Energy &Power

Water Filtration & Desanding for Hydropower, Thermal & Nuclear Power Plants

he safe and stable operation of power plants relies heavily on the reliability of their water systems. From intake to cooling circuits, condensate polishing to auxiliary utilities, sand, shells, suspended solids, and corrosion products are the primary physical threats to pumps, heat exchangers, condensers, and core thermal equipment.
Crest provides end-to-end filtration and separation solutions – hydrocyclones for efficient sand removal, self-cleaning filters for fine suspended solids, and scraper filters for hard marine organisms – building multi-layer barriers that protect critical assets, reduce unplanned outages, and extend maintenance cycles.

Key Applications

Intake Rotary Drum Screen Backwash Water Filtration

Process:

Coastal and inland plants draw from rivers or seawater. Bar screens and rotary drum screens remove large debris, and backwash systems require clean water to keep screens self-cleaning.

Problem:

Sand and marine debris clog backwash nozzles, reducing cleaning effectiveness, raising differential pressure, and potentially leading to load reduction or unit trip.

Solution:

Install a self-cleaning filter at the backwash pump suction to trap sand and suspended solids, keeping nozzles clear. Backwash water can be recycled.

Products:

Automatic Self-Cleaning Filter

Circulating Cooling Water System Filtration

Process:

Condensers and heat exchangers in thermal and nuclear plants need large volumes of cooling water. Water quality directly impacts heat transfer efficiency and equipment life.

Problem:

Sand erodes condenser tubes; algae, slime, and solids block plate heat exchangers, causing increased terminal temperature difference, reduced output, and frequent cleaning.

Solution:

Main circulating water passes through an automatic self-cleaning filter to remove suspended solids before entering heat exchangers.

Products

Automatic Self-Cleaning Filter

Coastal Plants – Shell and Marine Organism Filtration

Process:

After typhoons or storm surges, seawater brings in sharp shell fragments, starfish, crabs, and other hard organisms, threatening essential service water (SEC/SEN) systems.

Problem:

Conventional screen filters cannot withstand sharp, hard objects and are easily damaged. Hard fragments can puncture plate heat exchangers within seconds.

Solution:

Install heavy-duty scraper-type self-cleaning filters at SEC/SEN inlets, with wedge-wire screen elements that resist impact and do not jam. Scrapers continuously remove debris.

Products:

Scraper-Type Self-Cleaning Filter

Seawater Electro-chlorination System Pre-Filtration

Process:

Coastal plants electrolyze seawater to produce sodium hypochlorite, injected into circulating water lines to control biofouling.

Problem:

Suspended solids and sand coat electrolyzer electrodes, reducing efficiency, increasing power consumption, and potentially burning out electrodes. Frequent cleaning disrupts operation.

Solution:

Install a hydrocyclone upstream of the electrolyzer feed for sand removal, followed by a self-cleaning filter to trap suspended solids, keeping electrode surfaces clean.

Products:

Liquid-Solid Hydrocyclone	Automatic Self-Cleaning Filter

Hydropower – Service Water and Main Shaft Seal Filtration

Process:

Hydropower plants take water from the scroll case or penstock, supply it by gravity (pressure-reduced) to turbine bearing coolers, main shaft seals, main transformer coolers, and other service water users.

Problem:

During flood seasons, sediment spikes. Hard particles wear shaft sealing faces, causing leakage; bearing cooler bundles block, raising bearing temperatures and risking shutdown.

Solution:

Apply two-stage filtration on the service water header: a hydrocyclone or coarse filtration upstream for coarse sand, then a self-cleaning filter for fine particles. The main transformer cooling circuit has its own dedicated filter with redundancy for supply reliability.

Products: