SOME RECENT CORROSION PROBLEMS IN THERMAL DESALINATION PLANTS

摘要

Copper alloys are widely used for the heat exchanger tubes in both multi-stage flash (MSF) and multiple effect distillation (MED) thermal desalination plants. Millions of metres of such tubing have been used and, generally, the copper alloys give good performance. In the last few years the author has looked at a number of failures from thermal desalination plants in the Middle East. These are not from one location, but have occurred in different areas in different plants. The failure mechanisms are also different in each area. The common feature of the failures is that the corrosion mechanism for each one is well understood, and they could all have been prevented by using a corrosion engineer at the design stage. This paper presents some of the diverse range of case studies and explains how they could have been prevented.