Talk to your water treatment supplier. They should have test kits to detect the residual of amines. Be aware that there are two basic styles of amine, one that will predominantly remain in the vapour phase and one that will be found in the condensate. Why do you want to know the amine content? Again talk with the Water Treatment supplier, they should be able to advise you.
Here is the problem in more detail,amines are being added to the boiler with a metering pump set at a specific dose.The problem is that the amines are being detected in the ocupied space,people complaining of smell and iritation.they currently check PH of condensate return.thats how they regulate the metering pump.I think this is the wrong way to do it.The steam load of a plant modulates so if the dosing pump is set to an output of 100k pph and then your load falls to 50k pph of steam you would be overdosing.I think the dosing pump should be regulated by how much is going out with the steam.So if you could check the amines consentration in the steam vs condensate return i think you would not overdose.Is there a way to check the amines in the steam?
in other words, locate a tap in the steam piping in which a sample can be obtained. the sample will need to be condensed and then tested.
if amines are being detected in the occupied space, then seeking, isolating, and repairing the source (i.e. leak) should be a priority. curious though, how is the amine being detected in the occupied space?
the amount of amine injection should be in dependent upon amine concentration being sensed (monitored) in the condensate return. meaning, if amine concentration increases/decreases in condensate, then the amine injection pump should modulate accordingly - an automatic process - to maintain level of pH.
Ok, I got it, so the condensate sample would have to be taken closer to the steam source like a drip leg.The air handler has a humidifier that injects steam in to the occupied space to raise humidity.In the winter months more so because of the drier winter air.In the summer the air is much more humid so the chilled water coils remove the humidity.The boiler operator is taking the sample to check the PH but I think he is taking it from the condensate return coming back from the biuldings.I think it would be best to get the sample from a source closer to the steam output.Thanks for the input.
Mopar71
Better solution is not to use plant steam for humidification. Any residual of amine will be detected. You would be better to use a pure water boiler for humidification.
Hi folks, well as far as I have seen until now as I don't have so much experience in steam plants, the sampling of steam is done in 2 points:
- "normal" steam line
- superheated steam line
the two streams are connected to a sampling unit provided by the boiler company and it consists of coil condenser simply (it will only condnse the steam as pmover said). The device is used to check the conductivity of the fluid (condensed steam. I am not involved in the chemical analysis process as I am a mechanical engineer so I can't be sure that they control amine content through that points. The only thing that I know is that for phosphate content, they analyze the water (I would say liquid, as it's not only water) coming out through the continuous blow down line
Thats a good point,where I use to work we had a small condenser on the deaeator to condense a sample so we could check the amount of sodium sulfite in the deaerator. I will talk to the manager and the chemical company and see if this can be done.Thanks
