The boiler make-up water treatment plant at the Isle of Grain Power Station is refurbished
 
At 30 years old, the boiler make-up water treatment plant at E.ON  Pete Kingbrooks, Grain’s Plant Chemist, planned the refurbishment for the summer. “Between May and September the demand for electricity is lower and the station output is reduced”, he says. “That means we can run with only one of our ion exchange streams available, so we can carry out planned maintenance on the other.” Two of the vessels, the cation and mixed bed exchange units, were scheduled for precautionary re-lining, and ELGA Process Water’s task was to remove the ion exchange resins to a temporary store, clean and re-line the vessels with rubber, spark test to ensure the integrity of the lining, reload the resins, hydraulically test and re-commission the units.
 
Pete also decided to replace the internal underdrain nozzles, which are made of polypropylene and tend to become brittle with age. “If a single nozzle breaks it results in a loss of resin and contamination of the treated water”, says Pete. “That means an emergency shut down of the water treatment plant and, if that happens in winter, we lose generation capacity.” It made sense to fit new nozzles while the units were being refurbished, and this was made easier for ELGA Process Water because they still keep the original Permutit design drawings in their archive.
 
E.ON was impressed with ELGA Process Water’s service and management of the site work and has awarded the company a contract to carry out a similar refurbishment on Grain’s second stream in July 2007.
ELGA Process Water, Marlow International, Parkway, Marlow, Bucks SL7 1YL  UK
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