10/27/2017 How To Achieve Rapid Steam Turbine Start-Up

Q&A

How To Achieve Rapid Steam Turbine Start-Up

Source: Waltron Group

Its no secret that the push toward renewable fuels is changing the world of power generation.
Despite political ebbs and flows, technological advances are diversifying the sources of power
and the costs of generating it. Steam generation is certainly not immune to these shifts.

To learn more about the importance of efficient steam generation and the latest technology
dedicated to it, Power Online spoke with Joseph T. Schultheis from Waltron Group. We
covered the secrets to steam purity, the differences between three conductivity measures, and a
product that can help achieve faster indications.

How has the rise of renewable fuel changed the role of traditional gas-fired
plants?

Renewable fuels have changed the landscape for power generation because there is little overhead outside of the initial cost to set up a windmill or
solar field. Since electricity can be gathered in a variety of ways (wind, biomass, solar), it reduces the need for traditional power facilities. Gas-fired
plants must compete when demand is high, and coming online quickly and efficiently allows for the highest chance of profit.

What importance does steam generation have in this changed role?

Steam generation has the ability to crank out higher megawatts of electric production but, because operations are forced to this backup role, they
dont always get to run at peak performance. Being able to capture whatever available generation that is needed as quickly as possible is essential.

Why is efficient steam generation so important for a power plant?

With so many moving parts in the system, having quality steam is essential to protect items such as the boiler, condenser, and turbine. Poor water
chemistry can lead to damaging and sometimes catastrophic events.

What determines the purity of steam? What level of purity should power plants be aiming for and why?

Most turbine manufacturers will state that when steam quality reaches less than .3 uS/cm, the steam is good enough to introduce to the turbine, as
it indicates all harmful compounds are removed or have been converted to usable ions.

How are specific conductivity (SC), cation conductivity (CC), and degassed cation conductivity (DGCC) used to measure the
quality of steam?

SC is an indirect measurement of all iconic compounds that are dissolved in the water sample, sometimes known as total dissolved solids (TDS),
based on electrical conductance. However, this includes not only the undesirable contaminants, but also any volatile alkalizer treatments being
used, such as ammonia.

Neutralizing amines are the major contributor to the conductivity of steam/condensate in a high-purity system. The main benefits of measuring SC
are high speed and low cost. The limitation is that it is a very broad/coarse indicator of overall steam or water quality.

CC is a sum parameter measured after a sample is conditioned by passing through a cationic resin column where all cations (such as sodium and
ammonium) are converted to hydrogen ions and all anions (like sulfate, chloride, phosphate, organics, and carbon dioxide) become acids. CC
eliminates background conductivity caused by amines, which can mask contamination, and it significantly amplifies the impact of anions on the
resulting conductivity reading, the acids formed being four to five times more conductive.

DGCC is just CC without carbon dioxide.

What are the advantages of using DGCC over the other two methods?

Displaying conductivity without carbon dioxide levels is much more useful in determining when steam is released to the steam turbine. The steam
will reach conductivity specification levels much faster, saving hours per run.

How does Waltrons degas conductivity analyzer achieve faster indications than other systems?

Waltron has developed and applied for a patent on a new degas conductivity analyzer based on a heatless Dynamic System, without the use of a
reboiler or any supplemental inert gases. In essence, it creates its own inert gas from ambient air. This instrument uses ambient air forces against
the flow of water sample to achieve high degassing efficiency, resulting in significantly faster indications than any other comparable system.

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10/27/2017 How To Achieve Rapid Steam Turbine Start-Up
What other advantages does it provide to power plants?

The Waltron Dynamic Degas System produces a much faster result, with 94 percent degassing in 45 seconds and a useful result in less than 90
seconds. The best reboiler-style instrument takes at least 28 minutes to achieve the same level of confidence. Based on conservative assumptions,
the cost savings between the Waltron Dynamic System compared to even the best reboiler system is significant.

In the time saved, the typical 500-megawatt combined cycle plant will recover more than $3,000 with each and every system start, using a modest
electricity value, and much more using typical peak electricity pricing. Additional benefits are better energy efficiency and reduced emissions of
heat and exhaust.

Image credit: "power station" Philip Murray 2013, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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