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Deoxygenation system reduces primary vessel corrosion at nuclear plant
NEWS
H2O Innovation now trading on OTCQX market place
H
2O Innovation Inc’s common shares are now trading under the ticker symbol “HEOFF” on the OTCQX market place in the USA – a market place operated by OTC Markets Group for established US and international companies. The Canadian firm, which specialises in custom-built, and integrated water-treatment systems based on membrane filtration technology, says that it will continue to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under its existing symbol “HEO” and on Euronext/Alternext (France) under “ALHEO”. ‘We are confident that trading in the United States on OTCQX is an important milestone in our growth strategy and shall increase significantly our visibility with the US investor community,’ commented Frédéric Dugré, President and CEO, H2O Innovation. ‘The United States represents an important part of our business activities since a great portion of our employees are based over there and work in our major manufacturing and engineering premises located in Minnesota and California.’ ‘In addition, a significant part of our sales backlog as well as existing customers are also located throughout the USA. These factors add to the relevancy to trade our common shares on OTCQX.’
Contact: H2O Innovation Inc, 420 Boulevard Charest Est, Suite 240, Québec City, Québec, Canada G1K 8M4. Tel: +1 418 688 0170, www.h2oinnovation.com
Deoxygenation system reduces primary vessel corrosion at nuclear plant
A
skid-mounted membrane-based deoxygenation system from Veolia Water Technologies – claimed to be the first water-treatment system of its type to be used in the nuclear industry – has helped reduce primary vessel corrosion at the Wylfa nuclear power plant in North Wales, UK. In 2012, a process of “de-fuelling” and fuel transfer commenced at Wylfa’s reactor 2. This 4
Membrane Technology
CO2-cooled Magnox reactor supplied heat to create steam in four high-pressure water-tube boilers, that is, steam generators. To de-fuel both reactors takes about five years and during this period it is necessary to keep the irradiated fuel cool. To do this demineralised water is continuously circulated through what were the primary gas circuits, from the reactor to the four boilers (two pairs), and returned to the reactor via a heat exchanger. Each system has about 160 m3 (42 270 gallons) of circulating water. At the planning stage, the station chemists were concerned about the possibility of corrosion of the ageing pipework and pressure vessels. The initial fill of demineralised water would be saturated with oxygen at atmospheric pressure – 10 mg/l – and this would certainly present a potential corrosion problem. The chemists wanted to reduce the dissolved oxygen concentration – ideally to less than 100 μg/l. Magnox Engineering considered a number of de-aeration options, and concluded that although chemical de-aeration would create environmental issues of its own, it would be the least expensive option. Traditional thermal de-aeration was clearly impractical in a cooling system, and there was insufficient space for a vacuum de-aerator. They took the problem to Elga Process Water (recently rebranded Veolia Water Technologies). Although it did not have an “off-the-shelf solution”, Elga parent company Veolia Water Solutions’ development engineers worked closely with Magnox to provide a bespoke pilotplant based on membrane deoxygenation technology. This was installed on two of the boiler circuits of reactor 1 for a two-week trial during a planned reactor shutdown in 2011. Following a design review, incorporating lessons learned during the trial, the pilot plant was modified to provide continuous oxygen removal and particle filtration. The modified skid and a new one, for the second boiler pair, were installed and commissioned during the reactor 2 shutdown in February 2012 to ensure that they would be ready for the start of de-fuelling two months later. Each deoxygenation system operates as a sidestream treatment on each circuit and polishes the full water volume (160 m3) over about ten days. According to Veolia Water Technologies, the systems have performed consistently well, and two more skids are ready to be installed when reactor 1 de-fuelling commences. The degassing modules use Liqui-Cel hollowfibre polypropylene membranes and are fed with nitrogen as a “sweep gas”, which travels along the inside of the hollow fibres, with the water phase on the outside. Because the partial pressure of oxygen on the sweep-gas side of the membrane is low, there is a concentration difference that causes oxygen to transfer across the
membrane, from the water phase into the gas phase. A vacuum pump draws the sweep gas from the modules and discharges it – together with the oxygen removed from the water – to the atmosphere. Each stage of deoxygenation gives about a 50% reduction in the influent dissolved oxygenation, so initial removal from the saturation concentration of 10 mg/l requires several cycles of treatment, which takes several days. Once initial deoxygenation is complete the skid only has to deal with in-leakage of air and the dissolved oxygen in make-up water. The skids are designed to meet nuclear engineering standards and all the pipework used on them is Schedule 10 Type 316 stainless steel. Quick-acting slam-shut valves, provided on the feed and return to each cooling circuit, close on high pressure within the deoxygenation skid, or if the emergency stop on the local control panel is operated. Design, materials procurement and construction were all documented and are traceable, and acceptance testing was undertaken before commissioning. One of the main challenges for the designers was the limited access to the reactor annulus and restricted space for location and installation. This meant that the skids had to be designed to be as compact as possible, whilst retaining operability. Both the influent water and treated water on each skid are monitored for conductivity, pH and dissolved oxygen concentration. Sample water and water from the separator on the vacuum pump is collected in a 50-litre (13-gallon) tank and pumped back to the cooling system so that there is no loss of water from the system during normal operation. By significantly reducing corrosion in the cooling systems, the system has minimised leaks and contributed to better system integrity and lower maintenance costs, says Veolia Water Technologies. Contact: Veolia Water Technologies, Windsor Court, Kingsmead Business Park, High Wycombe HP11 1JU, UK. Tel: +44 1628 89 7000, www.veoliawatertechnologies.co.uk/processwater
3rd Water Research Conference scheduled for January 2015
T
he 3rd Water Research Conference is scheduled to be held on 11–14 January 2015 in Shenzhen, China. According to the organiser, this conference aims to present results of state-of-the-art exploration in water and wastewater treatment,
November 2014
H2O Innovation now trading on OTCQX market place
H
2O Innovation Inc’s common shares are now trading under the ticker symbol “HEOFF” on the OTCQX market place in the USA – a market place operated by OTC Markets Group for established US and international companies. The Canadian firm, which specialises in custom-built, and integrated water-treatment systems based on membrane filtration technology, says that it will continue to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under its existing symbol “HEO” and on Euronext/Alternext (France) under “ALHEO”. ‘We are confident that trading in the United States on OTCQX is an important milestone in our growth strategy and shall increase significantly our visibility with the US investor community,’ commented Frédéric Dugré, President and CEO, H2O Innovation. ‘The United States represents an important part of our business activities since a great portion of our employees are based over there and work in our major manufacturing and engineering premises located in Minnesota and California.’ ‘In addition, a significant part of our sales backlog as well as existing customers are also located throughout the USA. These factors add to the relevancy to trade our common shares on OTCQX.’
Contact: H2O Innovation Inc, 420 Boulevard Charest Est, Suite 240, Québec City, Québec, Canada G1K 8M4. Tel: +1 418 688 0170, www.h2oinnovation.com
Deoxygenation system reduces primary vessel corrosion at nuclear plant
A
skid-mounted membrane-based deoxygenation system from Veolia Water Technologies – claimed to be the first water-treatment system of its type to be used in the nuclear industry – has helped reduce primary vessel corrosion at the Wylfa nuclear power plant in North Wales, UK. In 2012, a process of “de-fuelling” and fuel transfer commenced at Wylfa’s reactor 2. This 4
Membrane Technology
CO2-cooled Magnox reactor supplied heat to create steam in four high-pressure water-tube boilers, that is, steam generators. To de-fuel both reactors takes about five years and during this period it is necessary to keep the irradiated fuel cool. To do this demineralised water is continuously circulated through what were the primary gas circuits, from the reactor to the four boilers (two pairs), and returned to the reactor via a heat exchanger. Each system has about 160 m3 (42 270 gallons) of circulating water. At the planning stage, the station chemists were concerned about the possibility of corrosion of the ageing pipework and pressure vessels. The initial fill of demineralised water would be saturated with oxygen at atmospheric pressure – 10 mg/l – and this would certainly present a potential corrosion problem. The chemists wanted to reduce the dissolved oxygen concentration – ideally to less than 100 μg/l. Magnox Engineering considered a number of de-aeration options, and concluded that although chemical de-aeration would create environmental issues of its own, it would be the least expensive option. Traditional thermal de-aeration was clearly impractical in a cooling system, and there was insufficient space for a vacuum de-aerator. They took the problem to Elga Process Water (recently rebranded Veolia Water Technologies). Although it did not have an “off-the-shelf solution”, Elga parent company Veolia Water Solutions’ development engineers worked closely with Magnox to provide a bespoke pilotplant based on membrane deoxygenation technology. This was installed on two of the boiler circuits of reactor 1 for a two-week trial during a planned reactor shutdown in 2011. Following a design review, incorporating lessons learned during the trial, the pilot plant was modified to provide continuous oxygen removal and particle filtration. The modified skid and a new one, for the second boiler pair, were installed and commissioned during the reactor 2 shutdown in February 2012 to ensure that they would be ready for the start of de-fuelling two months later. Each deoxygenation system operates as a sidestream treatment on each circuit and polishes the full water volume (160 m3) over about ten days. According to Veolia Water Technologies, the systems have performed consistently well, and two more skids are ready to be installed when reactor 1 de-fuelling commences. The degassing modules use Liqui-Cel hollowfibre polypropylene membranes and are fed with nitrogen as a “sweep gas”, which travels along the inside of the hollow fibres, with the water phase on the outside. Because the partial pressure of oxygen on the sweep-gas side of the membrane is low, there is a concentration difference that causes oxygen to transfer across the
membrane, from the water phase into the gas phase. A vacuum pump draws the sweep gas from the modules and discharges it – together with the oxygen removed from the water – to the atmosphere. Each stage of deoxygenation gives about a 50% reduction in the influent dissolved oxygenation, so initial removal from the saturation concentration of 10 mg/l requires several cycles of treatment, which takes several days. Once initial deoxygenation is complete the skid only has to deal with in-leakage of air and the dissolved oxygen in make-up water. The skids are designed to meet nuclear engineering standards and all the pipework used on them is Schedule 10 Type 316 stainless steel. Quick-acting slam-shut valves, provided on the feed and return to each cooling circuit, close on high pressure within the deoxygenation skid, or if the emergency stop on the local control panel is operated. Design, materials procurement and construction were all documented and are traceable, and acceptance testing was undertaken before commissioning. One of the main challenges for the designers was the limited access to the reactor annulus and restricted space for location and installation. This meant that the skids had to be designed to be as compact as possible, whilst retaining operability. Both the influent water and treated water on each skid are monitored for conductivity, pH and dissolved oxygen concentration. Sample water and water from the separator on the vacuum pump is collected in a 50-litre (13-gallon) tank and pumped back to the cooling system so that there is no loss of water from the system during normal operation. By significantly reducing corrosion in the cooling systems, the system has minimised leaks and contributed to better system integrity and lower maintenance costs, says Veolia Water Technologies. Contact: Veolia Water Technologies, Windsor Court, Kingsmead Business Park, High Wycombe HP11 1JU, UK. Tel: +44 1628 89 7000, www.veoliawatertechnologies.co.uk/processwater
3rd Water Research Conference scheduled for January 2015
T
he 3rd Water Research Conference is scheduled to be held on 11–14 January 2015 in Shenzhen, China. According to the organiser, this conference aims to present results of state-of-the-art exploration in water and wastewater treatment,
November 2014