A multisyringe sequential injection method for monitoring water in the energy cogeneration system of a municipal waste incinerator

Leading-edge urban solid waste ashing plants use burning heat energy to obtain electrical power. Water fed to their boilers for conversion into steam should be highly pure in order to minimize corrosion, scaling and similar phenomena, which can lead to malfunctioning and a reduced useful life but can be avoided by proper management and control of the water supply. In this work, we developed a multiparameter monitor based on multisyringe sequential injection for the sequential determination of up to eight important parameters, namely: pH, specific and acid conductivity, hydrazine, ammonium, phosphate, silicate and total iron.Acid conductivity was determined by passing the sample through a cation-exchange resin in order to retain ammonium ion and release protons. This parameter was deemed the most accurate indicator of dissolved solids in boiler water. Chemical parameters were determined spectrophotometrically: hydrazine by reaction with p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde, ammonium by the modified Berthelot reaction, iron with o-phenanthroline, and phosphate and silica by formation of a molybdoheteropoly blue dye in the presence of ascorbic acid as reductant. Use of the optimum chemical and physical operating conditions provided 3sblank detection limits of 0.01 mg l−1 N2H4, 0.13 mg l−1 NH4+, 0.04 mg l−1 Fe, 0.03 mg l−1 SiO2 and 0.05 mg l−1 PO43−, and relative standard deviations not greater than 2.5%. The methods integrated in the proposed monitor were successfully applied to real samples from the water–steam cycle at the Son Reus ashing plant in Palma de Mallorca (Spain).