12.09.2019 | Capillary electrophoresis successfully used for steam and boiler water analysis

September, 2019 – Bremen, Germany. GESTRA AG decides to implement capillary electrophoresis (CE) to conduct fast and accurate analyses of steam and boiler water samples.

GESTRA AG, a global leader in the design and production of valves and control systems for heat and process fluid control has purchased Capel-205 CE system from Lumex Instruments to regularly analyze water used in different steam-generating facilities. Such types of water samples (so-called ‘feedwater’ or ‘boiler water’) must be of a certain quality to avoid boiler and pipes corrosion and to prevent any kind of deposition. The latter can destroy the functionality of the entire facility (see the photo below). Some additives like different amines are often added to avoid steel corrosion.

Check valve almost completely covered by deposition

Capillary electrophoresis appeared to be an excellent choice to analyze all these types of water. Certain analytical methods developed by Lumex Instruments enable determination of different inorganic anions, inorganic cations, and some amines in water samples. These methods are offered in the form of relevant kits which contain all necessary buffer solutions, the standard solutions, and relevant protocol as SOP.

Most water samples analyses performed in GESTRA AG using Capel-205 CE system demonstrated how well CE fits the requirements of feed- and boiler water testing.

Analysis of feedwater (done on Capel-205 CE system with the cations analysis chemical kit)

In the analysis of feedwater, sodium peak is quantified together with some amine additives. The important feature of this approach, emphasized by GESTRA AG, is that both cations and amines can be quantified simultaneously in one run in a very short amount of time. Another important advantage of Capel-205 CE system is the ability to switch quickly between different anions and cations protocols on the same instrument by just using different cassettes and different pre-composed files. The unique combination of accuracy, simplicity, and expressivity was the main reason for GESTRA AG to start implementing CE in its chemical lab.