IDI Meets Recycling Challenge

The water for the Gregory Power Project near Corpus Christi, TX, was difficult to reuse productively for the co-generation system.

Infilco Degremont Inc. (IDI) was challenged to prove the feasibility of treating the condensate from the plant that will supply both steam and power to an adjacent Reynolds Metals Company facility for reuse as feed for the heat-recovery steam generators.

Working closely with personnel from the project and Bechtel (the prime contractor), IDI embarked on an extensive laboratory study in April 1998. The study would determine the most effective method to reuse condensate after treating it to a sufficiently high standard.

Engineers at IDI and Denard (Degremont North American Research and Development) Center devised a solution in the form of a treatment line that relies on IDI's Biofor biological aerated filters. These biological filters were intended to remove up to 80% of the largely biodegradable total organic carbon (TOC).

Further removal is achieved using high-rate clarification (in DensaDeg high-rate clarifiers), filtration, granular activated carbon (GAC) absorption, and reverse osmosis.

The reverse osmosis and mixed-bed ion-exchange systems will provide treated water with a conductivity of less than or equal to 0.1 micro mho/cm and a TOC of less than or equal to 0.5 ppm as carbon.

IDI said it followed up the laboratory study with a comprehensive, on-site pilot demonstration to prove to Bechtel and GPP engineers that this innovative solution was indeed viable today and over the long term.

IDI was subcontracted to Bechtel Energy Corporation to treat the water at the GPP, a joint development between LG&E Energy Corporation, Louisville, KY, and Columbia Electric, Herndon, VA.

IDI has served the water and waster industry since 1894. The company is a member of the Degremont Group, which is a player in water and wastewater treatment worldwide. Degremont S.A. is a subsidiary of Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, of Paris, France, which provides infrastructure services for energy, water, waste, and communications businesses around the world.