CCUG

Building the better mouse trap Special to CCJ ONsite by Brian Hulse, BDHulse Consulting Services LLC It’s an age-old quest—building the better mouse trap. The US Patent Office has issued over 4400 patents for mouse traps although, paradoxically, only about 20 of them have ever seen any commercial success. This would lead one to think […]

Special to CCJ ONSite by Brian Hulse, BDHulse Consulting Services LLC At some point in time, everyone who is anyone, from Arnold Palmer (photo) to Mahatma Gandhi, has made a quotable statement regarding cleanliness and/or hygiene. It’s never a controversial topic. Back in the 1840s, a Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) demonstrated scientifically that

Special to CCJ ONSite by Brian Hulse, BDHulse Consulting Services LLC The actor Samuel L Jackson’s intimidating line in a credit-card commercial (“So, what’s in your wallet?”) came to mind the other day while I was reading an excellent blog written by Kelly Forrest for Cleveland-based Brennan industries, entitled “What You Don’t Know About O-Ring

Brian Hulse is a leading information resource for gas-turbine owner/operators and CCJ ONsite. He has spent his 40+ post-college years dealing with gas turbines from many perspectives—including US Navy, EPC, O&M (owner and third party), asset management, component repair/reverse engineering/manufacture, mobile powerplant packaging, and depot MRO management. Hulse’s deep technical experience—aero engines such as the

The annual Combined Cycle Users Group (CCUG) conference and vendor fair, held in Louisville, Ky, Aug 27-30, 2018, proved once again to be an excellent barometer of what’s on the minds of those charged with making sure gas-fired combined cycles (CCs) start and stop when they are supposed to, make money for their owners, and

Turbine Tip No. 3, contributed by PAL Turbine Services’ Owner/GM Dave Lucier, applies to General Electric Frame 5 models K-LA and M-P, early 6Bs, 7Bs, and 7Cs. Gas-turbine auxiliary systems require periodic maintenance to assure that your engines achieve the availability and reliability metrics necessary to satisfy plant and grid operational objectives. Often taken for

Editor’s note: Given the existence of several standards for the classification of gas-turbine inlet filters, which can cause confusion in the minds of at least some owner/operators, Donaldson has developed a user-friendly filter rating system that measures efficiency and two other properties crucial to power output and cost control. The company’s goal is to build

With the power-generation sector shifting its fuel mix to an increased dependence on natural gas, the decreased downstream volume and unreliable gas pressure can wreak havoc on legacy power production facilities. It can be challenging for an ageing plant to remain a relevant, competitive, and reliable resource. “If your gas supply system operates at a

It’s important to have a comprehensive checklist of what to inspect on your HRSG, and how, before conducting a condition assessment of your equipment for plant management and/or due diligence purposes. Your checklist may have scores of items to review but it’s impossible to identify everything to look at—usually because your depth of knowledge and

Stellite liberation from large valves installed in main and hot reheat (HRH) steam systems serving F-class combined cycles, considered a major industry problem 10 years ago, has been eliminated by substituting chrome carbide as the hard-facing material for critical valve parts. The editors first learned of stellite delamination at the 2009 7F Users Group Conference