METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCALE DEPOSITS IN A WATER TANK

摘要

Minerals such as limestone deposits are precipitated in tanks of steam generators, where drinking water is heated to produce steam. Such deposits can be only partially floated away by periodic opening of an elutrition or sludge-removal valve. Since there is intensive crustation, the minerals stick on the heating members or the electrodes and sometimes cannot be removed because of their size through the waste water line. In the invention, one produces sufficient turbulence in the water by periodically blowing air through the water so that crustation is prevented and the accumulated sediments is separated in the form of powder of sludge to be treated by elutrition or sludge removal techniques. The water tank 1 of the steam generator is equipped not only with a water feed line 5, a heating arrangement 2/3, an open steam outlet 1a and a sludge drain 6/7, but also with an air feed arrangement discharging into the base 1b or into the vicinity of the base of the tank. Such air feed arrangement is formed by an air pump 9 provided with a control device 9a and an air feed line 8.