Thoughts on the recent EPRI Conference on Cycle Chemistry

Last week, I attended the EPRI Steam and Water Cycle Chemistry Instrumentation, Monitoring and Control Conference in San Antonio, Texas and came away with some interesting insights which I am happy to share with those unable to attend this important forum consisting of the industry's leading chemists and manufacturers.

1. Several vendors featured new products to provide low-level detection on a variety of constituents to include chlorides, sulfates, and dissolved iron. In addition, one vendor submitted a paper on regenerating cation resin columns using EDI. However, all of these potentially new methods of detection come at a much higher price than existing technology.

2. EPRI representatives exhorted instrument manufacturers to continue providing newer technology to improve efficiency in power plant chemistry going so far as to call for "smart" software that could provide operators with precise causes for chemistry upsets. However, these exhortations for improved technology were tempered with the admission that Power Generation companies were constantly looking for ways to cut costs and lower operating expenses.

EPRI also expressed the opinion that conventional pH measurements in HRSGs using ammoniated chemistry should be eliminated and replaced with calculated pH measurements derived from specific and cation conductivity measurements...which suits me fine since we offer excellent products that do just that (see below).

3. After speaking with a variety of end-users, I came away from the Conference with the belief that operators will continue to look for the best value in on-line instrumentation consisting of accurate, reliable systems that are not only easy to operate and maintain, but easy to justify in terms of expense. Fortunately, Martek's products already provide these sought-after features.

Finally, the Conference gave us the opportunity to introduce for the first time the completely re-designed Martek Mark 24 Four Channel Water Quality Analyzer in two new panels: The Mark 24 Degas Cation Conductivity Panel and the Mark 24 Cation/Calculated pH Panel. The new Mark 24 features a large color display with menu-driven commands in seven languages and offers a variety of analog & digital outputs. Needless to say, it was a big hit with quite a few chemists especially when the prices were announced. Below is a photo of our booth featuring the Martek panels and the Mark 22 Calibrator:

Unlike other manufacturers, we tend to introduce a new product first and then the marketing brochures. So, look to see new information on the re-designed Mark 24 analyzer on the website in the next month or so. In the meantime, if you have any questions about its capabilities, don't hesitate to contact us for additional information.