Modeling the water decarbonization processes in atmospheric deaerators

Abstract

A mathematical model of the water decarbonization processes in atmospheric deaerators is proposed to calculate the thermal decomposition degree of hydrocarbonates in a deaerator, pH of a deaerated water sample, and the mass concentration of free carbonic acid in it on a carbon dioxide basis. The mathematical description of these processes is based on the deaeration tank water flow model implemented in the specialized software suite for the calculation of three-dimensional liquid flows, where a real water flow is a set of parallel small plug-flow reactors, and the rate constant of the reaction representing a generalized model of the thermal decomposition of hydrocarbonates with consideration for its chemical and diffusion stages is identified by experimental data. Based on the results of experimental studies performed on deaerators of different designs with and without steam bubbling in their tanks, an empirical support of this model has been developed in the form of recommended reaction order and rate constant values selected depending on the overall alkalinity of water fed into a deaerator. A self-contained mathematical description of the water decarbonization processes in deaerators has been obtained. The proposed model precision has been proven to agree with the specified metrological characteristics of the potentiometric and alkalimetric methods for measuring pH and the free carbonic acid concentration in water. This allows us to recommend the obtained model for the solution of practical problems of forming a specified amount of deaerated water via the selection of the structural and regime parameters of deaerators during their design and regime adjustment.