Performance Improvement for Steam Generators

Performance Improvement for Steam Generators

At the University of Illinois at Chicago, much progress has been made toward improving water/steam chemistry over the last decade, with additional efforts ongoing. This article outlines several of these improvements and some of UIC’s future goals.

Water/steam chemistry advancements at UIC

By Brad Buecker, Nigel Mohammed and Frank Murphy

The West Co-Gen Plant at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) produces heating steam for the west side of the college campus, including approximately 50 buildings and the university hospitals (UIC and Rush). It also generates chilled water for the west campus and the UIC hospital. The original mindset was “water is water,” with minimal treatment utilized for normal operation. However, as numerous plant owners and operators have discovered, often to great regret, if plant makeup and process waters are not treated properly to remove impurities and optimize chemistry, severe corrosion, scaling, and fouling are the result.

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