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FAC 2013, March 26-29

The program for the Second International Conference on Flow-Accelerated Corrosion in Fossil and Combined Cycle Plants has been compiled from 45 abstracts received and evaluated by an advisory group of distinguished experts (www.facfossilhrsgconference.com).  

Conference Chairs Barry Dooley and Kevin Shields of Structural Integrity Associates Inc said “this clearly indicates the continuing concern about FAC around the world.” They added, “All the important aspects of FAC will be addressed at FAC 2013: cycle chemistry, NDE/inspection, modeling and software, mechanisms, and laboratory studies.”

About 200 people from two-dozen countries are expected to attend the meeting in Arlington, Va. A large percentage of delegates will be from operating plants, enabling a valuable exchange of experience and ideas with peers. Looking over preliminary program, the editors have compiled the following bullet points, which might encourage your participation:

  • “Fossil Plant FAC Experiences and Programs” (three of the 12 sessions on the agenda) includes first-hand experience from the US (Progress Energy, Xcel Energy, NRG Energy, Associated Electric Cooperative Inc), South Africa, UK, Israel, Canada, and Brazil.
  • “FAC in Air-Cooled Condensers” includes a presentation by Dooley and Xcel Energy’s Andy Howell, both members of the steering committee for the ACC Users Group (www.acc-usersgroup.org). A Olszewski and J Barnett of Constellation/Exelon also are on the program to talk about FAC assessment and mitigation in ACCs.
  • “Combined Cycle/HRSG FAC Experiences and Programs” (two of the 12 sessions) features input from Canada, Germany, US, The Netherlands, Spain, and ANZ. The presentation by Siemens Energy’s M Rziha will include discussion of FAC potential in once-through HRSGs, which are receiving considerable attention because of the current interest in fast-start plants.  
     

GT component repairs, January 8-10

“Metallurgical Aspects of Industrial Gas Turbine Component Repairs,” an intensive three-day training program taught by Hans van Esch of TEServices, will be held in Houston, January 8 – 10. The course, conducted semiannually, gets “two thumbs up” ratings from most participants.

Purpose of the program is to help owner/operators understand the jargon of hot-section repair shops, make metallurgically sound decisions regarding the repair and coating of IGT components, create work scopes and RFQs, select the best vendor, and learn how to monitor repair, coating, and inspection processes.

Visit www.teservices.us/train.html or write van Esch at hvanesch@teservices.us.

 

CCJ contributors have diverse personal interests

As you read through the pages of the CCJ you might come away with the idea that the magazine’s contributors are a bunch of dull engineers totally wrapped up in their professional pursuits. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here’s the evidence:

  • Amy Sieben, who helps keep readers informed on HRSG design, inspection, operation, and maintenance, has opened her own shop, ALS Consulting LLC. Power industry services include HRSG analysis, water chemistry, inspection, troubleshooting, and innovative solutions. Sieben can be reached at info@ALSconsultingllc.com, 651-785-8516.To relax before launching into her new career as an independent engineering consultant, Sieben spent 10 days in Texas hunting and making sausage. The deep freeze is now full. Hunting is nothing new for Sieben; last year she chased big game in Africa.

 

  • David Addison (3183 at the head of the pack), a prolific contributor on water chemistry), relies on high-tech bikes for transportation in his native New Zealand. At the end of November, he reeled off a 156-km race in  :16 to place 88th out of 4200 riders—all while concerned about a volcanic eruption on the race route (certainly an incentive for speed). As this issue goes to press, Addison is on his way to cover the Australasian HRSG Users Group meeting in Australia for the Journal. 

  • Dave Lucier, general manager, PAL Turbine Services LLC, has his name sprinkled throughout this issue, and others, because of his encyclopedic knowledge of legacy GE frames. His spare time is spent restoring and racing sports cars.
     
  • Paul Tucker, president of Texas-based FIRST and Technical Bolting Solutions, who shared his expertise in the Frame 5 and Frame 6 articles in this issue, spends his free time bass fishing.  

 

HRSG Academy, January 22-24

The highly acclaimed HRSG Academy, conducted by HRST Inc for North American owner/operators, will be held next at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, January 22-24. For more information, visit www.hrstinc.com; or contact Brenda Peterson at 952-833-1427, info@hrstinc.com.

   Reasons for attending:

  • Better understand your HRSG design.
  • Learn where to inspect and how to anticipate HRSG problems.
  • Learn HRSG fleet trends and happenings.
  • Share lessons learned among attendees.
  • Better prioritize future inspection and maintenance tasks.
  • Course notebook for future reference.

 

Keep up with GT inlet cooling technology

The Turbine Inlet Cooling Association (TICA) extends its complimentary membership offer for gas turbine owner/operators through March 2013. Benefits of membership and an online membership form can be accessed at http://www.turbineinletcooling.org/gtusers.html.

   Two more important announcements from Executive Director Don Punwani:

 

Company news

Siemens Energy Sector announces the following:

  • Contracts for the combined-cycle conversion of two simple-cycle plants (Ensenada de Barragan and Brigadier Lopez) from Argentina’s Union Temporal de Empresas. Total increase in generating capability will be 420 MW with no additional fuel consumption. Commercial operation is expected in fall 2014.
  • Startup of the first of three 274-MW H-Class gas turbines at Florida Power & Light Co’s Cape Canaveral Next Generation Clean Energy Center in Port St. John, located near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Three more SGT6-8000H gas turbines also will be installed at FPL’s Riviera Beach Next Generation Clean Energy Center for operation in 2014.
  • A modification of its business strategy and organizational setup with respect to renewable energy. The company plans to divest its solar business activities (solar thermal and PV) and is currently holding talks with potential buyers. Siemens said it will focus its renewable-energy activities on wind and hydro power, slimming down the Energy Sector in the process.

Emerson Process Management Power & Water Solutions helped Dorado Power Ventures’ 1 x 1 Termovalle combined-cycle plant return to commercial operation just months after devastating floods in December 2011 left 6 ft of water in some areas and destroyed the facility’s Ovation™ control system. Emerson replaced all I/O, controllers, workstations, and related equipment, allowing the 205-MW Cali (Colombia) plant avoid financial penalties that could have been levied by the Colombian regulatory organization (Fig 1).

The Ovation control system monitors and controls the plant’s dual-fuel W501FC DLN engine, steam turbine, HRSG, and balance-of-plant equipment and processes. Emerson also provided two fully integrated Ovation DGC excitation systems—a static system for the gas turbine and a brushless system for the steamer. Tightly coupling the excitation systems with the Ovation plant architecture allows operators to control and monitor the excitation systems from the existing Ovation workstations.

Swift Filters Inc, Oakwood Village, Ohio, manufacturer of oil filters for the power generation industry commits to building a new manufacturing facility with 42,500 ft2 of space, more than tripling the size of the company’s current plant.

Turbine End-user Services Inc (TEServices), Houston, celebrates its 10th anniversary of service to industrial gas-turbine users. The company provides engine owner/operators technical support, training, component management, repair and bid specifications, verification of component repairs, selection and audit of repair and coating vendors, etc. The company and its founder, Hans van Esch, are well known for the semiannual three-day training course, “Metallurgical Aspects of IGT Component Repairs.”

MTU Maintenance Berlin-Brandenburg recently celebrated the repair of its 1000th industrial gas turbine—an LM6000 for Thailand-based Rojana Power Co.

Hamon USA Corp appoints Peter Dawes president of Hamon Deltak Inc. Dawes will lead the company as it expands its presence as a manufacturer of large heat-recovery steam generators—units capable of serving gas turbines up to 350 MW. Dawes’ career includes stints as a VP for Alstom Power and as manager of mechanical engineering for ABB. He began his career as a design engineer for GE Aircraft Engines.

Cutsforth Inc aims at expanding its capabilities by breaking ground for the construction of a 10,000-ft2 facility to serve DC Manufacturing, a division of the company. Cutsforth is, perhaps, best known for its innovative design of brush-holders for exciters, truing of collector rings, and other products/services for generator owners.

Mee Industries Inc announces the launch of a mobile version of its website to facilitate access to company information on gas-turbine inlet-air cooling applications. It will allow users to view the website optimized and formatted to fit the screen of any web-enabled smart phone or tablet.

Alstom was selected by Dominion Virginia Power to provide three state-of-the-art HRSGs for its new 1300-MW Brunswick County Power Station. These steam generators will be coupled to Mitsubishi 501G gas turbines and be the largest HRSGs supplied by Alstom for the North American market. Three more boilers will anchor Dominion’s 501G-powered Warren County Power Station.

 

Products/services

Swan Analytical Instruments, Wheeling, Ill, discusses these three products in its latest releases:

1. AMI Sodium P, for automatic and continuous determination of dissolved sodium in steam, condensate, and feedwater over the range of 0.1 to 10,000 ppb. Features include the following:

  • Reliable reagent delivery system without moving parts.
  • Continuous sample flow monitoring and reagent addition.
  • Simple calibration routine—one or two points.
  • Logger, event, and calibration history stored in the AMI transmitter—up to 1500 data points.

2. AMI Codes-II CC is a colorimetric process analyzer (DPD method) for measurement and dosing control of disinfectants—such as free chlorine, monochloramine, total residual chlorine, and combined chlorine. Complete system includes measurement and control electronics, photometer, flow indicator, reaction chamber, reagent dosing system, and reagent containers. Integrated pH measurement with temperature compensation is available as an option.

3. AMI silica, for online continuous measurement of silica in feedwater, steam, condensate, and makeup water. Features include the following:

  • Automatic zero before every sample measurement.
  • LED photometer, long-term light source stability.
  • Selectable measurement interval, low reagent consumption.
  • Measurement range up to 5000 ppb.
  • Sample flow monitoring and low-level reagent detection.

Consolidated Fabricators, Auburn, Mass, a division of Braden Manufacturing LLC, announces a new approach to the design and manufacture of replacement doors and panels for gas-turbine enclosures. The company’s Smartdoor™ products are used to replace leaking, worn out, corroded, and/or damaged GT access doors (Fig 2).

The new enclosure doors feature bolted, formed plate exteriors, eliminating problems associated with the typical welded construction of OEM doors. Previous welded designs created unprotected perimeter surfaces, making them a major source of corrosion and climate exposure. In addition, welded designs limited drainage and allowed greater thermal transfer, contributing to higher surface temperatures.

The bolted construction of Smartdoor products allow easy re-insulation and repair onsite. Insulation tubes are standard to simplify the process. Additionally, the doors feature a unique tadpole gasket, which reduces leaks by being secured by a clamping bar to create a uniform- pressure seamless door seal.

TestOil, Cleveland, Ohio, updates its testing process for filter debris, increasing the laboratory’s ability to identify wearing machine components—thereby providing better diagnostic and prognostic information about impending failures. A new filter washing instrument is critical to this enhanced capability. An optical particle count on the debris stream collected from the filter also is performed.

Ludeca Inc’s (Doral, Fla) Vibconnect RF is said to be a highly reliable, wireless condition monitoring system for machine components. The sensor unit monitors machine vibration, bearing condition, and temperature, and transmits the relevant information for evaluation.

Meggitt Sensing Systems, Londonderry, NH, introduces a partial-discharge monitoring system for monitoring, logging, and reporting PD activity in generators, motors, and cabling systems. The company’s solution provides for early detection of PD pulses by using coupling capacitors for direct measurements, thereby enabling existing RTDs embedded in the windings to be used as additional PD sensors.

Conval Inc, Somers, Ct, offers Clampseal® fire-safe forged globe valves in Y, angle, and T-pattern configurations and in ½ through 4 in. sizes for pressure ratings up to ANSI 4500 with NPT, butt-weld, or socket-weld ends. The innovative product contains a simple mechanism that compensates for thermal expansion, which together with other design features, enables the valve to meet API fire-safe standards by extremely high margins.

First Independent Rotor Services of Texas now offers a lifting beam (Fig 3) and shipping skid for 7FA rotors, providing both onsite and in-shop assistance. The lifting beam, which can handle up to 90 tons, permits the operator to adjust the beam center of gravity as needed without having to bring down the beam to man height. This time-saving feature uses electrical pendants with pushbutton controls to adjust either or both saddles.

The shipping skid has pedestals machined to fit 7FA journals while allowing for installation of ½-in.-thick softeners to prevent journal damage. The pedestals can be made adjustable upon request.

 

 

 

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