Blog
February 10, 2022 | Company News
With ARCA Valves you will find the right control valve for each process step in the boiler of the power plant.
1) Main/feed water control valve
With this control valve, the level in the boiler drum is regulated so that boiler feed water is continuously available in the boiler for steam generation. In order to compensate for the difference between the characteristic curve of the feed water pump and the operating characteristic of the boiler system, the characteristic curve of the feed water control valve must be designed accordingly.
2)Filling/feed water control valve
The boiler drum is filled by this control valve when the system is started up. Since a large differential pressure and cavitation have to be mastered during start-up, this valve is subject to high stress and thus wear. Therefore, this often small valve is equipped with a hard multi-stage trim and is located in parallel with the main feed water control valve, which must then be designed for maintaining the level.
3) Burner control valve on the boiler
This valve regulates the supply of natural gas to the gas burner or the heating oil to the oil burner on the boiler. During gas operation, the valve regulates to maintain the defined control characteristic and reduce noise. When heating oil is used, this valve functions as an overflow facility and holds the pressure upstream of the oil burner nozzle constant.
4) Sludge control valve
This valve quickly opens for a brief moment to drain a small quantity of boiler feed water for desludging the boiler water drum. Hard internal parts are required to withstand the high differential pressure, cavitation, and abrasion that prevail. The seat faces of this control valve are subject to wear, which is why we recommend installing an additional shut-off valve here.
5) Boiler start-up control valve
The start-up control valve typically blows steam through a silencer system into the atmosphere when the boiler plant is started. Since the steam expands with a high-pressure reduction, this valve usually has an asymmetric design.
6) Soot Blower Control Valve
The walls of the heat exchangers in the boiler are steam-cleaned of soot particles to optimize heat transfer efficiency inside the boiler. To this end, soot blower control valves feed live steam to the soot blower nozzles with minimum actuating time.
7) Air preheater control valve
The burner air is preheated to optimize the effectiveness of the combustion process. The temperature of the burner air is determined by the steam fed to the air preheater via this control valve.
8) 3-way mixing valve
Superheating the steam of the steam turbines while they are running increases plant efficiency and prevents the turbine blades from becoming damaged by condensed drops of liquid. For better energy utilisation of the generated steam, secondary overheating is installed in power plants with higher steam pressures. The heat transferred to the superheater varies greatly due to fluctuating loads and soot deposits in particular. The temperature of the superheater must therefore be regulated. The superheated steam is passed through a pipe coil by means of the 3-way mixing valve, which is located in the water-filled part of the steam drum. The colder drum water with the saturated steam temperature thus cools the superheated steam.
8) Boiler injection cooler
Another way of controlling the superheater temperature is usually implemented in new systems by injecting boiler feed water with a controllable injection cooler.
February 9, 2022 | Product News
Looking for ways to improve your water and wastewater treatment systems?
Working smarter is easy with the right automation instrumentation. Process controls from Automation Service can help you meet your primary water and wastewater treatment plant goals: reduce cost and downtime, stay in compliance and increase operational efficiency.
Whether you’re looking to supplement your plant with a modernized process, retrofit parts of your existing systems, or do a complete overhaul, we can guide you towards the equipment and instrumentation that fits your budget, timeline, and application. You can count on our account executives, engineers, and technicians to give your unique project the attention it deserves.
February 7, 2022 | Company News
Make the Switch!
Don’t get left behind and become susceptible to lost communications with legacy phone line alarm dialers. Below are the top 3 reasons to switch to a wireless, cloud-based monitoring and control solution for your water and wastewater applications.
February 4, 2022 | Product News
Metrix is the biggest supplier of monitoring systems for non-API618 Reciprocating Compressors in the world. Their suite of vibration sensors includes the ST5485E Velocity Transmitters monitoring Crankcase vibration, the IT6810 Transmitters monitoring Impact at the Crossheads and the MX2034 Proximity Transmitters monitoring average Rod Position at each of the piston rods. This sensor suite continues to serve customers well.
With the new 5580 Signal Conditioner and the SW5580 Switch, Metrix provides a modular and field configurable device that is perfect for monitoring Reciprocating Compressors efficiently and economically. You can expand the system on a throw-by-throw basis. Benefits include two channels able to measure Vibration Velocity at each end of the Crankcase, Acceleration and Impact on the Crosshead, and Rod Drop and Rod Vibration at the Piston Rod.
The only difference between the 5580 Signal Conditioner and the SW5580 Switch is the switch has two relays on each channel, either Solid State of Electromechnical contacts.
Watch the newly released 5580 and SW5580 Recip Animation to learn more about theses innovative applications.
February 3, 2022 | Product News
In recent years, environmental regulations have forced power generation plants to lower NOx emissions by burning a leaner flame in the combustor. As a result, many sites have experienced combustor pulsations that amplify as they move through the turbine. This pressure amplification produces significant vibration that can damage the turbine package.
In order to avoid or minimize the amount of damage to the turbine and peripheral components, it is essential to quickly detect the presence of these combustor pulsations and to alter the combustion process such as changing fuel splits.
AS-250 SpectralMon™ and AS-330R CombustionGuard™ protect your turbine from damage caused by combustion dynamics or pulsations.
The AS-250 SpectralMon provides advanced real-time monitoring and analysis with a powerful set of alarming criteria to detect changes in the dynamic signature of your critical machinery or process.
Once a dynamic event is detected, the system instantly informs the control system or other external devices and acts as a digital recorder by capturing important data before and after the event. This information can be used to alert the operator to change process settings or schedule maintenance.
The AS-330R CombustionGuard system is a product of over a decade of operational experience monitoring combustion dynamics in gas turbine engines. The system brings sophisticated monitoring algorithms, multiple control outputs, and instrument-grade signal processing to a robust embedded platform that is highly configurable, yet easy to maintain. Alta Solutions CDMS systems have logged over 10 million operational hours and the lessons learned through the deployment of these systems have been incorporated in the AS-330R CombustionGuard.
Benefits of the CDMS include early detection of combustor pulsations, reduce the severity of combustor pulsations, informing the DCS and operator of combustor events, track and correlate the history of pulsation events, simultaneous monitoring of all combustors, and storage of dynamic pressure data of events for post-processing.
Applications for the CDMS are steam and gas turbine monitoring, centrifugal and reciprocating compressor monitoring, cooling tower fan monitoring, wind turbine monitoring, cold rolling mill monitoring, pulp and paper mill monitoring, textile mill monitoring, and roll grinder monitoring.
