Heat Exchanger Technology Review From PEI Magazine

Stephen R.
Chua BSEE5A Topic: A Research on Electrical Control System Journals
Heat Exchanger Technology: Bundling for Performance by Jrg Stahlnut of Balcke-Drr in Oberhaussen, Germany
Article Overview: In today's competitive markets, electric utilities are constantly striving to maximize the efficiency and reliability of existing power plants. But although most might consider their equipment to be already optimized, there are still many parts of the world where power plants are operating with inefficient water-cooled turbine surface condensers.
System being investigated
The article by Jrg Stahlnut emphasizes the importance of condensers, and its performance as a significant factor in the overall operational efficiency of a power plant. Condensers, in the sense of electric generation system, is used as a way of controlling and transferring heat, where it will produce steam by boiling water; thence, the condensers are also known as heat exchangers.
Objectives
The objectives of the article are implied all throughout the article; the author wants to give details on the operations of the condensers; to hint the readers on the importance of efficient condensers; to analyze the tube bundle design; and to explain the importance and simulation analysis of new designs of the condensers. The author successfully attained the objectives. He started the article directly enumerating the qualities of the modern condensers.
Experiment methodology
Three-dimensional numerical simulation was also given importance as to the reliable way of analyzing and optimizing the tube bundle design, a part of the condenser. This simulation, and the other methods that will be explained later, constitutes the experimental methodology.
The experiment of the author, as his way of accomplishing the objectives, was taken in a simple yet effective way. The author simply narrated the theoretical ideas necessary for the operations of the turbine and condensers. The experiment narrated the flow of steam, as the process being imagined by the reader. In a way of accomplishing the experiment, the author uses the examplecomparison method, where the following details were given: ...two condensers A and B have been considered for an existing 350 MW coal fired power plant in Asia. The shells of the condensers are equally dimensioned. Both condensers have the same basic structure, a divided, twopass flow configuration and a total cooling surface of approximately 22,000 m2." The author differentiated the two condensers as that that condenser A is of typical traditional bundle design, while condenser B is equipped with a stateof-the-art bundle, which is so-called "Compact Tepee" bundle, developed by Balcke-Drr GmbH. The major differences too, explained the author, are the flow configuration, tube arrangement, and support plate layout of the condensers. In carrying out the experiment, the above example was analyzed using a simulation software. The results of which are explained in the article in its "Simulation results" sub-part. Experimental scenario The validation of the above experiment can be verified, again, by using a simulation software. But the author, in his own way of validating his own experiment, gave a true-to-life example, in which, a good decision has to be made in relevance to economic, and some other factors. The problem, as the article narrated, emphasized, and solved, is:
The task is to refurbish the four turbine surface condensers of the two power generating units, which, according to data, was subjected to
The operators of the generation plant were given three ways of refurbishing the condensers; the details of which are summarized by the following table:
Concept Measure Tube material Tube bundle geometry Manufacturin g Outages x calendar days Turboset output
A Retubing Brass Unchanged At jobsite 2 x 51 = 102 Unchanged
B Retubing Stainless steel Unchanged At jobsite 2 x 51 = 102 Reduced by 2 x 6 MW
C Modular Exchange of tube bundles Stainless steel Changed to Tepee At workshop 2 x 42 = 84 Increased by more than 2 x 10 MW
Conclusion and future directives
The article further explained the advantages and disadvantages of each method, but it expressly advised and chose method C. Given, the author said, that the old condensers had been equipped with 4000 more tubes, still the modern condensers considerably has better cooling capacity although it has fewer materials used. Furthermore, the following has been achieved by the new condensers: 1. Service life extension due to better arrangement and material properties (erosion and corrosion resistance) of new tubes 2. Outage time reduction of 38 days due to installing shop-fabricated bundle modules instead of retubing 3. Higher product quality due to pre-fabrication at workshop compared to retubing at job site 4. Shortening of amortization period by being earlier back on the electricity grid than planned The author further concluded that the above results demonstrate the significant technical and commercial advantages of installing performanceoptimized tube bundle modules compared to retubing. These results into many great advantages, and still, the article states all so.

Heat Exchanger Technology Review From PEI Magazine

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Heat Exchanger Technology Review From PEI Magazine

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Stephen R.

Chua BSEE5A Topic: A Research on Electrical Control System Journals

System being investigated

A Retubing Brass Unchanged At jobsite 2 x 51 = 102 Unchanged

B Retubing Stainless steel Unchanged At jobsite 2 x 51 = 102 Reduced by 2 x 6 MW

Conclusion and future directives

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