Re: Water treatment for steam locomotives

I remember back this far, we used to inject Tri-Sodium Phosphate into our Deaerators help remove any last traces of hardness and
also Sodium Sulfate to help with oxygen scavenging. This was continuous and not batch feed.
At this point, the pH was higher than desired, so acid was injected via a quill right after the water softeners. This was old school
water treating. We had a Nalco rep come by all of the steam generating plants in the refinery almost on a daily basis to help keep
readings in line.

I believe that I have the chemicals correct. This was at the #1 Power Plant at Standard Oil in Richmond, CA. It had seven 800 lb.
boilers that frequently ran at the continuous max of 1,060,000 lbs./hr. Water treating there was a grunt job and kept one busy
for the entire shift. Everybody looked forward to getting a year or so seniority and moving up to one of the 2 fireman positions.