Main Steam Pipeline for Geothermal Plants

Hi Airmek,

my company could supply stainless steel pipes. Do you have any dwgs?

where the plant is located?

just let me know.

Best regards,

Rosy

hire a good metalurgist and have a chemist doing qualitative and quantative analysis on the steam. I've seen Inconel die an untimely death with geothermal steam.

I agree with the Guest who says to hire a metallurgist and chemist to identify the complete gas composition and ranges of values over time. It is not enough to just say there is sulfur in it. Is it SO2, SO3, H2S, what? SO3+water (steam) is H2SO4. Dilute sulfuric acid is very corrosive. I worked with geothermal brine and it was the most difficult fluid in my career.

I don't have experience whith such corrosive fluids, but maybe you can consider carbon steel pipes with internal cement coating?

Stainless probably will not be much better since the sulfur in your steam will condense out to form sulfurous acid. Both CS and SS will be attacked by this. Assuming that ccondensed steam with the trace sulfur dissolved in it is the culpurit, there are not a lot of good materials which will hold up to this environment. Even cement lined pipe as someone suggested will be susceptible to the acid attack, not to mention the thermal streeeses that would need to be overcome at the cement/steel boundry (which would likely cause cracking and rapid disintigration of the lining cemet)

I would suggest that you look at preventing the cause of the problem, rather than dealing with its effects. If liquid is condensing out, try to prevent this from happening by using more insulation to prevent heat loss, superheating the steam or removing the sulfur.

Re: Main Steam Pipeline for Geothermal Plants

From DonnieH; We would like to make an engineered suggestion to help cure the problem with geothermal steam issues. when I say (we), Hie Sheppard has over 55 yrs steam boiler experience, Hie designed, built, tested and has received a patent for his condensate control system. Being employed in pulp & paper industry for 44 years as a millwright /boiler repairman I work on a combined recovery boiler and biomass power boiler, generating steam for the mill plus generating up to 40 megs of electrical power. search C-4 previous messages I have sent (DonnieH)

Changing or coating the main steam line will not cure the geothermal steam problem, which is a type of Steam saturated with condensate (wet steam). This is the real culprit, in that the condensate contains the dissolved solids. The solution in our opinion is getting the condensate separated from the steam; which can be accomplished in two patented ways,

1. Install a drip leg (same diameter as the main steam line) about three feet long before or at the beginning of the main steam line allowing the condensate to drop to the bottom of the drip leg. Route the condensate from the drip leg to our electronic condensate controller (ECC) this separates the condensate from Steam and controls the level of condensate so it can be removed from the system without allowing any steam blow through. (part of the Patent)
2. Route the geothermal steam to a combination flash tank & electronic condensate controller (diagrams are available of FTECC) the flash tank is fitted with splash plates and baffles that direct the steam condensate to the bottom of the flash tank and dry steam out at the top of the flash tank. The ECC controls the condensate level and does not allow steam to blow through when condensate is removed. These methods separate condensate from the steam allowing pure (dry steam) to pass through the main steam line. In addition we would recommend consulting with a Water Treatment Company about designing an Amine chemical to control the PH in the steam line and any and all down stream condensate lines from the steam user system. conserving thru efficiency Hie & DonnieH
   
   

I don't have such experience, but I would like to say that it is better to kill or reduce the intensity of sulphur at entry only.