Abstract:
Steam is one of important energy form highly required in textile industry for several
textile processing. In Ethiopia there are several vertically arranged complex textile
mills. Bahir Dar Textile Share Company (BDTSC) which is situated in Bahir Dar City,
Capital of Amhara National Regional State is one of them. BDTSC uses electrical
boiler for its steam generation. The steam produced by boiler has been used for
sizing, pretreatment (desizing, scouring and bleaching), dyeing and finishing process
operations. For efficient steam production electrical boiler has been fed with fine and
soft water. The BDTSC water softening treatment line effectiveness was analyzed
from the source (River Abay) to final line (zeolite) treatment unit as per water quality
required for steam generation by boiler. Each water treatment arrangement,
progressively gives improved water quality. However, overall treated water quality is
not to level of required standard quality for steam generation in boiler, and in
particular it contains large amount of hardness and total suspended solids which are
beyond the acceptable limit for boiler water quality. As a result scale and sludge were
formed in interior parts of the boiler and the boiler efficiency was decreased to
35%.Therefore, the water treatment line of BDTSC was optimized for achieving;
water quality required for boiler use. Optimization activities were performed for each
treatment unit arrangement considering specific optimization parameters for each
treatment unit arrangement. With optimized treatment unit’s arrangement, the water
quality required for boiler was significantly improved and as a consequence the
calculated boiler efficiency increased from 35% to 66.3%. As per the record obtained
from BDTSC, with previous water treatment arrangement, 8 mm thick scale is formed
within three months interval, while with optimized water treatment units arrangement
it is expected only 3mm thick scale will be formed within similar period of time
interval.