Switzerland, are available from Ladi Bursik

July 2010 - Editorial

Dear readers:

The first paper in this journal issue comes from Japan. Takahiro Nakane, Teruyuki Goto, Li-Bin Niu, and Hiroshi Takaku report on studies related to electrochemical corrosion behavior and oxide film characteristics of 13Cr and 16Cr-4Ni blade steels and 3.5NiCrMoV and high-purity 9CrMoV rotor steels typically used for low-pressure steam turbines in power plants. Their focus is on the influence of chloride and sulfate ions on the steels in a simulated all-volatile treatment environment.

In the second paper, we turn to operators of industrial power plants. The use of amines for plant cycle treatment in industrial steam and power generating plants is steadily increasing. Very interesting is the application of film-forming amines in combination with volatile alkalizing amines. Due to their surface activity, film-forming amine-based organic corrosion inhibitors feature a theoretical improvement potential regarding the heat transfer in nucleate boiling at steel heating surfaces. Holger Topp, Dieter Steinbrecht, Wolfgang Hater, and André de Bache present the results of their investigations in an interesting contribution (The Influence of Film-Forming Amines on Heat Transfer during Saturated Pool Boiling).

Ladislav Bursik visited on behalf of us and you the Cetamine® Symposium "Film-Forming Amines in Plant Cycles" held in Essen, Germany, on May 19, 2010. This symposium was sponsored and organized by BKG Water Solutions. His report contains information on all symposium presentations (The Cetamine® Symposium "Film-Forming Amines in Plant Cycles"). For data privacy protection, the contact data of the symposium speakers are not included in this report. The editorial staff, however, is ready to help you in contacting them. Just send your brief request to editor@ppchem.net.

I am sure that the fourth paper in this issue would express exactly what many power plant chemists or other professionals responsible for cycle chemistry-related sampling and monitoring matter feel. Although the title of the paper reads Seven Sins of Steam Sampling, the author of the paper covers not only steam sampling and quality monitoring but water sampling and quality monitoring as well. Manuel Sigrist demonstrates with interesting examples all typical mistakes in the design and execution of water and steam sampling systems and its related equipment. He also highlights roads leading to obtaining optimum systems for both plant operators and OEMs.

Contributions dealing with makeup water treatment and condensate polishing belong to topics frequently requested by our readers. Your wishes are our commands – in his paper, Tony Juratowitch directs attention to problems associated with resin separation during the external regeneration of condensate polishers (The Applicability of Using Underwater Acoustic Sensors in Polisher Separation Regeneration Vessels for Determining Polisher Resin Total Levels and Resin Interface Levels).

The last paper represents an area that is not often covered in this journal – flue gas cleaning. This time, the focus is on fly ash removal in coal-fired power plants. Massimo Bienati and Paolo Cavezzale provide an overview of the experience in particulate removal by means of fabric filtration, which is developing into a serious alternative to the traditional way of particulate collection by electrostatic precipitators (Fabric Filter Design and Operation Experience in Coal-Fired Power Plants). I hope that this contribution will satisfy all readers requesting papers from additional power plant chemistry areas.

Please note the announcement for our "Second International Conference Instrumentation for Power Plant Chemistry" (with an exhibition) scheduled for November 15–17, 2010 at the Mövenpick Hotel Stuttgart Airport. You will find all the information about this conference at the PowerPlant Chemistry homepage at http://www.ppchem.net Plan your attendance now!

That's all. 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