There is another avenue for silica to enter the steam turbine. The superheater spray attemporator directly adds silica from boiler feedwater into the steam; if you have a 5% spray water flow in the attemporator, thenthe silica content of the turbine inlet steam will be increased by about 5% of tehfeedwater silica content.
For HRSG's there is a growing tendency to not use chevron driers ( in the drum steam space) and instead use demister pads- these may provide an improvement on initial steam quality leaving the drum, but of course have no impact on the silica added in the spray attemporator.
Other causes of spikes in silica include drum water level "humping" caused by uneven steam liberation along the length of the drum ( related to the steam riser distribution form diffferent waterwall zones ), incorrect hole drilling pattern in the drum feedwater pipe, incorrect pressure compensation in the drum water level indicator, and the need to raise drum water lvel due to excess steam entrainment in the downcomer inlet vortex..