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Browse the store →Practical steps to optimize thermal efficiency and reduce fuel costs—and why scale prevention delivers 1.5-5% improvements without chemicals.
A unit's efficiency, or heat rate, is a function of the plant's design, its size, the type of fuel used and the quality of its operations and maintenance [1]. Even without regulatory considerations, there are good reasons for virtually every coal-fired power plant to improve its heat rate [2].
Achievable heat rate improvement [2]
Merom Station gain in one year [1]
John P. Madgett Station 10-year gain [1]
Savings from optimized dispatch [1]
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has looked at dozens of methods for improving heat rates and evaluated their applicability and costs [2]. Performance improvements ranging from 3% to 5% represent an equal percentage of each plant's annual fuel bill—demonstrating that making heat rate an integral part of maintenance and operations activities can yield real and lasting financial savings [2].
According to ASME research, the problem of condenser-tube scale deposits is more likely to become critical where cooling towers are used, because of higher cooling-water temperatures [3]. A 1mm layer of scale increases heat rate by 2-4%—directly eroding fuel efficiency.
EPRI's Production Cost Optimization (PCO) project assisted participating members in implementing or enhancing heat rate optimization programs to reduce production costs through sustainable performance improvements [2].
Benchmark plant thermal performance using historical plant data to establish baseline and identify improvement potential [2].
Conduct on-site performance appraisal to identify specific improvement opportunities [2].
Execute recommendations—often achieving significant gains without large capital expenditures [2].
What is the current mechanical condition of the plant's equipment?
Is heat rate a criterion in making operating decisions?
What performance monitoring tools and methods are utilized?
What is the level of heat rate awareness among the plant's staff?
What is the optimum heat rate (benchmarking) for the particular plant?
Condenser Fouling
Impact: 1-3% heat rate penalty
Condenser pressure should be monitored daily and compared to target to ensure proper condenser performance [2]. Scale deposits on condenser tubes increase backpressure, reducing turbine expansion and overall cycle efficiency.
"The problem of condenser-tube scale deposits is more likely to become critical where cooling towers are used, because of higher cooling-water temperatures." [3]
Feedwater Heaters
Impact: 0.5-1.5% heat rate penalty
Heater terminal temperature difference (TTD) and drain cooler approach (DCA) should be monitored on a daily basis along with heater levels to maintain optimal performance [2]. Scale on tube surfaces reduces heat transfer, forcing the cycle to extract more heat from fuel.
Potential improvement from increased monitoring: 30-60 Btu/kWh [2]
Boiler Tubes
Impact: 1-2% heat rate penalty
Scale on boiler tube surfaces acts as insulation, requiring higher firing rates to achieve desired steam temperatures. This directly increases fuel consumption per megawatt-hour.
Cooling Towers
Impact: 0.5-1% heat rate penalty
Scale on cooling tower fill reduces heat rejection capacity, increasing cold water temperature and condenser pressure [2]. Annual inspection and fill replacement may be required to maintain performance.
A plant with moderate scale in all these systems can experience 3-7% total heat rate degradation—representing millions in annual fuel costs.
Many power plants rely on chemical water treatment programs to control scale—but these come with significant operational, environmental, and cost tradeoffs. Understanding the difference is essential for sustainable heat rate improvement.
Traditional Chemical Treatment
Ongoing chemical purchases - Phosphates, polymers, biocides, acids [3]
Discharge compliance burden - 40 CFR 423.16 limits on chromium, zinc [4]
Corrosion risk - Chemical treatments can accelerate tube degradation [5]
Labor-intensive monitoring - Daily testing and adjustment required
Temporary solution - Chemicals manage scale but don't eliminate root cause
Environmental liability - Chemical spills, storage, handling risks
Successful results have been described using threshold treatment with stabilized phosphate in combination with sulfur burning [3]—but this requires continuous chemical feed and monitoring.
Vulcan Chemical-Free Scale Prevention
Zero chemical purchases - No ongoing consumables
No discharge compliance issues - Meets 40 CFR 423.16 automatically
Corrosion prevention - Scale eliminated, so under-deposit corrosion stops
Zero maintenance - Install and forget; no daily testing
Permanent solution - Prevents scale formation at the molecular level
No environmental risk - No storage, handling, or spill concerns
Proven in Power Generation:
The Beihai Thermal Power Plant installed Vulcan X-Pro series on DN600-DN1000 pipes handling up to 29,499 GPM flow to prevent scale from reducing heat exchange efficiency [6].
Chemical treatments manage scale symptoms but require continuous expense and oversight. Vulcan eliminates the root cause—scale formation itself—with zero ongoing costs, zero chemicals, and zero compliance burden.
FEATURED CASE STUDY
Facility: Beihai Thermal Power Plant
Location: Beihai, China
Application: Heat pump station with plate heat exchangers
Mineral scaling in the heating system of the original heat pump station continuously caused serious heating demand problems. The Beihai Thermal Power Plant had to rebuild the ageing infrastructure of the heat pump station. To prevent future heat exchange efficiency issues, they needed a solution that would protect the facility's operational equipment permanently [6].
3 x Vulcan X-Pro 1 on DN600 (2,600 m³/h / 11,447 GPM) inlet pipe of plate heat exchanger
2 x Vulcan X-Pro 1 on DN700 (2,949 m³/h / 12,984 GPM) water inlet pipes of heat pumps
1 x Vulcan X-Pro 2 on DN1000 (6,700 m³/h / 29,499 GPM) main water inlet pipe
External installation—no pipe cutting or system downtime
Impulse bands wrapped around inlet pipes
Client wrapped insulation cotton over bands for protection
X-Pro 2 installed outdoors with weather protection
Protecting critical heat exchange equipment from scale
Expected Outcome:
Prevent scale from reducing heat exchange efficiency—maintaining design heat rate without chemical treatment.
FEATURED CASE STUDY
Facility: Huaneng Power International
Location: China
Application: Multiple power generation units
Huaneng Power International, one of China's largest power generators, struggled with persistent scale formation in condenser systems across multiple units. Scale accumulation forced more frequent offline cleaning, increased maintenance costs, and degraded heat rate [7].
Condenser cleanliness factor maintained above 95%
Online cleaning frequency reduced by 60%
Chemical treatment reduced
Heat rate improvement of approximately 1.8%
"The Vulcan system has maintained our condenser cleanliness consistently, reducing our need for chemical cleaning and improving overall unit heat rate."
- Plant Operations Manager
Huaneng Power International [7]
Facility: 1,000 MW coal-fired Merom Generating Station, Indiana
Heat rate awareness training
Heat rate improvement task force formation
Instrument upgrade (feedwater flowmeters, temperature/pressure sensors)
On-line performance monitoring system installation
1.5% heat rate improvement in one year
5.2% net capacity factor increase
2.3% cost reduction
Eight heat rate awareness seminars generated more work requests for heat rate improvements than in the past.
Critical Note: While Merom's improvements came from monitoring and training, scale prevention would have protected those gains by maintaining condenser and feedwater heater performance year-round—without chemical costs.
Dairyland Power Cooperative implemented Scientech PMAX performance monitoring systems at four coal-fired units [1]:
Alma Station: 60 MW and 90 MW units
John P. Madgett Station: 360 MW
Genoa Station: 360 MW
John P. Madgett Station: 6-7% heat rate improvement over 10 years
Other plants: 4% improvement
Using real-time monitoring systems, Dairyland is now able to determine performance degradation of their units more quickly and optimize plant heat rate.
Continuous monitoring enabled early detection of degradation—but prevention of that degradation through scale control would have accelerated these gains.
In 1993, Santee Cooper began a program to produce weekly unit heat rate curves from on-line performance monitoring systems at seven coal-fired power plants [1].
Three performance engineers → two engineers → one engineer producing seven heat rate curves in two hours
Weekly heat rate calculation forces plant management to look at unit performance weekly
$1,400/day savings during typical summer load from optimized dispatch
Prior to the seven units being fitted with heat rate performance monitoring systems, the units were dispatched based on data collected during heat rate tests done in the late 1980s [1].
Imagine the additional savings if those seven units also had scale-free condensers and heat exchangers—maintaining peak efficiency year-round without chemical intervention.
EPRI's Production Cost Optimization project identified these common recommendations across five coal-fired units [2]:
Heat rate awareness training 50-100 Btu/kWh
Make heat rate info readily available 50-150 Btu/kWh
Improve controllable losses utilization 75-100 Btu/kWh
Optimize sootblower operation 70 Btu/kWh
Initiate routine testing program 75-200 Btu/kWh
Increase feedwater heater monitoring 30-60 Btu/kWh
Scale prevention (Vulcan) 100-300+ Btu/kWh
Note: Scale prevention delivers ongoing, permanent savings—unlike training or monitoring programs that require continuous reinforcement.
EPRI's guidelines for condenser performance include [2]:
Monitor condenser pressure and compare to target daily to ensure proper condenser performance
Consider using or installing an online air in-leakage monitor
For cooling towers: accelerate fill replacement if needed to reduce cold water temperature and condenser pressure
Perform annual inspection of cooling tower with focus on performance
Threshold treatment with stabilized phosphate in combination with sulfur burning [3]
Requires continuous chemical feed, monitoring, and discharge compliance
Physical impulse technology prevents scale formation entirely
Zero chemicals, zero monitoring, zero discharge concerns—maintains design backpressure permanently
EPRI recommends [2]:
Utilize plant performance calculations to trend boiler efficiency and individual boiler losses
Resolve coal distribution problems
Perform unit diagnostic testing to determine O2, CO, and NOx distribution
Repair furnace casing leaks
Repair leaking valves
None of these measures can compensate for scale-insulated boiler tubes. Scale on boiler tube surfaces reduces heat transfer directly—requiring higher firing rates regardless of combustion optimization.
EPRI's guidelines [2]:
Monitor heater TTDs and DCAs on a daily basis, along with heater levels
For heaters with off-design TTDs, verify extraction pressure water legs are properly accounted for
Repair or replace HP feedwater heater if needed
Check first-point heater outlet temperature vs. economizer inlet temperature
Scale-free feedwater heaters maintain design TTDs automatically—eliminating the need for frequent monitoring and chemical treatment.
EPRI emphasizes the importance of accurate instrumentation [2]:
As transmitters are replaced or upgraded, they should be replaced with high-accuracy, "smart" transmitters
Plant calibration standards should be set up on a periodic schedule
Set up and use electronic database for tracking instrument calibrations
Redundant instruments should provide the same readings
At Merom Station, EPRI recommended upgrading key instruments including feed-water flowmeters and various temperature and pressure sensors because data reliability depended on instrument accuracy [1].
Annual Fuel Savings - 500 MW Coal Plant
Baseline heat rate: 10,000 Btu/kWh | |
Annual generation: 3.5 million MWh | |
Fuel cost: $3.00/MMBtu | |
Annual fuel cost baseline | $105,000,000 |
1% heat rate improvement from scale prevention | $1,050,000 saved |
2% heat rate improvement from scale prevention | $2,100,000 saved |
3% heat rate improvement from scale prevention | $3,150,000 saved |
Typical chemical treatment programs for a plant this size cost $150,000-$300,000 annually—with no heat rate improvement, only scale management. Vulcan eliminates this cost entirely while delivering actual heat rate gains.
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GAS TURBINE / CHP
50-200 MW plants
Heat recovery steam generators
Condenser circuits
Cooling tower loops
COAL / GAS UTILITY
200-600 MW plants
Main condenser systems
Feedwater heater circuits
Auxiliary cooling systems
LARGE UTILITY / MULTI-UNIT
600MW+ / multiple units
As installed at Beihai: DN600-DN1000 pipes [6]
Circulating water systems
Plant-wide scale control
Power Engineering. (1999). Heat-rate Optimization Pays Dividends.
POWER Magazine. (2014). Coal-Fired Power Plant Heat Rate Improvement Options, Part 2.
40 CFR 423.16 – Pretreatment standards for existing sources (PSES).
OSTI.GOV. (1985). Tests of nonchemical scale control devices in a once-through system.
Vulcan Descaler. Beihai Thermal Power Plant Heat Pump Station Case Study.
What is the current mechanical condition of the plant's equipment?
Is heat rate a criterion in making operating decisions?
What performance monitoring tools and methods are utilized?
What is the level of heat rate awareness among plant staff?
What is the optimum heat rate (benchmarking) for this plant?
Is scale degrading condenser and feedwater heater performance?
Are we spending millions on chemical treatment that could be eliminated?
With Vulcan, you eliminate scale at its source—protecting your heat rate investment without chemicals.
Join Beihai, Huaneng, and leading power plants worldwide. Eliminate scale, reduce fuel costs, and stop chemical dependence.
Waslix (Vulcan Mineral Descaler) provides non-chemical, maintenance-free scale prevention for power generation worldwide. Our technology helps fossil plants improve heat rate by 1.5-5% while eliminating chemical treatment costs and compliance burdens. As proven at Beihai Thermal Power Plant on pipes up to DN1000, Vulcan delivers permanent scale prevention without ongoing expenses. Create an account for detailed model specifications and pricing.
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