MAINTENANCE OF CONDENSER

General Description of condenser The condenser group consists of two condensers, each connected with exhaust part of LP Casing. These two condensers have been connected with a by pass branch pipe. The condenser has been designed to create vacuum at the exhaust of steam turbine and to provide pure condensate for re-using as feed water for the boilers. The special feature of the condenser is the tube layout which has been evolved after a long & intensive research work with aview to ensure efficient heat transfer from steam to cooling water passing through the tubes and at the same time the resistance to flow of steam has been reduced to the barest minimum. Each condenser has been sub-divided in to upper and lower parts. Front water box shell and rear water box constitute lower part. Two end plates and six support plates are located inside the lower body of the condenser. Front water boxes have been divided into two parts to make the condenser two pass design. End covers of water boxes are kept detachable for facilitating repairs and replacement of tubes. Man-holes are provided for routine maintenance and visual inspection along with venting and draining arrangements for individual water boxes. Condenser tubes are secured to the end tube plates by expanding and flaring (with bell mouthed shape) of tube ends which provides very good sealing arrangement against penetration of circulating water into the steam space. In order to allow expansion along the height, the condenser is supported on springs specially designed to take up load. Sub Cooling effect in condenser Thermal cycle efficiency is highest when condenser pressure is lowest. For a given coolant temperature and flow rate, this occurs when terminal temperature difference(TTD), a difference between the saturation temperature and the circulating water outlet temperature is minimal. It is important to cycle efficiency that condensate exit temperature ibe nearly as high as saturation temperature. Depression of condensate temperature below saturation temperature is called subcooling. Another aspect of subcooling is its effect on dissolved oxygen levels. At any pressure, oxygen solubility increases markingly with any amount of subcooling even very little. The consequences of excessive oxygen in the condensate are increased erosion/ corrosion of downstream equipment. To keep the levels of dissolved non-condensable in in the condensate as low as possible; the condenser must be leak tight in service. The oxygen contents of condensate leaving condenser shall not exceed 20 ppb over the entire load range. Condenser Problems and their symptoms 1. Leak test Integrity These are shell air-in-leakage above hot well level & below hot well level, Circulating water in-leakage resulting from tube joint failures and circulating water in-leakage through leak path around water box bolts. 2. Condenser Performance The factor affecting condenser performance are high condenser pressure, reduction in effective heat transfer, air binding effect due to stagnant zones, high vapor concentration of non-condensable mixture, inadequate cooling water flow, large number of plugged tubes, excessive sub-cooling, excessive condensate oxygen level etc
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Shell Side Problems The most significant are excessive air-in-leakage, inadequate air removal, capacity and shell-side-related tube failures. Excessive Air Leakage The steam surface condenser can be considered to be a large container under vacuum with many connected pipelines having leak paths through valve stems, diaphragms, turbine seals, flange joints, valve bonnets, glands, weld joints, gasket joints, condenser expansion joints etc with possible sources of air leakages. Inadequate Air Removal capacity This capacity will always be inadequate if the total, actual air-in-leakage rate exceeds the design capacity. When analyzing such problems, one must determine whether condenser or air removal system is controlling pressure. Steam Side Errosion This is an impingement type of erosion caused by moisture entrapped in high velocity steam. The surface of affected component exhibits a coarse, abrasive texture, similar in appearance to sand blasted surface. Pipe supports, structural members, tubes, support plates, shells etc are affected by this process. Mechanical Damages The frequency of such events tends to be high during the commissioning of a new power plant and its first year of commissioning. Condensate Corrosion This type of failure is commonly called condensate grooving or ammonia attack. It is localized form of corrosion, simulated by certain copper alloy tube reactions with oxygenated, ammoniacal condensate. Stress Corrosion Cracking Outer dia. Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of copper alloycondenser tubes can be significant. Ammonia and oxygen dissolved in condensate are the corrodents and carbon di-oxide is a corrosion rate accelerant. Water Side Problems The most significant water side problems are fouling and corrosion. Inadequate venting of water boxes may also cause problems. Macrofouling is accumulation of materials that blocks the tubes. Microfouling is accumulation of deposits on the inside surface of the condenser tubes.

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Preventive Measures Scaling and fouling can be controlled in number of ways which includes (1) Limiting the cycle concentration by large consumption of water (2) Softening the make up water (3) Acid feed to maintain pH between 6.0 to 8.0 (4) On Line cleaning of tubes by circulating the sponge balls through Cooling water flow. (5) Periodic Acid cleaning Corrosion can be prevented or minimized by applying different techniques such as adjustment of pH, using sacrificial metals to protect the material cathodically or by addition of protective film-forming inhibitors that the water can distribute to all wetted parts of the system
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In cooling towers, the nicro-organisms enter through various sources such as make up water, air or dust. The major problem microbes are algae, fungi and Bacteria. Chlorine dosing is usually adequate to control microbial growth up to pH of 8.3. Number of ways are there to combat micro-fouling. It is necessary to carry out the periodic checks by vacuum leak test of all connected systems to condenser by actually raising the water level inside the condenser up to neck during long shut downs and overhauls. All the possible leakage points are to be checked for leakage as per the list given here under.

CONDENSER LEAK TEST CHECK POINTS A. 1. CEP suction strainer box & its drain flange. 2. Suction header pressure gauge connector/valve. 3. Stand by CEP gland sealing line drain. 4. CEP suction valve sealing. 5. CEP evacuation line valve flange joint & sealing. 6. Suction bellow to Hot well. B. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Air system evacuation line at ejector. Ejector 1ST stage drip drains to Condenser. Ejector gauge glass/ ejector airline measurement tapping points. Valves in vacuum breaker line. Valves in airline to ejector. Condenser flash tank pipelines. Valves connected to flash tank. Flash tank expansion joint. Evacuation line of LPH-2 to condenser. Extraction steam line valve of LPH-2 & its gauge glass. Air steam evacuation line of LPH-3. Extraction steam line valve of LPH-3 &its gauge glass. Evacuation line of LPH-4. Evacuation line valve of LPH-3 to LPH-2. Drip line valve of LPH-3 to condenser. Drip line valve of LPH-2 to condenser. Drip pump suction valve. Drip pumps dearation valves. Extraction valve to dearator ES6, ES7 closed. All valves under flange & stud heating line connected to condenser. Vacuum gauges, transmitters & connectors, manometers. LPH-2, GC-2, pressure gauge connectors, manometers. All vacuum areas of starting & main ejectors. LPT diaphragms, crossover pipe flanges, dummy connections. LPT gland sealing flanges. LPT parting plane flanges. LPT to condenser neck welded areas, bellows
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9. 10. 11. 12. F. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Leakage through LPBP line connected to condenser at metallic bellows joints. Float switch drains of LPH- 2 & GC-2. Drain expander drain valve to atmosphere. Siphon filling valves, which comes under vacuum. DW 4- HP casing drains, HPH-7 extraction drain. DW 38-IP casing, Heaters no. 5,4,3,2 extraction drains. GC 1 & GC 2 air &steam mixture line drain gland seal header drain. DW 41- HPT transfer line drain valves. DW 37- IPT transfer line drain valves. DW 39- extraction drains before ES3,4,5. DW 40- Extraction valves after ES 9,10,11. CRH drains before & after LP bypass atmospheric drain. HRH drains before IVs, HRH drains before LPbypass. HPT/IPT front seal drains.

Condenser Tube Cleaning HP Jet : Most of Power Utilities in India currently use High Pressure Jet cleaning (400600 Kg/cm2). In this system High Pressure Jet Lance is traversed manually through the tube length. The average time taken for cleaning a 210 MW condenser is about 15 days. This technique requires utmost care for safety since very high pressure is involved. Effective cleaning by this arrangement is rather difficult to ensure because the length of tube is 12 to 15 Meters. The major limitations of this technique are concern for safety, long time taken and ineffective cleaning leaving back uneven deposits which generally lead to early scale formation in future. Chemical cleaning : This technique is used in situations when the thickness of scale is very high and /or deposits are very hard. However power utilities do not prefer frequent chemical cleaning due to rather elaborate and cumbersome preparatory requirements, possibility of loss of tube meta unless extreme care is taken and relatively high cost of chemical cleaning. On Line Tube Cleaning System : Generally this system is now a days used in all plants of Mahagenco. In this system sponge balls are injected in Cooling water inlet pipes and circulated with cooling water flow. These sponge balls enter into condenser tubes and gently clean the deposits before it settles on tube surface as hard materials. There are two types of sponge balls used in this process, course or smooth. The sponge balls are having slightly high diameter than the inner diameter of tubes and these are coated with abrasive materials. These can be collected back and replaced periodically as per requirements.

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