Manutenção da produção de água desmineralizada de projeto para reposição de água da caldeira

Abstract

Water is a fundamental substance for several processes and the production process of a sugar and alcohol plant is no different. One of its main uses is in the boiler to generate steam, where water undergoes a change from liquid to steam at high or low pressures, and this generated steam is responsible for driving the mill turbines and power generator. The boilers are made up of pipes where thermal exchange occurs with the water to change its state, and it is essential that these receive treatment in order to reduce the risk of scale in the pipes of the steam generation plant. Each type of boiler requires water treatment; high-pressure boilers require demineralized water for their supply; Low pressure boilers, in turn, require filtered/softened water. In view of the above, the present work was responsible for identifying the root cause of a grinding stoppage in a plant in the sugar and alcohol sector due to a lack of demineralized water to replace the water in the high-pressure boilers. The methodology used was the PDCA Cycle as a quality tool in order to obtain more precision in the evidence and solutions. The average demineralized water produced in Harvest 22’23 was 45 m³/h per demi plant. At the Gasa Unit, where this work was carried out, there are two water demineralization plants, representing 75% of the nominal production of 60 m³/h. Therefore, the lack of quality management of water treatment and deficiency in maintenance management were identified as root causes. By applying corrective actions, creating the procedure and replacing the cationic vessel, it was possible to obtain an increase of 10 m³/h in production by November 2023, representing 91.60% of nominal production.