Technical upgrades to water supply and drainage plants help improve operational performance

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Technical upgrades to water supply and drainage plants help improve operational efficiency. Author/Source: Longyu Coal Chemicals. Date: 2022-03-01. Clicks: 9. Recently, the water supply and drainage plant carried out technical upgrades in line with its production needs, completing the adjustment of water inlet distribution for the seven mixed-bed units in the second-stage desalination station, thereby contributing to more efficient, safe, and stable operations for the company. The seven mixed-bed units in the second-stage desalination station serve as the final water treatment equipment in that station. The original design called for only five units, but due to the rapid expansion of the company, two more were added. Recently, the plant observed during operation that the operating cycle of the mixed-bed had been significantly shortened. A shorter cycle not only affects the water production capacity of the equipment, but the large amounts of acid and alkali required for frequent regeneration also represent a significant cost. Through on-site inspections and repeated technical analyses, the technicians identified the root cause of the problem: due to the elevated position of the water inlet pipelines for the two newly added mixed-bed units, with a constant flow rate in the main pipeline, most of the water flowed, under the effect of gravitational potential energy, toward the originally designed five mixed-bed units located at lower elevations. This increased their operating load, resulting in a shorter operating cycle. Once the root cause was identified, things became easier to handle. Through repeated tests, the factory determined the appropriate improvement measures; it was decided to close two-thirds of the water output valves of the five mixed-bed units originally designed, in order to eliminate the impact of the increased gravitational potential energy caused by the addition of new pipelines. After the technical upgrades were implemented, the incoming water now flows evenly and \"obediently\" into each mixed-bed unit, effectively solving the problem of some units being overloaded while others remain underutilized; as a result, the operating cycle of the mixed beds has been significantly extended.