Method and device for preventing corrosion in hot water systems
View Patent ↗Disclosed is a method of controlling a real-time oxidation-reduction potential in a hot water system to inhibit corrosion in the hot water system. The method includes defining one or more operational protective zones in the hot water system. One or more of the operational protective zones includes an oxidation-reduction potential probe that is operable to measure a real-time oxidation-reduction potential in the hot water system at operating temperature and pressure. The probe transmits the measured real-time potential to the controller, which assesses and interprets the transmitted potential to determine whether it conforms to an oxidation-reduction potential setting. If the measured potential does not conform the oxidation-reduction potential setting, the controller is operable to feed one or more active chemical species into the hot water system.
1. A method of controlling a real-time oxidation-reduction potential (“ORP”) in a hot water system to inhibit corrosion in the hot water system, the method comprising:
(a) defining one or more operational protective zones (“zone” or “zones”) in the hot water system;
(b) selecting at least two of the defined zones, wherein at least two of the selected zones includes at least one ORP probe operable to measure the real-time ORP and communicate with a controller;
(c) either intermittently or continuously measuring the real-time ORP at one or more of the selected zones while the hot water system is at operating temperature and pressure;
(d) transmitting the measured real-time ORP to the controller;
(e) assessing whether the measured real-time ORP or a calculated ORP based upon the measured real-time ORP conforms to an ORP setting, wherein the ORP setting is either a same ORP setting for each of the selected zones or a different ORP setting for at least two of the selected zones;
(f) feeding an effective amount of one or more active chemical species into the hot water system, if the measured real-time ORP or the calculated ORP does not conform to the ORP setting; and
(g) ramping from one of the selected zones to another one of the selected zones after a triggering event.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ORP probe includes a temperature detector, a noble metal electrode, and a reference electrode.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the triggering event is based upon a timetable.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the selected zones is in a monitoring and/or alarm mode and at least one other selected zone is in a control mode.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein at least one of the selected zones is capable of switching either manually or automatically between the monitoring and/or alarm mode and the control mode.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ORP setting changes over time.
7. The method of claim 1 , including determining a first ORP setting corresponding to a first selected zone, and optionally determining additional ORP settings corresponding to additional selected zones.
8. The method of claim 7 , including independently determining the first ORP setting and/or independently determining each additional ORP setting corresponding to each additional selected zone.
9. The method of claim 1 , including independently determining the ORP setting for each selected zone based upon operational limitations of the hot water system.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ORP setting is selected from the group consisting of: an ORP set point chosen from one or more single values and an ORP set range chosen from one or more ranges of values.
11. The method of claim 1 , including measuring a first real-time ORP in a first selected zone and feeding one or more active chemical species to the first selected zone, if the first measured real-time ORP or a first calculated ORP based upon the first measured real-time ORP does not conform to the ORP setting for the first selected zone; and/or measuring the first real-time ORP and feeding one or more active chemical species at one or more other selected zones, if the first measured real-time ORP or the first calculated ORP does not conform to the ORP setting for the first selected zone; and/or measuring one or more real-time ORPs at one or more of the selected zones and calculating one or more other real-time ORPs for one or more other selected zones, based upon one or more of the measured real-time ORP(s).
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the measured real-time ORP or the calculated ORP indicates an amount of electrochemically active species in the respective selected zone or in another selected zone; and/or wherein the measured real-time ORP or the calculated ORP indicates an amount of a chemical that indirectly affects an amount of electrochemically active species in the respective selected zone or in another selected zone.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the electrochemically active species directly influences the real-time ORP.
14. The method of claim 1 , including automatically and/or manually feeding one or more of the active chemical species.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the active chemical species is selected from the group consisting of: oxidants, reductants, corrosion-inhibitors, corrodants, and combinations thereof.
16. The method of claim 1 , including operating the method over a network.
17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the network is an internet.
18. A digital storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the instructions operable to execute the method of claim 1 .
19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hot water system is selected from the group consisting of fossil fuel fired water-tube or fire-tube boilers; hot water heaters; heat exchangers; steam generators; nuclear power electric systems including light water reactors, pressurized water reactors, and boiling water reactors; marine units; combustion engine and diesel coolant systems; evaporator systems; thermal desalination systems; evaporator systems; papermaking operations including pulping processes and bleaching processes; wafer polishing and planarization processes; combustion gas emissions; fermentation processes; geothermal processes; aqueous organic redox synthesis; polymerization processes; steam ejection equipment; processing operations; and ancillary devices attached thereto.
20. A corrosion control device for a hot water system operable to implement the method of claim 1 , the hot water system having one or more operational protective zones (“zone” or “zones”), wherein at least two of the zones are selected zones, said device comprising:
a receiver in communication with one or more oxidation-reduction potential (“ORP”) probes, a subset of the ORP probes being activated, each activated ORP probe operable to measure a real-time ORP at operating temperature and pressure, and at least two of the selected zones including at least one of the ORP probes;
a processor operable to interpret the measured real-time ORP communicated to the receiver from each activated ORP probe, wherein the processor either interprets the measured real-time ORP directly or interprets a calculated ORP based upon the measured real-time ORP; and
a transmitter in communication with a feeding device operable to manage introduction of one or more active chemical species into the hot water system to affect changes in the real-time ORP, wherein the processor is operable to send an output signal through the transmitter to the feeding device, if the interpreted real-time ORP does not conform to an ORP setting.