Energy-Tech Magazine

Today’s maintenance crews in U.S. fossil plants face aging equipment, limited resources, loss of expertise and increasing demands on availability. Given these constraints, plant managers are examining their maintenance programs for tasks that ...

One of the most important factors to the success of a power facility is its efficiency. Lean operation can lead to increased revenues and strong financial health. Using the right condensing technology can allow for more power to be sold through the ...

This paper is presented as a case study on one of the potential, efficient uses of landfill gas, or LFG, as a renewable energy source. It is based on the detailed design of a nominal 26 MWe gas turbine combined-cycle power plant, which will run solely ...

It used to be an old myth that rebuilding a feedwater heater took longer than installing a new replacement, or that it couldn’t be done with the unit in operation or on-line. Not any more. Today’s rebuilding companies can rebuild aging ...

Maintenance crews in fossil generating plants in the United States are responsible for solving the day-to-day issues of keeping aging equipment operating reliably without increasing maintenance-related O&M costs. When challenges arise, plant engineers ...

In March 2009, Energy-Tech featured an introduction and discussed wireless technology applications in power plants. This companion article focuses on security issues related to power plant control systems, since these are especially vulnerable ...

Introduction
Heater drain systems in fossil and nuclear power plants have proven to be among the most complex systems to design due to the occurrence of two-phase flow phenomena. The overall performance of heater drain systems ...

The concept of a joint project within the United Engineering Foundation Founder Societies (ASME, AIChE, IEEE, ASCE, AIME) led to the Founder Society Technologies for Carbon Management Project in 2008. This initiative grew out of discussions and ...

Since January 2005, Dow Electrodeionization modules have provided leak-free, reliable performance at the Madison Gas and Electric Cogeneration power plant in Madison, Wis. Located on ...

Condenser and auxiliary heat exchanger tube and cooling tower film fill fouling create difficulties that can cost a plant hundreds to thousands of dollars per day in lost efficiency. In extreme cases, solids deposition within cooling tower film fill ...

This article is based on a 2005 technical paper written by Clyde V. Maughan, P.E., of Maughan Engineering Consultants titled: “Carbon-brush collector maintenance on turbine-generators.”

Carbon-brush collectors have ...

When U.S. electric utilities began deregulating in the 1990s, they reduced their focus on internal RAM monitoring and analysis in an effort to cut costs that did not contribute directly to the bottom line. Today, a new set of changes, from the entry ...

Many factors drive modern plants to make process equipment changes during outage season, and two of the most common are demands for increased production and process variable changes. Centrifugal fans and duct systems that are used throughout the power ...

For fossil power plants, planned outages represent the second largest expenditure behind fuel. In the current business environment, plant operators need practical information and tools to help them effectively use these outages to improve plant availability, ...

In some U.S. power plants, alarm systems designed to warn plant operators of abnormal operating conditions have become overburdened with insignificant alarms. These alarm systems do not provide alarms with proper priorities, and in some cases are ...

America possesses hundreds of years of low-cost coal resources that are becoming increasingly unpopular due to climate-change concerns. The promise of the nuclear gas reactor also appears to remain out-of-reach as a result of technical and cost considerations, ...

In power plants, belt conveyors move coal to the boiler and ash from the boiler. These conveyors are a key part of keeping plants online and efficient. If the belts go down — or their performance is significantly impaired, plant output and efficiency ...

In power plant boilers, the superheater and reheater tubing is so closely spaced that when damage occurs maintenance crews usually have to spread the tubing pendants to gain access to the damage site and conduct welding repairs. The Electric Power ...

“With the National Emphasis Program, we will focus our efforts on the fire and explosion hazards that may exist at facilities where combustible dusts accumulate.”

– Jordan Barab, acting assistant secretary ...

The evolution of the Afton Project, located near Las Cruces, N.M., demonstrates one case-study response to the unprecedented demands placed on today’s electric utilities in completing projects to serve customers during periods of rapid market ...

Ultrasonic leak detection has been used for a variety of applications ranging from energy reduction by locating compressed air leaks to quality assurance inspections, such as pinpointing wind noise and water leaks in automobiles. The secret to success ...

The balance of plant (BOP) category of utility power plant heat exchangers is often overlooked when maintenance managers evaluate the need for preventive maintenance. The sound, reliable operation of the turbine, generator, pumps, fans, air compressors, ...

Biomass, a renewable fuel source for generating energy, is available in large quantities in the U.S. Typical biomass consists of wood chips, construction and demolition wood, bark, residual logging debris, saw dust, paper rejects, and paper and sewage ...

The importance of training is often given short shrift in industry, when it is in fact a vitally important profit center for the business. A well-trained employee gets the job done better, faster and cares more. An employee that has been well trained ...

Companies are increasingly exploring alternatives to fossil fuels, due to their high prices and stricter government regulations. Simply venting or flaring process by-products to the atmosphere no longer meets industries’ environmental and energy ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released action plans developed by 22 electric utility facilities with coal ash impoundments, describing the measures the facilities are taking to make their impoundments ...

Abstract
The keys to reliable and efficient coal-fired power plant operations are combustion and performance monitoring. For this to occur, plant staff needs to have adequate tools that help them make intelligent decisions. Success ...

In recent years, damage has been found early in the life of creep strength enhanced ferritic (CSEF) steels, including Grade 91, used in the boiler tubes, piping and headers of fossil-fuel-fired and combined-cycle power plants. This discovery raised ...

The June 2009 issue of Energy-Tech included a discussion of trends and initiatives in Remote Performance Monitoring, or RPM, to maximize power plant capacity, availability, reliability and performance (CARP). Using a case study, this article illustrates ...

The Hydraulic Institute, under the approval of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), is seeking qualified individuals in North America to participate ...

Siemens Energy was awarded an 18-month, $300,000 R&D program by the Illinois Clean Coal Institute to study the effects of coal and ...

Introduction
Most energy forms get some sort of subsidy. Those that lack direct subsidies often get other forms of support, like special loans, special licenses on water flows or maybe grandfathered ...

The deadline to submit an abstract for the ASME Power 2010 Conference has been extended to Jan. 15, 2010. The conference will be held July 13-15, 2010, in Chicago, Ill.

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Rentech Inc. announced on Tuesday that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with 13 domestic and international passenger and cargo carriers that is intended to serve ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that power plants across the country decreased emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), a precursor to acid rain, to 7.6 million tons in 2008. Emissions ...

The Abstract deadline for papers to be presented at the ASME Power Conference 2010 has been extended to Dec. 30, 2009. 

The Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) announced the creation of the ARPA-E Fellows Program at an event with Massachusetts Institute of Technology's ...

The Electric Power Research Institute announced two Industry technology demonstration projects designed to help utilities add solar energy to fossil-fueled power plants that could result in reduced ...

When an HVAC technician is called out to perform a shaft alignment on a cooling tower fan, it is always an adventure, and seldom a pleasant one. Numerous challenges are involved, not the least of which include the distance to be spanned, vibration ...

It's been known for many years that thermal temperature gradients across a rotor can alter the amplitude and phase of synchronous vibration. This is due to bowing of the shaft caused by a temperature difference between one side of the shaft and the ...

In the presence of unconventional temperatures, tube failures typically result from creep damage and other forms of erosion, such as pitting, pinholes and blockages of all types. Getting inside such tubes in order to get an accurate picture of their ...

The U-SNAP Alliance and the Electric Power Research Institute announced today at Grid-Interop 2009 an agreement that will allow the sharing ...

Siemens Energy received an order from Wellington-based Transpower New Zealand Limited, the national grid operator, to modernize and increase the capacity of the existing high-voltage ...

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) disclosed plans for an industry-wide "transmission efficiency" demonstration collaborative that will identify technologies leading to greater ...

Alstom has acquired the engineering office of the former Lummus Global, a leading provider of technology for the hydrocarbon processing industry, in Wiesbaden, Germany. The unit, renamed ALSTOM ...

Alstom and major Canadian power company TransAlta - along with their partners in the governments of Canada and Alberta and Capital Power, an independent power producer - announced the creation of a partnership to construct a large-scale carbon ...

The Electric Power Research Institute announced the receipt of $1.3 million in federal grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to launch a regional water quality trading program in the Ohio ...

Abstract
This paper will address the most common technologies available, including capacitance, ultrasonics, free space radar, guided radar and vibrating forks. It discusses the basic principles of each ...

Unscheduled plant outages, whether caused by equipment breakdown or by human error in plant operations, result in increased costs and reduced revenues. In today's highly competitive environment, determining the best solutions requires using advanced ...