The Power Cycle Chemistry (PCC) working group of the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam participated in the 2019 IAPWS annual meeting in Banff, AB, Canada, Sept 29 – Oct 4, where it announced the availability of several new Technical Guidance Documents (TGDs) and provided updates on the development of others.

The annual meeting of the IAPWS (pronounced eye-apps) Executive Committee and working groups attracted 92 scientists, engineers, and guests representing 16 countries. Purpose of the conference is to connect scientists with the engineers who use their information. Both groups of professionals benefit: The researchers/scientists learn about problems seeking resolution while the engineers gain access to the latest research results.

IAPWS Executive Secretary Dr R Barry Dooley of Structural Integrity Associates Inc, well known to the global power-generation community, said the meeting was extremely productive for the PPC working group. He reported that four new TGDs had been released in the last year, urging those responsible for maintaining top performance from their electric generating plants to download the documents at no cost from the organization’s website and benefit from content compiled by the global thought leaders in powerplant chemistry.

The latest TGDs published by IAPWS are the following:

• • “Application of film-forming substances in industrial steam generators” offers guidelines and processes for the proper use of FFS.

  • “Chemistry management in generator water cooling during operation and shutdown” is of particular importance to combined-cycle owners.

  • “Application of FFS in fossil, combined cycle, and biomass powerplants.” This updated document provides guidelines and processes for the application of both FF amines and FF amine products.

  • “Air in-leakage in steam/water cycles” addresses the detection and measurement of air in-leakage as it relates to optimum cycle chemistry and maximum thermal-cycle efficiency for a wide range of generating plants.

Eight additional TGDs, introduced between 2008 and 2016, also are available free-of-charge on the IAPWS website. They offer a wealth of practical information on topics such as steam purity for turbine operation, phosphate and sodium hydroxide treatments for steam/water circuits of drum-type boilers, instrumentation for monitoring cycle chemistry, how to measure carryover of boiler water into steam, etc.

Dooley said several whitepapers and new TGDs are in progress—including FFS for nuclear plants, corrosion-product monitoring for cycling plants, demineralizer-system integrity and reliability, geothermal steam chemistry, and flue-gas condensation. Plus, work has been started on a document targeting electric boilers.

He added that the number of TGDs continues to increase, providing robust, practical, and technically correct water and steam guidance to industry. Note that existing TGDs are reviewed and updated periodically to ensure they are maintained current and relevant.

A status report on the PCC-related International Collaboration (IC) between Canada and New Zealand on corrosion of boiler steels in the presence of mixed contaminants was included in the Banff PCC discussions. A new IC was approved related to corrosion product sampling analysis and assessment to provide more data for the ongoing PCC initiative in that area.

The next IAPWS meeting will be held in Turin, Italy, Sept 6 – 11, 2020.

Finally, users wanting to learn more about specific aspects of the TGDs, and the experience of the industry’s owner/operators with them, can post questions to the HRSG discussion forum chaired by Bob Anderson on the Power Users website. An alternative is to attend the annual meeting of the HRSG Forum with Bob Anderson where significant discussion time is allocated to these topics.