CONTAMINATION OF BOILER feedwater with sugar juice is a reasonably common event at most sugar mills. The consequences of such contamination can range from relatively
minor impacts on water chemistry to major equipment failures; especially if the event
causes a large carryover of boiler water into the steam to occur. One of the most noted
indications of a sugar juice contamination event is the sudden drop in boiler water pH.
Operation of boilers with low pH water can cause significant damage to and reduction
of overall operating life of the boiler internals and downstream equipment. While this is
well known, there are numerous reports every season of boilers being operated through
low pH events. Management of these events often requires operators to take rapid
actions to prevent damage to equipment, but procedures are rarely well documented and operations personnel are routinely under pressure to continue to operate. Recommended mitigation strategies have been discussed and a new, more sensitive and selective, method of sugar juice contamination detection has been compared to other commonly used forms of detection.