Power generation plants are often located near bodies of surface water because they need large quantities of water.
Water and wastewater treatment technologies help keep the grid up
Water plays an essential role in thermoelectric power generation. Thermoelectric power plants need a lot of water. In fact, thermopower generation is responsible for 41% of daily industrial water withdrawals. From intake to outfall, from boilers to cooling towers, there is an ensemble of water treatment technologies needed to keep plants operating at peak performance.
Demineralized Boiler Feed Water
Steam system makeup water treatment allows a power plant to achieve optimal performance efficiency by promoting efficient heat transfer while limiting equipment fouling, corrosion, and turbine blade deposits caused by minerals and other impurities. High-quality ultrapure feedwater reduces chemical and energy use because blowdown frequency can be deeply cut by as much as a factor of 10.
Fluence approaches steam system makeup water treatment with multiple barrier methods that reduce total dissolved solids. Methods include electrodeionization, ion exchange, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and nanofiltration to demineralize the stream and remove other impurities.
Ultrafiltration (UF) removes almost all colloidal silica and precipitated iron and aluminum, which protects downstream treatment equipment. Using UF to reduce particles, suspended solids, and total organic carbon also improves the life expectancy of reverse osmosis systems and deionzation systems.
Reverse osmosis removes many contaminants that are harmful to thermopower generators. It also cuts chemical costs if used with deionization because ion exchange regeneration is needed less frequently. Although reverse osmosis requires significant pretreatment that adds to costs, reverse osmosis and ion exchange complement each other and generally make a boiler system more cost-efficient than those that do not incorporate reverse osmosis.
Reverse osmosis can be used to desalinate brackish groundwater or seawater, providing a reliable source of makeup water.
Cooling Towers
Cooling towers are an integral part of the thermal power generation process as they condense steam allowing the water to be returned to the boiler. As cooling towers relieve this heat through evaporation, the remaining water’s mineral content increases. It is critical to monitor the quality of the cooling tower water and to treat or replace the water, through blowdown, with lower conductivity makeup water. Cooling towers will often tolerate lower-quality water sources leading to a growing number of power plants using treated municipal wastewater as a source of makeup water.
Water Reuse
Power generation is water-intensive, and water reuse can significantly cut withdrawals of fresh water. In an era of increasing water scarcity and improvements in reuse technology, it makes sense for the energy sector to treat and reuse its own wastewater to:
- Improve cost-efficiency
- Ease demand
- Build resilience
- Cut withdrawals
- Minimize wastewater generation
- Build community support
- Improve ESG (environmental, social, and governance) profiles
- Increase sustainability
Power plant effluent can be cycled back into the plant for reuse as boiler feed or makeup water, or as cooling tower makeup water. Or, plant operators can share treated effluent with nearby communities and agriculture. Regardless of the target application, the practice of water reuse is one of the most effective ways for power plants to use water more wisely.
Wastewater Treatment
Wastewater treatment systems in thermal power plants use physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove pollutants. In many regions, environmental standards have significantly tightened, and it is important to achieve compliance with new environmental standards before discharge.
Dissolved air flotation (DAF) systems are commonly used to reduce heavy metal and suspended solids from wastewater, which is important for thermopower plants constrained by industrial wastewater discharge permits that are becoming more restrictive with each renewal.
Rather than discharging wastewater, power plants can set up wastewater treatment systems geared toward reusing the effluent within the system or developing external wastewater streams for internal or 3rd party use.
The Fluence Approach to Power Sector Needs
Fluence delivers a wide range of solutions for power plants, including:
- Reverse osmosis
- Microfiltration (MF)
- Nanofiltration (NF)
- Ultrafiltration (UF)
- Electrodeionization (ED)
- Ion exchange (IX)
- Membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR)
- Membrane bioreactor (MBR)
- Dissolved air flotation (DAF)
In addition to traditional solutions, our fast-to-deploy containerized plants have been growing in popularity due to their modularity, durability, and effective treatment.
NIROBOX™ containerized reverse osmosis units can be configured for treatment of surface or groundwater sources, brackish water, seawater, and challenging blowdown water.
The newest generation of Fluence packaged wastewater units, the Aspiral™ Flex family of products, offers pre-engineered modular treatment options so you can get the wastewater treatment that you need. Aspiral™ plants can be custom-configured to address your influent parameters and effluent standards.
Smart operations services integrate with Fluence systems to provide real-time monitoring and management through an app that monitors and controls water-quality parameters from personal electronic devices. The app ensures optimal performance of water treatment systems and aids in decision-making. Finally, Fluence offers ongoing support with our after-sales technical assistance service, which ensures the uninterrupted operation of the systems.
Water Management Services
Water technology can be expensive at the outset and come with the need to pay for maintenance. With Fluence’s Water Management Services, skip the upfront costs, and simply pay a regular water bill. Fluence experts do the rest, from operations, to maintenance, to compliance.
Contact Fluence to discuss the options for optimizing the water systems at your thermopower plant.
