• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Porta Water Treatment

Status
Not open for further replies.

Greg Wetzel

Member
Joined
18 Aug 2019
Messages
39
Location
London
Hello there,

I was wondering how the Porta Water Treatment system works. I've been looking all over the Internet, but haven't found much information explaining how it works. Any information about how the Porta Water Treatment system works would be appreciated.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

DerekC

Established Member
Joined
26 Oct 2015
Messages
2,107
Location
Hampshire (nearly a Hog)
This is the best info I can find. It does give some information on how it works. You can buy back issues of Steam Railway Magazine (the link from the 5AT page is broken) to read the article cited. Otherwise it looks as though you will need to find a copy of Mr Porta's unpublished paper - if it's really important then start tracking down one the authors noted below.

https://www.advanced-steam.org/5at/modern-steam/principles-of-modern-steam/portas-water-treatment/

Porta’s Water Treatment – Extending the Life of Locomotive Boilers​


Porta’s Water Treatment is an extension of the TIA system that was successfully used in France and the UK in the later days of steam. Porta’s water treatment is claimed to:

  • stop all water-side corrosion;
  • prevent scale formation, even when using the hardest of water;
  • prevent deposition of sludges and thus the need for frequent boiler washouts;
  • reduce the need for blow-downs;
  • ensure purity of steam leaving the boiler.
Porta Treatment achieves these benefits from a combination of:

  • very high levels of dissolved solids in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 ppm (or even higher);
  • very high alkalinity of around 3,000 ppm (as CaCO3);
  • addition of tannins;
  • use of special antifoams to prevent priming.
Continuous use of Porta’s water treatment can extend boiler lifespan almost indefinitely and dramatically reduce boiler maintenance costs.

Porta wrote a lengthy (and not easily understood) paper on the subject titled “Steam Locomotive Boiler Water Treatment” which has so far not been published.

Wardale has described his use of Porta Treatment in his book The Red Devil and Other Tales from the Age of Steam, and his views on the subject are summarized in the notes of a meeting with Chris Newman in Beijing in Oct 2003.

The subject of Porta’s Water Treatment was the feature of an article by Martyn Bane and Shaun McMahonin Steam Railway Magazine No 335.

More comprehensive infomation is available from Martyn Bane’s website at www.portatreatment.com.
 

randyrippley

Established Member
Joined
21 Feb 2016
Messages
5,083
This 21-page pdf describing use of Porta's system in Patagonia will give you a lot of detail


Another pdf covering much of the same ground, with photos

Also it could be worth asking these authors for a reprint of the original document
 
Last edited:

Greg Wetzel

Member
Joined
18 Aug 2019
Messages
39
Location
London
This 21-page pdf describing use of Porta's system in Patagonia will give you a lot of detail


Another pdf covering much of the same ground, with photos

Also it could be worth asking these authors for a reprint of the original document
Thank you!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top