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Business Notes
Boiler Water Applications In power stations and other industrial water applications, steel piping is common for water distribution systems. For boiler tubes, copper is commonly used. Plant operators are concerned that the treatment system piping and the boiler tubes be durable and resist corrosion (although copper and related tubing materials also corrode). Corrosion protection is accomplished by treatment chemicals, which are often selected based on metallurgy. Safety is another concern. Because boilers operate at high temperatures and pressures, tubing is especially prone to scaling that can plug tubes. Scaling can plug tubes, and corrosion can weaken boiler tubes and cause leaks. These two factors can contribute to boiler explosions that can endanger workers and damage power plants, sometimes forcing shutdowns.
Closing Thought This aim of this brief discussion is to provide an initial understanding of the important role materials of construction play in water treatment and cooling water systems. As the treated water touches the piping and other elements, it either retains its purity, or is contaminated by the pipes, gaskets, pump surfaces, etc. But other factors also play a role when deciding on a material of construction. Those decisions my be impacted by temperature requirements, structural strength, and ability to withstand water treatment/system cleaning protocols.
In the “Digging Deeper” section is a small listing of technical articles that examine some different aspects of materials of construction.
Digging Deeper Biressi, G.; Haggard, K.; Neubauer, B. “Fluoropolymer
Applications in High-Purity Water Distribution
Systems,” Ultrapure Water Journal 30(6), pp. 15-18 (November/December 2013). Biressi, G.; Neubauer, B. “Part 2: Ozone Sterilization of PVDF Piping Systems for High-Purity Water
Distribution,” Ultrapure Water Journal 29(6), pp. 18-22 (November/December 2012). Biressi, G.; Neubauer, B. “Part 1: Steam Sterilization of PVDF Piping Systems for High-Purity Water
Distribution,” Ultrapure Water Journal 29(3), pp. 13-16 (May/June 2012). Hanselka, R.; Williams, R.; Bukay, M. “Materials of
Construction for Water Systems Part 1: Physical and
Chemical Properties of Plastics,” Ultrapure Water
Journal 4(5), pp. 46-50 (July/August 1987). Hanselka, R.; Reinzuch, K.J.; Bukay, M. “Materials of
Construction for Water Systems Part 2: Real-life
Failure Modes of Plastics,” Ultrapure Water Journal 4(6), pp. 50-53 (September 1987). Hanselka, R.; Williams, R.; Bukay, M. “Materials of
Construction for Water Systems Part 3: Proper
Selection of Elastomers,” Ultrapure Water Journal 4(8), pp. 52-55 (November 1987). Harfst, W.F. “Piping Materials of Construction”,
Ultrapure Water Journal 30(6), p. 24 (November/
December 2013). Howell, A.G. “Hydrogen Damage Mitigation by Boiler
Chemical Cleaning”, Ultrapure Water Journal 31(3), pp. 21-25 (May/June 2014). Libman, S.; Buesser, D.; Ekberg, B. “Next Generation of
UPW Distribution System for the Next Generation of Semiconductor Fabs,” Ultrapure Water Journal 29(1), pp. 23-30 (January/February 2012). Roll, D.L.; Ekstrand, B.J. “Surface Chemistry
Improvement on 316L Stainless Steel Weld Zones
Using a Gelled Citric Acid-Based Passivation
Agent,” Ultrapure Water Journal 25(8), pp. 24-28 (November 2008). Wermelinger, J.; Mueller, H.; Burkhart, M. “New 450-mm PVDF Piping Systems for Conveying
High-Purity Water in Semiconductor Plants,”
Ultrapure Water Journal 28(7), pp. 15-24 (July 2011).
5 Principles to Guide Adaptive Leadership
By Ben Ramalingam, David Nabarro, Arkebe Oqubuy, Dame Ruth Carnall, and Leni Wild
The COVID-19 pandemic is constantly evolving, with leaders facing unpredictability, imperfect information, multiple unknowns and the need to identify responses quickly, all while recognizing the multidimensional (health-related, economic, social, political, and cultural) nature of the crisis.
Responding to the crisis requires adaptive leadership, which involves what we refer to as the four A’s:
ANTICIPATION of likely future needs, trends, and options;
ARTICULATION of these needs to build collective understanding and support for action;
ADAPTATION so that there is continuous learning and the adjustment of responses as necessary;
ACCOUNTABILITY, including maximum transparency in decision-making processes and openness to challenges and feedback.
How can we make sure that this kind of adaptive leadership is properly implemented as our communities and businesses confront the pandemic? We have identified five common principles to guide action:
1.ENSURE EVIDENCE-BASED LEARNING AND ADAPTATION: Adaptive leadership means teams and organizations need to constantly assess their modus operandi, recognizing that they will have to iterate and adapt their interventions as they learn more about the outcomes of decisions. This requires clear processes for determining the best options; collecting, interpreting, and acting on evidence, including defining a set of key measures for determining success or failure; ensuring ongoing collection of operationally relevant data; and setting out a clear process for how changes in data and trends will trigger changes in action. Putting social learning and adaptation at the center of crisis response has been found to be crucial in recent disease outbreak management, most notably in dealing with Ebola in West Africa. An analysis of the successful eradication of smallpox has also shown that the success was attributable to processes of strategic adaptation and learning—more than any other single factor.
2.STRESS-TEST UNDERLYING THEORIES, ASSUMPTIONS AND BELIEFS: Just as institutions such as banks regularly undergo stress testing to ensure they can deal with future crises, the assumptions and hypotheses guiding an adaptive response need to be subject to robust and rigorous reflection and examination, including through the simulation of different possible future scenarios.
One of most systematic and rigorous approaches to COVID-19 scenario planning has been developed by Boston Consulting Group. Drawing on military approaches to strategic learning, they advocate that firms establish an integrated model of “anticipation, intelligence and response.” Using such an approach, different scenarios have been developed for use by the automotive, fashion, and luxury goods sectors. These scenarios account for critical uncertainties in the public health situation, the impact of government measures, the wider economic environment and business-specific demand forecasts, and they make use of real-time monitoring as the basis for decision-making.
3.STREAMLINE DELIBERATIVE DECISIONMAKING: A major challenge faced by leaders is that the data on COVID-19 is changing all the time and is often contradictory. When decision-makers feel threatened, they are much more likely to revert to risk-averse and siloed responses to ensure the degree of safety that results from narrowly defined targets.
To avoid that, leaders at different levels therefore need to be clear about what they are basing their assumptions and
