My company is writing a specification for a condensate polishing system. My question is, what kind of filter is more efficient in removing iron cruds in the pre-filter? Is it pleated filters? or porous tube hollow fibers?
We installed several condensate polishers at different plants in our company and did not use pre-filters. Instead the resins in the condensate polisher vessels removed the iron crud and after the first few weeks of operation, most of the built up iron crud was removed. The backwash of the resins in the regeneration cycle flushed the iron crud off the resins. The pre-filters add to the pressure drop in the system. If you are using existing condensate pumps, you could be limited to the amount of additional pressure drop that can be added to the system. At one smaller unit in the system, a condensate polishing system was not installed, but a filter system was installed. This system used the pleated filters.