Posted by Tony Garcia on January 12, 2000 at 14:30:29:
In Reply to: pH problems posted by Tara on January 12, 2000 at 13:04:15:
: I'm a civil engineer looking into a high pH (alitlle above 10, but high enough to cause problems with the county)problem. I've been told that the boiler room may be generating it. I've read a lot on this site about acidic problems with sulfite, but haven't read anything about high pH problems. Does anyone have any experiences with this? Thanks
The assumptions are that you (or the county) have traced the problem to the drains coming from this building or company.
Typically, one would operate the boiler/steam gererator in the alkaline range. Corrosion rates verses pH for steel in an elevated temperature environment show a leveling off at around 8.5 and continue through to about a pH of 12. Outside this range, corrosion rates increase markedly.
The chemistry of each boiler/SG is dependant on the material makeup of the boiler/SG, however. A good resource is Betz Handbook of Industrial Water Conditioning or Nalco's Handbook of Water Conditioning.