Testing Loops

Recirculation loops are used in laboratories to simulate field operating environment for example in power plants, pipelines, steam turbines, supercritical water and CO2 and deep sea applications, etc.

Recirculation loops offer many benefits:

• A large water volume reduces the effects of corrosion products on the water chemistry.

• Water chemistry and cleanliness can be regenerated in ion exchangers, UV cells and filters.

• The dissolved oxygen and hydrogen concentrations, pH and conductivity can be monitored and controlled.

• Recirculation loops provide a reproducible and valid test environment that leads to reproducible and representative test results.

Recirculation loops simulating power-plant operation provide clean water with a specific water chemistry. Special attention is paid to the monitoring of both incoming and outgoing water flows and to the removal of dissolved and solid water contaminants. An essential part of the operation is the control of the dissolved oxygen / hydrogen concentrations and maintaining a low water conductivity in BWR and SCW applications.

Most of the power plant water chemistry simulating recirculation loops are operating in regular corrosion laboratories. Cormet has built a recirculation loop for a hot cell application, where the HT HP water flows through SSRT autoclaves. Cormet has also provided a system that prepares the water chemistry, and pumps it through a research reactor rig back to a depressurization and dehydrogenation device.

Loops are used in oil and gas applications to provide a large water volume, which provides stable water chemistry during long test periods. Loops provide high H2S and CO2 partial pressures at high temperature because the gases are dissolved in the storage tank at low temperature. Loops are designed to resist corrosive H2S and CO2 gases. The construction materials is often Hastelloy C-276.

Cormet builds steam loops for high-pressure and sub-atmospheric pressure environments where they are used to simulate various kinds of situations in steam turbines. High speed loops are built for the simulation of the flow assisted corrosion and for the cooling of the heat exchangers or thermal fatigue specimens.

Cormet builds loops for supercritical CO2 operations that simulate CCS processes. Special attention must be paid to the preparation of the gas mixtures, the pressurization and depressurization of the CO2 flow and the corresponding temperature management. CO2 operation requires also know-how of the suitable gasket materials